A compression test (wet and dry) was performed by Jeff at Maztech when he was fixing my leaking valve seal. He confirmed that the bottom end was very healthy. I'll perform a check of the catch can setup with my shop vac as that seems like an easy test that can serve to eliminate a variable.

Sixshooter and Miata2Fast came over to my place last night to enjoy some homebrew and help diagnose my car. I cleaned out all of the intake piping and intercooler before they got there. First thing Miata2Fast did was pull the breather line of my catch can and put it in his mouth.....just the tip :greddy: He confirmed that the lines were clear and that he could easily blow through them. He noted that the inside of the lines and the catch can were bone dry without a single trace of oil. We thought this was a little odd but would confirm that I'm not getting blowby from crankcase pressure. Then we started the car up and revved it quite a few times with the hoses still detached and there was no air being pushed through the tube. In fact, there was a slight vacuum. Not sure if that is normal without load to be honest. We tried to figure out if maybe an intake valve seal was leaking but the spark plugs are already fouled with oil due to ingesting it through the intake piping so we had no easy way to tell. Jeff at Maztech had also looked over my valves when he replaced the leaking valve seal causing the misfire on 4 and said it all looked fine. Earlier I also took the chance to check shaft play on the turbo while I had access and confirmed that there is absolutely no shaft play. Everything I have read tells me that in the absence of shaft play it is very very unlikely that the issue is with the turbo.

We continued looking over my setup and the ONLY thing we could even kind of see as a potential problem is the oil drain. It appears that the bung out of the pan is ever so slightly angled down by just a few degrees. Its almost unnoticeable. Miata2Fast was also not a fan of the current routing of my drain since it has to come around the steering column. He admitted there was no kinking and that it was all downhill to the pan but believed that angle of the slope wasn't as aggressive as it could be with a more direct route and the oil is not falling as quickly. I'm not sure how much I think this is an issue but it's the only idea I currently have. We are going to retap the bung on the pan to tilt it just ever so slightly up and try to get the straight fitting to feed all the way into the pan so that I can attempt to make a more direct drain line path. Let me know if anyone has suggestions or ideas from any of this.

I have to give it to Ryan, the IPA he brewed was excellent.

Regarding the drain, my drain hose is square with the pan (not angled up) with a straight fitting pointing out the side, and the hose is like 3 feet long and runs sideways for a foot or so before turning up and around a lot of stuff to get to the turbo. I go around the steering shaft as you do. Never had a problem with my drain, and I run no restrictor on my turbo. I run 3/4" hose for the turbo drain. What size hose do you have? Maybe it's too small?

You don't have an EFR. There have been reported problems specific to EFRs and their drains. He has a 10AN hose iirc

Correct, my drain line is -10AN. The other thing I considered is that I have excessive oil pressure to the turbo resulting in too much oil to drain even with the built in restrictor. I have a boundary vvt oil pump but my vvt is currently not hooked up. Not sure if that could be the issue. I need to get a real oil pressure sensor to figure out if that's the issue. Not sure what the solution for that would be though.

I have thought more on this and have come to the conclusion that this is likely the issue. I found my order with boundary engineering and my oil pump has one shim in it which allows for an additional +7psi of oil pressure if my pump can deliver it. I also found a website which sells a restrictor specifically for EFRs. It states that an EFR turbo will need an oil restrictor in the event that your engine makes more than 5 bar (72.5 psi of oil pressure) at full load.

Oil Supply Adapter Borg Warner EFR with Restrictor Universal Turbo Accessory Connection Parts oil inlet connecting parts

This would make sense and would be in accordance with both the EFR manual (maximum recommended pressure is 60psi) and psyber_0ptix's concerns in the following thread:

https://www.miataturbo.net/engine-pe...il-feed-75051/

I think I am force feeding my turbo too much oil. So I either need to reduce oil pressure or restrict the inflow of oil further. Option 2 is clearly cheaper and easier to implement or reverse. I should probably get a real sensor on their first but the fitting would be dirt cheap just to throw on their and test.

Mike Franke from Southeast Power Systems also recommends that I pull off my air filter to check and see if it is too restrictive. If the air filter is creating a restriction it can cause a pressure differential in the intake and pull oil into the compressor housing. This does seem to be a thing and it's very easy to check so I will be doing this first. Mike was pretty against using a restrictor and suggested that I use some sort of regulator to reduce oil pressure instead if that ends up being the issue. That sounds much more complicated to me but I'll cross that bridge when I get there.

