Ciotti
03-02-2013, 12:06 AM
Here's how it all went down...
1999 with 80,000 miles that's been autocrossed hard in the last 4 or 5 years of it's life but runs STRONG. I got it a year ago, ran compression, 210's across the board, I've never noticed it using oil but I have been checking the dipstick when I get gas and I'm now reading that our dipstick tubes get coated in oil as soon as we start driving and to get an accurate reading we need to check the oil after the car's been sitting for a while.
Put Amsoil XL(10,000 mile) 5w30 in with an OEM Mazda filter June 2012, it's been probably 9,000 miles since then with a number of autocrosses and Miatas in Boone thrown in there as well.
Everything's been completely normal, no tapping or knocking or anything out of the ordinary all winter driving it 3 miles (15 minutes with traffic) to and from work every day.
2 Thursdays ago on my way back from karting I wound it out a few times on on/off ramps, nothing too crazy just a little blow the carbon out of the motor session, and when I got home all the normal parking was filled up so I had to park on the other side of the lot which is on a downhill with the nose of the car down.
Friday morning...
Start car
Nasty knocking for 1 - 2 seconds
Goes away for 3 or 4 seconds
Starts to come back
Shut car off
Check the dipstick
Bone dry
Frown
Dump in the 1 extra quart of Amsoil I had
Start car
No knocking
Drive to work
No noises on the way to work, happy days are here again it was just a bit low on oil
Work late
Start the car
Nasty knocking for 1 - 2 seconds
Frown
It goes away again and doesn't come back
Limp the car home and park it in the normal level ground parking spot
Saturday...
Check the oil
Bone dry dipstick
Slap forehead
Don't have any more Amsoil so I don't start the car again
Tuesday...
Finally get my hands on some more Amsoil
Dump in a quart
Check dipstick 2 or 3 times
Oil level is now definitely on the stick in between the L and H
Wednesday...
Check dipstick again
Same oil level
Start car
Same god dam knocking for 1 to 2 seconds but then goes away
Limp to work no weird noises car feels fine
Park it at work and let it sit for 10 minutes
Check oil level
Same spot on the dipstick
Start car
Tiny faint knocking that goes away after 1 second
On the drive home I notice that under probably %1 throttle where the motor's not loaded up and pushing the car faster but it's also not decelerating/engine braking, there's a little tapping that you can hear 45 seconds into the video below...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bl9Oz8-RmSM&feature=share&list=UUek8LlmHeIiU_s62lpxcD6w
And here's the loud knock when I start it
http://youtu.be/dYMSSQ-d_zw
Changed the oil and filter, no difference whatsoever, but I collected a sample from the oil coming out and sent it to Blackstone for analysis
I don't know how accurate the Comments section is since I'm not sure if they actually look up each motor to see what type of metal each part of the motor is, BUT my take-away is that there seems to be an awful lot of Iron and Aluminum in the oil.
http://www.ciottiindustries.com/gallery/Miatas/Ernest/ZAnalysis.jpg
I'm running compression this weekend to get another data point, but what do you guys think I chewed up here?
I was hoping it was just a spun bearing but I feel like the oil analysis tells a different tale.
Thoughts?
1999 with 80,000 miles that's been autocrossed hard in the last 4 or 5 years of it's life but runs STRONG. I got it a year ago, ran compression, 210's across the board, I've never noticed it using oil but I have been checking the dipstick when I get gas and I'm now reading that our dipstick tubes get coated in oil as soon as we start driving and to get an accurate reading we need to check the oil after the car's been sitting for a while.
Put Amsoil XL(10,000 mile) 5w30 in with an OEM Mazda filter June 2012, it's been probably 9,000 miles since then with a number of autocrosses and Miatas in Boone thrown in there as well.
Everything's been completely normal, no tapping or knocking or anything out of the ordinary all winter driving it 3 miles (15 minutes with traffic) to and from work every day.
2 Thursdays ago on my way back from karting I wound it out a few times on on/off ramps, nothing too crazy just a little blow the carbon out of the motor session, and when I got home all the normal parking was filled up so I had to park on the other side of the lot which is on a downhill with the nose of the car down.
Friday morning...
Start car
Nasty knocking for 1 - 2 seconds
Goes away for 3 or 4 seconds
Starts to come back
Shut car off
Check the dipstick
Bone dry
Frown
Dump in the 1 extra quart of Amsoil I had
Start car
No knocking
Drive to work
No noises on the way to work, happy days are here again it was just a bit low on oil
Work late
Start the car
Nasty knocking for 1 - 2 seconds
Frown
It goes away again and doesn't come back
Limp the car home and park it in the normal level ground parking spot
Saturday...
Check the oil
Bone dry dipstick
Slap forehead
Don't have any more Amsoil so I don't start the car again
Tuesday...
Finally get my hands on some more Amsoil
Dump in a quart
Check dipstick 2 or 3 times
Oil level is now definitely on the stick in between the L and H
Wednesday...
Check dipstick again
Same oil level
Start car
Same god dam knocking for 1 to 2 seconds but then goes away
Limp to work no weird noises car feels fine
Park it at work and let it sit for 10 minutes
Check oil level
Same spot on the dipstick
Start car
Tiny faint knocking that goes away after 1 second
On the drive home I notice that under probably %1 throttle where the motor's not loaded up and pushing the car faster but it's also not decelerating/engine braking, there's a little tapping that you can hear 45 seconds into the video below...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bl9Oz8-RmSM&feature=share&list=UUek8LlmHeIiU_s62lpxcD6w
And here's the loud knock when I start it
http://youtu.be/dYMSSQ-d_zw
Changed the oil and filter, no difference whatsoever, but I collected a sample from the oil coming out and sent it to Blackstone for analysis
I don't know how accurate the Comments section is since I'm not sure if they actually look up each motor to see what type of metal each part of the motor is, BUT my take-away is that there seems to be an awful lot of Iron and Aluminum in the oil.
http://www.ciottiindustries.com/gallery/Miatas/Ernest/ZAnalysis.jpg
I'm running compression this weekend to get another data point, but what do you guys think I chewed up here?
I was hoping it was just a spun bearing but I feel like the oil analysis tells a different tale.
Thoughts?