Is that your wife's purse strap hanging off the chair? Just seeking proof of your claims; there's a lot of misinformation spreading around on the internet these days. It'd be a shame to find out you where lying all this time.

Do anything special with the head, or just a good ol' stock refresher? Did you have to get new valve guides? Reuse valve train? Did you forget to pick up orange juice from the market?

Cute cat.

What would be the point of lying about rebuilding my shitty car?

It's just a stock refresh. Basically new guides, seals, springs, retainers with valves and seats reground. I would have used new valves but the old ones looked practically new so I didn't see the point.

Lies...about you being married ;)

I keed.


But you did end up with the double valve springs as in your first post right?

Yep, double heavies. I described my setup to emilio and he told me double heavies so that's what I got. I still have the old ones. I'm kind of curious what the actual spring rate is after all these years.

Finally.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1450975060

Got a call from the machinist, gonna pick it up Monday.

Wiseco lists several categories for ring gaps and none of them really seem to match my application. I'm guessing I'm either street-moderate turbo/nitrous or high performance street/strip.

If I go with "high performance street/strip" (.0045/.0055) I end up with
.0150" top ring
.0183" 2nd ring

If I go with "street- moderate turbo/nitrous" (.0050/.0055) I end up with
.0166 top
.0183 2nd

I'm leaning towards the first one. I found another thread on here which had the same question but no answers.
edit- machinist says I am street moderate turbo, I want the extra top gap

Also, is it normal for both the compression rings to seem identical with no discernable tops and bottoms?

Also, I thought ACL race bearings were out of stock everywhere. I just picked up a full set for 126.

edit, finally got home, have pics from this morning

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1451967277

Since the end gaps are minimum, I assume that you go up to the nearest measurable feeler gauge size, right?

IE, run .017 for the top ring, .019 for the 2nd. That gives me .00511 per bore-inch 1st ring and .005711 per bore-inch for the 2nd ring. That's a hair above the moderate turbo, but still a bunch below the oval track ratings.

Going to take all weekend to do the ring gaps, don't want to fuck this up.

Hmm according to the guy at wiseco I spoke with, you don't mess with the oil ring spacer at all. The rails get gapped to .010.

edit: update for tonight:

Doing the rings this weekend. I learned you have to be really careful squaring the rings or it throws your measurements off by a bunch. I got an initial gap reading of .024 and then more carefully redid the squaring and got .020. Still wider than I would like, but I'm going to see how the rest of the rings measure out before I call up wiseco to whine on monday.

When the wife is away, the dining room table is a workbench.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1452999526

Not that anyone is following this thread but here is another update:

Used the 5 dollar ring compressor instead of the 70 dollar fancy one... and it was fine. Incidentally, all four rods + pistons + rings + bearings together were within a gram of each other. Feels good man.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1453089048

Time to install the caps and plastigage everything.
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1453089048


And to celebrate, beer time. This is a 9% ABV hefeweisen I brewed last year. Found 4 bottles sitting around in the brew room. It tastes like weihenstephaner, but it will get you wrecked a lot quicker.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1453089048

Weihenstephaner is my favorite beer. This would be holy grail.

Beer news:
The belgian trappist style strong dark ale I was brewing turned out awesome. 11.01% ABV, tastes great. Dry, malty and super complex. Very dangerous to drink as it doesn't feel boozy at all but about a half hour after you drink a glass, you really feel it. If you pound away 2-3 glasses in a hurry, watch the fuck out.

I am reusing the yeast cake to make a pineapple cider- 4 gal apple juice, 1 gallon pineapple juice, 2 oz citra dry hop for a couple of weeks. Basically my dry hopped cider recipe with pineapple added. Gonna be super dry and fruity.

Car news:
Oh and I got a beam torque wrench (infinitely superior to that clicky bullshit) and finished plastigaging my bottom end. Engine is loose by factory specs but a bit tight by race specs.

Mains are all .0015 on the nose.
Rods are all .0012ish.

I am happy with this. I am now going to lube everything and reassemble again for the last time (hopefully).

What did you end up going with on the rings?

I told my machinist to set the rings for 30 PSI boost, so mine are loose. But if I had to choose between two of Weisco's recomendations, I'd pick the looser one. Too loose they won't touch and trash a hole.

Build is looking great! :)

Oh shit sorry I keep making question threads in the performance section and then don't update back here. The machinist seemed to think my application was firmly in the "street moderate turbo" category, so I decided to go for the first feeler gauge increment above that, which was .017 top and .019 second ring. So that puts me somewhere between street moderate turbo and oval track. I agree it's better to be a hair loose than a hair tight.

I aligned everything the way the wiseco sheet said and then I used my 5 dollar ring compressor to put them in the block. It was much easier than I expected. Just tighten and then *pop* they go in. I think the shittiness of old fashioned ring compressors has been exaggerated. Glad I didn't spend like 100 bucks getting one of the fancy tapered ones.

I've used plumbers tape and pliers before... And it worked surprisingly well.

I'm wondering whether I should go through with my plan to delete the oil squirters and replace with block off bolts or just replace the broken one?

All the posts on here except for the guy with the stroker kit (which has a joined oil control groove and wrist pin) seem to indicate that removing them is a super bad idea for a turbo motor. Some people seem to think that they are pointless with forged pistons, but I'm not sure exactly how high piston tops get when being driven hard.

I never had oil problems (consumption, heat, etc) with the squirters before, pondering what I should do.

I typed this out in your other thread, but it depends on the alloy of the metal used in the forged piston. Wiseco's don't need squirters because the alloy is strong at temp, where others turn to play-dough without squirters to keep the alive. If you want data/numbers, look up temp/strength curves for the alloys in question.

Well the basic problem is that I don't actually know how hot temps get at the top of the piston while the engine is running full blast. I know the EGTs measured at the turbine inlet temp peak around 1600-1700 and I know that the temps inside the cylinder are much lower than that... but how much lower?

Keep in mind the following happened while I was totally sober.

Take out crank, lube all bearings, put crank back in.
Oh fuck, thrust washers.
Take out crank, put in thrust washers, put crank back in.
Torque everything down, begin installing head studs.
Reach over for my allen wrench, notice a main bearing covered in assembly lube. It stuck to the bottom of the crank when I pulled it out.
Take everything back apart, install missing bearing, double check FUCKING EVERYTHING and then retorque.

If I had finished the build without noticing that, wow that would have sucked. I think I know how the space shuttle guys must feel when they forget an o-ring in the middle of the build and it explodes in mid air.

I'm going to stay with oil squirters for this build. My current setup keeps the oil very cool, which I think helps with detonation. I also don't have the oiling issues of the stroker guys.

I dunno where the rumor started but neither these pistons nor the pistons from my first build have any issues hitting the squirters. There's several mm of clearance at BDC.