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That nut, along with several lock washers, belonged on his ITBs. Specifically on the 3d printed trumpets. After a PB lap (a LOW 1:32) with his wife as a passenger, just as he was rolling into the pits it decided to eat a nut and make a hell of a racket. First assumption was rod knock but we figured it out was actually FOD pretty quickly in the pits.
OOF is right. The engine appears to have been very happy otherwise. I cracked the filter open and it is clean. It seems the Valvoline VR1 had been doing work on cleaning the inside of the engine, and that might be why it was so dark. I’m hopeful the crank and block as a whole is rebuild able with what I’m seeing so far.
SMH... I'm not sure who tuned this engine but there sure is a lot of detonation present on cylinder 4 /s
Bummer deal man but at least you got good carnage photos. Are you planning to try to salvage the head somehow or just practicing porting/polishing on that one so you can do a better job on the other one? Not sure if I comprehended that correctly.
Haha no kidding. It’s humbling making such a mistake, but the toon was holding up it seems. The plugs look great, but I did notice the O2 sensor has a different coloring than usual. Not sure what this means? The VR1 is high on Zinc, and it’s possible some anti-seize got on the tip at some point. Otherwise someone please enlighten me.
SimBa, you got it. I’m going to learn how to port/polish on this one so I can do a better job on the final head that I’ve been hoarding. I don’t think it’s salvageable with the gouge in cylinder 2 as deep as it is.
Haha no kidding. It’s humbling making such a mistake, but the toon was holding up it seems. The plugs look great, but I did notice the O2 sensor has a different coloring than usual. Not sure what this means? The VR1 is high on Zinc, and it’s possible some anti-seize got on the tip at some point. Otherwise someone please enlighten me.
SimBa, you got it. I’m going to learn how to port/polish on this one so I can do a better job on the final head that I’ve been hoarding. I don’t think it’s salvageable with the gouge in cylinder 2 as deep as it is.
I would for sure run it. With your porting too. Hook it up after you port it and we can see how it runs of 5c00t3r
Worth it for the carnage pics! Haha that's brutal. Stoked to see before and after pics of the port n polish. This is becoming a learning experience in more ways than one
The block is apart and it seems the crank is good! None of the main bearings have major damage, but have wear. 3 out of 4 rod bearings have notable wear, but I have no clue what I’m looking at. Everything is smooth to the touch. Pistons and rods look fine other than the obvious damage to 2 and 4. They all have the usual skirt wear of a higher mileage engine. Promising I suppose.
Here are some pictures. Let me know if anything jumps out.
Is that a Haynes manual I see? I still have my manual for my NA laying around somewhere. I bought my NA shortly before my birthday and my dad got me one of those as a present. At the time, He had no idea how much use I'd get out of that thing hahaha.
That sure is a Haynes manual haha. I've used it a lot over the years for quick information without having to grab the phone. I would love to get a printed Miata manual someday.
Glad to hear those bearings look good to you both! It is very promising then.
I may not make it to the machine shop this weekend because I still got work to do on the spare head and the cam+SUBs haven't arrived. Might be worth while to have them look over the block and order some pistons though. I really want to keep the ball rolling.
Glad to hear those bearings look good to you both! It is very promising then.
They will always have some scuffing/wear, but I don't see any gouging at all, so they look great to me. Those would have likely went on in that motor for 100k+!
They’re here! Cams, buckets and an adjustable exhaust gear.
Are these considered mild or spicy noodles? Couldn’t resist. It was on sale
Off to the machine shop tomorrow, and I’ll have them do the shim measurements and recommend piston specs. They’ve told me that Wiseco pistons are the choice because they have experience with them. But still gotta choose the coatings, bore, compression height, dome volume…I’m going to do as they say and target 11:1 compression because of altitude and FlexFuel. I also want some extra valve reliefs to accommodate future head skimming and valve work, so custom pistons may get ordered. We’ll see, as they may have other recommendations.
Any ideas what your ending whp is going to be? I don't recall seeing a lot of VVT engines with cams, mostly the IHE+megasquirt formula.
It’s going to depend on the final compression of the engine and what fuel I end up running. I would hope anywhere between 165-180whp. If it makes 170 I’ll be happy enough as long as the mid-range stays strong, which with 252/256 it should
It’s going to depend on the final compression of the engine and what fuel I end up running. I would hope anywhere between 165-180whp. If it makes 170 I’ll be happy enough as long as the mid-range stays strong, which with 252/256 it should
Sounds like spicy noodles to me. What's "midrange" going to be on the final product?
Sounds like spicy ramen to me too, maybe even udon!
Very excited to see where you land with pistons. What’s the extra cost from Wiseco for custom pistons? They’ll build em with custom dome specs, valve relief specs, etc? Or what are the options you can mess with?
Sounds like spicy noodles to me. What's "midrange" going to be on the final product?
I think mid-range would be considered 3k to 5k? I would call it strong if it makes more torque than the stock engine, somewhere between 120 and 130 wtq. Don't know if you saw the dyno graph on post 354? Curly and Emilio also posted some graphs of other spicy motors after that.
Sounds like spicy ramen to me too, maybe even udon!
Very excited to see where you land with pistons. What’s the extra cost from Wiseco for custom pistons? They’ll build em with custom dome specs, valve relief specs, etc? Or what are the options you can mess with?
corn-charged spicy udon it is. I don't know what the final cost would be in today's climate, but when I called a couple of years ago it sounded like ~$900 for a piston set with extra coatings, dome, and different comp-height. I would imagine a few hundred more now days. As far as what's possible, there is a lot. Checkout their custom piston form here: https://www.wiseco.com/wp-content/up...bsite_2023.pdf .
The main goal is to keep the engine serviceable (i.e timing belt procedure), so the hope for the custom pistons is to minimize the decking and milling needed for the target compression, while maintaining good squish and piston-to-valve clearance at full VVT. Skirt coatings seem to be a must, but the crown coating I'm still unsure about. The machinist might talk me into or out of some stuff too haha.
The trip to the machine shop was uneventful, which I’m ok with. Being my first time doing something like this, I’m not sure what I expected either. More excitement and confeti maybe? They looked at what I brought, took the items and said I’ll get a call when it’s all clean and we’ll discuss compression and other details then. It’ll be a while before I get any of that back as well, likely 2-3 months. In the meantime I’m going to work on updating fuel hoses, add the ethanol sensor, clean clean clean, and maybe consider doing the OS Giken and spherical bushings. Those last two feel like a lot on their own, and I’ve been thinking that I should focus on breaking the motor in first, but it’s also a long time to wait.
If I do the sphericals and reinstall the alignment bolts to their current markings, should I expect the alignment to be in the ballpark?
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corn-charged spicy udon it is. I don't know what the final cost would be in today's climate, but when I called a couple of years ago it sounded like ~$900 for a piston set with extra coatings, dome, and different comp-height. I would imagine a few hundred more now days. As far as what's possible, there is a lot. Checkout their custom piston form here: https://www.wiseco.com/wp-content/up...bsite_2023.pdf .
