When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
- Energy diff bushings
- Deleted A/C, cruise, radio, power antenna, stock hood latch
- Deleted coolant flow to TB
- Brake ducts - pic below shows the bumper inlets I made.
- Aerocatch hood latches
- made a kinda ghetto, but nicer than 5lbs of foil tape radiator panel.
- Replaced the coil pack (this might be the source of my issue getting MS to play nicely. Haven't tried setting it up since, we'll see after the last time attack race of the season.
- SuperMiata motor mounts - the mazdacomps I had were still way too floppy, and I was getting a dickton of shifter movement on launch even after installing Energy diff bushings.
- replaced clutch master and slave cylinders - I was at High Plains Raceway the other day and pretty much lost my clutch pedal in my last session. Found the clutch rod adjustment nut was loose, so I fixed that and still had a super shitty clutch pedal that would barely disengage the clutch. Thought it was the master cylinder, so I limped the car home and got a replacement. Then I got the car in the air this weekend, and found that one of the slave cylinder bolts had come off and the damn thing was sitting at a 30* angle.
- MSM brake booster with a Centric 15/16" master cylinder
- Wilwood prop valve (any tips for setting this up? My plan is to go find an empty parking lot, pull the fuse for ABS, and add rear brake until they lock up first, then back it off until the fronts lock up juuust before)
Two Fridays ago was my first time back at HPR since last year, and a lot of the car has changed since then - and I've been driving a lot more. Got my time down from a 2:21 to a 2:16, video below. Constructive criticism is always appreciated, although I'm definitely aware of several areas where I could pick up some more time.
Went to Miatas at MRLS this year. Met a couple of you guys, and had an all around great time running around MRLS. Quite a treat when you live 1200 miles away but have done thousands of laps on that track virtually since you were a kid. It's becoming a bit of a tradition for me, maybe next year you all will see me actually hanging with the MT crowd. Several Colorado friends were there as well and I spent most of the time with them.
Finally past the break-in period on my truck. Pretty content with this thing being able to cruise at 85mph pulling a couple cars halfway across the country.
Getting hunted down by an Exocet. My fastest lap time of the weekend came after letting him pass and giving chase.
And here's my fastest lap from the weekend:
Now on to mechanical stuff.
First off, I finally got the car on Megasquirt. It's running one of the MSLabs units that Trackspeed engineering sells. Installed the ID1000s, a Walbro 255hp fuel pump, and some TSE plug and play Toyota COPS. Have a lot of fine tuning to do, primarily with idle and other basic driveability settings, but it got fuel and spark for it's naturally aspirated configuration tuned on a dyno. Made a glorious 116whp on a Superflow.
Then it got a Continental flex fuel sensor, Skunk 2 manifold and throttle body, and a few other bits that I'm surely forgetting. Installing the Skunk 2 manifold is annoying, I pulled the alternator to get it in. Made life a lot easier. Installed it with an OEM gasket, tossed the included one. The FPR pictured isn't in the car yet... going to get the car running on boost before I deal with that.
On a more aesthetic note, I got some LRB door panels in a trade with a friend. Found some marine vinyl that matched my interior pretty well, and set about pretending like I drive a GT3.
I also bought a house. Erm, well I'm buying a house. Close in two weeks. But this is my new, 1800 sq ft, heated, dream garage.
And now for the most exciting bit.
I ordered, and received, a TSE turbo kit with the 6258. Also got a MAC 4 port solenoid, Turbosmart dual port wastegate actuator, and speed sensor. Elected to wrap the upper portion of the downpipe to help limit heat near the brake MC (I'm in a dry climate and the Miata isn't a daily either). Oil, coolant, and exhaust are all routed, just working on the intercooler now. I have some FM intercooler hoses, but I need to rework the power steering a little to get around it all. Might remove the "cooler" pipe and swap it for an actual cooler on soft lines so I can position it out of the way of the hot side intercooler hose. I'd really like to flip the orientation of the low pressure line off the pump, as it points directly at the turbo.. Might try to just bend it out of the way. Maybe an odd question, but are there any other power steering pumps that plug and play on our cars? I'd like to look through some possible alternatives to see if there's anything that has it's lines oriented better. Also need to figure out routing the coolant reroute hose, the Skunk 2 manifold prevents me from running it like I had before. I had stuck a few 90* bends in there to route it under the intake manifold, but didn't like that it created a high spot by the firewall so I pulled that. Might try to just go over top of the manifold, but I don't love that idea either.
With a little luck, the car should start in the very near future.
