I was out driving around in my car yesterday making sure everything was good and was hearing, what I thought was, rod knock. Drove it around some more to make sure I wasn't making stuff up, but was sure something was wrong. I changed the oil when I got home and there was a decent amount of metal in the oil, so I said screw it and pulled the engine and took it apart to find that two of the rod bearing were spun pretty well and the other two showed some signs of fatigue.

Today, the shortblock got dropped off at my machine shop and they said that it should only take a few days to get the new bearing in and do a complete check on it. They will be looking at the oil pump, cylinder walls, rings and everything else to make sure nothing else was messed up.

He said that it was good that I brought it in and didn't just ignore it like most people, and that there wasn't any damage to the crank or pistons that he could see at the time. A full tear down will tell a better story though.

Looks like I will be driving either our lemons miata or drop the engine in for my locost and a stock ECU. Either way it will still be fun, but makes me want to go to an LS1 for the track car.

I think it got this way at the last track event. It started making some noise, but not this loud and I had some pretty high oil temps. Definately fixing the oil cooler setup back if I drop this back in. If not I am going to an LS1, still with an oil cooler.

 

What oil temps were you hitting, and do you run synthetic?

 

Running full synthetic Mobile 1 and I saw it spike to 270ish, but it wasn't en extended period. Then again I was trying not to stay glued to the gauge like I had been, so it may have been a little higher.

 

How big were the oil clearances in the motor when you had it built?

 

Well that sucks.

The good thing is that you have the resources to fix it.

 

That's the thing. I didn't have the motor built. It was built by Ric Stephens of racing mazda for Mikef85 on here and I just bought it from him.

 

It will be fixed correctly and I know that for sure. My guy is top notch and affordable, so perfect combo. Plus he loves to race and tries to get as many people out doing it as possible. I just hate having down time like this and having to fix random crap that goes wrong.

I may just get it back and sell it all and swap in the LS1. Hell I would probably come out even, but we will just see if this is me being down about this and not being eable to drive it for the MSR-H miata challange.

 

FWIW, T1 Corvettes run at 290* all day without issues. Most say that they use 300* as the point to worry.

 

Like I said thought, it may have been higher, but I wasn't watching as much as I should have I guess. I also don't know how accurate my oil temp is.

 

Real bummer. With all your recent talk of wanting a sturdy LS1 track car...this only strengthens your points.



If you decide to make this happen let me know. I can help on Mondays and Wednesdays.

 

Yay for LS1 track car and LS1 daily! We will see. Depends on how irritated I am with driving an NA Miata with a giant HOV symbol and 200k shocks/stock springs around MSR-H for the challange. it's a blast with the lemons race, but not so much for that.

 

Would be the wise choice.

 

Thanks man.

 

That sucks man. See you next weekend anyway, hope you get the car going by then!

BTW, if this makes you feel better, Trey had to inform me that the RB Type II nose in the garage was a piece of yours, that's quality work!

 

Car won't be going by then most likely, but we will still have some fun and looking forward to it. Thanks for the props on the bumper.

 

That means that it was likely built by Brian Stoid who has a history of **** poor work when he doesn't charge people for upgraded parts and put stock **** in...or deck the black so the pistons hit the head, then tell the customers to GTFO. ALLEGEDLY of course.

 

You should see the hood. Its the total antithesis of the FM hood. I chubbed-up a little bit when I saw it.

 

Yep- there's a build issue if all other things check out. No way 270f synth oil temps caused a problem. Make sure you post up what your builder finds. My first FE3 was a 2339cc stroker that was built over a period of nearly a year by a guy that was once reputable, then gone bad. I think bad things happen when an engine build isn't done start to finish, straight through. Things get missed. Look at this mess after ~500 miles with ~20 on low boost:

 

It makes me sad to see that happen to such a capable motor.

DIBS!

 

Well I talked to the shop again this morning. He is saying that the motor was built fine, but the bearings were too soft in his opinion and looked like OEM substitute bearings. I asked about oil temps and he said what he was looking at was typical of too soft of bearings combined with pretty high oil temps. I told him I saw 270 when at the track and he replied that it was probably in the low 300's based on wear. There are no scorings anywhere on the crank or rods, so the bearing was just worn.

He is going to replace all bearings, rods, main, and thrust with some better bearings. This should take about a week to get everything in and get it finished.

Looks like I will be putting an NA 1.8L in my car for the MSR-H race next weekend. Worse things could happen.