btabor

iTrader: (3)

Hey guys, I recently bought a 1990 Miata that came with a supercharger. I removed the supercharger and sold it. Now I am debating wether to remove the engine to tap the oil pan or just drill it and flush the pan with kerosene/oil. I think I want to remove the engine and change the rings while I am at it. Everything else should be ok as it was recently rebuilt with Mazda parts 15000 miles ago and ran 8psi on the supercharger.
Now, I am on a budget, is it possible to hone the cylinder walls with the head still on the engine? Would you guys also change the rods while I am at it with SCAT or m-tuned rods? I am looking at 200whp with an artech manifold, megasquirt, intercooler and sr20T25.

Suggestions are welcomed, and no I am not swapping a 1.8. I want to build a 1.8 and have it on stand by for when the 1.6L blows up.

hornetball

iTrader: (4)

It's a fresh engine. Why mess with it? Rings are pretty much the last thing you touch on teardown and the first thing you install on rebuild . . . no easy way to replace them. Cannot be done with head on.

Drilling/tapping in place isn't too bad. I did it in place on the 1.6 in my silver car.

Fireindc

iTrader: (13)

Why do you want to do rings? In my opinion, if they are sealing correctly, don't touch them. If you have excessive blowby, low compression and/or leakdown numbers, THEN tear that ***** down and address the issues.

If you tear down the motor, at the very least drop some forged rods in there.

You can not re-ring a motor, or hone the motor, with the head on.

ALSO, you should swap in a 1.8 :wink:


IMO, this is what you should do. Drill/tap the plan with the engine in place, boost the 1.6, run it for now. On the side pick up a 1.8, rebuild it properly with new rings, forged rods, etc. Then you can swap in a fresh "built" 1.8 down the road. With the right turbo setup, you will only need to get a different manifold for the 1.8 and you can reuse everything else.

pdexta

iTrader: (17)

Drill/tap with the oil in the motor, then change the oil and go. I wouldn't mess with pulling the motor, especially if you're planning to build another one anyway.

btabor

iTrader: (3)

Sounds good, I think I will leave the engine in it. It is leaking a little oil from the oil pan somehow but not enough that I would pull it out. I will boost it, blow it up, learn from my mistakes and build a 1.8 in the process.

Fireindc

iTrader: (13)

Sounds like a good plan, duder. Although you may find it's actually pretty hard to "blow up" and old 1.6, at least I could never get mine to let loose feeding as much boost as possible to it on a mediocre tune.

Unless you go with a decent sized turbo that is, then it's probably pretty easy to blow up.