Remaining on the to do list is:
-finish intercooler, power steering, coolant hose routing and start the damn car
-Trim hood brace to clear Turbosmart actuator
-ATI damper
-Supertech Heavy Double valve springs
-Fuelab FPR (going for an identical setup that Savington has on Acamas)
But, needless to say, I'm excited that the EFR is finally under the hood of my car.
Sort of. Got the 6258 running in March of 2018. The car made an uncorrected 220whp at ~190kpa, but the turbo developed some shaft play and a smoky idle and was sent back to Borg Warner. They denied my warranty claim, still waiting on the report explaining why. I made the following post in the "Trackable Miatas" facebook group if you want to look through the comments there:
"What could cause shaft play and seal leakage from the turbine in a relatively new EFR? Trying to understand what happened with my 6258.
Healthy motor (per blackstone test before turbo installation), standard recipe build - 1.9L 8.6:1 motor, BE oil pump. 5w40 rotella t6 changed far more frequently than I really need. Big Setrab oil cooler. Water and oil plumbing as prescribed by TSE. Run up to ~210kpa in Colorado on CO91 gas.
I ran the turbo for around 3,000 miles, and for the last 1,000 or so, the car developed a smokey idle. Never noticed any smoke until the car was up to temperature and idling for a while, then it would start puffing it out.
Pulled the turbo to diagnose, and found .0065" axial shaft play, noticeable radial play, and visible oil residue on the turbine wheel.
In that time, the car saw 8 5-10 run autox events, a couple 5/10ths 15 minute track sessions, some highway pulls, and canyon driving.
The turbo was sent back to Borg Warner, and they denied my warranty claim. I don't yet have a reason for why, currently trying to get a response.
The turbo was first installed and started on my car 3/31/18 and removed January of this year to diagnose.
I'm not looking to point fingers or anything, just trying to understand what could have been the cause of failure - it's not a cheap turbo to take a bath on, and I'm honestly surprised that I've had an issue when so many of them are running perfectly fine"
I'll post a more complete update soon, as besides this hiccup it was a really fun summer finally driving the car with positive manifold pressure. Here are a few pics to make this update more fun as I wait for more information on the turbo situation.
I'd really like to help figure this out with you. Mainly because I feel fairly certain our nearly identical builds means I'm just about 6 months behind you...
PCV: Are you venting to air from the hot side? Are you using the cold side PCV valve or did you plug that off?
He mentions that the "turbo components smell of gas". Indicative of gas in your oil. It is plausible that you could have tons of blow-by at high boost on racetrack. If your PCV isn't truly flowing well enough, you could start to get LOTS of gas/water into your oil while your are at WOT. I have a theory that you could have loads of gas/water in the oil at the track, but then over the next period of time it evaporates out and you'd not see it in a Blackstone analysis.
What boost level are/were you running?
What ring gaps and piston clearances did you run? I'm running .0035-.004" piston clearance and wiseco rings (super techs are too thin) with .019 first ring, .023 second ring and .017" oil ring gaps. These are all on the loose end of the scale due to my plans for 400hp glory plans. 9:1 compression, supertech pistons.
PCV: both sides vented through -10AN to atmosphere, no vacuum pulled on ventilation. Separate catch cans.
"Turbo components smell of gas": How much blowby could I realistically have that it's loading oil with that much gas and/or water? Compression numbers are pretty even across the board on my car, it seems to me that if I were getting THAT much I would see other symptoms and compression test poorly. The car was run up to around 210kpa, averaging probably closer to 190kpa.
I don't remember my P2W clearance, I'd have to call the machine shop and see if they have records. Ring gap set according to Wiseco's instructions, I went with the "turbo/track" spec, whatever that was. Definitely a little more on the open end.
A friend suggested I might need to just pull vacuum on my PCV and see what happens, but it still seems to me like excessive blowby shouldn't be my issue here - I'm not running insane amounts of boost, two -10AN lines in the valve cover seems to be more ventilation than most - and circling back to where my smoking occurs, it happens when I'm idling and not when I'm in boost. If it was a blowby issue, wouldn't I find smoking while in boost and creating more crankcase pressure?
I'm not suggesting the blowby has anything to do with the smoking. No blowby (in a vent-to-air) should ever make it to the exhaust.
I think the smoking at idle could be oil leaking from your loose turbo shaft caused by compromised oil from blow-by during WOT runs. But that would have probably caused your bottom end bearing to **** the bed if it was that bad..
Obviously putting another 6258 back into the engine can only have one result.... unless you don't track it anymore.
Did you get your NA setup back together so you could run the car without the turbo? The smoke could simply be leaky valve seals.
