White Miatai

So my white Miata saga continues.   Three years ago I bought a broken Monster Miata from a dude in Ohio.  It was a 93 and the motor was out of the car.   I put it together for under a challenge budget but it wasn't great.   When a guy in Indian offered to trade me a white 99 with an Ecotec swap PLUS 2 grand for the monster I took it.  But the ecotec swap wasn't a great fit for autocross  and when a dude up in Michigan offered me 6 grand for the car to be a track toy, I took it.

The monster got resold to someone in eastern Ky who blew up the motor in the first week he owned it.  The ecotec apparently did a handful of track days before letting go and requiring it's own heart transplant.  Both are now doing fine but you see the trend.

Which brings us to my turbo car.   I picked it up for $4k back in April and immediately regretted it.  Pilot bearing seized, requiring a new clutch.  AC needed repair.  Speedo cable got replaced.  Racelands got replaced, the the springs on the Vmaxxes needed to be replaced.  Intake plumbing was poorly done so I've been chasing that around.  Factory seats sucked so I just got new seats installed.   Tanaka harnesses sucked so good harnesses went in.   You get the idea, it's been a money/effort/time pit since I bought it.

And now the motor is done.   Cylinders 1 and 4 are down on compression by 1/3rd.

Big time blowby, tons of oil smoke, and significantly down on power.   A friend of mine has a "believed good when pulled" 1.6 that used to be in a turbo car he'll sell me for $100.  That is certainly my cheapest and simplest solution.   Motor replacement is easily within my skill set.  I love the idea of doing something cool like a K-swap but it sounds like that's the fast way to dump $9 large and I don't have that laying around to spend on this toy.

So there is my tale of woe.  I've owned 3 white Miatai and all three have gone pop.  Two black ones and a Montego blue are all trundling along happily (all stock power, coincidence?)

Anyone have any other cost effective ideas for this one?   Volunteering your skill and time to make it happen?

Leak down test to see if it is valves or rings?  If valves, a head refresh/swap may be an option.

The concern I would have with the "believed good when pulled" motor is that while the part is cheap, how much is your labour worth?

In reply to PMRacing :

I didn't mention.  It was pressurizing the oil so badly that it was coming out around the oil fill cap.   Sounds very "ring failure" to me, but a leak down tester is a good idea, I need to buy more tools.

KyAllroad (Jeremy) (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to PMRacing :

I didn't mention.  It was pressurizing the oil so badly that it was coming out around the oil fill cap.   Sounds very "ring failure" to me, but a leak down tester is a good idea, I need to buy more tools.

The Harbor fright leak down tester is a really a nice tool.

I also have a "ran when pulled" 1.6L that I would give you, but I'm up in NY so that might be a bit of a haul. That was a solid running little 1.6L, I just removed it because I went to a 1.8L. Although maybe a fresh oil pump might be a good idea, because when it was really hot, the oil pressure at idle was in the 10-15psi region.

Re ring your existing motor and keep on keeping on?

Probably not the cheapest solution, but an NB2 VVT swap (2001-2005) is wonderful in the NA chassis.  Complete running engines can still be had for well under $1k, and everything bolts up except exhaust, for which you will need 1.8 stuff.  The NB exhaust parts work in NAs, just the hanger locations are different.  Stock engine should easily handle a low boost turbo setup.

I don't recall what engine management you're NA has, but you'll want something capable of running the VVT.  MS sells a VVT tuner that can handle that as a standalone part.

It's good you have so many options, re-ring and/or valve job on the current motor, local engine for $100, free engine from New York, etc.

Hard to say which option is the best. Swapping in the $100 engine sounds like the least work, but only if it's still good. I'd be a little concerned that it was already turboed. Anyway to check the state of it's health before dropping it in?

That's the good thing about miatas. They're not hard to find parts for.

BTW, I think they look great in white. Being in Florida, that's my favorite color for a car. 

It is obvious that white miatai are devil spawn in your household.  I do not have the same problem.  The only solution is to preform an exorcism and send your white miata to me.

dean1484 said:

Re ring your existing motor and keep on keeping on?

eBay forgings and rods for increased blam-proofing?

