Originally Posted by fooger03 (Post 856521)

Jim Stewart? It hopeless. Personal experience is that his business is complete ----. He learned some things about miata engine differences...and miata oil pumps...on my engine....at my expense...

Cookie-cutter spec engines: YMMV.

Originally Posted by fooger03 (Post 856523)

To those that had problems with pump valves after a rebuild: did you change the oil after your first 20 or 30 miles?

Originally Posted by fooger03 (Post 856530)

I would assume more likely to be a failing bearing which caused tiny bits of metal to get crunched between your gears and stuck in your valve before those tiny bits of metal made it to your oil filter - when's the last time you cut open one of your used oil filters?

Originally Posted by phillyb (Post 856595)

lol. i thought dude builds spec miatas...no?
i just googled his name and miata after speaking with planet miata

His shop is basically an assembly line for SM engines. Ask him to build an engine differently, and holy sh1t, you might as well shoot yourself in the face. I'll give you just *one* tiny example of my experience - I took in my good '94 engine for a build, and I started to examine it when I went to pick it up. Upon inspection, holy ----, my turbo oil-feed port wasn't there.

DUDE USED SOMEONE ELSES FU(KING ENGINE BLOCK TO BUILD MY MOTOR.

And then I was basically stuck sourcing, paying for, and installing an oil pickup from the intake side of the block.


no...same oil for the first 288 miles.
I will cry a tear for you tonight


which came first?
the chicken or the egg?
i hope my nasty looking bearings are due to oil starvation and not something inherently wrong with the block. if there's something wrong with the rods, hopefully the scat rods i just purchased will solve any issues.

First? First there were tiny bits of metal in the sump, which were sucked through the gaping holes of the strainer and into the oil pump, once they were in the oil pump, they were sandwiched between the zero-clearance gears, thus tearing up the gear surfaces. at high RPMs or low temps half of those little bits would have been forced through the pressure relief valve, where the oil certainly made it through, but it seems a few hundred tiny bits of metal made it to the springs and made it to the near zero clearance surface between the plunger and its associated walls to a point where the pressure relief spring could no longer shove the plunger closed.

I can't tell you with any certainty why you had metal shavings in your oil pan, I can only guess that you had something go wrong during the install related to a failure - maybe an improperly clearanced bearing - maybe a plugged up oil galley. It might have been any of a million other things, but a failed bearing causing a failed oil pump is only my best guess. Good luck with the autopsy.

though srsly...i need a pump that doesn't fail. i don't want to rip is apart a third time. (disclaimer - won't be me ripping it apart, but the shop across the street from me.)

Originally Posted by mr2daj (Post 856460)

tempted to buy a BE race pump but spoke to keith at FM and he said he has not heard of a failure with an ati damper fitted and recommended the later vvt engine pump as it is higher capacity.... maybe i just need to buy a race pump and damper to be sure.