Ryan_G

iTrader: (8)

A compression test (wet and dry) was performed by Jeff at Maztech when he was fixing my leaking valve seal. He confirmed that the bottom end was very healthy. I'll perform a check of the catch can setup with my shop vac as that seems like an easy test that can serve to eliminate a variable.

Ryan_G

iTrader: (8)

Sixshooter and Miata2Fast came over to my place last night to enjoy some homebrew and help diagnose my car. I cleaned out all of the intake piping and intercooler before they got there. First thing Miata2Fast did was pull the breather line of my catch can and put it in his mouth.....just the tip He confirmed that the lines were clear and that he could easily blow through them. He noted that the inside of the lines and the catch can were bone dry without a single trace of oil. We thought this was a little odd but would confirm that I'm not getting blowby from crankcase pressure. Then we started the car up and revved it quite a few times with the hoses still detached and there was no air being pushed through the tube. In fact, there was a slight vacuum. Not sure if that is normal without load to be honest. We tried to figure out if maybe an intake valve seal was leaking but the spark plugs are already fouled with oil due to ingesting it through the intake piping so we had no easy way to tell. Jeff at Maztech had also looked over my valves when he replaced the leaking valve seal causing the misfire on 4 and said it all looked fine. Earlier I also took the chance to check shaft play on the turbo while I had access and confirmed that there is absolutely no shaft play. Everything I have read tells me that in the absence of shaft play it is very very unlikely that the issue is with the turbo.

We continued looking over my setup and the ONLY thing we could even kind of see as a potential problem is the oil drain. It appears that the bung out of the pan is ever so slightly angled down by just a few degrees. Its almost unnoticeable. Miata2Fast was also not a fan of the current routing of my drain since it has to come around the steering column. He admitted there was no kinking and that it was all downhill to the pan but believed that angle of the slope wasn't as aggressive as it could be with a more direct route and the oil is not falling as quickly. I'm not sure how much I think this is an issue but it's the only idea I currently have. We are going to retap the bung on the pan to tilt it just ever so slightly up and try to get the straight fitting to feed all the way into the pan so that I can attempt to make a more direct drain line path. Let me know if anyone has suggestions or ideas from any of this.

miata2fast

iTrader: (2)

I have to give it to Ryan, the IPA he brewed was excellent.

patsmx5

iTrader: (16)

Regarding the drain, my drain hose is square with the pan (not angled up) with a straight fitting pointing out the side, and the hose is like 3 feet long and runs sideways for a foot or so before turning up and around a lot of stuff to get to the turbo. I go around the steering shaft as you do. Never had a problem with my drain, and I run no restrictor on my turbo. I run 3/4" hose for the turbo drain. What size hose do you have? Maybe it's too small?

aidandj

iTrader: (5)

You don't have an EFR. There have been reported problems specific to EFRs and their drains. He has a 10AN hose iirc

Ryan_G

iTrader: (8)

Correct, my drain line is -10AN. The other thing I considered is that I have excessive oil pressure to the turbo resulting in too much oil to drain even with the built in restrictor. I have a boundary vvt oil pump but my vvt is currently not hooked up. Not sure if that could be the issue. I need to get a real oil pressure sensor to figure out if that's the issue. Not sure what the solution for that would be though.

Ryan_G

iTrader: (8)

I have thought more on this and have come to the conclusion that this is likely the issue. I found my order with boundary engineering and my oil pump has one shim in it which allows for an additional +7psi of oil pressure if my pump can deliver it. I also found a website which sells a restrictor specifically for EFRs. It states that an EFR turbo will need an oil restrictor in the event that your engine makes more than 5 bar (72.5 psi of oil pressure) at full load.

Oil Supply Adapter Borg Warner EFR with Restrictor Universal Turbo Accessory Connection Parts oil inlet connecting parts

This would make sense and would be in accordance with both the EFR manual (maximum recommended pressure is 60psi) and psyber_0ptix's concerns in the following thread:

https://www.miataturbo.net/engine-pe...il-feed-75051/

I think I am force feeding my turbo too much oil. So I either need to reduce oil pressure or restrict the inflow of oil further. Option 2 is clearly cheaper and easier to implement or reverse. I should probably get a real sensor on their first but the fitting would be dirt cheap just to throw on their and test.