Just so you know Ryan, your oil feed line is a -3 line with a 4 AN fitting connected to the Turbo. I checked lines I had laying around my shop.

I think you may have a combination of small problems creating bigger problems. From the info you have given, the first thing I would do is verify oil pressure. Then I would make sure you have the correct feed line and restrictor if needed. I suspect your turbo supplier doesn't want you to use a restrictor because of the small feed line, just a hunch. Lastly, I would tackle your drain line if the above doesn't solve your problem.

Keep in mind that your new motor is probably clearanced looser than factory which will lower oil pressure some, so don't assume the pressure is too high. Get an actual reading.

They don't want me to use a restrictor because BW specifically states that you should not use one as the turbo has a restrictor built in to the center housing. I agree that I need to get an oil pressure reading to really determine if that is the issue. I'll have to go back to my emails with Abe about my oil feed. He made the the oil feed line I think and I don't know why he would have made it as -3AN with a -4AN connector. If he didn't make it then I had it made at amazon hose and I definitely would not have had it made that way. It would have had to be a mistake on their part and it should be stepped up to -4AN.

I've been tossing around the idea of switching to a -4AN but I haven't had problems running the -6AN. Then again, according to that BW/Full-Race Tech document it's the <60psi oil pressure when fully warmed. I called full-race a while back and they said it isn't an issue for one of the civics they built running 80psi oil pressure. No clue what other input is available.

I went to racecar engineering this morning and looked at the bunch of those braided hoses that were hanging up on the wall and I think it's a 4an line and fitting and offered to buy the 3an for him.

New plan for diagnoses:

1. Check inlet pipes for oil residue from troubleshooting session on Sunday. Clean if necessary.
2. Replace spark plugs with new ones as they are currently fouled.
3. Remove air filter and drive car around while hitting boost. Check inlet pipes for oil to see if air filter is too restrictive for some reason. If wet, continue to step 4.
4. Get oil pressure gauge (will do this anyway even if it's the air filter but I wouldn't need it for trouble shooting) and check oil pressure from block. If oil pressure is excessive, consider either restrictor or regulator. If not, proceed to step 5.
5. Fuck with oil drain route. Reclean and retest. If oil is still present, cry in corner while drinking away sorrow in the form of peach ginger kolsch.

There is a 1/16th difference in size, so maybe it is a -4. The line at my shop has a 3AN fitting on one end, and a 4 AN fitting on the other. The lines I know are -4 at my shop is buried under other parts.

:shrug:

Nobody ever complained their oil drain hose was too large and causing problems. It's not something I want to screw with, but I'm willing to help you get this resolved whatever it requires.

But yes, low hanging fruit. Air filter first. I'd laugh if it was that damned air filter.

Was going to continue trouble shooting this past weekend when a new misfire developed after cleaning out the intake pipes and replacing the spark plugs with new ones. After some fiddling with the car and plugging in the laptop we figured out that the coolant temp sensor went bad and caused the MS to dump a bunch of extra fuel into the cylinders because it thought it was 0 degrees outside. I got a new sensor on Saturday but ended up not fucking with the car again because I had some other shit to do.

So it preferentially went by the coolant temp instead of the AIT? I guess that's how it does cold starts and uses ait for timing etc?

Glad you figured it out!

Yes, CLT determines WUE values.

I replaced the coolant sensor and ran the car long enough to determine that the air filter is not restrictive. There was light oil residue on the intake pipes off the turbo after about 5-10 minutes of idling and revving in the garage. I received my oil pressure sensor in the mail on Friday. I am currently trying to figure out how to hook it into my MS. I have an MS2e built by reverant which includes 2 extra programmable outputs. Am I correct in assuming that I cannot use the output wires to feed a signal from my pressure sensor to the MS to read in TS? I really have never messed with programmable or custom settings in tunerstudio so I have no idea how to do this. I don't want to run a gauge for oil pressure specifically if I can avoid it. I emailed Reverant about it but I was wondering if anyone else had some insight on this topic. Aidan, I used the same pressure sensor you ordered off ebay. How did you wire it up?

You need to use one of the analog inputs. And then a 5v reference from the ECU also. Your best bet is going to be contacting reverant directly, to figure out what inputs to use. I'm not sure how he wires things up.

