Yep, he's a chunky little guy. Welp… back to square one then I suppose.

I have bad valve seals on my car. It burns some oil (smoke on startup), but it's maybe 1/4 to 1/2 quart over the 3000-3500 miles between oil changes. If you're losing that much, there would be clouds of blue smoke.

I agree, it's strange how much oil I'm burning. I'm getting zero clouds at idle or startup, which really makes me think it isn't the valve seals...

Out of absolute curiosity, anything at all in that catch can?

I just Got rid of the Greddy setup... It was a heater hose looking thing... came off the bottom of the turbo, then wrapped around the back of the engine, laying on the rear shelf on the firewall... all the way to the other side of the engine, and into a port smack dab in the center of the side of the block. COMPLETELY REDONKULOUS... lol

Yours on the other hand looks to be pretty beastly.... i highly doubt that would cause any problems... but just to be sure, maybe pull it off, and clean it out... Maybe some gunk clogging it?? what oil do you feed it by the way?

Previous owner installed the oil catch can and said there has never been a drop in the 7-8k he has put on it, or the 3k I've put on it so far. I meant to mention that. Is this cause for concern?

Even the healthiest of engines will deposit a little bit of oil... i wonder how he installed it

Edit: nevermind, I just looked at the picture. im not sure what could be the problem. Does the Catch Can have a breather of any sort on it?

OP, you're not alone... I'm having same kind of oil burning with mine..

Puff in hard decel/rev, no puff on startup/idle, not much in the catch can, etc...

I'll be following this thread closely and try to bring any information is possible.

Another oil consumer here. Mostly after track time.

Nice to know I'm not alone. O.B.A.: oil burners anonymous. "Hi, my name is Clay, and I have a miata that loves eating oil."

So I finished my valve guide seal refresh. Made no difference whatsoever. Rings for sure. I can do exactly what Curly mentioned, get off the throttle and let high vacuum pull oil past the rings and then get on it and get a nice puff of blue smoke in the rear view mirror.

Another giveaway is that my oil darkens quickly after a change. So . . . ring refresh coming up.

BTW, bad compression/blowby is an indicator for bad compression rings, but not determinative for a bad/incorrectly installed oil control ring. My compression is excellent and blowby minimal judging from the breather filter. But I sure am using some oil.

Great.... That's not what I wanted to hear. Is there any easy way to get to those rings like there was with the valve seals? Really don't want to take the motor out to do them...

Nope. Need to disassemble the engine and at least hone the cylinders a bit so the new rings can seat.

This is also an opportunity for "while I'm there" disease. See Jeffbucc's build thread. LOL.

Yeah, pan needs to come off before the rods and pistons will slide out, and the head needs to come off for them to be reinstalled.

Could my oil control rings really be bad at 50k?

I will still most likely replace my valve seals first before doing anything. May not help, but it'd be a hell of a lot better than pulling the motor to find it didn't help.

My motor was a fresh rebuild in 2011 (according to PO records). Maybe 4,000 miles since then, mostly on track. Always blew oil.

So, yes, they could be bad. Not saying they are, but it's not impossible.

Spectacular. What do you plan to do while you're in there?

Since the rebuild is so fresh, I'm hoping to only do the rings and a hone.

But since it has an MLS headgasket, might send the block and head out for decking so I don't have any sealing problems. What about ARP head studs? Hey, I could up the CR too.

You see how this goes . . . I'm pretty succeptible to "while I'm there" disease.

Throw it away. FE3 time.

You're not helping. :party: