Video: How To Drill Your Miata Oil Pan
 

I thought this might be helpful here since this is the #1 place people come to learn how to boost their Miatas. :party:

Thanks! All of your videos have been super helpful.

One more thing i did after draining the oil was dump some thinner down the hose and through the pan to flush out any remaining shavings.

You should post your video series on the site here when you're done, they seem pretty helpful for new people. Though i can never support turboing a 1.6l.

I stuck my pinky in the hole after drilling it and pulled fallen shavings from the pan floor. There were a couple.

this x1000

I use a q-tip and grease to swab the backside of the pan after drilling. Flushing with solvent is a good idea too. I love the idea of sleeving the drillbit to prevent drilling into the pickup tube as well.

I used the q tip method also, and flushed a whole gallon of mineral spirits through the drain hose and out of the drain plug. I wonder if a magnetic drain plug would have caught anything that was left behind...

Aluminum

:giggle:

So, couple of dumb questions...

I'm in the middle of a VVT swap on my '92, and still have the VVT motor on the stand. I'm debating drilling the pan now, while it's out... but should I go to the trouble of pulling the pan off the motor? Everything I've read says it's a PITA and tricky to get to seal properly.

Second, ideas on the best way to plug it? Cap over barb fitting? NPT plug?

pull pan. weld in npt bung. Put in npt-AN10. Cap AN10

I've not seen this difficulty sealing you speak of.

Sounds good to me. Thanks!

I'll definitely post up the entire series here if that's cool, when it's finished. Thanks for all the tips as well, for procedures like this I like to throw a little disclaimer in there that you should also read up before attempting it, as there are quite a few good threads here that can help out as well. @Savington I thought that was a good safety measure as well, the drill can pull SO hard when the bit first pierces the pan.

Why are you guys drilling the oil pan when you can just run a line to a tank and use an electric pump to circulate the oil back to the valve cover?

Love the video, was very helpful.

:rofl: