Might be the last drive for a little bit

"Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)" (rduncan5678)
11/11/2020 at 00:13 • Filed to: None

Miata is going under the knife to finally resolve my compression related misfire. Only have about a month left before my smog cert expires and therfore the car is legally undrivable. Plus it would be nice to make it work right anyways. Latest investigation of doing a leak down test revealed about 85% pressure loss in cylinder 2 versus 10-15 in 1, 3 and nearly zero in 4. Considering cylinder 2 throws the code and showed low compression it all makes sense. During the leak down test, the only obvious place air was flowing from was the exhaust so the likely culprit is exhaust valve. So I am pulling the head so that I can farm it out for machine work. And if that doesn’t work, the rest of the engine will come out next. All this meaning who knows when I’ll complete that project and get it back on the road. So I went on one last twisty drive today. Some more pics:

If I get this all sorted out, I’ll have to get out to another track day finally. I bet it will go a bit faster if it doesn’t have compression issues anymore! Wish me luck and hopefully my next update won’t be months from now with the car in even more pieces.

DISCUSSION (17)

Nom De Plume > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
11/11/2020 at 00:32

Kinja'd!!!

Unlike the vast majority you actually are missing something taking a car off the road this time of year.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > Nom De Plume
11/11/2020 at 00:43

Hey it rains like once a month in "winter" and I don't drive the miata those days. And sometimes the weather even drops below 60 and I need the heat! If this project takes longer than a week I'll probably order a new top among other things that need tending to.

pip bip - choose Corrour > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
11/11/2020 at 01:18

Ls swap

pip bip - choose Corrour > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
11/11/2020 at 01:18

Ls swap

pip bip - choose Corrour > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
11/11/2020 at 01:18

Ls swap

jminer > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
11/11/2020 at 03:13

Just beautiful scenery you have. I’m still jealous but less so now. Drove Hwy 1 from Santa Cruz to Pacific on Saturday. It is beautiful as hell here on the west coast!

CaptDale - is secretly British > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
11/11/2020 at 03:16

That is a shame, we were just talking about hitting you up for a fun day out driving again and to pay you for those wheels.

Hopefully it is an easy fix.

CaptDale - is secretly British > pip bip - choose Corrour
11/11/2020 at 03:17

LFX swap is better

pip bip - choose Corrour > CaptDale - is secretly British
11/11/2020 at 03:27

jeez, i got kinja’d there

diplodicus forgot his password > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
11/11/2020 at 08:24

Did you pull the valve cover gasket and check valve clearances? Could just have an out of tolerance valve clearance, unless that engine has hydraulic lifters.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > CaptDale - is secretly British
11/11/2020 at 11:06

Second that, ls swap is boring . Unfortunately a bit out of my budget considering it wouldn't be carb legal. I did actually price some of it out but stopped solely due to the carb bullshit.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > CaptDale - is secretly British
11/11/2020 at 11:07

I still have the Subaru for this reason! I'm enjoying the hell out of the new Coilovers

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > diplodicus forgot his password
11/11/2020 at 11:10

The only problem is I don't want to do a valve job in the car anyways. Would just be easier to pull the head and get it swapped for a reman which will include valves.

CaptDale - is secretly British > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
11/11/2020 at 14:49

That is true, we should out something together.

CaptDale - is secretly British > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
11/11/2020 at 14:51

That isn’t true at all. Getting the LFX certified by a smog inspector would only require cats and stuff basically from a CA car. Wouldn’t be hard

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > CaptDale - is secretly British
11/11/2020 at 17:54

“wouldn’t be hard”. Lol Idk about that. Worth it though? Absolutely. At least what I’ve looked into the smog rules make it so a lot of stuff has to be in the same location as the original car, meaning it often wouldn’t fit in a miata without major cutting. Ls swaps are only able to be made carb legal in early NAs. I’d rather an lfx swap though so I’ll look more into it and at least price it out. I’m not looking to spend the money though to actually go through with it.

But hey if you come across a wrecker lfx engine I'll take it!

CaptDale - is secretly British > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
11/11/2020 at 23:01

Let me know if you find an LS then!

And yeah I mean for the most part that means making sure the cats are in the same place from the donor vehicle.