I've never heard of sleeving one of our engines either. Only seen that on aluminum engines, it's popular with the Honda crowd.

All of our blocks are sleeved in the initial manufacture. Look closely at the deck or into the water jacket area from the water pump. These people are pretty good at it also:

http://www.mccullyracingmotors.com/

I would not trust a "straightened" rod either. Or, the person who recommends it.

Huh.

You know, I think you're right. I'd never given it any thought, but I suppose it does make sense even on an iron engine that you'd want a steel liner.

This is what I get for growing up on ACVWs. Those jugs really are just bare iron. OTOH, they're also considered a consumable wear item.

I'll give Marc a call Monday or Tuesday and see what he thinks about straightening the rod. I don't know how comfortable I am with it either. But I think I will buy that Protege motor anyway. That way, I've got lots of spare parts and a cylinder head with no bent valves. And a spare block if anything happens to the sleeved block.

Straighten a rod. I think those rods are very strong but shit, would you really trust that? He is going to unbend it into trueness?

And sleeve the block??? Is he going to actually bore out your cast iron block? And then sleeve it? What the fucking fuck. I barely know jackshit about engines but I know this is ridiculous.

Your machine shop pathetically sucks. It is a stinking pile of dog shit. One of the stereotypes of mechanics is that they are slack jawed 80 IQ neanderthals. That they are rude, scummy, and intimidating. In your case I think that steretype is true. You need to go to small claims court for the TOTAL price on your invoice and get some money back, then start over. You were fucked by this tard and now you are being taken. If you paid with credit card, protest this shit now.

Dude you can buy a naked miata block for like $60. And the bores will most likely be round. Just get a block, get a rod, get a piston, and pay $500 or so bucks to have a good shop put it together. Don't go back.

Very interesting. I wouldn't trust his fuckup shop to execute that properly though.

I have a 1.8 block (bare) you can have if you can figure out how to get it to TN

The shop really does good work. Despite a few fuck ups, they really do. I've personally seen RB motors they've built pushing 900 hp, f20's over 500 so on and so forth. The guy has been doing this for 50 years. Despite this random screw up, he really does know what he's doing. Like I said, I kind of call bull shit on the straightening the rod thing. I don't doubt that it can be straightened into being true again, the problem I have is the internal stresses it can induce. Messing with the grain patterns, inducing internal stresses, local hardening, etc. etc. The sleeve I don't have a problem with at all. It's common practice on Honda block's, the only difference is aluminum vs. iron. They are still steel sleeved blocks from the factory.

If you have a lead on a $60 block, I'm all ears. I've also never seen a block over 60k that had round cylinders. They are always tapered or out of round. I can't seem to find one for less than $200 anyway. He's willing to do the machine work for free. I will probably do the assembly myself. I've got an engine stand and a torque wrench. The problem is, there aren't any other competent shops in the area, this is the shop to go to for anything more complicated than resurfacing a flywheel. A rod, piston and rings are $300. I can afford that. I can't afford a new block, new piston, new rod, new rings and pay someone else to assemble it. I may buy that junk yard motor, have this one sleeved and machined and put it all together later when I can afford the piston and rod.

Is the Lars Delivery Service in need again? Knoxville is a little out of my way, but for the right price I do sell my time.

I am not sure about rods, but I know that it is common practice to straighten crankshafts that were bent from engines coming apart. I believe it was Lunati that was featured in a magazine article about the procedure. This was quite a few years back. They straightened high dollar forged cranks, where the price of replacement was much higher than the repair.

The point I am trying to make, is that it may not be so unreasonable. I personally would prefer a new rod, especially if I was not the one that screwed it up. Perhaps call other machine shops to see if it is taboo to straighten out a connecting rod.

I'm gonna call Marc at M-tuned and see what he thinks about it. If he thinks it will be ok given the kind of damage this rod has seen, I'll probably go for it. Otherwise, I'll just buy a new one. y8s and shuiend have officially saved me on this deal though with a $60 block. I'm going to have that one machined like the broken one. With that block, I'll be able to afford the new piston, rod and rings. Everything should be good to go now.

It is absolutely no problem to go out of my way to help a fellow miata owner out. I know what it is like to have a built motor not work right the first time it is put together and will gladly help out those in need.

I would just bite the bullet on the new rod and get the machine shop to split the cost since they wont have to do any labor on it.

They may be a great shop, but it seems questionable that they can get the rod back to exactly the same condition it was pre-installation. There's just too much metallurgy involved in my opinion.

I probably will just buy the new rod. I know that at the very least it will have to have a new bushing anyway. The pin is frozen inside the rod, and who knows what kind of internal stresses are on that end now.

http://www.boostedmiata.com/gallery2...24-2/block.jpg
Baron, there is your new block sitting in my passengers seat.

free oil cooler and water pump!

You are a fantastic human being.

That would be a very smart move. The fact he's willing to do the machine and assembly on his dime this time is enough to speak highly for the shop. We all make mistakes, but its how we enact on those mistakes is determines who is a man.............. and who's just a.... Well, you get the idea :)

That's the whole reason I'm ok with this outcome. In the end, sometimes shit just happens. It is probably his fault originally, but it could have been a piston failure, no way to say for certain. He's willing to make it right and at least meet me half way, which is good enough for me. There is something to be said for just treating people right. It seams too few businesses are willing to that these days, and as long as he continues to do that, I don't want to go to court or try to screw him either.

and too lazy to strip the block bare?

Lars, you are about to have a new BFF it seems. :(

Doesn't bother me a bit. I'll be dropping it off at the machine shop tomorrow :)

I dunno about BFF (I think the wife kinda has dibs on that one). Couch to crash on while running the dragon, much more likely. Beer and BBQ, also likely.

I know its from the dead, but let me see what was the outcome on this one...

If at all, anyone?