Have you tried adding or pulling fuel? How wet are the plugs?

We haven't touched fuel yet. The first time we checked, the cylinders definitely had gas and the plugs were decently wet. Hard to scale it in words. But today they were mostly dry. The car sat all night from about 10pm until 4pm.

Welp, good news. The oil soak trick worked and after doing the compression test, the average reading in each cylinder went from 60 something to 120 something. Bad news is that in the process of trying to get her fired up my coil packs gave out and I also need to have my injectors cleaned ASAP. 3 out of my 4 265cc had gunk in the little brass filters while one was completely flawless. Very strange to me as these were working just fine before the motor blew and I hadn't stored them in open air around debris of any kind. Let's hope after I get them serviced/replaced and get new coil packs along with a new battery that my troubles are over with as far as starting the car.

What "oil soak trick"?

put some heavy weighted oil on the cylinders (about 4 oz each) and let it seat the rings before you turn the engine over by hand. Get the oil out by using lint free towels. Do a quick compression test with the motor off to see if it made a difference vs the old test. Then if its higher you try the real thing with the engine turning over without the fuel pump sending gas into the cylinders and it should be a LOT higher than it was before. In my case it nearly doubled and the engine was able to fire up for a bit, even with the shitty injector situation I ran into.

As some of you may have seen on the Facebook page, I got her running. Turns out the trigger wheel was on backwards causing it to backfire and fail to crank up. Got that figured out and she idles a tad rough. There's an oil leak or oil buildup on one of my vbands. Once the car cools down I will reach down to the dipstick to check the actual levels.

I'm thinking in the process of getting to the trigger wheel, I may have taken the car out of timing by a tooth or so. I'm currently running her on the stock ECU for now but if these problems persist I'll end up switching them out to see if any logs might be able to lead me down the right path.

Update, the motor has about 200 miles on it. She's been running like a champ. I can't believe I'm daily driving a Miata again. I'm doing an oil change this weekend as it's already filthy from all the miscellaneous residue from being freshly built. Break-in oil is some serious stuff! Just glad to not find metal shavings in it this time around :rofl:

300 miles to go then I'll be getting her dyno'd at Lethal Performance in San Antonio. Just a little baby tune until I can get the RX7 trans installed and get some new axles...etc. I'll add some more details later today regarding some hiccups I had whenever I get off work.

Well, the car is being an absolute asshole.

It keeps overheating now, all of a sudden. And didn't overheat once during these 700 miles. A few days ago I noticed it getting pretty hot, then I checked the usual. Faulty temp sensor, coolant lines, thermostat, etc.

At this point, the situation is this:

The fans are "working", as in, they definitely come on when the temp sensor is unplugged from the reroute location. They are NOT coming on whenever the needle starts to move away from dead center, and still won't come on even if the needle hits the 1 & 2 o' clock positions. Whenever I see the needle moving that far, I turn the car off and leave the key in accessory mode...then the needle all of a sudden dips below half again.

Stock ECU? Sounds like a fan setting issue.

Yes stock ECU.

Would it be safe to pull the temp sensor and let the fans just run on their own? Or would that possibly cause some issues from not being able to see the coolant temp? My problem is that I'm not entirely sure the fans are the cause, but they sound like they're faulty regardless. Fans don't even come on after a certain speed anyways, correct?

Fans come on at a temp and turn off at a temp. Why don't you have an aftermarket ECU?

I have the MSPNP Pro but the car won't run. I spent about 2 or 3 hours messing with it and could never get it to start. I figured while the motor is being broken in, the stock injectors and everything else would find that just fine for now until I sort out what's up with the MS.

*edit* the turbo isn't even hooked up to the intercooler FWIW. No boost or heat generated from it specifically

Welp. Here we are in September, and I'm at my wit's end. The car is now reading false temps in the dash (source: it's reading at operating temp 10 seconds after being turned on from a cold start).

I haven't found any answers looking through the forums since July, and my "solution" for now was to unplug the temp sensor in the thermostat housing and use an auxiliary temp gauge from Autozone so I can at least drive the thing to work. Now I can't find the temp gauge, and I'm legitimately out of answers to get this car running again.

How frustrating to have a built motor and BT with a worthless MS that won't fire the motor up, and a stock computer that no longer is able to communicate with the fans properly. This car is the bane of my existence.

Not getting my hopes up, but here goes nothing. Leaving temp sensor unplugged so the fans will just stay on. Really hoping they don't wear out before I can find the root of the actual issue.https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...fe1b253dc2.jpg

*Update* Fans are working again. Disconnected the battery and left it alone for a while. Reconnected, and let it warm up again. They came on after a while.

*update 2* My climate control knob for hot/cold is stuck on cold now? Whats up with that?

Put a fresh sensor in from Mazda. Nixed the cheapy temp gauge idea..

Hey what's up guys, just thought I would update on the project (yes, it's still going by something short of a miracle). Got my intercooler installed after a bout with procrastination finally went in my favor. Fab9 Stage two, and for those that don't know, it involved some cutting to make it fit. I wanna thank BoostedSmurf for showing the forum how he did his, as that is the same route I went. I still need to find a working wideband that won't crap out on me and a boost controller for me to say the car is "safe" to drive, I've had two Innovate MTX's die for no apparent reason other than my shitty luck. Blacksmith Fabrication in San Antonio or Matt @ Kotzur Racing will be welding the IC piping for me once I cut it to fit my needs, depending on scheduling and funds. Anyways, here's how it looks installed!

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...4a5a84006a.jpgBumper off, undertray held on with a bolt or two
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...ad7783384f.jpgMock-up in driveway, say hello to the daily in the background haha
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...0092883c46.jpgAfter cutting some tabs visible in earlier photos, cutting front support enough for IC to fit
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...138bd815f8.jpgThis was a really rough mock-up (uncut pipes, no space for filter without cutting the hood, etc.) I tried out inside Kotzur's shop
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...2db92ea5c3.jpgInstalled with bumper, loving the stealth

About time for an update...

I still wonder why you're going with a huuuge turbo. :dunno:

No specific reason other than Matt Kotzur's Mazdaspeed6 was on this turbo, and when his car went down for a rebuild my car was already down for the same reason. He offered it to me for about $1300 or $1500 bucks, honestly can't remember as I just finished paying off the last bit of money to him like yesterday for it and he gave it to me over a year ago and I thought it was too stupid of a deal to pass up, especially since the TiAL hotside came with it. Including the 3" downpipe, the manifold I had built and the wastegate, I'm sitting under 2k and will be under $3k for the entire turbo system. I might run into lag, but the end result will be worth it (IMO)

Do you plan on tracking the car?

No, as all the roadtracks in my area are pretty expensive. I believe Harris Hill Raceway even requires a yearly membership. San Antonio's Drag strip is still an option if I decide to use some kind of traction control system, but the one I saw on a similar build seemed pretty pricey. While I want the car to be done properly, this will eventually turn back into a daily driver car that makes 20+mile commutes every day so traction control for 1/2 mile salt-flat builds isn't what I'm worried about. Nor is aggressive spool.