I bought a thing.
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...mean-11215.jpg
Attachment 179276
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ean-11217.jpg]
Attachment 179275

69' chevy c10 stepside. It has a 350 and and a th350 auto tranny. Body is in pretty good shape. Only significant rust damage is on the cab floor and it's all patchable. Interior needs work in general but the dash and factory gauges are still in place without any real damage. Has some really ugly Cadillac buckets in it that have really cracked leather. On the hunt for a bench.

Also hoping to redo the oil drain hole in the oil pan of the miata this weekend.

Noice

And by "bench" you mean a built/turbo LSx with a t56, right? :D

I'm currently resisting the urge to make this a drag truck. The idea is to keep this as a fun weekend cruiser and the miata be my performance car.

If this does get hot rodded in the future. Its getting a big ass blower that comes out of the hood because I love that shit.

Nices Stuff like this is getting harder and harder to find in serviceable shape.

Time to invest in a lightweight trailer so you can tow that Miata to the track? :naughty:

I was think about that. I would need to make sure it's reliable and get a new rear end in it. It was originally a 4 speed manual with overdrive instead of a 3 speed auto so it has a 4.1 rear end. At 60mph it's turning over at 3k rpms. The autos came with a 3.07 rear end which is much more highway cruising friendly. I also need to convert the front drums to disc because they are pretty weak as they sit now in stock form.

I hope you've seen the Roadkill muscle truck? Totally okay with seeing a drag truck thread pop up.https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...d1a679c324.jpg

Actually, I think it came with a three speed manual with a column shift, three on the tree.

I haven't seen this episode yet but I am working my way through the series right now. I love that show. My two favorite cars so far are the jag with the 5.0 that they slapped a supercharger on and the Mazda truck with the motor in the bed.

Sixshooter came over and put his greased up finger in my hole :riaa:

We found something pretty obvious and pretty embarrassing at the same time. I have no idea how this has gone unnoticed for this long but look what we have here....

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...2424982f77.jpg
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...d444a444fb.jpg

Oh hello Mr. Pickup Tube. I see you've been restricting my turbo oil drain you fat piece of shit. This was such a mind blowing revelation. I could have sworn I checked for this exact problem when we first tapped that area of the pan. Clearly I did not. Luckily fixing this really isn't that hard. I used a 3/8 NPT plug to block this drain hole and then we moved over about an inch an a half and then up about a half inch or so. We retapped a new hole and it ended up making the entire drain routing A LOT better. The new drain hole is 1/2 NPT to 10AN. The new drain line clears the steering rack and maintains a straight short path from the turbo to the block.

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...c551dc2329.jpg

So I am like 99% sure we found the issue. However, after reassembling the car and trying to start it up I found out that my battery was dead from me leaving the trunk open when I grabbed my wheel lock. Steve's miata was unable to provide enough juice with my jumper cables and we were both tired so we called it a day. I went out and bought a trickle charger and put it on my battery. I'll fire her up tomorrow and give it a test ride.

Here's a friend's car for some inspiration for you.

Dang. Didn't think about the oil pickup when drilling for my return line fitting. Do you think it will work?

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...04ea9e9a54.jpg

You've chosen a very similar location to my new drain hole. You do appear to be a little lower than I am which is the issue. You might be close to level with the drain tube where your fitting is located. Before you seal the pan to the motor you need to mock it up with the pickup tube in place and take a look through the oil drain hole.

Edit: after reviewing the pictures from my new drain and your fitting it's actually very hard to tell if you'll have an issue. You're not as low as I originally thought but you still might be partially blocked. You really do need to mock it up to be sure.

So it wasn't my battery. The starter is just not engaging. We had to jack the engine up off the driver side mount to gain access to the pan with the drill. I think the starter contact either got knocked loose or the contacts need to be cleaned. I had too much other stuff going on today to really look at it so I'll take care of it tomorrow.

The power contact from the battery got knocked loose off the starter somehow. I re-tightened that and the car fired right up. It seems to be running well. I started re-tuning the fuel map and it is super rich. I'm not sure if it was the excessive oil in the intake or if my coolant temp sensor was dying slowly prior to completely shitting the bed but the entire map was getting leaned out a ton. It was so rich in boost after about 5500 rpms that it was bogging. I didn't drive too much but when I got back home I went into the table and manually pulled fuel from the obvious spike in the table up top and smoothed it to more normal levels. I will probably drive it to work tomorrow to get some more tuning in and can hopefully do some virtual dyno pulls this week on wastegate. I'm so excited that it's finally running and not spewing oil everywhere!

Progress! Think it will be tip top by Saturday?

It should be more than fine by Saturday.

