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Working on doing research for rebuilding an engine.
I have a 1990 1.6 Auto and am going to use the pistons and exhaust cam from it if they are good. It looks like the oil control rings for the auto pistons are 3mm instead of four? At least according to rock auto? Can I mix oil control rings from one set with the top two rings from a higher end set?
Yeah, yeah, I know, building 1.6s is frowned uppon, but I am just planning a cheap, rods only, one for learning on so I don't mess up anything important.
Question: That means you plan to build 2 engines. How will the cost of that compare against a long block from TSE? I honestly don’t know. I do know that I see lots of engine builds on this forum go sour. If the $$$$ were even close, I’d be thinking TSE. I looked it up: $4000 with stock Oil pump.
Oh, this engine will be in the car several yeara after I build it. So it isn't wasted money. Already have the 1.6 turbo setup and I am quite happy with it's performance.
I am also planning on doing a budget rebuild is all. Rings, rods, bearings, bottle brush hone, measure all the clearances and pick a flat head (I have four, one has to be flat, if not I have the tools to make a flat one) and then put it together. Also probably just do valve stem seals, measure valve guides, and lap the valves in. Should be under $1k and a good learning experiance.
Also, the rings issue is now moot. Called mazda with the Vins of all the engines I have and they are all manuals. Although I do have two 1.6s without oil pans so I have no idea what is in those. But odds are good also manual engines.
The BP4W I have is in my NB but is getting fairly long in the tooth at 170k miles. So that will be my second rebuild and then back into the NB.
Finally sold those MSM wheels, got a short block and a valve cover (as well as some cash) in return.
The block and crank seem to be good, it turns nice and smooth, bores look perfect from what I can see. #3 seems to have a slight problem though... Curious how that happened as there is zero signs of any other damage. Worst case I have a spare oil pan.
Ugh you've made so much more progress than me. I pulled the engine and got my oil leak fixed. Turns out it was leaking from the... Everything.
I got the wideband wired up temporarily in narrowband still with the stock ECU. I have FM clutch installed, diy coolant reroute (what a pain in he *** not sure how people do it with the engine in), oil pan tapped, and a "diy filter relocation" installed.
The car ran great before and idled great... Now it idlea really rough. Rough enough that I have a lot of stuff rattling over the sound of the radio. Not trying to thread jack though I'm going to post up more details in my own thread.
I'm glad you've made good progress and hopefully I will follow suite soon enough. I got a 1.8 rear lined up for $450 so that will be good motivation to finish things up.
I'll be very interested to see how my spool compares to yours.
This is a few years of work in the making if you look at the dates in the thread.
My engine also leaks from.... Yeah, the everything. I am fairly sure my coolant leak is the front driver side corner of the headgasket. Though it has a bad coolant leak either from the lower rad hose or radiator plugs at the moment. Need to look at that....
I have a good start on parts collected to build a fresh engine plan is a dirt cheap, redneck style rods only 1.6 doing a ball hone, rings, and gaskets. Fingers crossed I can get a good set of bearings between all the motors I have.
The turbo is amazingly fun though. You will get there eventually. Doing all the prep first makes a huge difference in how easy it is to actually get boosted.
This is a few years of work in the making if you look at the dates in the thread.
My engine also leaks from.... Yeah, the everything. I am fairly sure my coolant leak is the front driver side corner of the headgasket. Though it has a bad coolant leak either from the lower rad hose or radiator plugs at the moment. Need to look at that....
I have a good start on parts collected to build a fresh engine plan is a dirt cheap, redneck style rods only 1.6 doing a ball hone, rings, and gaskets. Fingers crossed I can get a good set of bearings between all the motors I have.
The turbo is amazingly fun though. You will get there eventually. Doing all the prep first makes a huge difference in how easy it is to actually get boosted.
Whelp. Guess I am buying a new radiator. Probably just gonna go with an ebay aluminum one as I am not going to spend another almost $400 on one that only lasted 2 years, 2 autocrosses, and 10k miles.... As a heads up, the Supermiata Crossflow radiators only have a 1 year waranty.
