Bad/Good news everybody!

I've been putting it off, but finally compression tested my motor that has felt a little weak, sounds "farty", and lost oil for the first time at NOLA. 140 dry, 160 wet across the board (HF tester). Even ignoring that the tester might inherently read low, the wet gaining 20psi across the board says it all, I think. Plan is to source a healthy NB1 motor and make the swap. Should be an easy 136whp for the TTE* reclass.

The onset of power/oil loss was so sudden I'm not sure what happened. If 100 degree 7 session days at TWS didn't kill it I'm not sure how a mild 40-70 degree at NOLA finally did it in. It's not even a 70k mile motor, don't judge me. Think this might make a good case for running better (than Mobil1) oil in this car, between 4.77's on the interstate and track duty.

Mobil 1 is weak

I have like 170k miles and 200+ hours of track use on my original unopened motor and all I use is Rotella T6. Don't think it was your oil, unless you run thin stuff and no oil cooler.

5w-30 no oil cooler. Still, it didn't feel noticeably different or start burning oil until NOLA, which was some of the coolest/mildest weather of the season. I also don't run the oil over more than two events due to street usage and a lot of short trips around town. Definitely on-board with using high end oil (Amsoil?) of a different weight if it prevents this moving forward. Not real pleased with myself killing a motor so prematurely.

I might try another tester just for a sanity check. The motor certainly isn't at the point of feeling awful tired, it's just slightly off from where I felt it was at the beginning of the year.

Well there you go.

Looks like next mod on your list is an oil cooler. Save the money you'd spend on boutique oil and put it towards that instead.

Wasn't under the impression peasant class N/A hp required it, even in hot weather. Guess I proved myself wrong. It's going to be a mad dash to get the car prepped for the first event in about 4 weeks :p

Oil, unlike coolant, isn't greatly affected by the actual combustion event. It is proportional to engine speed. The difference between 7000rpm firing vs motoring (being spun by a dyno) is only 10-15 *C. Therefore, there isn't a huge difference between a stock BP and a 250whp S/C BP (obviously an oil cooled turbo will add more heat) at the same engine speed. Also running 30 weight oil with high ambient temps and no oil cooler is just asking for problems.

So I have not been told no on this ;)

You know exactly how PT rules work. If you got no response then it's a no. lol.

This has always been a sticky point for the e36 guys. They don't officially have a subframe tearing problem, according to Greg, even though it's a widespread problem.

How does one prove that this isn't a performance enhancing modification? What are we to do if someone challenges it? The rule is quite hypocritical because at the same time, they allow stitch welding the entire chassis, which would only be done for a performance advantage. So we can reinforce our front subframe and stitch weld the entire chassis, but the e36 guys can't fix a known problem?

The Spec Miata rules at least call out the specifics of the modification.

I did receive a response :D

Share it or die. :party:

For those of us who are not ready to drop the coin on a cooler, is 10W30 adequate insurance? I just want to keep the car reliable for (advanced) DE duty...

I've got a 55k mile BP4W on the way and first event is on 27th. Frantic season prep mode, engage. Going to go ahead and knock out tb/wp and seals since I already had a kit ready to go. Definitely throwing an oil cooler at this one, may also ithrow a coolant re-route at it. No reason not to I reckon. +11whp from last season and moving up to SM7's from RC1's. Let the hunt for records commence.

Unless my knowledge of how oil works is truly that lacking I don't believe there's any extra protection (on track at least) as 5w vs 10w is only at play when the oil is cold. You'd have to bump the second number up for more hot viscosity.

I don't understand why anyone runs less than a 5w-40. Even for daily driver use.

Get some T6 for super cheap at Walmart and call it a day. Use the saved money to put towards an oil cooler.

Where are you located, and how far south do you typically travel? I'm willing to accept that the guys in texas/arizona/cali have found an oil cooler to be a requirement, but I literally don't know of a single miata running an oil cooler in the great lakes region-- PTE, SM, or just general track day cars. It won't hurt anything to add one, but I definitely wouldn't consider it a requirement for a track day car that mostly runs northern tracks.

Put an oil temp sensor on and it might change your mind.

This.

Common sense?