robertw

The new transmission seems to be decent but now there’s a new problem. The motor started filling my catch cans with oil, both cans full, after only a few laps. Lots of smoke on hard acceleration and deceleration out the exhaust. Did a compression test and cylinder 1 is way down, leak down cylinder one lost like 80%.

So time to pull the motor.












Found the problem







8 hard years on that motor, piston finally let go.


Picked up a junkyard 1997 motor, hoping it’s usable.

Joseph Conley

Bummer, but congrats for getting it to live this long.

robertw

Junk yard motor swap continued...

Leak down test, air leaking out of the exhaust and intake manifold, decided to swap my head on. At least this would save some time dealing with injectors and other stuff.


Cleaned up my head.


Swapping the head was a bit of a last minute call, couldn't find a Mazda head gasket on such short notice, so went with a felpro. Reused the ARP headstuds.




Parts from moss


Swapped my pan on, this build is sponsored by Felpro




Looking like a motor again



I cracked a coolant hardline for the turbo when shuffling around the head.


Placed an order with FlyinMiata



Motor in the car


Test drive...

Fireindc

iTrader: (13)

Holy crap! Nice rebound and quick work on the wrenching so that you could get back to driving. This is how it's done. Goood **** and the new motor sounds nice and healthy.

I might have missed this, do you run this thing on pump or e85? I'm certain it's in this thread somewhere, just curious. Haven't seen too many ringland failures so I'm kinda of surprised (but not really seeing how much abuse it has seen). Just curious if detonation might have been a factor or if it just let go.

robertw

The car is on pump gas, 93. I think cyl 1 may have been hurt for a while and it recently full but the dust. Fortunately the cylinder walls are not damaged so I’m hoping to rebuild the old motor to have a spare.

robertw

Drove at GridLife Circuit Legends at Lime Rock Park. Awesome track and event.

robertw

The junkyard motor continues to do it's thing.




Three camera angles, same run.

robertw

So a lot has happened since my last update. The junk yard motor blew up, after sending out the RCI 440cc injectors I was running for the last 10 years, it appears one of the injectors was beginning to have some issues. Piston #4 in the junkyard motor shattered, so it's safe to assume detonation / leaning out due to a fatigued injector.

Failure at the track...what a mess.



Block venting






So out goes the junkyard motor (RIP), it was a ripper until it wasn't.




Picked up some parts, supertech forged pistons, forged rods, king bearings, valve springs, upgraded oil pump, 700cc injectors,, new fuel pump, and bunch of seals, gaskets, whatever else was needed.







Old motor on the curb, ready for the local scarpers to come pick it up.




New motor back from the machine shop.





Head back from the machine shop.




My buddy (Dragula) doing the assembly at his place.






Motor's in




Getting the injectors and timing setup just to get the car running well enough for a quick break in before the dyno.




First time out of the garage in like 10 months...




Picked up a FM intake shield before the dyno day





Dyno day...the car got stuck getting up on the dyno lol.

You Tube

Installed new front upper and lower control arms and sway bar end links, time for an alignment.



Anyways, that's where the car is at for the moment. Trying to figure out how to install a new oil cooler in the car before the first drift event with the new setup.

Fireindc

iTrader: (13)

Nice man, really glad to see this car is still kicking. Sucks about the junkyard motor but better to figure out an injector issue there and not on the built block.

Gee Emm

Nice torqs for drifting too.

When I saw the remnants on the nature strip, I wondered about the head and the crank, both getting a bit scarce here - neither salvageable?

robertw

sixshooter

iTrader: (12)

Very impressive, sir

robertw

The crank was toast, banged up for the everything slapping around in the motor when the piston shattered. Same with the head, if someone really wanted to, the head could have been saved (it was hit and dinged pretty good) but my friend had a spare stock non vvt head laying around so he gave me that.

curly

iTrader: (25)

I know dyno widebands can read a bit lean, but what's your MS reporting for AFR during those dyno pulls? Appears to be low 12s on the dyno.

Fireindc

iTrader: (13)

Really cool man. You've gotten pretty damn good at drifting over the years, that's some sweet tando!

robertw

Trying to address a blow by issue I was having at the drift event. Previously I was running a catch can off the PCV port with no PCV to the can, venting to atmosphere (filter), IM plug capped. Made a huge mess at WOT on track.

New setup, catch can on the firewall is run to the exhaust side VC vent, and into the air filter. The other can is off a 323 PCV to the can and to the IM. Also considering just blocking off the PCV port and only running the one can on the firewall (exhaust side vent, to can, to intake).





If anyone can advise if what the better option is please let me know. I also posted in the official catch can thread.

robertw

Honestly I don't really know, I didn't check while the car was being tuned. I mostly stood back and paced around nervously the entire dyno session. I told the tuner I want a safe conservative tune, not a max power tune. Boost controller was set to 10psi, but I'm getting boost creep to 14 psi.

Thank you sir.

sixshooter

iTrader: (12)

Check out the giant PCV, breather, and catch can thread. Many options and opinions are shared, along with pictures.

robertw

Yeah I checked it out. I can’t believe there’s so many opinions and differences with peoples setups and designs. I thought by this point there’d be a simple conclusive “best” solution for the catch can / blow by debate haha. Oh well.

I think what I have setup is close to what the first post is suggesting for a 2 can setup. I’m still not 100% comfortable routing things back to the IM even with the 323 pcv, but it is what it is I suppose.

sixshooter

iTrader: (12)

Well, if you read that thread at all you will see that I did not agree one bit with going to the intake manifold on a turbocharged engine. Mine runs 325 wheel horsepower on the track without any issues and put just a couple of drops of oil and a few drops of condensation in the catch can.

One of my other buddies on this forum followed my lead with this on his track car with similar results to mine.