Got some more work done to the motor on Saturday. Nothing terribly exciting, but I got the bottom end mostly put together. I'm going to try and be fairly thorough with this - it's either going to show you guys that I'm screwing up terribly (and allow someone to chime in before I get too deep, please?) or help someone else who's also going through this for the first time.First up was painting the block. Besides just looking cool, I figured it would gain me a touch of corrosion protection, fill in some of that dirt-trapping cast texture, and make oil easier to see.Then it was time for the cylinder oil sprayers. Some quick googling gave me a torque range of 105-150 in-lb. I went to 13 N-m, or about 115 in-lb. Someone yell at me now if I should have pushed towards the upper end of that range.I then installed the shiny, freshly-machined crank using some ACL/King bearings and ARP hardware. I'm using Lubriplate No. 105 assembly grease for the bearing surfaces, it came recommended by the one old guy at Napa who seems like he might be the only one in the store to actually know what he's talking about.I threaded the main studs into the block using an allen wrench and two fingers, as the instructions specified "finger tight" for this step. I used a little bit of the assembly/torque lube included with the hardware on the cap end of the studs, and torqued them to 60 ft-lbs as specified.Now, time for the pistons. A quick pic for posterity's sake (and because they're so sexy). This is the last time I plan on seeing anything but the top of the pistons. If anyone is interested in some stock 99' pistons and rods, let me know.I used a new piston to push my rings into the cylinder and check gaps. The literature included with my rings specified the following gaps:Top Ring: .0045"-.0050" x bore (inches), for HP Street/Strip and Street Mod Turbo respectively. This gave me a range of .0148" to .0164" based on my bore diameter of 3.2874"2nd Ring: .055" x bore (inches) = .0181"I used a feeler gauge to measure the gaps. Both the top ring and 2nd ring had a little more gap than I had calculated, about .017" and .019", so I didn't touch the rings at all. I oriented the gaps according to the paperwork, and then set about using a ring compressor and the wooden handle of a hammer to gently tap them into place. I suppose it should be obvious, but make sure they're oriented correctly - the valve "grooves" in the pistons are different on the exhaust and intake sides. I went about torquing the rod end caps to 36 lb-ft. The first couple felt a little notchy as I approached the torque spec, so I backed them all out and put on a dab of the torque lube that came with my studs. This did the trick, and allowed me to be a little more precise in reaching my torque specs.Once the pistons were in, I threaded the studs into the block and dropped the head gasket into place. I was a little confused by the "partial" holes on the gasket... there are a few where the outer layers of the gasket have holes but the inner layers do not. I did a little reading after seeing this (this thread in particular is of interest: Head gasket for 1999 and 2001+ different? - MX-5 Miata Forum ) and didn't really come to any conclusions. As far as I can tell, that's how it's supposed to be.I finally came to a stopping point after realizing that I only have one alignment sleeve in my block. It can be seen in the bottom right of the following picture. Without a second, the head gasket has room to pivot. I could probably clamp it all down and just hold the gasket in place, but I think I'm supposed to have another, so I'll be ordering that tomorrow.