Saul_Good wrote:

speedjunkie wrote:I don't know how you do it. I'd have a hard time keeping my modifications within the class rules, I just love modding lol.

You just need a fun, competitive series available to run in. Then it becomes all about driving, and you'll mostly be buying tires, pads, and oil changes. Your car is GTA level build soon. You should start getting that seat time in, so you can set yourself up for your post-mil career as 'racecar driver'

I'm hopeful to be ready for some seat time in 2016. A driver post career would be amazing, but highly unlikely lol.

Sorry to hear about your motor. You should slap in a high revving ported na 13b in there :-) Smaller displacement, light, more powerful, and probably more reliable as well.

So as I mentioned earlier I'm not doing anything crazy. It's just a miata that I'd like to get back on the road and track worthy. Met with a racer/engine rebuilder who specializes in miata's and owns/operates a machine shop. Rebuild will consist of race bearings, possibly grinding the head/block mating surfaces to ensure flatness. The motor is currently being rebuilt from a core a buddy lent me, I will give him mine in return. Possibly be all put together by January, if not sooner.

Possibly looking at adding an oil cooler and coolant reroute kit while the motor is out.

So the car burns oil. What i think happened is I probably burned a decent amount driving to the track (4000rpm at 75mph for 130miles), coupled with negligence by my not checking the oil level at the track (I always do it but slacked that day). Throw in some Gs and bam, rod knock. Lesson that I should've known, really learned. I'm hoping an oil cooler and using oil that is more resistant to burning off, would work better in the future.

Any guesses on oil brands that don't burn off easily? That day I had Rotalla T 5w-40.

Have you thought about adding an upgraded oil pan baffle?
http://garagestar.com/blog/?product=kaz ... pan-baffle
http://clubroadster.net/vb_forum/85-jun ... ffles.html

The coolant reroute system does seem like a good idea.

Here's another baffle option: http://mazdamotorsports.com/webapp/wcs/ ... queId=5428

Thanks! Ill check those out, for 40-50bux while motor is out should be no brainer

Update! So I went with the person i mentioned earlier "Kowalski Machine Shop"

The build is going good and I am dropping the car off tomorrow to get the motor dropped in.

Wow that's beautiful! Congrats! You'll be back on track (literally) in no time.

that motor looks really good. Any upgrades or stock?

Motor was in as of the 20th and is currently in the break-in process (~700miles). Will report back after the break-in and oil change. Overall feels good up to 4500rpm which is what i'm goin up to until done with break-in. Can't wait to really open it up. Hoping to be all sorted by the 2016 season kickoff at the end of Jan '16.

Did you put your cams into it? Ithe is really good looking!

Shadowden wrote:Did you put your cams into it? Ithe is really good looking!

No. The builder (old crusty dude) was really against that cam (mazdaspeed miata intake cam). He convinced me that the way he degrees the stock intake cam 'will be bitchen'. He described although it has slightly more duration, that it was not optimal and has seen no real before/after accept mine which proved his point that it didn't make more power. I am not an engine builder nor do I have the hands on experience and dyno time this guy has had with Miatas, to tell him "well I read on the internet...." that I know better. The car does feel really awesome and now I can fit legally back into autox STR and also not take a points hit and use it toward something that will give more benefit in the class I am trying to stay in.

I was inspecting the rest of his work, and he went above and beyond to address missing screws, incorrectly routed catch can plumbing, etc

Since I have family in town, I haven't had time to put the break-in miles I wanted to by now. Once things settle, I'll get back to racking them up.

I'm sold on listening to a good experienced engine building. On my Galaxie, I had the engine build and the builder put in a fairly mild cam because he said for that altitude and my setup that it was the way to go. I decided to install a lumpy cam and the car did actually get slower by almost a 1/2 sec on the 1/4 mile. The problem I ran into was I didn't have the intake, heads and exhaust to support such a large cam.

Trackday this weekend for the first time since dropping in this motor. The field looks stacked with some quick miata drivers. Going in with 11lb flywheel, 4.3 final drive (OE was 3.9) and fresh alignment from AMJ garage. Ill try to represent hard...

Go get'em Saul. You'll drive as fast as fast as you can, which is plenty fast.