This hits super hard for me. Half the time I try to make a late night game time decision like that, I just come back the next day and undo whatever it is I was contemplating/trying to finish. Half the time, it's rolling the dice on some sort of ETA anyways. If Mountune hits you back tomorrow and tells you they'll be here by Friday, you're gonna be bummed if you've already resealed the oil pan.

I feel like the info must be on this site but baffles in general might not make a difference in oil pressure drops below "X" amount of g's, no? And/or say "X" amount of tire width/aero/weight? I mean for sure, overkill is better than underkill here. I put an upper baffle plate from Supermiata in my built BP, but I don't remember seeing any oil pressure drops on my original motor with 225s and mild aero.

 

I was seeing pressure drops on my stock BP4W with stock pump and 205 section tires. By pressure drops I mean nose dives to the single digits on a hard braking zone and teens on some turns. Ignorance truly is bliss and that motor was still going when I yanked it. I've had no such issues with the supermiata baffle and Stage 2 pump with the VVT motor on stickier 225s. I can go find some logs if you would like.

 

I summarized my thoughts last summer in this post here, but I'll just go ahead and quote the most relevant part in another thread I linked there.

Supermiata says they get them from Mazda, and Mazda says they source them from JPM. So those should all be the same, and while it's executed differently and made out of aluminum, the Sagespeed unit I have should function just as good.



I'm a bit surprised I don't see any different style of baffle out there that extends these 45* baffles out. It would require quite a bit of fiddling to get around the pickup, so maybe there's my answer.



This pretty much matches my experience on grip level, pressure dips, and engine life. My original engine was worn out when it was removed, but the bearings weren't the issue. 200k miles and 35+ track days isn't a bad run. While having the vertical wall baffle installed with the horizontal plate was belt and suspenders, I should still be comfortably benefitting from the 80:20 rule. If it's good enough for 1.5g cars, it should be good enough for me and my full interior.​​​ I spent some time studying the baffle options instead of assembling the engine, but I think it was time well spent.

 

I have a running Miata again.

I sealed up the oil pan on Tuesday. Last night before installing the engine, I test fit the spare JDM 6 speed I have laying around to confirm the clutch plate was centered. While it was connected, I tested the spare starter it came with and used that to prime the system until oil came out of the filter housing.

Doing an engine install twice in two months definitely helps speed things along. I'm still far from @Z_WAAAAAZ work pace though.



There's still plenty to do to button it up - radiator install and coolant fill, rear brake pads, hood, etc etc. But I'm hoping to be driving it by the weekend.

 

Hell yeah, glad to see it back up and running . Getting to drive the car is the best motivation to keep working on it IMO

 

Yo what?? That was fast as hell! Hope to see it driving by the weekend as well. You deserve to get some more miles in after all the recent fiascos.

 

I got it out in time for dinner, actually. It's amazing how much less time it takes once you do it once, and when you learn what the factory did that you don't really have to do.

The engine pulls... Good? It's a BP. It moves the car. It has good oil pressure, no VVT clatter on startup like my old engine, idles quieter, the crankcase pulls a vacuum while idling too, and seems to have most of the factory horsies still in the stable.

Do I sign up for a Track Night in America next week without redoing the timing belt and water pump? 😂

 

It's non interference.
let her eat.

 

"Dog will hunt!"
-Primus from "Jerry Was a Race Car Driver" song

 

Six, I read that in the voice of Les Claypool, great reference

 

I'd send it too. That's the benefit of non interference motors, like Iron said.

 

Adding another vote for "send it".

And turning on some Primus in my work area for the rest of the day.

 

I heard a great interview of Les Claypool by Nick Beato recently. Lots of history with other bands I was unaware of. He went to high school with people from Green Day and a bunch of other bands. Really fun to hijack your thread with this, lol.

 

Well, good to know everyone is on board with the immediate go from junkyard to track day! On Friday I got waitlisted for TNiA at Charlotte next week, and later that day got the email to finish registration.

I took the Miata out on a shakedown mountain run over the weekend. A friend of mine just finished up his own engine work on a Mini Cooper S project he recently acquired, so we went apex hunting together. Unfortunately, I had a few teething issues. Driving around earlier in the day, I stalled the car not once, but twice. There have been years I never stalled it, so I knew something was off. Then, when turning around I couldn't get the car out of reverse. My buddy watched the clutch and said that the travel was erratic and inconsistent. During the original engine rebuild I replaced the clutch with an OEM unit, and the clutch hydraulics with Exedy parts. They were only a few years old, but the slave cylinder boot had shredded. I replaced them both just to be thorough.

