Turbo bad idea w/ engine that eats oil?
 

Like the title says. My 1.6 drips a little oil and consumes about a quart every oil change or so. Should I not turbo the miata? Are there people here who have similar problems, but have gone the turbo route? Thoughts are appreciated as I was going to place my order with Begi tonight.
P.S. 145k on motor. Good compression. Runs good also.

Compression and Leakdown test your motor to know for sure about it's health. My car uses up a lot of oil between changes due to bad cam seals and my motor has >5k miles.

Do the compression test and leakdown test. My car has around 140k and it does eat quite a lot of oil, but i still turboed it.

Sorry Leo. Cars cant be turbo'd at that point........ They also cant be turbo'd with 250k on them. What was Paul thinking??

Mine uses oil I have 147,xxx miles but not very much and I haven't had any problems but haven't cranked up the boost to it yet. just 6psi right now no intercooler.

Mine also consumes a reasonable amount of oil. Significantly less now that I fixed the valve cover gasket leak at the CAS, but it still eats quite a bit. Planning on doing a compression/leakdown test. The motor dyno'd at 105whp stock baseline, so I'm thinking it's healthy, just a bad seal somewhere that's causing the oil consumption. If the compression test comes back positive I'll probably just boost it and deal with the frequent top-offs. Or else do a couple possible fixes, cam seals, valve seals, etc and see if the consumption problem goes away or at least lessens.

Mine used to eat oil but thats usually from the oil overheating. Go ahead and turbo it but get an oilcooler or a coolant reroute or both as a combo. It'll keep it a bit happier with the added turbo heat. It may lose more oil after boosting but you should be fine. Once it blows just get another cheap engine or rebuild yours *within reason on the rebuild yours statement*. I think turboing your own car is something every car guy should experience atleast once. Much knowledge gained and good fun to have. I say go for it.

uh, fix the oil leak...how hard was that? I paid $80 for a water pump gasket, oil pump gasket, oil pan gaskets, front main seal, rear main seal, rear main gasket, cam seals, mixing manifold gasket, a bunch of o-rings, and a bottle of gasket sealer from NAPA. I don't think that's too bad a deal, and with a $20 valve cover gasket, $80 head gasket, and a few misc. o-rings you've essentially sealed the entire engine, sans piston rings, for around $200. Well worth it in my opinion, and if you're in that deep (most likely have the engine on a stand by now), might as well do the piston rings, and if you've got the money, forged internals. Boom rebuilt engine for $200, and little to no worry about turbo charging, as long as your tune is good.

Note: FM's rebuild kit is $612, and as far as I can tell well worth it. I'd rather have an amazingly solid and clean NA engine than a leaky turbocharged one. If anything your knowledge of the car more than triples during the rebuild process.

Before turbo mine ate almost 1 quart between oil changes.
After turbo it eats at least 2 quarts between changes.
Moral of the story is:
Don't be a pussy. Turbo it and have a blast, just make sure the tune is good and it'll last you a while. I've been beating the F&%$ outta mine for almost 30,000 miles and I have run it around 14psi pretty much all summer.

Mine with 160k miles on it uses maybe a quart per 500 miles-but I still turboed it...I also bought a spare block that I'm building up to (reliably) hold way more hp than stock-so I do not expect my engine to last forever and am planning to have another to drop in next spring.