PSA for anyone with a vics manifold and a mS2e from Rev:

Drove car last night to tune. Its running hella rich and does not feel fast at all and not building more than a few psi of boost in low gears. In 6th gear going 60 on the highway I could floor it and the car would not accelerate and anytime I hit about 5500 rpms it bogs hard. Tunerstudio is pulling ass loads of fuel. I assumed my 02 sensor was bad or way out of calibration.

Today I remember having this same issue when I first installed the ecu and rev told me that his ecu will not play nice with the VTCS manifold. I can't remember if this was MSM specific or not. Anyway I unplugged the VTCS solenoid and the car instantly comes back to life. Tuning is commencing. Hopefully VD plots will be posted in the coming days.

I did something.

Attachment 179699

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...4116217538.jpg

These are on Ryoku Rob mounts. They sit about 1.5-2" lower than stock. I did a few virtual dyno pulls but I keep hitting boost cut (20psi) before redline without trying. I'm also pretty sure my valve seals are leaking so I need to replace those. I used supertech valve seals on the build but I'm going to go back to oem.

Seats look really good!

Just a couple of thoughts, but lots of idling time with the oil issue might have glopped up the IAT.
Also, I think somebody already mentioned this, but have you cleaned the oil out of the IC?
I'm sure any residue is playing havoc with your sensors.

I read every page of the build!
Can't wait for you to get the car dialed!
Props for a great build!

Lotus seats look nice.

I completely cleaned the intercooler pipes out a few times. Car seems to be running mostly fine but I'm burning oil off idle (evidenced by a little white smoke when pulling away from a light). I am getting crankcase pressure somehow which is causing some oil to still come out of the turbo. This is happening much slower than before but it's still happening. I am fairly positive my valve seals are leaking and when I go under boost it creates crankcase pressure which limits the turbo's ability to drain.

Clean pipes, but were you able to clean out the IC itself?
Oil will sit in every crevice it can find, but generally drops right to the bottom of the IC.
The engine slowly vacuums it up.
Might as well be optimistic :)

It might be valve seals, but I would not be in a hurry to blame the supertech parts.
Lots of guys running that stuff.
A buddy of mine was having similar issues...Turns out he set the bronze guides too high...
I'm not even sure if that is doable on a BP.

With the slight restriction I suppose it is possible you may have damaged the turbo seals.
Would be nice to have another turbo to bolt on to test. Any turbo that would fit to eliminate that variable.

Lotus seats look great!

Shoulda bought a Garrett :fawk::fawk::fawk:

Intercooler was removed, filled with brake clean, and then dumped on it's side to drain and dry every time I cleaned the pipes. I have seen quite a few people have issues with non-oem valve seals leaking quite regularly on new builds here so I am inclined to blame that part as it is showing signs of that part failing. I am willing to accept that there may be some other issue but seeing as how I already had one of my supertech valve seals replaced due to failure I wouldn't be very surprised if they were the culprit. I will of course have the head looked over during this process to see if anything else appears out of place.

It is also almost never the turbo seals unless there is notable shaft play. My turbo shaft is rock solid and has absolutely no play. The turbo was also inspected by a BW master distributor who does warranty work. They performed comprehensive testing and provided me with a long report with pictures and results. The turbo was completely fine with no signs of wear or failure. This issue is almost always a bad drain or crank case pressure. I fixed the drain issue. Now I am betting that there is crank case pressure. Currently the only thing that makes sense is something with the head. The most likely culprit is the valve seals.

I am open to alternative theories if anyone has them.

I also figured out why I am hitting boost cut even without my boost solenoid activated. I am referencing the wrong port on the EWG like a dumbass. It came with the nipple attached on the top and the bottom plugged. I just looked at turbosmart's diagrams online and at pictures of my engine bay and realised my error. That is an easy fix at least.

I ran mazda and fel pro seals, never leaked. Ran supertechs and they failed in a few months. Changed them, they failed again in a few months. Then put mazda seals in, and problem free again. I think supertech seals suck. The exhaust seals dumped oil, and the intakes leaked quite a bit. With very little mileage. I could see exhaust leaking from heat or abuse, but intake seals leaking is crazy.

