ryansmig

Hey man, thanks! Yep, that was me. I'll be out there at Main this weekend too.

Its been a bit since I updated the thread and a decent amount has changed/updated

Regarding the oil. After that last post I think max temps are somewhere around 235 on track, which isn't worrying at all. Water temps did tend to get up to 230+ last year, but I've since pulled out the front crossmember/black plastic and put in one of the Doryoku bars. I don't think I've seen it go over 205 this year on track.

I just read through your thread, I remember when you got us all black flagged happy you got all of that ironed out

ryansmig

Thanks to SlowTeg for reviving the build thread, so thanks for the inspiration. A decent amount has changed and of course new/old issues have popped up. Original built motor came out so that I could rebuild with fresh rings and try to solve my oil smoking issues. Was able to get out for the first Summit Point Shenandoah event in late March (same as SlowTegs). Had normal first drive issues, but honestly was very happy with the car

Old bottom end was my first build ever and I just had the shop do their thing. When pulled rings seemed TIGHT for a tracked high HP miata (0.012" Top / 0.021" 2nd). I took the motor to a local Japanese 4 banger machine builder and he did his magic. I wanted to save some money and reuse my 83.5mm pistons, so the bore is "mostly" cleaned up. I gapped the new rings at 0.018" and 0.019".

Got about 80-100 miles on the rebuild before heading out to the Shenandoah event for the weekend. Had some issues with catch can filling up QUICK. This was found to be more of an issue 2 weeks later at the first Dominion event

SlowTeg

Haha cool.. I was like hmm.. this dude's car looks familiar. I think that's the same guy I saw out at Shenadoah.

Ya looks like you've been slacking on updating things as your car def looked different. Good to hear on the temps I bought a doryoku bar as well that's sitting in my garage. Gonna get kraken (pun intended lol) on this turbo install soon. Ya brakes have been awesome since that incident and now I know you gotta leave some play at the top of the MC so as it heats up it has space to expand into. You mind me asking what kinda times you were running at Shenandoah?

If you're out at Main a friend will be out there with his new blue CTR. Stop by and say hello his name is Dave. Tell him Mike's gonna catch you one day with his turbo Miata. lol He's a fast driver and good dude (used to race SSM).

ryansmig

I've got a small 750 mL catch can. Probably undersized for the power of the motor now, but last season I had no real issues. Would empty/check it every 3 months (8 or so track days) and it was mostly empty. Well...... at Dominion it was blowing out the VTA filter after a single 20 minute session. This was on 16 psi too (so somewhere around 300whp?). I think I've got some documentation earlier in this build thread, but to fill you in, I have opened up the valve cover ports on the inside and plumbed both sides to a VTA catch can. No scrubbies or anything added. Like I said, it was never an issue before, so I didn't overthink it.

I did some science and tried comparing wastegate (7psi) to ~16 psi for the last 2 sessions of the day. Below was how much it was filling up. I was pretty concerned as I thought I had gapped the rings too much or I was just doing something terribly wrong. The full coffee cup was from driving to the track, a warmup TT session and 2 TT timed sessions. Not great.





After the event I did a last ditch effort to guesstimate that the rings somehow didn't seat properly. I switched back to a conventional "break in" oil to street drive and am planning to leave this oil in for this weekends Summit Point Main event. After some street driving/hard pulls I pulled the catch can to check. It's basically water and a small amount at that. Gonna send it for now

SlowTeg

Hmm man ya that's a fair bit of oil. Did anything change from last year significantly besides the motor like more boost/etc that could increase crankcase pressure? I know on some cars the OEM baffling in the valve cover can be a problem and lead to excessive oil flowing out the crankcase vent ports but if it was fine last year then maybe that's not the issue. Good luck this weekend!

ryansmig

Haha yeah man, you had a lot to get done before the event too so happy to see you made it out

Yeah the car has full aero now and looks quite a bit different lol. The Kraken kits are top notch and you'll be super happy with that added power. I was running consistent 1:40-1:41s on Sunday when the weather cleared up. Was able to squeak a 1:39.2 in there which is a new PB. I use my phone with TrackAddict for timing. I saw in your thread that you use an external GPS, so your times are probably a bit more accurate. I've had mine be within 0.1s of the TT transponder which is good enough for me.

