rollinstylee
Hard-core CEG'er
Greetings CEG. I haven't been posting much recently, but that may change now that I find myself in sudden need of a new engine. Pics and vids are worth at least hundreds of words in this case, so in brief summary, the circumstances are as follows.
A private day at Nelson Ledges started out wet but ceased raining and began to dry mid-afternoon, by which point I was wringing it out hard and ran low on fuel. Fortunately, this caused me to slow down for a cool-down lap and pit to refuel. On this cool-down lap, since road and wind noise were diminished, I began to hear a faint tick that progressed to a tap and then a pronounced knock by the time I was back in paddock:
I luckily had a friend graciously offer his trailer to me if I drove his turbo'd Miata home. I was ok with this arrangement:
Dropping the pan, I was confronted with this:
And then confirmed my suspicions by doing this:
So the teardown has begun. I've been reading up on here in my free time and bookmarking threads of importance. Right now I'm leaning toward a port-matched swap for simplicity of installation, possibly keeping the SVT cams. I'm going for a "budget build" as I am abandoning any viable autocross prep and stripping this car out as strictly a track rat now. However, I will certainly be installing a Torsen T2 and new clutch (probably stock SVT), as I was already planning to do that prior to the engine failure. That's about all I have decided at the moment.
My plan is to have the diff and clutch done and ready to go first, then purchase and work on the engine. I'm sure I'll have tons of questions during the process, so if I can't find the answers I'll appreciate any support and encouragement!
A private day at Nelson Ledges started out wet but ceased raining and began to dry mid-afternoon, by which point I was wringing it out hard and ran low on fuel. Fortunately, this caused me to slow down for a cool-down lap and pit to refuel. On this cool-down lap, since road and wind noise were diminished, I began to hear a faint tick that progressed to a tap and then a pronounced knock by the time I was back in paddock:
I luckily had a friend graciously offer his trailer to me if I drove his turbo'd Miata home. I was ok with this arrangement:


Dropping the pan, I was confronted with this:

And then confirmed my suspicions by doing this:
So the teardown has begun. I've been reading up on here in my free time and bookmarking threads of importance. Right now I'm leaning toward a port-matched swap for simplicity of installation, possibly keeping the SVT cams. I'm going for a "budget build" as I am abandoning any viable autocross prep and stripping this car out as strictly a track rat now. However, I will certainly be installing a Torsen T2 and new clutch (probably stock SVT), as I was already planning to do that prior to the engine failure. That's about all I have decided at the moment.
My plan is to have the diff and clutch done and ready to go first, then purchase and work on the engine. I'm sure I'll have tons of questions during the process, so if I can't find the answers I'll appreciate any support and encouragement!