did more work today. after a lot of looking around the junk yard for pieces that fit properly i ended up with a thermostat housing off of a mercury capri XR2 turbo and a water pump outlet from a v6 hyundai sonota. im not using the stock thermostat cause it sticks out the front of the engine like the miatas do which is bad if youre going to be beating on the car. look up "miata coolant reroute" for more info on that.
the water pump inlet bolts right up, i just need to drill, tap, and put a hose barb in it for the heater core. the thermostat housing needs to sit on top of a plate so i have some where to drill and tap for a barb for the other side of the heater core. that will get done after i have the heater core plumbed into the engine bay. i made teh plate out of some 4" aluminum bar stock i have at my work for making misc tools. im still not great on the lathe but im slowly learning.
there is a block off plate in the rear of the head which is now getting the thermostat housing. i just swapped it to block off the front thermostat hole. it has thermostat holes front and rear of the head to work with fwd or rwd.
probably the smoothest surface ive made so far on a lathe
cut in a step for the thermostat to sit in. its super easy to fit everything when you have a spare head just laying around.
the water pump inlet