Is fooger right?

I was assuming plugs were out and he is just cranking for oil pressure, I have killed a battery doing this for a few minutes trying to get op on a fresh engine. Mind you it was a carbed a-series 1275cc. Never built a miata motor, yet.

Explain why this is a "bad idea". I am curious.

 

Yes, plugs out.
If you crank for 30 seconds and get no oil pressure, you need to stop what you're doing and make a change of some sort or another. If you crank without plugs, you're not pulling a huge quantity of current through the starter, and you're not going to kill it.

When I had my original mismatched gears/housing in, i could crank FOREVER and get no oil pressure. Upon installing the right housing, I cranked the engine for 10 seconds and had oil gushing out of my turbo feed line into my little bucket.

 

 

yeah, sounds like you fucked up your oil gears lars, we had it running for 30sec to a minutes...it should have had oil flowing regardless of priming at that point.

 

Wiring harness was disconnected so there was no fuel or spark when I was cranking with the starter.

Baa I need to find a cheap engine hoist, being unemployed now suddenly sucks. I got the time just not the tools.

 

Pulling the oil pan / oil pump may be easier than pulling the whole engine.
You'll have to support the engine from above, and drop the subframe.

You either clogged the oil pump, or have the wrong combo of gears and housing (did u check clearances?), or you forgot the gasket between the pickup tube and pump, or said gasket is leaking air.

When you do fix it, coat the oil pump gears, don't pack the voids if you use grease.

BTW one can get oil flowing on an engine stand. Do it with the timing belt disconnected and cams positioned so that no valves are more than slightly open. Fill oil filter with oil, turn engine 45* and put it on. Turn engine back straight up. Pour some thick oil down the allen plug of the oil pump. Spin crank by hand; on the first few cranks you should hear burping and farting. Crank some more and oil should reach the head. Keep going until it's done burping. Drain oil before installing engine.

 

And remove the accessory belts, crank pulley, timing covers, and timing belt. You'll also be cleaning all the mating surfaces of the oil pan, internal baffle, and block before reassembly. I'm not sure what is required to remove the subframe/steering assembly, but I imagine the whole process is much easier with a lift.

 

Mine wouldn't prime after a few minutes cranking. SOMEONE here suggested hooking up a vacuum to the turbo oil feed, like a shop vac with lots of duct tape. It primed in seconds. Lars, if you're not getting op, try that quick first before pulling lots of **** apart.

 

i told him to. hell i told him to suck the feed line with his mouth if all else failed...

 

Perhaps what I did for my M3, a DIY engine support brace, will work for the miata:

 

He doesn't suck hard enough.

 

^^This didn't work for me...

But I had half a dozen **** lined up outside of the garage waving $100 bills when I was done trying.

 

I actually did hook up my hand pump the the oil feed line and tried to pull up oil that way. I spent about 15 minutes doing it and still nothing. We talked about doing it that way a few pages back before the allen key method was talked out. I will see if I can find a shop vac down here that I can borrow.

I have seriously considered just lifting the engine up and pulling off the pan and pump. The only thing is that I still need the engine hoist. So at the point where I buy a hoist, I might as well take the engine out so I have plenty of room to work on it.

Or someone comes and gives me 5k cash and takes it as it is.

 

Lars, sorry to hear about the joblessness.
Check out guerrilla job hunting. I've heard good things about this:
http://guerrillajobhunting.typepad.com/

 

I am jobless by choice, chose the packup and move away from northern va. Hopefully I will find some work soon. I start sending out my resume tomorrow. I am shooting for a linux admin job at google. I will definately check out that site.

 

I might have found a hoist locally that I can borrow. **** YAH.

 

Engine hoist is in my possession. Motor will be out tomorrow as long as it does not rain.

 

Drained the oil and I am pretty sure there was water yet again mixed in. So I am guessing the first time it was a combination of water/oil/gas. FML Looks like I am pulling the head off again.

 

Engine Pulled. So easy to pull the motor without the trans attached.


Rust down the side of the block seeming to indicate that something is messed up with teh head gasket.



Tomorrow I will be pulling off the head along with pulling off the oil pan. I hope to get the oil pump off and see whats up with it and hopefully that back on and pan back on.

Then on Monday I will order a new head gasket from finishline performance.

Also depending on how some things line up next week I might be upgrading to a better IM and 1000cc injectors. We will see if god loves me for that to happen.

 

I have been thinking a little bit and went back to what could cause the head gasket to leak out the sides/leak water into the oil. I remember This thread about the differences between the 2 head gaskets. I am using a 94 head gasket with my VVT head with a coolant reroute. Is it possible that we missed a difference in one of the holes that would allow coolant into the oil?