oil system advice?
 

hey all, i asked this at the miata.net forum and i decided to ask the same question here, since this is the turbo specific place, and so i cover all my bases.

is it neccesary to have a dry sump/accusump oil system in a RACE car? i bold race car because its not a lapping car, its not an auto cross car, its a caged road racecar which means it is going to have sticky slick tires and going to be racing for an hour at a time, not ten mins/ 1 min...

with the stock 1.6 motor and the class i used to be in i never had a problem with oil preassure around corners or oil temp levels, even without an oil cooler... but im planning to turbo the 1.6 thats in there with garret 60/64 turbo and i plan to run around 6-7 psi on stock internals and head gasket with a ms satandalone nice big intercooler and rc 370hi z injectors...

im just scared after i put new beerings and rings and rebulid the motor nice that after 30 mins of racing it hard i will have spun a beering... i understand the stock miata pan is baffled but is there anything else i should do with crank scrapers? im unfamiliar with all this

thanx a bunch :werd:

There is a guy local to me who has an NB with a RLC data logger on it. He found a couple instances where he lost oil pressure while braking and turning hard and installed an Accusump in his car. I have no idea if it was actually necessary or if many people racing miatas do this, so consider this just one data point to consider. He accurately logged his oil pressure, and found a couple very small dips when there was no load on the engine anyway.

This is what im scared of, with hard braking and cornering g forces the chances that the engine will chew a beering are very likley...

what are windage trays/ crank scrapers? has anyone ever used them on their miatas? cost? effectivness?

crank scrapers do just that... scrape oil off the crank to keep it marginally lighter and help it rev quicker. wont help your situation.

a windage tray is designed to prevent oil from sloshing away from the oil pickup

wow its lookin the only two options i have are dry sump or accusump... does anyone know if there are any "race" miatas on here? like road racing miatas? and what they use? i know flyin miatas track dog used an accusump but thats a pretty serious car

i really would like getting away with doing NOTHING to the oiling system besidse an oil cooler obviously but i REALLY dont wanna spend the time on an accusump / dry sump... but if neccesary i will

I would think with baffle and windage tray, you shouldn't have a problem. Then again I don't race Miata's, so I have no real experience to speak from. Run it 1/2 quart over and pray?

^Crank scraper will help keep more oil in the pan though, which is where it needs to be to get picked up, so I would think it WOULD help a tiny bit. I have one on my stock bottom end, figured for $50, why not.

does any one know where i could by a crank scraper, windage try, baffle? ive tried to find a windage tray for the miata and could not find one

thanx a bunch for all the imput guys its helpin alot.

There are a million zillion people that race miatas in spec miata. OK, maybe a few hundred. I can't imagine that you can't get a good honest answer from the spec miata crew. They have a website and forum at Spec Miata : The Official Spec Miata Community. While they can't answer the turbo questions, the ones you are asking (braking, cornering causing oil pressure loss) they should be able to cover. Better to get the answer from the horse's mouth.

Here's a look at the pickup and the location in the pan where the pickup sits.


Attachment 207084

Attachment 207085


Personally I think you'll be fine if you just keep it cool.

Not sure on a 1.6, but the 1.8 out of a 1997 Miata in my car has a factory windage tray. If i had spare $1500 laying around for a drysump i may consider it. but seriously way overkill. I track my car 2 or 3 times a year and within the 7-8 30 minute sessions in a track day i have never had a problem with oil pressure. Im running 14 PSI and the only things i burn up are the tires, gas and brakes. RA1's, R888 (never tried, but maybe next time), NT-o1's 225/45/15 :)
The oil cooler would make sense and increase the oil capacity a bit. But beyound that its overkill. If you are racing professionally and its an all out sponsered car "then hell with it and just do it" DRYSUMP FTW!

miata39 I can see by your questions that you come from the world of American V8s!

All Miata engines have factory windage trays and excellent pan baffling.

MiataRoadster has the Ishihara-Johnson scrapers for $60. Thats who I got mine from. Like I said, for the cost, why not. It surely keeps a little more oil in the pan than without one.

thank you to everyone for all the awesome imput!

when i rebuilt my stock 1.6 i noticed it did have some decent baffling but im just really weary about going turbo, and most of the guys i road race with even with n/a motors are ALLLL and i repeat ALLLL dry sumped, and with the adition of the turbo i did not want my oil to turn to baby poop than in corner 5 spin a beering

the crank scrapper seems liek a wicked idea, thanx na6c-guy ill be sure to buy one of those.

and from what im hearing... stock pan is fine????????

Yes.