Rotory for the win/ just playing. From what i have seen the 1.8 is prob the better choice.

 

That's pretty stupid. There are plenty of reasons one might want a 1.8 instead of the 302.

I would personally take the V8, but the 1.8 definitely has its advantages.

 

They're still just as stout as any of the other BP rods.

 

wonder if terry will speak up for this.....wasnt it a 1.6?

 

so it seems that the 1.8 is the way to go
anybody exp on this motor...reliability?

 

No offense, but just because someone owns a miata with a few mods doesn't make them an authority on it.

Here's an answer for the original poster. Do what you feel. And then report the results back to the online Miata community.

 

I had 2 escort gt's with the 1.8 - I hit the rev limiter countless times every day, neutral dropped it almost as often, street raced it every weekened, and took it through the mud more times than i should have... and this was with over 150k miles on each. Shit, i even dumped it from 7200 into reverse to make it do backwards wheelies every few days for laughs. There were countless times that ahem, my friends, would take it down the highway, putting it at 7200rpm in 4th gear for good amount of time, and the engine only wanted to go again afterwards.

I could not have treated those 2 cars any shittier if I tried. On one of them, I cut the exhaust off at the header and advanced the timing by ear, which was probably way too much. It never smoked, it never stuttered, it never broke. I'm not joking when I say that it's one of the toughest engines I've EVER fucked with.

300hp on a BP with the stock forged internals should be no problem, it's been done a thousand times.

edit: and a v8 swap would just kill you, or at least make you go broke. you'd need a new engine, tranny, mounts, new modded rear end, etc. it's a wonderful idea, if you want to die broke.

 

from what i understood, the 1.6 is actually the same as the 323gtx which was already turbocharged by mazda. i know the transmissions were supposedly weaker, but...