As a driver I find it less distracting when the passenger isn't flailing wildly and screaming, though I'm pretty sure @Scaxx never hears the screams :giggle:

Gordon, What is currently on this car? (I’m too lazy to read through all 60
pages.

At one time it was EFR turbo and 400 / 275 FCM suspension.

Now it is N/A on what suspension?

DNM

I like my VR-1's a lot as a street tire. I just got them installed a few days ago and did some leisure driving to the keys. They grip better than my old rs4's. Dunno what to suggest to anyone else but I still plan next go around on my particular wheels on my particular car to go 245 width. It looks like my NA has the clearance for it.

Lol, I deserve that.

Probably "stock" BP4W
6 speed w/MR shifter
Mazdacomp Diff Mounts
Mazdacomp Motor Mount (single)
V8R Billet "Cadillac 62A" Motor Mount (single)
3.6 Torsen
Racing Beat NB1 header
RB Race Midpipe
RB Power Pulse Single
K&N Typhoon Intake
FM1 clutch
Custom lightened stock flywheel
DeatschWerks DW200 fuel pump
SuperMiata Coolant Reroute
Trackspeed Engineering Radiator
"Rallas Special" 11" Mini Cooper Rotor & Dynalite front brakes
Carbotech XP8 or XP10 all around (I don't remember, lol)
949Racing SuperMiata "Big Grip" kit

• 700/400 Eibach springs
• Billet / spherical bearing upper mounts
• Dual spring "helper" upgrade
• Torringtons
• RB #54103 1.125" OD .188 wall front bar
• MSM 14mm rear bar
• SuperMiata adjustable endlinks

If it's not listed above, it's stock.


Future changes for the car include:

• 4.3 or 4.1 Torsen
• BP6Z "Square top" intake manifold
• Junk2 throttle body
• Energy Suspension Poly Bushings
• SadFAB Poly Bronze Retrofit
• ES poly diff mounts
• Repaired V8R Motor Mounts (loooooool)
• NB1 MS3PNP Pro + tune
• Maybe a SuperMiata Sport clutch w/organic disc

I've still got all the fancy stuff like the forged BP with the 949/Keegan CNC head, the EFR 6258 and ARTech manifold set, the MSLabs MS3 Basic ECU, ID1000s, Fuelab fuel system bits, and all the other crazy in boxes in my garage taking up space. Someday I'll get around to selling it, I just reallllly don't want to deal with a bunch of FS thread nonsense.

IMO, mobbing that "curb" hard is the line if you're going fast enough, so maybe you're not too far off?

Also I have my 245 vr1's on your 9's on the exofish. I can get my own wheels if you're serious about getting tires. But you're also welcome to keep using those gold boat anchors and chunking RS4's for as long as you like (they were my parting gift from the diaspora of the green integra lucky dog team)

Also hands on harness seems good to me. I've had to tell people to not hold on to the side bars on the exofish. The side panels may look structurally sound, but that's a good way to end up with a fiberglass impregnated nub of an arm...

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...a7393d31e7.jpg
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...6754a179dc.jpg

​​​​Oil filter appears to be full of yellow metal. RIP BP4W.:sadwavey:

A successful trackday, all things considered.

Id rip it out and rebuild now before it becomes not salvageable.

Yep, that is an option.

I already paid for, pulled and bagged a sample for Blackstone before I cut the filter apart.
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...4ffbb0b035.jpg

Debating if I'm going to send it in or not.


https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...e32cafc322.jpg

It might be worth finding out if the oil just completely shit the bed in the heat, oxidation and shearing are a thing. If the UOA says oil is torched then Rotella T6 is dead to me.

I guess the other potential possibly is that I somehow massively overfilled the engine oil and ended up with the crank slapping around in the oil, making a foamy horrible mess inside the block. Aerated oil doesn't support bearings so good. I'm not sure how that's possible as T6 comes in 1gallon jugs and the Miata takes 4 quarts with a new filter. It was a little overfilled but not critically so. Big sigh.

Is that how dark the oil looked after just the track day and a little mileage to and from the track?

I’ve never done the Blackstone oil test. What does it cost?

It does seem pretty dark, doesn't it? That's 6x 20min sessions and ~100mi. of street driving, to and from Thunderhill. It went in on Friday morning before Saturday trackday.

Blackstone is $30 for the basic gas motor UOA. For an extra $10 you can add a TBN check, which I understand will tell you how much of the additive package is still viable in the oil. This is mostly for people who are looking to stretch OCIs past manufacturers recommended interval with fancy modern synthetic oils. Not sure if it's worth doing TBN on my sample. More info here: Blackstone Labs Oil Analysis

I've been thinking about this a lot this afternoon. I'm not the kind of guy who puts old oil back in jugs so it shouldn't be used, unless some degenerate returned a full jug to the store and I lost won the lottery. I have no conscience memory of the seal, broken or otherwise so I can't say one way or the other. I didn't actually look to see if there was more than a gallon in the jug, but BP + filter is always 4q and Walmart T6 comes in 4g jugs so in it went. Checked the stick, which was slightly high, then sent it. I didn't supplement with anything, literally just the one jug.

