so i decided to supercharge my Miata and in the midst of doing this, my crank key shredded and i had to pull the motor.
then i was reminded about how skinny the rods are but not wanting to spend a lot of money, i threw some towards MAXPEEDINGRODS Miata rods.
while removing the gear i happen to fudge the nose where the seal sits and got me a sleeve kit for it.
got ARP head and crank bolts.

sandblasted clean the OEM pistons, new DJI rings and bearings.
was planning on CERAKOTE painting the skirts and piston tops but the cerakote i had went bad :/ may still try it though

boundary pump i had laying around and a oil baffle from circuit sport

looking to push about 10-11 psi on the ROTREX supercharger.

this should be fun and we'll see how it goes. car will be autox and abused to hell.
feel free to bash or encourage, don't see many people using their rods and i think its because they are a bit scared of the blowback.

 

Cool thread. Jesus man you mangled that crank surface, but that sleeve should do the trick. I've been on chinabay rods for 6ish years at 300+whp with no issues. Its stock piston, ARP everything, king bearings, npr rings, new oem oil pump with a fluidampr to hopefully keep the oem oil pump gears alive. It has held up to some serious track abuse and 25k+ miles and going strong. It was assembled to the loose side of OEM tolerances ring wise.

The main thing is to make sure you hone/fit the wrist pins properly, the brass bushing on the small end is too tight (on purpose) and needs to be fit. Ideally by a machine shop, which is what I did, but I've heard of people using a small hone and diying it.

 

That's a big hell yeah from me. Having seen some of your other work (mostly speeduino stuff) I'm interested to see what you come up with here.

A lot of people seemed to use no name eBay rods back in the day and I would assume Maxpeedingrods is around that quality if not a bit higher. At least there's a name associated with them. I'm always interested in seeing how the budget options fare.

How much power do you expect to be pushing with that supercharger? Do you think you'll be out of the range where OEM rods would hold up?

 

Mine are the "no-name" ones. Those appear identical, and I'd for sure use them in a heartbeat if the small end is able to measure out and fit with the OEM wristpins (and they should once you hone them).

I'd also probably skip the DIY ceracoat. I've heard stories of it just flaking off and causing more issues than good. Consider E85 with those OEM pistons as well for insurance if you have it available. All of my 300+whp tunes have utilized that for safety. OEM pistons are quite strong, people use 'em up to 400whp with longevity, but one good instance of DET at high HP and they could go bye-bye.

 

I love a good rotrex build! What kit are you going to use? Or are you going custom?

 

bought a used unit for 3K with very low miles. so using that.

 

Ok, but what about the bracket to attach it to the engine?

 

its a kit made for the miata....is that what you mean?

 

I only know of two companies that made Rotrex kits and the requisite brackets to accomplish that. Jackson Racing/Kraftwerks and then Track Dog Racing. Do you have one of those brackets or some other one?

 

this one
https://trackdogracing.com/Rotrex-18NB.aspx