y8s

iTrader: (8)

sav, why wouldnt' you wanna do pistons "while yer in there"?

if it's a matter of time to get them, I have a set of supertech's in my shed with rings and pins and all that that are ready to go. you order me a new set and I'll ship you these!

they are 83.5mm/8.6:1cr size. I kinda want the 84mm ones for the displacement. and maybe higher compression just for *****.

hustler

iTrader: (6)

go low-comp sav, you won't regret it. The torque is wonderful.

Savington

iTrader: (31)

Don't have the money, don't want to find a machinist I trust enough to do a good re-bore, don't want to drop the compression (witty bitty turbo, remember). I don't really need the pistons, either; I think at 250-275whp, rods and stock pistons can be bulletproof.

Jason, ARP head studs because they're reusable so if I ever want to go back in for something, it'll save me a little hassle later on.

JasonC SBB

Stock head bolts are reusable too. They're not the torque-to-yield type.

cjernigan

iTrader: (13)

Don't forget to drill and tap the oil pan while you've got it all apart. Might as well get a bung welded on for your oil temp sending unit considering you can do it yourself in the FSAE lab one day.

hustler

iTrader: (6)

um...bung for oil temp, right? I suggest you put that on the back, passenger side of the pan. I think the oil coming out of my turbo is hitting the sensor because it jumps to 280* quickly.

Savington has a different pressure sensor, but I have the 1.6 sensor and I had begi make a chinga to put it here:

JasonC SBB

I simply used thermal epoxy and glued a "naked" sensor to the rear of the oil pan. Works great.

Mobius

iTrader: (2)

The replace-the-rods plan sounds reasonable as an interim solution to keep this from happening to the new block.

cjernigan

iTrader: (13)

Yeah, my bad.

patsmx5

iTrader: (16)

For 75 bucks you can go buy a bottle brush hone and a cheap electric drill and hone the cylinders yourself. It's not exactly complicated. Pull the trigger, move up and down. Read up on how to do the ring gaps right. Then you'll get good seal on your bottom end and it will be much better. Plus honing will increase the piston/cylinder wall clearance which is a huge plus considering you'll be running more power than stock, so the need for larger clearances is merited.

IMO, there are two possible scenarios:

a) put a stock engine in and run it. Don't **** with it, don't take it apart, don't have to do ****.

b)Buy a gasket set, sealants, cleaners, etc etc, hone for extra clearance, new rings gapped properly, clean pistons, new rods, check the rod bearing clearances with plastigauge, leave the main bearings alone, OP gears if you must, torque everything down and put it back together with new seals and gaskets, new WP, TB, idler, and tensioner. Then it's done.

If you do half now, half later, you'll have twice as much time in it and a lot more money. Either do it all now and be done or wait till you can do it all. You don't build engines in steps.

Savington

iTrader: (31)

Local shop is charging me $100. $75 for a bottle hone and $25 for knowing what the **** to do with it.

Yep, I agree. I am doing a new TB/WP, leaving the idler/tension pulleys alone, and replacing the head gasket. I believe I can reuse the head studs, my valve cover gasket was replaced somewhat recently, doing a CAS o-ring, and a throttle body gasket. What other gaskets do I need to look at?

patsmx5

iTrader: (16)

Only reason I mention doing the tensioners is because I recently had one fail at 147k miles. If you buy a TB kit on ebay you can get it all for cheap. Not a must though, but a if-you-can it's a good idea. I've never done them till now and never seen one fail on anything else I've done a TB on, but this was high mileage. Motor runs noticeably quieter at idle with new tensioners, which is a nice plus. Apparently they've always been a little noisy.

Gasket wise, I think you're fine. The oil pan uses RTV and a couple of rubber seals. I used the "super black" RTV. It's like JB-weld/silicone mixed together. I spent probably 2 hours preping the pan, windage tray, and block before gluing everything together. Getting 100% of the old gasket **** out is important for a leak free seal. I utterly HATE having things that leak, so I like to do it once and do it right when it comes to gaskets and whatnot. I can honestly say I haven't added oil to my car since I turbo'd it. And without checking I can tell you it's full. Do front and main bearing seals too. All that **** comes with an engine gasket set, just buy the set off Egay or mazda. I've got an egay kit sitting that I got for like 45 bucks.

Tell the shop to "hone the motherfucking **** out of it, it's for a turbo engine". They'll know what to do.

johnwag

iTrader: (3)

Sav, Pat's right. Do tensioners, front main, cam seals, rear main, thermostat gaskets(if necessary)

You said the engine has 96K, so I'd do it to be safe. Seals and **** are cheap and the engine out of the car, so it's easier. You might consider trans seals as well, if the mileage is getting up there. I noticed you were running the six speed, so you only need an a tailshaft seal and an oil seal. You can just use high temp black silicone on the piece in the bellhousing that the throw out bearing slides on. (what the hell is this called?)
Something I always do when I'm reassembling a miata engine is to check the oil pump. There is a metal sleeve in the pump that I always clean, buff and polish on a bench buffer. You can shim the spring with a washer for slightly higher oil pressure, as well.

Just throwing stuff out......

Savington

iTrader: (31)

Depending on the cost of the tensioners I'll do them. If they do end up failing, it's easy enough to do them later. I am going to be very crunched on cash since I'm also overhauling all the oil/water lines (switching to a nylon-braided -10 drain and -6an water hardlines).

Bearings are retardedly cheap for this motor, which is good.
ETD rods, $407 shipped
OEM rings, $110 for the set
Beck/Arnley bearings, $23 for stock size or $13 for .010/.020 over
Hone labor, $100

Gasket/seals set, plus a TB/WP/WP gaskets, then the oil/water lines and fittings, and reroute stuff, and I think I'm set.

hustler

iTrader: (6)

how can you buy bearings when you don't know where your **** is going to spec out?

Joe Perez

iTrader: (8)

Sav- sounds like a good recipe to me. Are you planning to do the main bearings as well, or just the rods?

the_man

From what I understand, the "VIN range" includes all '99s. Also, from what I understand, since the automatic transmissions don't put any meaningful thrust load on the crankshaft, even one with the incorrect bearing could go a long, long time without the failure occurring as it would with the thrust loads from a clutch. That said, the motor is out of the car, why not just pop a new/correct #4 thrust bearing in there and forget all about it?

patsmx5

iTrader: (16)

You can get a magnetic base dial indicator for 30-40 bucks and then he can measure the endplay himself. No point in "fixing it" if it ain't broke. But it would be foolish to do all this without checking it and have to pull the engine again. Building an engine takes time and money. Details are important. Miss one and you've wasted all your time and money for nothing.

As for bearings, I doubt you have the know-how and tools to do bearings. Just to do the rods you'll need to get some plastigauge and a set of feeler gauges. Assembling engines is a lot more than turning bolts. If you don't know what you're doing, you'll probably **** something up or at minimum, make it worse than it was before you fixed/improved it.

ZX-Tex

iTrader: (15)

I agree, check the runout. IIRC just because it is a '99 and is in the VIN range does not necessarily mean it has the wrong throwout bearing. If you are pulling the oil pan then you may be able to measure the clearance directly with a feeler gauge.

Joe Perez

iTrader: (8)

I'm curious now.

Wrist pins I can understand; those take some finessing. But main bearings? You need a torque wrench, some plasti-gauge, a dial indicator and a prybar for endplay, and...?