Anyways, once I got home I dug out the old MC and swapped it back on. Issue fixed and I drove it to work today without an issue. The clutch has felt different ever since the rebuild, and now I guess I have my culprit.

I've ranted about it many times before but getting good parts these days is nearly impossible. Even the parts I buy from the original Tier 1 suppliers like NGK and Exedy are failing way before their time.



When I started the car back up, it was tap tap tapping away. plug boot #3 was loose and moving. I cut the engine to check and found every single spark plug to be a bit loose, with #3 the worst of them. Oops. Good thing I brought tools.

 

Nice, I love some mostly-straightforward teething issues. Weird about the spark plugs, did you torque them yourself before installing the motor?

I also sadly share your sentiment on new parts. Kinda sad but it seems finding low-ish mileage original takeoffs is the best course of action at this point.

 

I did remove them, so there's no one to blame for that but me. I torqued to the first value I found on Miata.net, which seemed a bit low to my memory, but I didn't think more of it. They came out pretty easy during my inspection in the junkyard as well, and they don't have that gradual load up feeling that comes with a crush washer that's actually crushing. Just a hard stop. They're NGK BKR5EIX, which is the iridium version of the factory plug I normally use. I'll keep my eye on it and keep the plugs out of the rebuilt engine handy I guess.

I've been having some serious second guessing about how long I can keep fiddling with older cars like this, more in the context of my Jeep to be honest, but also that "spare" Miata that I haven't worked on in a year. I don't have an issue replacing parts that have 20 years and 200,000 miles on them. But I can't justify having to redo that same work every 5 years for every car I own.

 

I feel you, but don't be fooled, new cars are equally crappy

Glad the shakedown went well. Anti seize on the plugs when you put them in or nah?

 

^^^ Yeah, take it from someone who's around 'em all day. These things are more disposable than the cars we're talking about on here. We replaced a shorted electric motor fluid pump in a Mach E yesterday and had to replace the auxiliary fuse box as well because the fuse is non-serviceable. F*cking what?

Are you guys both using anti seize on plugs? I usually put em in dry if the threads are clean, or with just a smidge of penetrating lubricant if the plugs haven't been pulled in a long time and the threads are crusty. That's just the way I was taught and it's always worked.

 

No anti-seize, I really just think I had a brain fart and undertorqued them. It hasn't been an issue since. Including a track day!

TNiA at Charlotte was a great success for the junkyard engine. I had zero issues; no smoke, no noticeable oil consumption, and good oil temps. It was not a success for my GoPro, which had multiple issues and eventually, despite making all the right beeps and lights and timers, proceeded to record absolutely nothing.

As for the event itself, an early season event always seems to bring out antsy people with nice cars, and big egos. There were a lot of people running in advanced that simply did not belong there. And every time I go something about the track changes. Now they are running the latest NASCAR layout that deletes one of my favorite sections. We ran the green layout below, the old is in purple. Old had a blind apex and a ton of elevation change. This new layout has a blind entry into the braking zone (and facing the evening sun) and a sharp hairpin. It's definitely good practice to learn a new layout but I didn't enjoy it as much, and I never really got to learn it in free space due to traffic. It's the sharpest hairpin I've ever had to navigate.



My two favorite cars were a Daytona Coupe replica with a Coyote I failed to take a picture of, and this genuine Type R with a JDM front end. I'm going to take my opportunity to be a K swap hater and note that it had a K24. Maaaaan, at least go for a K20 to keep the 8,000 RPM spirit of the Type R alive!



Me and my RSX turned ND buddy got there early enough to grab a garage spot! I've added stainless bolts and rubber washers to the spoiler to keep out the crud. It's better than tape!



If you look close you can juuuust see the blue paint pen from the junkyard. I still haven't taken off the valve cover!



It was my friends first outing with the ND, and it sounds like it'll be his last. He cooked the (completely factory) brakes, and now the transmission is whining all the time. We're complete opposites on our ownership styles. I've had my car for 10 years, he changes it up every two years or so.

With the success of the track day, I called up the same junkyard to check on pricing for other parts... they definitely know what they have. Not bad deals by any means, but nothing that makes me want to jump. $300 for the 5 speed, $75 for a passenger headlight with a broken tab but better lens than mine, $600 for the torsen rear diff. I'm thinking of getting the transmission just as a spare, given the great condition of the engine and clutch.

 

LOVE to see the trackday success. What year was that ND? ND transmission issues are the main that that bothers me with that platform.

Big +1 on boo'ing the k swap on a real ITR. Sacrilege. I'd take the b series all day.

Nah on anti seize. I think NGK plugs have a special coating and you aren't supposed to anti seize 'em. I was just asking if he did since the plug came loose, which I could possibly attribute to anti seize if he had used it.