Are you using both (top/bottom) ports on your WG? How did you route your reference hoses to the solenoid and WG? I just set mine up and have yet to run on it but went with this on a 3-port solenoid (per turbosmart where pressure only source is IC pipe pre TB):
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...06a841d8e5.png


And a 3-port alternative:
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...4e08b19e11.png

I am only using a single port from my efr solenoid. It should be hooked up to the bottom port of the wastegate like so:

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...d1a43f644f.png

I currently have my line referencing off of the vent port like an idiot. If my understanding is correct this will allow the boost pressure from the solenoid to keep the wastegate closed instead of assisting in opening the spring. If my understanding here is incorrect I would love to be educated.

Should I be setting it up as you have it above? my understanding from the EFR manual was that this was to be setup as show above. I just put the hose in the wrong port.

I don't know. I've spent way to much time researching for definitive answers on pro/cons/scenarios and not trying anything. ;) I ran my prior setup as you did with both an MBC and EBC - but it was an internal WG with a helper spring (since it was only single port). But that arrangement isolated the actuator from the full boost signal pressure and dramatically reduced the boost leak from the gate cracking open early. In theory the top port allows boost pressure to work with the spring and keep the gate shut during boost rise. Then the solenoid "bleeds" top port pressure, removing the "help" and the bottom port pressure overcomes the spring. Of course it's contrary to isolating the bottom port from the boost signal until the EBC steps in and modulates the solenoid. I showed the "alternate 3-port" arrangement because it does isolate the top port. It makes the most sense to me, use your bled signal pressure to hold the gate closed until you need it, then divert it to the top.

fwiw - I'm using the Innovate SCG-1 and it shows signal routing with the EBC solenoid the same as you have done. Maybe somebody will speak up. If not, maybe a new thread is deserving.

Ryan_G,

I just had the same issue with oil from the crank-case ventilation, coating my intercooler, intake pipes, and filling a catch can.
I have the stainless-steel wool/copper wool trick in my valve cover as well.
My issue came from the fact the stainless steel wool I was using was too fine and wasn't allowing air to go through, and pressure would build up a bit.
I stretched the wool so it'd be "mostly" in the way of the air flow instead of blocking it.

Worked like a charm.

Don't know if this'll help, but I hope so.

PS, Nice Build!

I think I am going to need to try this now. I just increased my drain size to 3/4" off the drain with a 1/2 NPT to 3/4" straight hos barb. The drain is DEFINITELY not the issue now. I was over at sixshooter's this weekend and it was still puking oil which was super frustrating. We blew into the breather tubes on my car and his to compare resistance but didn't notice a difference as we suspected that this might be the issue. I am guessing that we could not produce enough flow with our lungs to identify a restriction. I am going to open it back up and either stretch the copper out to make it better or remove it all together for now just to be sure if that is the issue or not. I can always experiment with putting them back in later and try out a more breathable configuration.

On a positive note, we got my AC back in and blowing ice cold. The car is 1000 times more bearable to drive now in the Florida heat. I am hoping I can solve the oil issue with the removal of the copper scrubs so I can take the car to MATG as planned.

Maybe the turbo is defective?

This could be possible but it was tested extensively by Southeast Power systems while under warranty for the same issue and they said everything was normal. They also provided me with a lengthy report that included pictures and the detailed data from the testing. Everything on the internet is telling me that with no shaft play it is almost certain to be the drain or crank case pressure. I will check the easy stuff prior to MATG. If that doesn't solve it then I will take the turbo to Southeast Power Systems once against to look over.

I hope you get this figured out soon man. It must be super frustrating...

It really is frustrating. I have considered selling the car on more than one occasion. I was able to quickly disassemble the valve cover and remove the copper scrubbies last night. It's all back together but I need to clean out the pipes and the turbo so I can tell if there is fresh oil and not just residual from the pool that I am sure is sitting in the chra.

Tonight I do that and change the oil. Planning to put something thicker in than Rotella t6 and see if that helps as well. Once it stops spewing oil I have some Shaeffer race oil to put in which is also thicker than t6. Holds up much better to heat and has higher film strength.

If you get it cleaned and test driven tonight and it still makes oil you can get it to Southeast tomorrow morning and possibly still get it fixed if it's the turbo. It can be done. Fingers crossed that it is good tonight, though.

I'm not sure I'll have time to bring it to Southeast or that they would be able to diagnose and resolve the issue with that short of notice. You don't rebuilt these turbos. You buy a new supercore.

How about instead of an air filter you put a 90 degree elbow downward and a pipe down into a bucket to catch all of the oil, haha! Then you can pour it back into the engine every time you stop for gas. I just can't believe it is still messing up. This drain and breather arrangement has to fix it. Or you need to add a restrictor to the oil feed.