Engine woes

[etikoner]

The engine in my 95 M' supposedly had about 111k Miles when I bought it. People I bought it from said they swapped it yadiyada. Within the month of owning it the water pump took a shit and so I replaced it at a local shop under the guidance of the techs there.


I changed out the water pump, thermostat, timing belt, cam seals, crank seals, and valve cover gasket.

My engine pulls strong and I always pretty much beat on it and so lately I've seen some oil leaks. One is from the cam angle sensor, and one I suspect is either the rear main seal or oil pan. It also appears that the valve cover gasket is leaking towards the front of the engine... Today I was teaching a friend of mine to drive my car and everything was fine. I got in drove to his house shut the engine off and boom a cloud of smoke started pouring from under the hood, I thought I had somehow cracked the oil pan and saw a ton of liquid pouring on the ground. Turns out the heater hose is either cracked or torn or something.

Basically I've been wanting to reseal the engine for a while now just to not have it leaking oil like a POS.

A shop local to me is pretty good with Miatas, so I figured I'll fix the heater hose here and drive it down to him for him to do engine work. I'm not exactly rolling in money so I wanna have him do some minor work to my head while the engine is out of the car.

I figured:

• Solid lifters
• ARP studs
• Some sort of thin metal head gasket (To raise compression slightly?)
• slight porting of the head.

The main thing that I wanna accomplish is to change over to solid lifters so I won't have to ever lifter tick again.

I plan on keeping my engine NA powered for a while, and maybe ordering a set of Tomei cams in the future so this little "rebuild" should be a solid starting point.

Basically I wanna hear from you guys to point me in the right direction as far as what to get and if you guys have a hook up or something to keep this under budget.

[— kung fu jesus —]

What is your budget?

[etikoner]

I imagine that with parts and labor It'd be more than $500. I'd like to keep it under $1500 if possible.

Then again I really have no prior experience with this kind of work.

My Mechanic said it shouldn't be too much money, and judging from him previously working on my car I imagine he won't rip me off on labor charges. That being said he didn't give me an idea of the money I'd be looking at spending so that's just a general ball park of what I'm willing to spend and it (my budget) would go up or down accordingly.

[— kung fu jesus —]

01+ block + 99-00 head + square top manifold =

Success.

[LostSoulMiata]

Fix the leaks and basic maintenance stuff first, then mod as you see fit. If you put a band-aid on it, it will show up later. If you're going to keep it NA "for a while", save and get the appropriate mods to whatever you are planning on building later on, instead of having the possibility of toasting your motor before you get said mods.

[— kung fu jesus —]

That is good advice.

For the 1.8, I don't understand why you would want to keep the low compression stock pistons when there are higher-comp OEM versions. Similar thought on the head. The 99+ heads flow better than yours does and already have solid lifters.

Why not source OEM 01 pistons (10.5:1 or 10:1), have the block tanked, rehoned, new seals and find a cleaner, later model head, have it checked, rebuild it, seal it, done.

[LostSoulMiata]

I've come across sooooo many band-aids in my line of work

[Rogue]

What KFJ said!
Good '01 engines are still fairly easy to find, you can sell the VVT head.
A '99/00 head is getting harder to find, but are out there. Must have it R&Red though,
I'd like to know where all the Squaretops are, seems like there would be some available for less than $500.
Add a header and Control it with a Megasqueeze. It should be a fun 95M.
I'll let you know when i'm done with mine.

[— kung fu jesus —]

Hey Stevan!

I am really thinking of throwing caution to the wind and giving the finger to CARB/BAR and building an engine just like I described.

That combo should be good for 140ish RWHP with a MS. Add the VVT head, index and lock the cam, a few other relatively inexpensive tricks, been told 150-160 RWHP is doable. Naturally aspirated.

The squaretops are available, you just have to find a source. I know one local to me hoarding them, I don't want to say who it is because they actually use them.

[I<3flippyheadlights]

I've come across sooooo many band-aids in my line of work

I hate this triangle so much...

[— kung fu jesus —]

I LOVE that triangle.

nothing proves a point better than a logical image.

[etikoner]

I wish I didn't have to abide by it. This being my only car means I can't have too much down time. Gonna fix the heater hose soon and just baby it till I have the funds for the "rebuild"

As much as I'd love to go M/S and vvt and all that I just don't have the funds unless I find all that stuff for extremely cheap.

I found a set of pistons on ebay but I really don't know if to trust buying something so important from there.
01+ pistons (cast)

Blahhhh

[— kung fu jesus —]

those are good. you really need to do some reading. actually a LOT of reading. the more you know about your engine, your goals, interchangeability, engine modifications and such, the better off you will be.

for the time being, fix what you need to get the car running. take that ruptured hose as a lesson; when you perform maintenance on your car, like the timing belt, look beyond that and other items that will be easy to do while THAT maintenance is being done...like ALL the coolant hoses.

because you already have the 1.8, you don't need the MS to run a hybrid BP build.

[etikoner]

Yessir ;)

Basically for the time being I wanna build a reliable base to be able to build upon later on down the line when I actually have funds. I know it's best to just do it the right way the first time SO I'm gonna look into some of your (guys) suggestions.

01+ pistons sounds do-able. I'm gonna look into the other stuff. Thanks for helping. I'll chime in here when I'm getting shit done actually.

[— kung fu jesus —]

since it is your DD, you best bet is building another engine from a good core. Read up, plan, make ATTAINABLE goals, research some more, WRITE out notes, save bookmarks. Then start by getting the core. Don't go crazy. When the core is done, swap it in, part out your old motor or sell it to recoup *some* of your money.

All of the info is easy to find. Most people don't do this, they build a motor on a builder's advice. Most often that builder isn't familiar with the BP and the end result is something less than desirable. The BP has been around for 20 years, still found in some Kias, I believe. Modifying the early versions can seem like a good solution, but it you take the Honda/BMW approach, you can find out what parts from different versions bolt up. save money, add improvements, etc.

I was surprised when I started researching how wrong my first build plan was. Stuff like forged pistons, titanium springs, etc. for my intentions were completely wrong. I am still researching, but my broad strokes are becoming finer and finer.