I've got a 02 block though, need big fat thrust bearings. Either that, or I can use my protege block. It does have lower comp pistons and the oil feed fittings I like.

You've had good luck with those seals? The cheapest rear main seal on ebay isn't any better than the 26 year old OEM **** it replaced. Was gonna go OEM on most all those things.

 

I actually went with felpro. Never had an issue with felpro. Ill look more later, it didnt come right up on rock auto.

 

Federal-Mogul Resource Center - Vehicle Look-up

 

Disconnect the accessory belt and see if it still does it. Sounds like the water pump or something. If you drove it home for over 100 miles and it held oil pressure and was trouble free then spontaneous bearing failure would be odd

 

I think you might be onto something, I seem to be loosing around an ounce or so of water a week. I haven't seen any on the undertray yet, but I bet it's messy behind the timing cover.

It's holding temperature and oil pressure on the idiot gauge, but that only means I have more than 6 psi or so, right?

 

It's not the water pump or alternator, maybe the VVT actuator? I don't have any codes stored, I'm sure the ECU measures cam advance right?



Assuming it is a rod, what's the chances of my reusing this crank without machining?

 

If you don't keep revving on it like that just to listen to it knock, good

 

But I have to drive to work tomorrow!

I think I am going to use this protege 1.8 block I have. It's a big nose, 27mm, and I think I can make it work without much headache. It doesn't have the fat thrust bearings, but it has oil ports like I want. It has caps drilled and tapped for my MBSP already, too.

There's not much else different on VVT block right? Searching says no, VVT comes from oil pressure port. Full speed ahead, cap'n









Very light scratches, I think they're from disassembly.



I can't feel any of these, pretty sure they would hone out.



I can ever so slightly feel the one furthest to the left here. It'll hone out?





All the bearings look mint. Everything looks pretty dang mint, to be honest. Well, besides the scratches...

The more and more I think about it the more I think I was sold a bum car. I'm not sure if it's just coincidence, but it was a bit high on oil when I got it. It's not using much oil at all, but now I'm wondering if some knock retarder snake oil bullshit made it into the oil right before I picked it up. Although it's not an end of the world thing, I can't be stuck stick in hand waiting for crank polishing or machining and custom bearings that may or may not be in Japan still...

So, I'll keep driving and shifting like a big rig. Tomorrow I order everything this guy needs, maybe I swap this **** this weekend. Last time I needed a head decked, I had it done in a few hours on a Saturday. This is only slightly more difficult, right?

 

It's not possible to shift before 2500 rpm without being a straight menace on the street. I refuse to drive like a grandmother.

I bought a LKQ 01 engine for $595. I will put that in ASAP, then I have a spare for my spare. I'll build the old 2002 block, taking as long as it takes to do it right, then I'll have a spare if I **** something up. The stuff Madjack is doing to heads looks like fun, I want in on that.

Supposed to be here Wednesday, guess I'll pull the passenger's seat and drive over to pick it up. That works, right?

 

Should work fine. Bit of a pita to get it in and out, but yes the engine does fit there.

 

sounds like a pretty solid plan actually

is it too early to start talking about EFR's and e85?

 

Sweet, guess I'll go drop the trans on yellow. May as well swap the FM1 over now.

The rear wheel bearings won't fall apart if I pull the axles, will it? Just enough to roll/shove the thing out of the garage? If I pull my bigass rotor I think I might stand a chance of being able to roll the front left on a spare donut.

 

EFR's and e85 would have stood a chance of happening a lot sooner should all of this new engine knockiness not happened.

Will be much more manly with efr and e85 if I know I stand a chance of driving to work again tomorrow, though. I'm kinda giddy about the prospect of having so many good spare blocks available. It sucks pretty hard still not having a good miata to drive, but it'll be for the better in the end.

I do like how much larger this NB tank is, though. Only reason I switched off e85 was range, 50 miles or two gallons makes a big difference!

 

fwiw- My buddy picked up a 97 with "rod knock" for cheap, that turned out to have a trashed t-belt tensioner. Sounded a lot like rod knock.

 

A rod should knock at pretty much all levels of load, right? I thought the water pump was a good bet due to the missing water, plus it doesn't seem to make the racket with higher engine load.

My thinking was lightly loading the engine kinda adds a sort of gear rollover noise to the water pump, or even the timing belt. When you give it full beans the power stroke is longer, so there's no opportunity for the t-belt and other things to go slack and rattle or knock?

That'd be wicked sweet if it were just a timing belt, but my new engine is here and paid for already. I think I'll probably just swap them still, timing belt job probably takes half as long as an engine swap is what I'm thinking. If it is just a timing belt, at least my other spare block will be easy to build up!

 

I just disassembled an engine that sounded exactly like yours. Here is the video of it.


And here is it without an oil pan.


And here is the bearing

 

Boo

Was the crank trashed?

 

It had some bearing material on it. I had another crank so i just wrapped that one up and put it on the shelf.

 

No. Ive had engines knock or not knock at every conceivable combination of load and rpm, while ive had others that knocked consistently.

 

New old engine. Has a little bit of water in the plug holes, and it is missing a PCV valve for some reason. I hope that's not been gone long...

This does come with a 6 month warranty or something like that, so I guess if it does go bad at least I get another new old one. 131k, according to the tag, so less miles than what's on the way out. For $534 total out the door and no core return I think I did alright. No throttle body, but extra halfway new looking clutch/FW. It looks like whoever owned this engine's car took pretty good care of it. I mean, shiny timing belt covers! What is that even?



I also borrowed a truck because my interior is actually nice and I want it to say that way. Don't see how it'd be possible without removing manifolds or crushing door panels.