76 Ford Courier with Miata suspension and soon miata engine

Click on the picture for the video. Thats a stock 14" miata tire and rim. I will probably be running a stock 15" mata rim.

i still have to weld up the coil overs but making progress.. Still might lower the rear more first pic is sitting on the ground, second pic is lifted up a little to simulate coil overs being in.

WOW I still own this truck lol. Usually my projects disappear after I hit a rough spot and loose interest. I had to move the truck to the back corner of the shop for Yard Sale season LoL. Well yard sale season is over and the weather will finally start to cool off again. So I enlisted the help of some friends and we were able to get it back to the front of the shop.









So here's how it sits now..

1. No Engine or Transmission.
2. Needs steering rod welded to the sleeve.
3. Install the brake booster and master cylinder and new brake lines
4. Install mounting brackets for the top of the coil overs.
5. Find some wheels and tires

I'm totally lost as to what engine I want. I still can't see myself driving around with a V8 shoehorned into my tiny engine compartment. To be honest the stupid rotary engine doesn't get much better gas mileage then a v8. So no V8, No rotary, and surely not the stock 1.8 or 79-84 2.0. Really only leaves me a few choices, a Non turbo'd Miata engine, or a Kia engine.

I really like the Kia engine. Having owned a few Kia's and knowing if the timing belt breaks then engine doesn't get destroyed is nice. I just want to be able to spin my back tires, maybe slide sideways around a few corners here and there and get a close to 30mpg as possible. So please please throw some suggestions out for engines!!

delete

2.3 Turbo from Turbocoupe, XR4ti, or SVO Mustang. So much winning.

I really want to stay away from turbos for the time being. I thinking simpler. Get it on the road for a few years then maybe get all fancy after that.