LS Miata SWAP COST and FULL BUILD COST! Under the $10k Budget? 

LS swapped Miata for less than a new BRZ. Can't complain about that.

Thank God Taylor knows how to actually do a break down of cost and not just say and then the grand total

Realistically $25k-$30k for an entire built car from scratch car isn't bad at all. Considering some people spend 6 figures restoring a classic car.

I will be using this as a guide to do a LS swap in another vehicle.

Need Exterior LS Miata Flyby Footage! Like if you agree

Sloppy cam? Sounds like a terrible choice

Dude you have no idea how much I appreciate you posting all they details and listing the price for everything, I don't think I have every seen anyone do this before. Keep up the amazing work bro!

I honestly kinda miss watching you rebuild the turbo engine every second week though. It was such good content!

You need to make a video like this at the end of every budget build I reallyyyy like this format

Sandy is so perfect. I thought my heart was going to explode when she meowed. Tell her her mommy loves her and misses her

This is great man I know it took you a long time to put this video together. However this is a wealth of info for people who don’t have a clue.

You’ve definitely gotten better at making videos. This video, like all your videos, is super informative. Broken down and organized and not rushed. Happy to see your channel, as well as you, grow.

I thought hearing about an old 302 swap into a Miata was amazing back in the day. I love how engineers and mechanics are creating things that people used to just think about doing. Pretty bad ass.

I went to texas for vacation. Mind you, I live in Georgia. I was browsing through Facebook. And found a miata out of nowhere for 1300. Running smooth. Ac/heat everything worked. Long story short. I bought it and transported it back to Georgia and now I'm gonna swap an sr into it. Best impulse buy ever

I remember the Adam vid where you bought this car , it’s literally what inspired me to buy my own .

Its been sweet seeing this whole thing come together over the months, great job bro. Excited to see this thing rip at OSW

Damn I remember this from the start. The progress is amazing

Now that’s a REAL breakdown! Geeeez! Lol Amazing job! Keep it up! Very rarely do you have anyone do this great of a price breakdown.

Really cool to see such a thorough breakdown and video to cover it. Earned my sub!

Awesome video... great information for other gear heads and so satisfying to see a year long project come together... keep up the great work. Would love to meet you one day.....

Im only subscribed to a couple channels, yours being one,... I noticed someone mentioned a collab with David (thatdudeinblue), I think that would be very healthy for the channel, and us subscribers.

I'm so glad you went over budget, it actually works out cheaper and less time consuming in the end as you know you'd have built it to the 10k spec then in 6 months time you would be spending the extra to get it to the spec it is now.

Well done, video and car. So very helpful to anyone considering an LS swap. Loved and admired all you did, I've had several old school V8 muscle cars. This type of build is definitely the heir to the AC Cobra. But now I know it's not for me. While I'm not happy with my 1.8 NA performance, I don't want the maintenance and reliability and performance quirks of a turbo or SC. And now decided I don't want to go all the way to a V8 rumble and muscle car engine sound and traits in my Miata (I prefer the v8 in a Corvette). I just concluded I want a V6 in my MX5, though I may have to go with an NB for clearance limits. I think an aluminum v6 makes plenty of power in an MX5, and I prefer to hear that sound out of it. Kinda like I don't have 18 wheeler horns on my sports cars, haha. Great car, perfect for you, would love to see it in person some day. Kudos.

Cool tips im midway through my L33 swap right now which is the 05 silverado 5.3 aluminum block. I went the Sikky kit S13 route, so this is a good video and I appreciate the information payed forward.

Can totally see the amount of time you spent on this all this info is great! Thanks Taylor you the man!😎👌

I'm just waiting for this car to start driving and blowing up around the web

That paint is beautiful man. Makes me want to quit dragging my feet and finish mine..

agree, steep learning curve to the first ls swap

Awesome car! And Sandy claimed her camera time. She knows what a real film star needs ;-)

I absolutely loved this video have never seen a car enthusiast this cool keep it up 🤙🤙

Please make a video called “A Day in the Life of Sandy” haha. She’s the real MVP!

I'm in the process of putting a 5.3 iron block out of an 02 suburban into my z32 300zx. This build has been a huge inspiration to me and its helped me keep motivated on my build. Thank you Taylor!

I did my vortec 5.3 iron block swap for less than 4 grand including the 240, but I am on a super budget.

lets go ive been waiting for this video for forever

Awesome break down thank you for all the hard work.

Great video! $600 Aluminum 5.3 LM4 swap motor here, $700 E36 chassis. $20k in parts and it's still not done. Exact same thoughts about accessories and piecing together the drivetrain. Great LS deal for a cheap replacement long block though.

just rewatched this video its wild to see how far you have come from putting NA engine into a street car in a shared garage to your crazy vette build in your own space. yours is one of the few chanels that I have consistently watched for over 5 years at this point because its always entertaining and down to earth

Thank you, that was really informative.

10:54 I looked around the room for my cat haha

this video taught me that if i plan to drift often as a hobby i will get a stock 350z and sell my modified miata haha

This video is mind blowing. Very thorough

Awesome video! Love the content

i found this video a little bit ago and i really wanna build a car i love cars so much and i found this and thought maybe i could do this LS seems simple and doable and seeing this break down makes me feel great this actually seems realistic and i think im gonna try to build a miata like this dude i wanna try

13k and you did all the work is a great price, if a shop would have done this, it would’ve been at least 20k! Great job!