Ryan_G

iTrader: (8)

Mike Franke from Southeast Power Systems also recommends that I pull off my air filter to check and see if it is too restrictive. If the air filter is creating a restriction it can cause a pressure differential in the intake and pull oil into the compressor housing. This does seem to be a thing and it's very easy to check so I will be doing this first. Mike was pretty against using a restrictor and suggested that I use some sort of regulator to reduce oil pressure instead if that ends up being the issue. That sounds much more complicated to me but I'll cross that bridge when I get there.

miata2fast

iTrader: (2)

Just so you know Ryan, your oil feed line is a -3 line with a 4 AN fitting connected to the Turbo. I checked lines I had laying around my shop.

miata2fast

iTrader: (2)

I think you may have a combination of small problems creating bigger problems. From the info you have given, the first thing I would do is verify oil pressure. Then I would make sure you have the correct feed line and restrictor if needed. I suspect your turbo supplier doesn't want you to use a restrictor because of the small feed line, just a hunch. Lastly, I would tackle your drain line if the above doesn't solve your problem.

Keep in mind that your new motor is probably clearanced looser than factory which will lower oil pressure some, so don't assume the pressure is too high. Get an actual reading.

Ryan_G

iTrader: (8)

They don't want me to use a restrictor because BW specifically states that you should not use one as the turbo has a restrictor built in to the center housing. I agree that I need to get an oil pressure reading to really determine if that is the issue. I'll have to go back to my emails with Abe about my oil feed. He made the the oil feed line I think and I don't know why he would have made it as -3AN with a -4AN connector. If he didn't make it then I had it made at amazon hose and I definitely would not have had it made that way. It would have had to be a mistake on their part and it should be stepped up to -4AN.

psyber_0ptix

iTrader: (4)

I've been tossing around the idea of switching to a -4AN but I haven't had problems running the -6AN. Then again, according to that BW/Full-Race Tech document it's the <60psi oil pressure when fully warmed. I called full-race a while back and they said it isn't an issue for one of the civics they built running 80psi oil pressure. No clue what other input is available.

sixshooter

iTrader: (12)

I went to racecar engineering this morning and looked at the bunch of those braided hoses that were hanging up on the wall and I think it's a 4an line and fitting and offered to buy the 3an for him.

Ryan_G

iTrader: (8)

New plan for diagnoses:

1. Check inlet pipes for oil residue from troubleshooting session on Sunday. Clean if necessary.
2. Replace spark plugs with new ones as they are currently fouled.
3. Remove air filter and drive car around while hitting boost. Check inlet pipes for oil to see if air filter is too restrictive for some reason. If wet, continue to step 4.
4. Get oil pressure gauge (will do this anyway even if it's the air filter but I wouldn't need it for trouble shooting) and check oil pressure from block. If oil pressure is excessive, consider either restrictor or regulator. If not, proceed to step 5.
5. **** with oil drain route. Reclean and retest. If oil is still present, cry in corner while drinking away sorrow in the form of peach ginger kolsch.

miata2fast

iTrader: (2)

There is a 1/16th difference in size, so maybe it is a -4. The line at my shop has a 3AN fitting on one end, and a 4 AN fitting on the other. The lines I know are -4 at my shop is buried under other parts.

sixshooter

iTrader: (12)

:shrug:

Nobody ever complained their oil drain hose was too large and causing problems. It's not something I want to screw with, but I'm willing to help you get this resolved whatever it requires.

But yes, low hanging fruit. Air filter first. I'd laugh if it was that damned air filter.

Ryan_G

iTrader: (8)

Was going to continue trouble shooting this past weekend when a new misfire developed after cleaning out the intake pipes and replacing the spark plugs with new ones. After some fiddling with the car and plugging in the laptop we figured out that the coolant temp sensor went bad and caused the MS to dump a bunch of extra fuel into the cylinders because it thought it was 0 degrees outside. I got a new sensor on Saturday but ended up not ******* with the car again because I had some other **** to do.

ridethecliche

iTrader: (2)

So it preferentially went by the coolant temp instead of the AIT? I guess that's how it does cold starts and uses ait for timing etc?

Glad you figured it out!

sixshooter

iTrader: (12)

Yes, CLT determines WUE values.

Ryan_G

iTrader: (8)

I replaced the coolant sensor and ran the car long enough to determine that the air filter is not restrictive. There was light oil residue on the intake pipes off the turbo after about 5-10 minutes of idling and revving in the garage. I received my oil pressure sensor in the mail on Friday. I am currently trying to figure out how to hook it into my MS. I have an MS2e built by reverant which includes 2 extra programmable outputs. Am I correct in assuming that I cannot use the output wires to feed a signal from my pressure sensor to the MS to read in TS? I really have never messed with programmable or custom settings in tunerstudio so I have no idea how to do this. I don't want to run a gauge for oil pressure specifically if I can avoid it. I emailed Reverant about it but I was wondering if anyone else had some insight on this topic. Aidan, I used the same pressure sensor you ordered off ebay. How did you wire it up?