I have a 1.8 with a T3 60trim turbo (details below the video). Everything has been running really reliably for the last few months and even got it re-tuned last week as a precaution but the shop said the tune that was on the car was 99% perfect and they just needed to barely tweek something little to make it 100%. Unfortunately yesterday I was coming home and did a 1st gear rolling pull, shifted into second with a loud backfire and now my engine is ticking like no tomorrow! Sounds louder than the lifter tick, which was fixed by changing my oil and its directly correlated with the rpm. It doesn't get louder as i accelerate but gets more rapid.

Any ideas on what it is? how to fix it? should I just build the engine while I'm in there for more power? If so what parts should I be using?

Any help would be HUGELY appreciated as I'm fairly new to the turbo miata/built engine game. Sorry for some Newb questions thrown in there.

Hopefully you guys can see the video

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10100931669543833&l=621102560539956245 3


Dyno sheet



The car:



The Engine bay back when the car was red:




Specs:
Garrett T3 60 turbo from ATP Turbo
M-Tuned Shorty turbo manifold
Track Dog Racing intercooler system with "over the top" pipes
AEM standalone ECU with 91 and 94 octane maps, 18 psi
FM level 2 clutch
M-Tuned coolant reroute
AEM 3.5 bar MAP sensor
AEM wideband O2 sensor and gauge
Saturn knock sensor
GM boost controller
RX7 550 cc drop in fuel injectors
PWR aluminum radiator
boost gauge
Hydraulic hood lifts
Shock tower brace
Custom exhaust
Stage 8 fasteners between turbo and manifold
Walbro high flow fuel pump
NGK bkr7-e

 

yep, your motor is done.
no one cares about your dyno plot, post up your tune and logs.

*EDIT: wait, you were running 18psi on a stock motor?
ANDDD blew your motor at only 230hp or so?

that's gotta be the worst tune known to mankind

 

I love when I re-tune the motor to blown status.

 

This was the previous owner's tune, it was re-tuned by Carb Connection in Kirkland and I don't have their numbers I will try to get that today.

I think this is what you were looking for?

 

yep. exactly as I thought: go back to that shop that tuned your car and tell them they are morons. thank them for your newly blown engine.

all the boost
none of the timing
all the blown engine
with none of the power

 

that timing map looks like it was made for 67 octane.


WAIT WAIT WAIT WAIT....



you ran 20psi on a stock motor?

 

Protip: our cars are NOT EVO's
your car is tuned exactly like one would tune an evo

 

protip: you need a new motor; preferably a 1.6L

 

Well that certainly explains it.

OP, if your car had made more like.... 300-325whp, would it have made more sense to you that it blew?

Because you did the same thing, just with less power, because no timing.

 

Like I said I am a complete newbie when it comes to tuning/building engines I mostly focus my efforts on aesthetic mods and leave the engine tuning to "professionals" but apparently I've left them to "professionals" that don't know ****. I was wondering why the turbo set up was only making 224whp at 18psi seemed like it should have been making more. SO any ideas on what it is exactly? Rod knock, lifter tick, chipped piston, Spun rod bearing? Honestly I have no idea. Luckily I have money in savings for just such an occasion but i'd rather re-build this engine for strength then buy a new engine and build it (save's my $900 for the new engine). Any ideas?

 

How about "ALL OF THE ABOVE"?

I absolutely love how your AFR is in the mid to high 12's too

This is why you should learn how to work on cars rather than making them HELLAFLUSH then letting some hack shop destroy your engine.

 

Bent rod(s)?

All of the above?

 

Ill post the tune that Carb Conn gave it as soon as I get it, I sent the owner an Email a few minutes ago.

 

When you don't have any timing, lean is mean!

 

because that timing map sucks. with that turbo and boost level it SHOULD have made over 300rwhp. Problem is with that boost level and that lean of fueling--regardless of how retarded the timing was--created too many clyinder pressures and blew your **** up.

My guess: blown ringlands and/or bent rods.

 

Tell him that he's going to become the laughingstock of the entire turbo miata community. He'll appreciate that.



Side note/piece of advice: When running a fuel injected car with a fully tunable ECU, avoid any shop that has the word "Carb" in their name.

 

bro, you dont 13.0:1 in boost?

 

lol he literally did ALLOFIT wrong

 

I purchased the car like this from a gentleman in Cali who had tracked the car for the last 10 years then took it to both drift office as well as carb conn who are both know for working on AEM stand alones as well as a few turbo miata builds, then took it down to CNC autosports to have them check up on it too. If I were to build the car from the ground up obviously I would have done a lot more research and learned to tune the car myself but since I purchased it from a guy who seemed to know what he was doing, then took it to three shops who all seemed to know what they were doing I would ASSUME it would be good to go and wasn't going to push anymore power out of it thus no reason to learn all the tuning. Plus the car ran flawlessly the last 4 months so I didn't think that I needed to do anything mechanically to it so started playing around with the cosmetics. And no it's definitely not "hella flush/stanced" I use to drive this thing like a bat outta hell, was going to take it auto-xing before this happened :.(

 

Do you even lean?