brooke5

Crikey this is quite an epic build 'saga' here, just read it end to end.

Your a trooper for sticking with it, after all the dramas.

Good luck with the future of it, surely it'll all be better

pdexta

iTrader: (17)

Thanks man, I keep thinking that at some point it HAS to turn around.

I added some timing and it helped the powercurve a good bit, still not right though. Then I started to smell coolant. I hate this car.

triple88a

iTrader: (2)

Hmm you seem to have a coolant leak.

pdexta

iTrader: (17)

Yeah, at least this issue wasn't difficult to diagnose. Got a new line and just swapped it on.

Fireindc

iTrader: (13)

Any updates on this beast? I want to see this ting running like the blue one did.

pdexta

iTrader: (17)

I've been avoiding an update for a while as it got somewhat embarassing after all the problems. Cars always seem to push my sanity to the absolute limit before things finally come together, but this one has been especially painful.

The car was running very ok, but clearly wasn't making the power it should have. It never really smoked, but occasionally you'd smell burnt oil. When I pulled the plugs cylinder 1 had some oil on it. I pulled the head again and found:




When I pulled the piston out of the block a chunk of oil ring felt out. Apparently it broke and spent the next 100 miles or so riding up and down while chewing a chunk out of the block.

At that point I seriously considered a several options; fire, parting out the car, putting it back to stock, stock motor and low boost, trying to build another motor myself, or just having a shop do it. I talked to several super shitty shops and got jerked around. I eventually found a shop close by that I felt really good about. I took them 2 bottom ends and a pile of parts and told them, "put one together".

A couple weeks later I picked up my new motor. They used my spare block/crank, which was the original motor in the car, they were able to reuse my pistons/rods, and added new rings and bearings.

Right now I'm just trying to take my time assembling everything else and hoping not to screw anything up. The oil pump, water pump, and oil pan are on. I should be able to get the head on tonight. Weekends are where I'll be able to make my best progress, but the next 3 are really busy. I definitely want to get the car back on the road by Thanksgiving, hopefully it'll be a lot earlier, but that's my official goal.

As she sits:

Fireindc

iTrader: (13)

Damn dude, no bueno. What the hell caused the oil control ring to snap and do that?

pdexta

iTrader: (17)

I assumed the ring jumped out of place and got pinched when I was installing the piston but I've really got no idea. I would think it's pretty much gauranteed to be an install issue though.

pdexta

iTrader: (17)

Baby steps, but I got the head on last night



Also got tracking info on my Fuelab FPR and Supermiata timing wheel coming from Trackspeed.

I've still got no idea how to set up the crank wheel with megasquirt but I figured I'd go ahead and get it installed while the car was apart and try to figure it out later.

Fireindc

iTrader: (13)

This is how I've done at least 50% of the modifications on my car, lol.

Props man, keep on keeping on. I'm sure setting up that crank/trigger wheel isn't too hard at all.

leatherface24

iTrader: (10)

I would've parted it out already lol. Glad to see you're still giving it another shot though. Lookin good

pdexta

iTrader: (17)

Got the motor all buttoned up and moved it out of the extra bedroom and into the garage, which made my wife happy. I've had a horrible "I'm forgetting something" feeling as I'm putting it together, but haven't come across anything yet.

Last night I managed to get the flywheel, clutch, and transmission bolted up to the motor. I'm hoping to get the motor/transmission in the car one day this week after work.

sixshooter

iTrader: (12)

I always get that feeling when there is too much time between disassembly and reassembly. I don't like it.

pdexta

iTrader: (17)

The long turn around definitely sucks, and it certainly doesn't help that I usually do forget something relatively significant like the pilot bearing or oil pickup tube

I got the motor in tonight. Still a ton of work to do but that always feels like the biggest step, at least until you realize how much more there is to do.

Fireindc

iTrader: (13)

SICK man, subbed for updates.

miata2fast

iTrader: (2)

That is motivation.

pdexta

iTrader: (17)

All day yesterday one of my friends was giving me the, "Lets do it tonight man, I'll help you, come on, lets do it man, we got this, tonight man..." He got me all pumped up, then bailed on me at the last minute, by that point I was in the zone and just did it myself.

Fireindc

iTrader: (13)

good guy friend, or scubmag friend?

He motivated you at least, lol.

pdexta

iTrader: (17)

He's a good guy, just ended up having to work.

I finished getting everything together tonight. Turned the motor over and it wasn't building oil pressure. I got annoyed with turning it over, put the fuel relay back in and fired the motor for a few seconds but still didn't build any pressure so I turned it off. I was hoping it was just a sensor issue, but when I pulled the oil line the turbo it was dry.

I'm going to pull the plug to prime the oil pump tomorrow and hope that works, but I'm not very optimistic. I've never had a problem building pressure on motors before. It's the stock pump that was working a few months ago so I'm not sure what else the problem could be. I really don't want to pull everything apart again.

Fireindc

iTrader: (13)

Shitty dicks, man. Did you seal the oil pickup tube well? Keep us posted.