I do have a header I'm probably gonna throw on the car to see how it's operating without the additional stresses of boost. Regarding valve seals, I replaced them when I first started chasing down this smoking issue and they had absolutely no effect. Old seals looked fine, new ones did nothing to quell the smoke.
That's really curious. Was your shaft play evident when cold or after operaton? I used to get puffs after idling for a while, and could never pinpoint where it came from. My oil smells like e85 regularly, and I thought I had a ton of blow by issues but I just checked leakdown past the rings and they are all <3% across the board. I also have two -10AN ports on the valve cover to VTA catch can. I haven't been able to find a way to successfully apply vacuum to the crank case. I copped my blue puffs up to being the head or valve stem seals.
Maybe southeast power systems in florida can rebuild the efr? IIRC, they are the only turbo rebuilder to handle borg warners.
I never tried to look for shaft play while the engine was hot, it was only after removing the turbo and getting a hand on each side of the shaft that I realized it was there. My frustration right now is that I still don't have a solid guess as to what went wrong in this turbo's operation - and I NEED to figure that out before I plunk down the cash on another supercore... I cant afford to stick a new turbo on this car every 3,000 miles. Last night, I reached out to a local shop Central Motive Power/Diesel Forward after a friend recommended I speak with a guy named Mac Flynn there. The more I think about the issue, the more detail I come up with that might be relevant, here's the email I sent to him:
"Thanks for replying to my post on DAE. Here is some information on the car, I'm afraid it has gotten longer than I intended, but I wanted to include any facts that might be relevant or helpful to diagnosing the issue. Some back story:Purchased an EFR 6258, manifold, downpipe, water and oil lines from Trackspeed Engineering (TSE) in California right around Jan 1st, 2018, installed and first started March 1st of that year. It was removed late in January this year to diagnose a fairly substantial idle oil smoke issue I had been seeing for the last ~1000 miles, and .0065" axial shaft play was measured with noticeable radial shaft play. Smoke occurred only when at operating temperature and after idling for a couple minutes. Revving the motor and driving both clear it up almost immediately. The shop I bought the turbo setup from said they are getting .004" axial play from their heavily used race car's turbo, and advised that if I measured .005" or more they would involve Borg Warner. The turbo was on the car for approximately 3000 miles, and I estimate that 2000 miles into that time is when I noticed the smoking issue.
In the first drive with the turbo, my passenger who was helping with tuning noticed some oil smoke behind the car. Immediately pulled over and found the exhaust side breather filter (no catch can at this point) wet with oil, this was assumed to be the source of the smoke. 2 Weeks after installing the turbo, I found some oil residue at the compressor inlet. I was advised by (TSE) to wipe it out and look for it returning. I have not seen it since.
This is in a '99 Miata.
-1.9L built motor using Supertech 8.6:1 pistons and Wiseco rings, gapped per the turbo/race spec on the data sheet that came with them. (I don't recall the exact figures at this time). The motor has around 10,000 miles on it at this point.
-Boundary Engineering oil pump, Rotella T6 5w40. The car maintains ~20psi oil pressure at a hot idle, and gopro footage of an autox run shows between 45 and 60psi during "spirited" operation, measured using an aftermarket sensor mounted on a tee with the factory oil pressure sensor. Oil was changed every 500-1000 miles in the time the turbo was on my car. I have been using a large Setrab oil cooler this entire time.
-Turbo setup: -4AN 40" long feed line, feeding off an oil filter relocation block. -10AN 18" drain line, straight down from the turbo into the oil pan. 3/8" stainless coolant lines. Turbo run up to ~210kpa, averaging closer to 180kpa.
-Crankcase ventilation initially handled using both stock valve cover ventilation ports, catch cans added soon after. When I started to notice the smoking issue, I replaced valve seals with OEM and had -10AN bungs welded in place of the stock ventilation points. Both to catch can, VTA. Exhaust side valve cover baffle hole drilled out to allow for flow with the increased vent size. When I reassembled everything, exhaust cam timing was off less than a tooth and the car spent ~150 miles before I realized the issue. EGT was higher in this time, after finding some things in my engine bay getting a little hotter than usual. I suspect the discoloration described in the analysis report is from this time, after the smoke issue was found. Compression and leakdown tests done at this time, consistent compression found across all 4 cylinders and leakdown showed some valve leakage, but no noticeable air from the valve cover oil fill or dip stick. In this time, I did not notice any improvements to the oil smoke issue, if anything, it got slightly worse.
