The next few updates will be a little anti-climactic since I've got Sharka running. But I've got pix and stuff, so I'm posting anyway.

On the first try, Sharka didn't fire. Just a nice chug chug chug.... pop pop! chug chug chug... No starting, just some great backfiring out the intake and an awesome gas smell. Ew. After that initial disappointment of "oh man, it didn't work." I reasoned out the problem.



I cracked open the valve cover and saw this. This is bad. The cam lobes shouldn't be sort of pointed at each other like this. The front ones should be pretty much like: << --- >>



See, the Miata shop that helped me port the head did the valve seals and cam oil seals. I never even checked the actual cam timing. I just did the normal cam gear timing like always.



Removing the bolts showed this. The little dowels should point up.



A zip tie to keep the cam gears timed and a big wrench to rotate the cams. That's all. 5 minutes.



ta-da! Sharka fired on the first crank after getting things correctly timed