Haha yeah if I see him out there I'll let him know. Those turbo miata's will sneak up on ya

SlowTeg

In the 1:30's is quick. If I can run low 140's consistently (I'll probably make less power) I'll be happy and it should be fun. On my s2k my best time I think was 1:41.xx no aero on rs4's when it was NA (I'm not a great driver).

ryansmig

I've actually been running it at lower boost. Last year I was able to run 22 up to like 25-26psi with no blowby (and only broken transmissions). Haven't gone over 16psi yet. I'm hoping I didn't glaze the walls and that the rings were actually able to seat some more. I took an old map sensor and plumbed it to the dipstick to measure what the case pressure is and .... it's really low (1psi max and that's after lifting). I didn't have this sensor before, but maybe it will show its head again this weekend at the track.

Boost duty needs some work. You can see the pressure start to climb slightly when things get a little bit more steady state

ryansmig

Thanks man! Still so many places to improve on. Mostly braking zones. Aero makes such a difference so those times in the s2k seem really good to me

Z_WAAAAAZ

In for results on the catch can setup. Obviously, this didn't change since the previous engine build but are you running scrubbers in your VC? I hogged out my breather ports quite a bit on both sides but didn't put any sort of scrubbers in. Both of my VC ports go to their own VTA catch cans and my driver side catch can will usually fill up after three 20 minute sessions at ~270whp. The passenger side hardly gets anything in it aside from a little moisture. Ring gap .020" top, .022" bottom.

shirtz

sorry if ive missed it early in the thread but are you running 15x8s with 400hp?????

ryansmig

No scrubbers in the valve cover. I opened the inside ports of both and then tapped the passenger side with some larger NPT barb. Driver side is the OEM barb still. Interested that the driver side is worse on yours. I've read the passenger side is usually worse and some will just cap it off. Are you VVT?

ryansmig

Haha I do need to go back and update that first page. I did run 15x8s for a bit at 320. Then moved to 15x9s and recently 15x10s. I broke 3 6 speeds last year so I went from 400 to 350 to 320 for track use. Slowly working the power back up with this new built 5 speed

Z_WAAAAAZ

Copy that. Yeah, I’m VVT. My motor seems to have always dumped more out of the driver side. My only suspicion is that the driver side catch can is lower than the valve cover, and there’s not room to put any sort of upward bend in the catch can hose on that side. The passenger side breather goes upward right out of the valve cover and I think this let’s a lot of the liquid deposits drain back into the VC. All speculation, though.

I’m interested in how much more seating your rings have to do. After 100 miles and a track day, I imagine they’d be mostly broken in.

ryansmig

So when I went back to read about crankcase venting I did read that VVT is different and savington had to do some r&d to fix your problems. It involved adding an AOS to the driver side and draining back down to the sump. I'll try and find the post later today

I would have thought broken in by the first 100 or so street miles. I changed from conv to 300V and went straight to 3 track days. Wish I was measuring crankcase pressure back then

SlowTeg

Ouch man.. What broke on your 6 speeds? I'm definitely going to keep the power down, even when I eventually do build a motor. What kind of 5 speed you running now?

Z_WAAAAAZ

Ahh, understood. Looks like I got some digging to do. Don't worry about digging the post up, it's my prob not yours haha. AOS and a sump drain would just be cool on its own, TBH. I'll do some research.

Oh damn, I didn't realize you went to three track days after the initial 100 miles. I thought it was just one. I gotta imagine you're close to fully broken in, although my motor has 7 track days/5k miles on it and seems to be pushing out a little less blowby than the first couple track days. I've read multiple accounts on here of dudes saying their motor's continued picking up power until 5-10k miles. Maybe next time around, I'll get the car dyno'd before and after. Would be good info to have...

ryansmig

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I don't know exactly what went but I think all of them failed in 4th which would point at that circlip failing. I have a Walter Motorsports 5 speed. Had some bad luck with the countershaft bearing failing, but they are helping me through the process

ryansmig

Well I switched back to conventional and uh, the blowby is basically non-existent now. Full day of track and TT and catch can only had condensation in it. No oil. This was at 16psi, so still reduced on power, but the same as last event at dominion. MAP sensor read about 0.5psi max all day with average at like 0.2-0.3psi during pulls

ryansmig

Had a couple of random issues over the weekend, but made trackside repairs. All in all it went well. Still ran the car underpowered to conserve the failing countershaft bearing in the transmission. No issues with oil in the catch can, still not sure what changed there, because I didn't do anything.

Kraken lower radiator hose to mixing manifold developed a pinhole leak that squirts at pressure, need to source a replacement
Alternator tensioner bracket and lock bolt joined to track, need to replace

Might look into a new splitter mount solution. A track friend uses the professional awesome splitter mount system and it is... awesome