-Initially, cooling presented an issue with this setup, and I saw coolant temps approaching 230* F. Oil temps did not exceed reasonable bounds in these instances. A much larger radiator and large hood louvers seem to have addressed this issue, and I do not think that those temperatures would have impacted the turbo.
In the ~3000 miles the car was running with the turbo, it saw 8 x 5-8 run autox events, 3 15 minute track sessions at 5/10ths, some highway pulls, around town driving, and some canyon carving. I wanted to make sure cooling system and all other systems were fully up to the task before any higher intensity track sessions. The oil smoke issue arose and I focused my attention to finding the issue more than actually driving the car.
To specifically address the suggested causes of oil leakage per Borg Warner's report,
Dirty air filter: I used a brand new Injen filter when I first set up the turbo, and it remained in place the entire time.
Dirty compressor: Entire turbo was purchased brand new.
Clogged intercooler: I did purchase a used Precision 350 intercooler, did my best to clean it before install and didn't find anything to suggest that it was especially dirty. At the power levels I ran in this time (a 180-190kpa dyno run showed 220whp uncorrected), I would be surprised if this intercooler presented significant restriction to cause oil leaking.
Oil Drain not oriented down: I clocked the turbo so that oil feed was directly on top, and return pointed straight down.
High Crankcase pressure/inadequate ventilation: Improving crankcase ventilation with -10AN bungs and baffle modifications did not improve smoke issue. Compression test showed consistent figures, and leakdown test showed little to no pressure escaping from rings. Additionally, the smoke only occurs after idling at temperature, and I would suspect that a blowby issue would also be apparent at high boost and RPM, where crankcase pressures are highest.
As mentioned above, I believe any heat related discoloration is from an instance after the smoke was noticed where exhaust cam timing was set incorrectly. Fuel contamination in oil may be related to brief rich conditions before fuel cut on overrun, or perhaps from launch control? I'm not sure. Injectors were changed for ID1000 shortly before turbo install, using a Walbro 255lph pump. The car has only been run on 91 pump gas in this time.
My suspicions: I am skeptical of the 40" -4AN feed line mounted off the oil filter relocation. I have seen suggestions that advise stepping up to -6AN with feed lines longer than 18", and I am also skeptical of using the filter relocation as an oil feed. It is a Flyin' Miata part, and they do say that it is fine for turbo oil feed, but I'm skeptical of everything at this point. TSE runs the same 40" -4AN feed line in all their kits, so that *shouldn't* be an issue, but again - I'm skeptical of everything. I am attaching Borg Warner's report, which I received this morning.
Please let me know if you have any questions - as you might understand, I'm eager to learn the actual cause of this issue so I can take corrective measures and actually drive my car without worry. Thanks for your help."
The oil line is an easy fix, but I'm still curious how that would cause these symptoms. As a thought experiment, having more resistance in the oil feed shouldn't exacerbate oil pushing past the seal at the turbine.
All other coolant lines are in pretty good order? Mystery oil leak reminds me of RyanG (?) dilemma when the housing was clocked just off concentric enough to cause shaft wobble problems, but not destroy or greatly erode the turbine/compressor wheels so it went undetected for a while. I'm probably not remembering that correctly. I'll do some more research
I know Chooofoojoo and will need to pick his brain on this. For whatever reason it slipped my mind to reach out to him. Cold flow issues really shouldn't be much of an issue for me, even on cold mornings as my car spends almost every night in a 50* garage.
I'm curious about this housing clocking issue - definitely share if you find it.
Long story short he was having tons of oil in his compressor housing and it wasn't spooling right. Everything seemed normal otherwise. It just seems like the reverse end of the turbo in your case, but it was a very slight clocking issue.
That's interesting. I would have suspected Borg Warner would have picked up on that, as they received my turbo in assembled condition. I'll be getting it back as a box of parts
The 40" -4an line - could be that in cold environs it is acting as an overly aggressive cooler. The oil into the turbo needs to be well up to temp to do the job. I guess it is possible that the long 40" line cools the oil to below ideal operating temp. Are you taking the oil for your turbo post the oil cooler? Can you describe your oil pathing setup?
I didn't like the really long oil line from TSE. I have an MSM motor so I just used the port down low on the exhaust side (unique to MSMs). Short run, and it is getting heated by the fact that it runs right by the downpipe and area around the turbo and exhaust manifold.
The oil goes through two sandwich plates - the first (closest to the block) is the Mocal sandwich plate that comes with TSE's oil cooler kit, and feeds the oil cooler. The second is a capping sort of plate that goes to and from the FM oil filter relocation, where I am feeding the turbo from.
Nice update 
10-02-2017, 01:09 PM
0
