Started on March 12 by MyMiatas

1993 Mazda Miata Miata LE

I purchased a very abused Miata. Made an attempt to get it running correctly. (At time of purchase I was told it had lifter noise. It was reassembled with finger tight bolts.) I disassembled the cam and lifters. Cleaned out the lifters reassembled the top of the engine. It took several attempts to get the belt and Timing correct. Changed the oil (it didn’t have anything looking like oil in it??). And fired it up. Tick tick tick it went. It was not soft and the higher the RPMs the louder it got. Yikes! Ended up pulling it out and going through it. It had damaged rings on the crank. I had the block cleaned and lightly honed. The crank was saved. Replaced the pistons and connecting rods with some low mileage used ones. Reassembled the engine new gasket etc. Reinstalled the engine.( you can do it without dropping the tranny) Fired it up ran good, sounded better. No tick. I assumed it was good to go. Bought a Paco 3 inchLift kit and tires . Installed the kit had an alignment done Drove it for five hundred miles. Took it easy on it. No high RPMs. I used 20w50 for those miles. Drained the oil. Didn’t look right. Little too black and a a little metallic. I used 20w30 this time. Drove it for about 100 miles. Got it stuck in snow. Took me an hour to get it out. Rocked it back and forth to get some momentum. RPMs got up there. But got it out. Driving home it started ticking again. Nursed it home not over 2000 RPM. Pulled the engine. same thing. I found that the oil pump had a tear in the gasket. I has debated replacing the oil pump during the reassembly but just inspected it and installed new gaskets. So now it has a new oil pump all new gaskets. This time I really made sure all the oil passages were cleaned out. All reassembled. I used the assembly lube everywhere. If it received oil it had that in it on it and around it. Even the oil pump got a squirt. Reinstalled the engine. Used 10w30 regular oil this time. No synthetics. I taped a strong magnet to the oil filter. Fired it up. Ran great. Sounded even better. Let it warm up. Drove it around the block, low RPMs. 20 miles or so. Changed the oil after it cooled down. Drained the oil. Nice and clear. Filled it back up with 10w30 regular oil. Filled the gas tank with non ethanol 87. Added Lucas injector cleaner. The exhaust was smelling too rich. I was amazed that stuff works. The rich smell went away and the mileage went up to normal. I am now driving it around. I have 300 miles on it now.