Me and Mine
 

I happen to live in the Mountains of WV. My wife and I have two Miata's. Both are 1990's and we are the second owners of both. The first one we bought is Blue. Bought it about 9 years ago. The second one is Red, and it came out of a salvage yard. See my other post. I can modify Red, but we hope to keep Blue close to stock (it has a 2-2-1 header)
I fell in love with driving mountain roads a long time ago. I used to throw a car around the turns and had a 1972 Corolla that I would take Porsche hunting in Southern California. That poor little engine (1600) would see 10K or better on the tach (if it would have read that far).
To the point I hope to install a "home brew" turbo on Red this summer. Mods will include getting rid of the A/C and power steering.
FYI, the Miata engines I have rebuilt so far needed the crankshaft deflashed and peened. I had to rebuild Reds (it has a large snout crank now) and have one spare engine in the shed.
One reason for Two Miata's is that if anything happens to one, we will have spare parts for the one still left.
You can have my Miata when they pry by lifeless hands off the steering wheel.

Ha, I like your last sentence. If I lived in the mountains I would be so happy, at least there are some not far from where I live though. :)

Mikado, welcome to the forum. I can see that you live in WV; now put that on the location below your "AVATAR". It sure seems like you know your NA Miatas so you shouldn't have any problems boosting it. Nevertheless, I do suggest you read braineack's FAQ and the MS info.

Would you mind explaining what deflashing and peening your crankshaft means? Me = Mechanically Challenged person :giggle:

The only issue I have with my car has to do with the front seal of the crankshaft; I've already changed it twice and I'm still spilling oil drops! :mad:

Regards,

Rafa

Even with a forged crankshaft there is metal that is excess and this is found where the dies used in forging meet. When the crankshaft in cast the mold lines some times has metal that is excess and kind of has a feathered look to it. This is what I call flashing. This creates wind drag on the crankshaft.
Cleaning this up is done using the same methods that are used when prepping rods for a blue printed engine. Care must be used, as any tool that is used will leave stress risers in the materal. Peening is used to round these small areas so that cracks are less likely to develope.
If is interesting to me that no one is providing a sourse for better crankshafts for these cars. At least ones that have been inspected and prepped for high horse power engines. One of the crankshafts I am useing has an inclusion it it, or maybe a forging burst. I don't like it as I know that this will fail some time. But I have yet to see any inspected ones on the market. It would be nice to buy one that had been radiographed (or Ultrasonicly inspected) as well as magparticled.
I ramble.
But if you are going to spend 2 grand on a forced induction system, you had better have a sound crankshaft and rods. The rods are easy, the crankshaft is the sticker.

On that front seal, have you tired a "speedy sleeve"?
This is a seal matched to a sleeve that is placed on the crank shaft to make up for wear.

Mikado, first of all; thanks for the above explanation. Very informative! :bigtu:

Now about the seal; I had never heard of a "speedy sleeve" before. Would you mind explaining a little further? Do you mean buying a regular seal and then matching it to a sleeve on the crank shaft? Or is there a specific place I could buy it? Sorry; me = dumb