1stproject

iTrader: (4)

Like the title says. My 1.6 drips a little oil and consumes about a quart every oil change or so. Should I not turbo the miata? Are there people here who have similar problems, but have gone the turbo route? Thoughts are appreciated as I was going to place my order with Begi tonight.
P.S. 145k on motor. Good compression. Runs good also.

wayne_curr

iTrader: (8)

Compression and Leakdown test your motor to know for sure about it's health. My car uses up a lot of oil between changes due to bad cam seals and my motor has >5k miles.

Rushin

iTrader: (3)

Do the compression test and leakdown test. My car has around 140k and it does eat quite a lot of oil, but i still turboed it.

ArtieParty

iTrader: (1)

Sorry Leo. Cars cant be turbo'd at that point........ They also cant be turbo'd with 250k on them. What was Paul thinking??

MiataMX5

iTrader: (3)

Mine uses oil I have 147,xxx miles but not very much and I haven't had any problems but haven't cranked up the boost to it yet. just 6psi right now no intercooler.

Tim Broughton

iTrader: (3)

Mine also consumes a reasonable amount of oil. Significantly less now that I fixed the valve cover gasket leak at the CAS, but it still eats quite a bit. Planning on doing a compression/leakdown test. The motor dyno'd at 105whp stock baseline, so I'm thinking it's healthy, just a bad seal somewhere that's causing the oil consumption. If the compression test comes back positive I'll probably just boost it and deal with the frequent top-offs. Or else do a couple possible fixes, cam seals, valve seals, etc and see if the consumption problem goes away or at least lessens.

Sam Amporful

iTrader: (13)

Mine used to eat oil but thats usually from the oil overheating. Go ahead and turbo it but get an oilcooler or a coolant reroute or both as a combo. It'll keep it a bit happier with the added turbo heat. It may lose more oil after boosting but you should be fine. Once it blows just get another cheap engine or rebuild yours *within reason on the rebuild yours statement*. I think turboing your own car is something every car guy should experience atleast once. Much knowledge gained and good fun to have. I say go for it.

curly

iTrader: (25)

uh, fix the oil leak...how hard was that? I paid $80 for a water pump gasket, oil pump gasket, oil pan gaskets, front main seal, rear main seal, rear main gasket, cam seals, mixing manifold gasket, a bunch of o-rings, and a bottle of gasket sealer from NAPA. I don't think that's too bad a deal, and with a $20 valve cover gasket, $80 head gasket, and a few misc. o-rings you've essentially sealed the entire engine, sans piston rings, for around $200. Well worth it in my opinion, and if you're in that deep (most likely have the engine on a stand by now), might as well do the piston rings, and if you've got the money, forged internals. Boom rebuilt engine for $200, and little to no worry about turbo charging, as long as your tune is good.

Note: FM's rebuild kit is $612, and as far as I can tell well worth it. I'd rather have an amazingly solid and clean NA engine than a leaky turbocharged one. If anything your knowledge of the car more than triples during the rebuild process.

thirdgen

iTrader: (26)

Before turbo mine ate almost 1 quart between oil changes.
After turbo it eats at least 2 quarts between changes.
Moral of the story is:
Don't be a *****. Turbo it and have a blast, just make sure the tune is good and it'll last you a while. I've been beating the F&%$ outta mine for almost 30,000 miles and I have run it around 14psi pretty much all summer.

scottv

iTrader: (3)

Mine with 160k miles on it uses maybe a quart per 500 miles-but I still turboed it...I also bought a spare block that I'm building up to (reliably) hold way more hp than stock-so I do not expect my engine to last forever and am planning to have another to drop in next spring.