I was asking about the smoke to try and figure out how you knew the engine was burning oil only at specific times vs. all the time. If it's guides/seals then high rpm coast down in gear will make oil smoke. That IMO is an easy way to check for that. No smoke from that, but smoke on a cold start then it's probably below the head unless those two plugs were loose and you have oil coming down past the cam cover seal.

Have you checked torque/retorqued your head bolts? fwiw: I checked my junkyard motor and two of the headbolts torqued another 10# to meet spec. How many miles on the engine at this point?

 

-Plugs were not loose. #4 had a tiny bit of oil on top due to a small valve cover leak.
-Re torqued the head nuts after 60 miles
-Just over 1000 miles at this point but i've had the oil burning issue since day 1.

I'll try to get a video when i get it put back together.

 

Yank what a killer thread and build! Kudos to you for taking the road less traveled. I just spent the better part of two days skimming in and out of this epic thread.

Hate to say it, but seeing that milky colored oil and the white on plugs 2&1 leads me to think that you may have a blown head gasket between 1&2. Do yourself a favor and get one of those leak down test kits that tap onto your radiator filler neck. Any rainbows in your coolant?

 

Thanks. The extra low end torque is nice but i wouldn't recommend doing this swap to anyone for the money i ended up putting into it..

coolant is clear and oil is black. I've been really busy with school lately. Finals next week. but i'm hoping to check the intercooler for oil when i get a spare minute. I noticed i had some oil in the compressor side coupler when i was fixing my exhaust leak. Maybe the compressor side oil seal is leaking? If the intercooler is clean i will investigate your suggestion further. Thanks!

 

Whats the dealio with this beast?

 

Putting some miles on it right now. burning oil issue has seemed to go away for now. Probably just needed to seat the rings a bit better. I had some issues this morning. For some reason my air fuel ratio is all over the place above 3000 rpm. I'm going to pull the plugs when i get home and check for fouling.

The interior has been completely put back in the car along with the radio and sound system. (pointless on top of engine noises and vibrations)

Installed a trailer hitch and ordered a 4x6 trailer. Moving to Portland Oregon in May! Excited about a fresh new start as a legit mechanical engineer. Bring on the new fabrication projects (thinking about making a cafe racer next) I pulled my Dads 5x8 enclosed trailer ~1600lbs and it pulled and stopped it okay. (clutch slipped above 8 psi in 2nd gear though) The 4x6 should be cake compared to that workout. Selling the white Miata before the trip and putting the hardtop on the red car.

Running 17 psi now. Feels good but i feel like it should be faster. I've been experimenting with adjusting the intake and exhaust gears recently and its made a noticeable difference. I need some guidance on how to adjust to see the most gains.

The plan is to get out to Oregon and then throw it on the dyno. I'll probably hit up PRE Racing. I'd be nice to get a job at a shop like that one day if the pay was decent.

 

Had the same issue on the way home tonight. I noticed my throttle position dancing around a bit in tuner studio. I pulled over, clip checked the TPS, re-calibrated the TPS (limits were -1 and 103) then headed on my way. It seemed to fix the issue. I made some cam adjustments tonight so i'll re-tune my fuel map tomorrow and see how it feels. The plan is to find something that feels good and then start giving it timing.

 

if your clutch is slipping at all, change it before you get on the dyno or you will be wasting your time.


Is there a chance the oil is leaking again and getting on your clutch?

 

Oil leak does not get on the clutch. I closely checked this the last couple times i pulled the trans. Its just leaking around the oil pan flange. (warped when welding)

Clutch only slips when pulling the trailer (+1600lbs) in a low gear under boost. With an appropriately loaded dyno i shouldn't see this issue right?

 

go do a pull in 4th from 2k

if it holds its good

 

Nice build man. I've never heard a miata sound like that before. Crazy!

 

Cools
Check and pass no problem.

 

Alright. This is the second time i'm dealing with this bullshit. Whoever designed the exhaust turbine housing on the small frame EFR is a dumb ****. Just because your 3D model on the computer says you have enough room to slide a nut in front of a hole doesn't mean people will have room to turn that ****.

**Spending hours doing something that should take 2 minutes. Again.**

Side note. Resbond is awesome.

 

This makes me glad of 2 things, its impossible to bolt my turbo to my manifold if the manifold is already in the car, and that I made sure it was possible to slip the turbo already bolted to the manifold into the car. From the wiring I can tell its a fellow ME. Though I haven't seen one of those high amp circuit breakers since the old high school robotics days. This car is really friggen sweet. I wish I had that kind of money to burn when I was an undergrad, I also wish I didn't read how much money you have into it and start to realize how much more I have into mine. God man, think of all the keystone we could have bought at engineering students with this money.

 

a load cell dyno will load your car up harder than you will see on the street.

it will load it up at the start rpm and do a 15second sweep to rev limit which will be wot the whole time for your power runs.


Yes it will likely slip on the dyno.

 

Is anyone addressing this? I initially thought the oil restrictor was supposed to take care of this.

From BorgwarnerEFR Tech brief
"Inlet oil pressure (gage) is recommended to be at least 1bar (15psi) and not more than 4bar (60psi) under all “fully warmed-up” conditions."

Im seeing at least 90 psi on the gauge on startup and 60 psi when fully warm at cruise.

 

Is that pressure before the restrictor or after? I wouldnt be too concerned about the cold pressure since the oil is so viscous its going to have a massive pressure drop across the restrictor orifice.

 

I don't have a local gauge pre or post restrictor. Fluid dynamics says pressure pre restrictor is gauge pressure on the dash with negligible pressure losses due to the length and diameter of the line. Its kinda weird that they specify this in the manual if its post restrictor (i highly doubt) but i've been wrong before. Theres a guy on youtube that runs a ball valve restrictor with a local gauge. I didn't know if other people were taking this requirement into consideration or not though..

 

Hopefully next time i'll have my brake issue fixed and switch to some decent tires. My car doesn't enjoy being force fed cones.
(no brakes for 1 second after wot in boost. (check valve in break booster vac line?))

 

I could see that being trouble some..... no brakes n all