I put down 400hp on a heads cam iron block lm7 reliably so i think taylor could make more than 320hp no flex intended

Good Job keeping your baby. Keep it and save it for your first child. I first subscribed when you and Marcos pulled and installed weekend swaps

Sounds about right. I'm building a 400+ BP motor with a Kmiata ZF6 SPD swap, friend is doing an LS swap. We're both going about 14k down the hole. After I resell the old motor, turbo, ecu etc. I'll be down to 11-12k

Definitely can relate to all this, just did an LS in my r32 and went $4k over budget and spent over $10k to do the swap and do everything properly and how i wanted, nearly $30k into the car now how it sits..

Hell yeah brother, so stoked for you to have completed this! Gonna need some external flyby clips as well as a GoPro mounted near the exhaust haha. Are you taking this bad girl to OSW this weekend?

"Under the 10k budget?" *costs 20k +"

Great build man!!

I watched you install and explain most of the items you mentioned already so I found myself playing where's Sandy in the background 😸 also it would be cool to see this car on Thatdudeinblue.

Wow you’ve come a long way

This thing looks like so much fun

a long.. Time ago I helped with the first Bullet SuperCars v8 Mx5 they were building. (Australian Company). The car was based on the Mx5 (Miata) full tube frame, with flip a front. I made the CNC machined billet intermediate bell housing adaptor plate to mate the supercharged Lexus v8 to 6 speed manual trans conversion. It also Also had a hydraulic clutch. The adaptor plate & clutch setup was Very similar to your GM Ls1 to Nissan 350z manual trans conversion. I still have the blueprint packed away somewhere.

you are awesome Taylor, love your honesty

26k is cheaper then a new miata and you have 320hp You did good in my book

I got my ls swap cheeper in my s14 by buying a manual v8 Holden commodore (4 door gto kinda)at auction crashed I made money buying it and still got my t56 and ls1 for free

the thing is looking sick man keep it up and soon it will be even sicker

Here’s my two cents. Yes ls parts are available everywhere but the laundry list of parts you need to buy is crazy long by the time your done I feel like you could have fully built a sr or Kat for like 600hp. The ls seems to make sense when it comes to service but the road you have to take to get there is crazy long and expensive. The swap literally nickel and dimes you to death. Hats off to anyone running a solid ls swap but the numbers just don’t add up for me. Very informative video. Keep up the good work Taylor!!!! 😎😎😎👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼

I watched the first clip, saw the trees and the roads and said “this dudes in Florida, has to be a southern state at least” and of course i check and you’re in Otown! Haha hope i see you on the roads sometime, i drive a 99 NB and just found your page when i searched “LS swapped miata” on google

Holy shit! That's a lot of money! glad you had sponsors to help you out!

Nothing really like seeing a 4 bangar car show up with a v8 rumble!

Ok it's been a couple years , so glad I found your channel again...you moved into a house with a lift. .well multiple lifts ,awesome. ...what happened to the corvette and g35?....i watched like 4or5 vids straight haha....sure missed your work and sick drifting brotha

I remember the first V8 swap ever in a Miata. Road & Track magazine in the mid 90's. It was done EXTREMELY WELL.

Just discovered the channel. Subscribed 🤟 being an LS guy the first thing i thought was "why didn't he just get a donor car?" Lol but hey you didn't know until after like we've all done. A Ls1 would've made much more power mod for mod vs (the 5.3) on pump 93. The 5.3/4.8s just don't make the same power. Very awesome detailed video

Good work brother 💪🏻

Taylor, Great detailed video... Top notch as usual. Now....got get her on the skid pad...

Great car Taylor! Love the videos

I would like to do a ford 5.0 in a miata and a halion twin turbo just to make a crazy car insane

Go to the Hoonigan garage !!! Awesome video as always taylor 👌✌

For the tach and speedo check out speedhut gauges

Would've loved to see the 5.0 swap bc i'm a ford guy haha and you don't see people swap those as much as LS's but stoked for you on how it turned out!

Congrats on the completed car man! Can't wait to see this thing sideways.

Oooo he mentioned Indiana. Thanks for repping us. 👌🏻

great breakdown

For the quality that's perfect great build.

A very good price. Impressive work

Ls swapped Miata and a Hayabusa in the background this guy is living my dream

damn mad props, crazy how fast the shit adds up

love this. excellent breakdown btw. my dream is to maybe do an LS3 swap on a Datsun 240z but money space and the skillset are not in my favor currently. excellent video man. looking forward to other content

Another way to keep down the cost on piecing together a motor is going to the junkyard to grab any nut, bolt, misc pieces if the junkyard has something with an LS in it.

Swaps are insane $$$$$. But if you take your time, spread it out, and like you mentioned, part out a decent doner it helps alot.

U know anything about the LFX swap I like the v6 idea just trying to get some second opinions

gosh i remember so well when you bought this car. Grow sooo much better now =)

Very intuitive

Great video

i want to do a e30 with a 4.8. Obviously with heads, headers, cam & springs, rocker arms and intake manifold. So basically every things done but the pistons and crank

Good break down

I came here for the chat, I stayed for the cat. When are you taking him out for a ride?

I'm sure you could make a living just doing LS swaps....awesome channel

the square gauges you used where did you get them and what is needed to install them, I like the set up and want to do something with those gauges for my speed 6

Need need like a daily run around drive type vid. .....or get that dude in blue....

Hey bro you should put a small wet shot of nitrous once you get use to drifting the new setup. it would be a good advantage without taking it to far

I love this version of the LS miata. I wish you had stuck with the stock bumpers without the side skirts

This is truthful information.

Seeing this video 2 years later, subbing because of the shop cat and the sick Miata.

Taylor ! Have you given much thought into building these and selling them ?

The 5.0 is awesome too

This would be a wicked ride for you to Raffle!