I replaced the intake cam seal, the front of the engine is still coated in oil when it builds pressure. The timing belt itself is covered so I'm not 100 percent sure that the leak is from the top of the engine but it seems to be coming from somewhere there. Assuming the front main is in properly (I had the last shop which looked at it replace it with an OEM), what are my next steps which don't involve pulling the engine?

 

If it were me, I'd clean the **** out of everything first. Then add a dye to the oil, then have someone crank while I crawled around and looked for the leak with UV glasses/flashlight. If it's leaking that much just from cranking I'd suspect a leak from something high pressure, oil pump, turbo lines, etc.

 

Its definitely somewhere on the front of the engine, turbo lines and back of the engine are dry. Disassembling the front now, are there any oil galley ports in the front? I know that the shop that built my engine didn't reinstall all the coolant (the bronze threaded) plugs.

 

Is this supposed to be plugged??? Right below cam

 

alright i guess im just stupid anyone know the thread pitch for this plug lmao

 

Couldn't remember, but if you watch here, there's a plug installed. Video should start right around the 19 minute mark.
Edit - looks like that doesn't work. Just jump to 19:00 and you'll see.

 

That's 1/8bspt. There's ~5 of them on the head, make sure they're all plugged.

 

BSPT = British standard pipe thread

 

I see three on the front, where are the other two?

 

FYI if you've deleted the A/C compressor there's also a thru bolt that goes into the block there. You'll wanna put some sealant on a bolt and cap that as well.

 

Follow the casting protrusions on the head, when they machine these, they need long oil passages that they drill, but then they need to plug the drill hole with one of the BSPT plugs. There's 2 long channels along either side of the head, and a channel front/rear connecting those two. On the VVT head above, you can see there's 2 on the back. Also two on the intake side, and one on the front. I think the non-vvt heads have 2 on the front. So VVT=x5 plugs, non-VVT=x6 plugs. Check out this link while it's active to see more pics. It's a really clean example where you can still see the black plugs installed: https://www.ebay.com/itm/283479304006

 

Got all five plugged up, car made 20psi cranking with no leaks. Now gotta fix the cam/cas sensors so it fires properly.

 

Yay

 

I haven't read back very far, what pressure plate are you using? I am extremely happy with Supermiata's pressure plate and their 4-puck clutch (other than squealing getting moving and into 2nd gear). It's fairly easy to modulate after a longer than expected break in period and working out some minor tuning issues (was going too rich too soon as clutch was released and bogging). Anyway, there's a guy on Miata.net going by the username Kalmairn or similar that owns an MSM and another NB2, both modified turbo setups. I think his black cherry Miata has 3.3 gearing. My MSM experience with a 6-speed and 3.6 gears is that it's a great change from the 4.1 gearing that MSM had. My car is running 18 psi on the FM2 GT2560R turbo so it should be near 275whp but I'm still advancing timing little by little with power ramping up. With 200TW tires it still mostly holds traction in 1st gear once the tires are warmed up, that might change as my timing map improves. Highway cruising is really nice, 6th gear feels more like an OD around town and it still pulls hard in 6th without downshifting (of course, this is also effected by your turbo choice).

Last Fall I was focused on tuning EBC and timing, I haven't gone on any extended trips. Now I just finished installing the new FM manifold and turbo outlet pipe so I'll be starting over with EBC and retuning fuel. I can't believe hwy mpg could be worse than the 28 mpg it achieved with the previous Hydra driving 80-83 mph on the 1800 drive home after purchasing it. I'm expecting 30+ with leaner cruise targets in my MS3 and the 3.6 diff gearing. 300whp should be good with either 3.3/3.6 but Kalmairn could verify, I think his 3.3 car is near 400whp.

I'm glad you found your oil gallery plug leak but this pains me to read. I was warned when I purchased a used MSM engine from a MN salvage/repair shop. I won't name them in public forums because of how Boundary reacted to my defective pump. His engine builder opened his pump up to pack it with grease and said they found machining swarf inside. I was told to carefully check my pump when it arrived. Mine had a very loose plug in the FWD dipstick hole. There was a screw on the bottom of the plug, it sealed with an O-ring but the screw wasn't fully tightened nor did I see any threadlock. I decided to check the pump gears housing plate screws and with very little torque using a bit in a screwdriver, two screws broke loose. This time I saw some red thread lock but not much.

B.E. sent torque specs and blamed me for messing with the gear cover screws after I sent pictures of the loose plug. I had to purchase a 1/4" torque wrench and red threadlock to rebuild the pump, they wouldn't pay return shipping and mail a replacement. Their response was basically, we have video proof of each build, suck it! Maybe I never sent my serial number (purchased through a 3rd party seller) but didn't seem interested in checking the assembly video (if there even was one) or emailing it to me. This experience made me wish I'd purchased a pump from Supermiata, or just the B.E. gears for my OEM MSM pump.

 

Yeah, I like the idea of 6spd + 3.6 with the current engine I have but I have access to a **** load of industrial grade machining tools through my research at UCSB and a custom ZF build looks REALLY tempting considering I could drive the current 5spd + 4.1 at ~200 whp and still have fun (I haven't driven this car in over a year). No shade on boundary from me, at the end of the day after finding the oil plugs literally missing from the head I'm more likely to place blame on the (non-miata) shop which built the engine.

 

Also anyone here local to the Santa Barbara/Goleta area? Would be nice to find a miata group out here because frat bros don't get the turbo miata hype

 

What frat?

Find a local track day and bring a couple of them out to watch. Getting out there and maybe getting a ride along usually hooks them.

 

I'm assuming some RPM reading in a megasquirt log means something is right with the cam/crank sensors? Found out a bunch of butt plugs came loose and resoldered the harness, made oil pressure again on cranking with no plugs (and I smelt fuel!) but with plugs in its struggling to crank, I hope this is a battery issue so I'm just letting it charge for a while.

 

The only problem with that is the cars not running yet lol everyones gonna come around once shes streetable

 

2 years later it started. holy ****