Let us know what you find . Fredb

I guess the general consensus is valve seals. The head gasket, I'm assuming, has 190k on it, so I had planned on replacing it anyways.

Guess the head is coming off next week to do both.

Seals can be done with the head on the motor. It's a little labor intensive but certainly less so than pulling the head. Head gaskets don't wear out, certainly not MLS gaskets like the OEM one. I wouldn't pull the head, personally.

It's the valve seals. There's oil on them when you look in the head. No oil on the compressor side of the turbo. I'm ordering some, and another valve cover gasket to fix the one that never seems to seal for me. ;/

I've watched a ton of videos on the valve seal replacement, and my buddy owns a shop with the tools to do it, so I don't think it's going to be as bad as I made it out to be.

Thanks for the help, ya'll!

Might want to check out the valve guides while your there. If you've pulled the head , throwing a valve grind at it isn't a totally bad idea either. That way you at least know where everything is with the top end. Fredb

Aye lol -- that's my buddy's famous line, too -- "while you're in there."

I had planned on doing it with the head on the car still. If I have to pull the head I'm going to go buy a daily driver (looking at an is300) and pull the motor to put rods and pistons in it, too.

I've spent the last 2 months (and $4,000) going over every inch of the car (sans internals) and am pretty much tired of it at this point, needing a break.

My DIYPNP doesn't want to play well with the automatic transmission / 5 speed swap (I'm assuming, about to make another thread for it), and with the labor involved in changing the seals, I'm still half-tempted to go get another car and let this one sit until I get the motivation back to completely pull the motor again and build it proper.

And that is exactly how I ended up with a 26 year old Miata that I've spent significantly more that the cost of a new ND on.....

lol I'm quickly headed that direction. The IS300 is only $4200 with 116k miles, leather, loaded.

Then there's a 99 bright red Corvette with popup lights I've been eyeing for 2 weeks. I'm afraid to buy the Corvette because I think the Miata will sit. I want to get it finished before I venture into any other roadsters.

This car was super reliable until I boosted it. Then I broke everything. Now I'm almost to the price of the Corvette, and ready to surpass it if I pull the motor again.

I love my Miata, though. At least, I keep telling myself I do.