Yellow metal in oil? Bearing material is usually described as white, I thought.

Pull the engine, pop the bearing caps, and see what the crank looks like. If it looks OK, I'd get it measured/examined by a shop, and if it checks out you are halfway to a built engine.

It's an ill wind that no good ...

I doubt the crank really frothed the oil up meaningfully. I've not been a fan of T6 in performance use for years, not sure if you saw in my build thread years ago but my BP motor would absolutely destroy it in less than 6 minutes of racing, like I mean, 20psi at hot idle when new to struggling to get 10.

Yarp, definitely has a yellow/gold tinge to it and I tend to agree, stock bearings are generally a white metal? Unsure if engine is stock inside or not, but I guess we'll find out soon enough.

Agreed, though first things that'll come out will be the cams. I kinda really need this head to survive so I'm hoping the cam journals aren't loaded up with fragments. Not that it isnt fixable, I just don't want to have to fix it. Either way, engine will be coming out, just unsure what I'm going to replace it with. Or when. It might be a while :sad2:

Big oof. Another built BP. Not exactly what I was looking to do right now :p
Truer words.

[/size]

Are you sure those aren't just bits of the scrubby sponges?

--Ian

I love that we're all still stuck on the scrubber material idea :giggle:

Rage cleaning will cause scrubber material issues

Yes, but my kitchen floor has never been more sparkly clean!

Timeline -

Friday: buy another HF engine stand, drain oil into clear container, pull cams & inspect journals

Saturday: go to wedding

Sunday: pull engine

Hopefully ambient temps and air quality cooperate.

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...0dee7f2f85.png
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...20e36c05c0.png

I don't want to shave off my glorious hobo beard so I can wear a respirator to do car work but I will if I have to.

404: Metal Not Found
 

Ok, so I learned some things today:

If you run a BP without valve cover baffles, it fills up the catch can with a quickness.

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...333824762b.jpg

This fuckery goes back to when BEGI fucked me on the valve cover powder coating service they offered some years ago. I didn't trust them to actually clean the cover correctly so I pulled the baffles. They managed to fuck it all up and ended up sending me a replacement valve cover, and somehow this one without the baffles ended up on this motor. I'm sure I was drunk and not paying attention when it went back on. Live and learn.

Also, this engine has phenomenal compression

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...763c2c2944.jpg

That's cold and dry. Its so consistent I questioned it and ran it again, got the same results. They are all so close to 210 that I didn't even bother looking closer.

Also, the catch can works. For the potentially insane amount of oil this thing was huffing, the plugs look surprisingly good.

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...9ae0fee4ee.jpg

NGK BKR6EIX for anyone keeping score. I'll probably replace these bad boys "while I'm in there" as I have no idea as to their history or vintage.

Pulling the coil pack was also lolz

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...ac1e082c7d.jpg

Paint shaker BP is paint shaker. Just a little fatigue failure. :giggle:

Lil bit of Japanese swaggu timing belt apparently, hah. I wonder if this is a legitimately stock timing belt? Maybe OE?

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...643096c5ec.jpg

This motor is also IMPOSSIBLY clean.

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...33f8fb5bb3.jpg

Although the cam seals are leaking a bit, so they will need to be replaced.

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...30e9290e0a.jpg

Pobodies Nerfect I guess! Though this hardware and timing cover are close

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...58c324b2b5.jpg

So the whole point of tearing this motor down this far was to try to figure out if the head was salvageable, and how bad the bearings might be. I've been edging for this all week, and even started putting together a list of part numbers and other things that would be required to do the job. Well, it turns out that was a wasted effort.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...9770d2eff2.jpg

I can't find ANY metal in this motor ANYWHERE.

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...50e4e814b5.jpg

Cam bearing surfaces look gr8 m8, I haven't even pulled the exhaust cam yet and I'm ready to give up.

I'm kinda fucking stupefied here. The metal flake I found in the catch can must have come from the catch can scrubber? The metal I found in the filter can I cut was just a couple strays in the bottom of the housing, I never actually found metal in the filter element itself. Its very possible that the metal I found in the oil catch pan after cutting open the filter can was already there from dumping out the catch can? Is it possible this thing is fine?

No, I'm not that lucky. Literally impossible.

I still need to drain the oil, which I'll do into a separate container. I've got the sample off to Blackstone so I'll be interested to see what they have to say about the metal content. I'll remain cautiously optimistic, but right now its 95° and smoky outside so I'm happy to give up for a while.

Still unsure what to think about all of this, not sure where to go from here. HAH

/* Drunk, fix later. */

Possible that the PCV is pulling enough of a vaccum in the crank case to suck the bits of the scrubby through the catch can hose?

As for where to go... I'd say back to Thunderhill!

--Ian