Ordered a $93 aluminum ebay radiator. I wasn't planning on doing any track days above wastegate any time soon anyway. If I am not gonna get more than two yeara out of a high end rad, I may as well just get the cheap ones anyway.
It's surprising to me that the CSF/Supermiata crossflow is showing Mishimoto level of survivability. I wonder if anyone else is having this issue. It looked to be a an affordable crossflow solution that was lightweight, but is definitely not sustainable if one has to keep replacing it. I loved mine when I had one, but ultimately shifted toward the Trackspeed Rad.
Cooling on this thing has been great. I have also never heard any complaints about CSF radiators or these crossflows from anyone else. I am sure it's an anommoly. I am just a bit miffed that the one part I decided was important to not cheap out on, and spent good money on, only lasted 2 years and 10k street miles (life has been crazy and I have not made it to the track). As well as the response I got of "sorry it leaked, warnty is only one year. Have a nice day".
Yea, I've had a lot of short condescending answers like "We don't sell anything that we have not tested. I understand if you don't trust our testing, That is any customer prerogative." when just asking some questions regarding something that would previously be a cause for concern; and having their page explaining the return policy/restocking fee unavailable unless you looked somewhere else completely. I didn't have the time to drive across the country and return it in person, so I just ate the cost and decided to place all future business elsewhere. Not bitter, just don't have time for that behavior.
Update time. Still driving around with the Supermiata rad, it's still leaking. I top up the overflow every few hundred miles and call it good for now. One of these days I will swap out the rad.
I have mostly just been driving it. Even a couple high miles days in there. 260mi for the start of season NJ Miatas meet, 350mi round trip for another thing I went to (one day, my friend and I clocked in 7.5 hours of top down driving that day). It runs like a peach, gets 28mpg mixed and 30 on the highway. I should have gone turbo a while ago.
I actually got some time to work on the car today. I have had some Inertia Lab shock socks to put on for a while and finally did that. Decided to toss on the E30 front hubs while I was in there.
I have to say, I am really impressed with this kit. Fits perfect, machining looks good, does what it says on the box. I am not going to have to worry about font hubs/bearings for a long time.
Dirty Xida after almost 12k miles.
Nice clean shock bags.
Anyway, put the studs in using two lug nuts. Worked fine. I clamped the ABS tone wheel in the vice and that held it well enough to get 65ftlbs on them.
Here's the BEEF.
Kit comes with all the parts, I am impressed.
Sleeves fit perfect.
Hub on and torqued. Even came with new axle nuts.
Rotor spacer and hub adapter for the Corrado Rotor.
As a note, this kit fits perfect with the old M-Tuned Corrado rotor kit.
rotor and 5mm spacer to clear the calipers with my 95M BBS wheels I run on the street. Tons of stud left, have to run open ended lug nuts.
So, almost 1 year and 4k miles later... And I haven't touched a damn thing. Turned the boost up to about 10psi and have just been driving it. No leaks (other than the rad) and no issues. Took it on yet another road trip this month.
At 10psi, it makes ~175ftlbs and 190rwhp. It's not slow, but it's loosing it's "holy crap" factor. My stock honda fit feels even slower though. I am loving how flat the torque curve is. It is perfect out on the highway in 5th.
Also, 190rwhp is apparently enough to suprise modified GTIs and A6s with how fast a miata can get to and keep up at 135mph....
After 5400 miles with the turbo in, it is definetly time to change the oil. I have had 0 issues with the turbo system other than a slight leak at the manifold because one of the studs didn't seat all the way, so I added a washer and called it good.
Decided to finally pull the leaking radiator out as well. It has gotten to the point where it goes through a half gallon every 500mi and that is getting old. Of course, the replacement egay one is slightly larger ane cannot slip into place with how I mounted the intercooler, so I have to fidgit that. Blah. Oh well, at least the leaky one is going away.
10-07-2018, 06:20 PM
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