First off I want to say thanks for all the helpful threads on here. I have a Ek hatch with a B16A in it and have always wanted something rwd. I recently bought a Red 91 Miata that had been sitting for a couple years for a song and drove it home with plans to boost it. After a week of hard driving the water pump started to leak and I replaced it. I put it back together and I guess it got too hot and had blown the head gasket. I pulled the engine and did a leak down test on it to find some bad results (4,2,1 have around 40-55% and 3 had 18%). So now the head is pulled and I am sending the head and block off to have the valves done and the head matched with the block. The sleeves appear to be fine, some minor honing should be fine on it. I plan on putting Belfab rods in it and new rings, main bearings, and oil pump of course. My question is how strong would this setup be? Also what kind of turbo would work well with this to get me to the 250whp range and spool fairly quick? Thanks for the help.

 

it is overkill for only 250whp. if it is out see if it has shortnose crank problems if so do the fix or consider a new crank. also if you plan to ream the **** out of it billet oil pump gears aren't a bad deal. if it wasn't for the lead time on them 2-3weeks i woulda done it last time i had my motor out. 500$ well spent. 250whp range i would look at a 2560, 2860, small16g, t3s60, evo3 16g. take your pic.

 

for belfab's package price of the rods, rings, pistons, wrist pins, its hard to pass up. i went with that package, knowing its overkill, for peace of mind. I track the car hard twice per month, and I want to be sure I'm going to make it home...and since I had the money I thought it would be a good idea to overbuild it right. One day I'll actually install the ****.

Has anyone on this board experienced oil pump failure?

 

No but high hp people like Markp run them for peice of mind north of 300 or so whp several on .net have broken them they are only sintered metal after all
http://forum.miata.net/vb/showthread...illet+oil+pump
http://forum.miata.net/vb/showthread...ght=billet+oil enjoy

 

Thanks guys. I think I lucked out and have a long nose crank. Should I not replace my oil pump if im not going to be running billet gears? I was just going to do it to be safe since its already torn down. Do you think I should be shooting for bigger numbers?