First Miata, First problem
 

This past month I purchased my first Miata, a boosted 1997 M-Edition. I threw a rod on my way home due to being on 14lbs on E85 on stock internals. So I obviously have some questions. I found a new motor with a machined block with stock internals, so one of my questions is. Do I purchase this motor and leave it stock and turn the boost down? Or do I find myself a bare block and get forged internals so I can keep the boost turned up? I don't need to have the fastest car ever, but I do want to have some fun. My second question is if I keep stock internals what is a safe amount of boost to run? If anyone wants or needs specs of the car to help me I would be more than happy to provide them.

First off, find out what turbo your set up is using. The "amount of boost" is irrelevant until you know what turbo you're running. For example 10psi on a GT2560R is going to make a different amount of horsepower than 10psi on a GT3582R.

For a stock Miata motor, the rule of thumb is to keep it under 250whp.

It’s just an ebay t4. Made 230hp on the dyno.

Then to answer your original question, it all just comes down to how much you're wanting to spend and what your ultimate power goals are. I'm not the most experienced, since I've yet to travel down this path.

My understanding is that one of the cheaper options is a Rods Only build (OEM pistons + forged rods of your choice + a few misc upgrades). From everything I've heard is that once you are opting to go up to and beyond 300whp is when it gets very expensive.

You can blow a built motor with a bad tune. I would investigate this before starting over.

How much boost do you want? I know 'more' is the usual answer, but unless you are hunting big hp/ seriously tracking the car, a stock block will provide good fun on the street, and low level track duty.

The key is the tune, as OG says. I assume you are running an aftermarket ECU, who is going to tune it? If you are not going to DIY tune based on info and advice here, does the person tuning it know both your ECU and BP motors?

In the absence of anything indicating the contrary, my first piece of advice would be to find another tuner, because at that power level an otherwise healthy BP should be OK. It suggests that the tune was what killed the engine. Other possibilities exist, but pending other information that would be my starting point.

I’m not really looking for anything crazy at all. It’ll just be my daily.Yes it’s a megasquirt, and it was dyno tuned previously by a shop before I bought it. This car was previously turboed when I bought it and ran perfect, I could be wrong but I don’t think it was the tune as the guy had been driving it on the same tune for over a year

OK, can you post your tune here, and I am sure someone will run their eye over it (not me, I don't know one end of a tune from the other LOL). That should identify any tuning issues, and if nothing serious you can safely proceed. Any logs from the blowup? They might show something too ... ?

BTW, welcome to the board!

Yeah I'll post it tonight. I can get em later, and thank you.