If it apparently hurt the rings on a turbo motor with stock pistons, I'd put doubt on the integrity of the ring lands.  Probably worn out if not damaged.  Plus, if I'm pulling the head and oil pan to pop the pistons out, the stock bits are not going back in unless stock is very very good.

Stampie (FS) said:

It is obvious that white miatai are devil spawn in your household.  I do not have the same problem.  The only solution is to preform an exorcism and send your white miata to me.

I had the same thought, just didn't know how to put it quite so eloquently.

I once had a white 94 R.  It was awesome and I still wish I had it.

Sigh.  The cheap motor was sold last year, he'd forgotten about that.

I've started pulling mine but am feeling really bummed about it.  The turbo manifold is cracked and the Greddy turbo kit is really bottom tier.  To do this thing right I'm looking at big money.  I almost want to save up for a few months and invest in something like the EV West kit and go all electrified.

I know anything can be made to work. I'm just aware of my limitations as a builder/fabricator and attempting to keep the repair cost to a minimum.  

I see why people part them out...tons of parts in this car. 

In reply to KyAllroad (Jeremy) (Forum Supporter) :

Ugh, sorry to hear the bad news. The NC only has like 500 more miles since you sold it to me!

This thread is making miss having a Miata in the garage. 

In reply to mtn (Forum Supporter) :

I can deliver...

Cheap- Power- Reliability.  Tell us which two you're after.

If it were me- compression tested VVT motors can be shipped from the UK to your door for around $700. That's the easy button. Stock ECU and VVTuner, get around 130hp and never worry about it. 

Turbo setups can be really fun but you better have a good ECU and tune, and you'll still be dealing with little stuff (heat, boost leaks) for a long time. 

After much consideration and being tempted to make my money back and just part the whole shebang out, I think I'm gonna pick up a local VVT motor (only 52k miles on it) along with it's new FM clutch/flywheel and transmission for $1000 (less if I can talk the dude down.)

$800 for a new MS2 from goodwin and probably throw on a cast turbo manifold and some flavor of turbo (open to suggestions, but the Chinese ones on eBay are temptingly cheap.).  Reuse a bunch of the piping and intercooler and call it a day.    Maybe an upgraded radiator and coolant reroute while everything is apart.     It won't be ideal but I'll be done for under $2500 and can stop dicking with substandard stuff.

I ran an Ebay T3/T4 on my 1.6 for about four years with a good amount of track time, never had an issue.

KyAllroad (Jeremy) (Forum Supporter) said:

After much consideration and being tempted to make my money back and just part the whole shebang out, I think I'm gonna pick up a local VVT motor (only 52k miles on it) along with it's new FM clutch/flywheel and transmission for $1000 (less if I can talk the dude down.)

$800 for a new MS2 from goodwin and probably throw on a cast turbo manifold and some flavor of turbo (open to suggestions, but the Chinese ones on eBay are temptingly cheap.).  Reuse a bunch of the piping and intercooler and call it a day.    Maybe an upgraded radiator and coolant reroute while everything is apart.     It won't be ideal but I'll be done for under $2500 and can stop dicking with substandard stuff.

That sounds like the best option. 

Bad motor is out.  Heading north momentarily to get the new mill.

Went to buy the motor.  Will go back today to actually pick it up.   It wasn't actually accessible behind the sellers Miata shell.   Since he was about to haul it to the scrap yard I offered to take it away (some bit of meat still on those bones) when I came back with the trailer.

Anyone need doors or other random bits and pieces for an NA?   I'm gonna turn the teenager loose on it with a socket set and sell whatever comes off before scrapping the rusty tub.

Build a Ghettocet on the spare chassis when you're done...  

KyAllroad (Jeremy) (Forum Supporter) said:

Went to buy the motor.  Will go back today to actually pick it up.   It wasn't actually accessible behind the sellers Miata shell.   Since he was about to haul it to the scrap yard I offered to take it away (some bit of meat still on those bones) when I came back with the trailer.

Anyone need doors or other random bits and pieces for an NA?   I'm gonna turn the teenager loose on it with a socket set and sell whatever comes off before scrapping the rusty tub.

Where are you located?  I've been thinking about getting a set of control arms so I can do poly bushings and just swap them onto the car.