Overland Bound Miata
Eventually we will make it to Bend, Oregon. I refused to let material failure, poor timing, poor planning or summer heat to stop my little Miata making an appearance. We succeeded and were able to have a great trip.
Beginning of Failures
While we did successfully finish BajaXL under our own power and was able to visit Universal Studios and Disneyland, we also significantly hurt the engine. The Baja Port and Polish service provided was less than appreciated even if quite impressive.
Definitely shouldn’t have a mirror finish for your cylinder walls, nor oily sand in the throttle body.
Big thanks for Garett coming over to help Colleen and I pull the engine, always fun to see the Ariel Atom and continue to bug me that my ridiculous car isn’t finished yet… more on that project to come soon. We were able to pull the engine in around 3 hours on a weekend many weeks prior to Overland Expo. Like a responsible person. While pulling the engine apart we found interesting levels of dirt and grime everywhere, with a few bolts loose or entirely missing. Enjoy some images of this poorly treated motor.
Machine Shop and Other Things
I have always taken my motors to a local shop in Hayward, CA. Al Hubbard does excellent work, Wade and Jimmy are good guys and turn around projects fast when needed. Confident when dropping off parts I’ll get them back quick and they will survive lots of abuse, plus it comes with some fun conversations about drag boat motors.
They were able to take care of my engine, dropping off crank for balancing and polish, cleaning the block and sorting out the head. I had ordered new stainless steel valves along with dual springs from 949 Racing. Turned out that the valves shipped were +1mm oversized and delayed head work for a few days. After a quick call 949 sorted everything out and got the correct valves on the way.
Nothing too exciting about the first, yes there were more than one, engine assembly other than a simple paint job to keep things a little cleaner going forward. Assembly went quite smooth and I was able to finish on June 25th, dropping in the engine on Monday the 26th.
No need to bore anyone with extra details on a failed engine build, at least nothing more than the sound of this video for its first start up. Clearly the damage happened immediately, I presume I didn’t prime the engine long enough and starved rod bearing #1. The weirdness comes from only ruining a single rod bearing, specifically the first bearing receiving oil from the pump.
I was quite sad after all that work and meticulous assembly.
Remember this was the week before we were planning to head North to Oregon for Overland Expo. Time for some frantic ordering and expedited shipping. Moving onto pulling the engine Thursday, June 29th to understand how much damage occurred.
After multiple trips to Hayward and many overnight parts from 949 Racing along with other various suppliers we were putting the engine back in on July 4th. Huge thanks to multiple people/companies for making this possible:
Al Hubbard Machine Shop - cleaning and checking rods in a matter of hours
Ed’s Crank Shop - working Saturday to machine the crank
949 Racing - various bearings
Mike Haag - last minute main bearings on Monday
O’Reilly Autoparts - lots of random parts
At 12:06 am July 5th the Miata came back to life after fully ensuring it was primed. Finally we are ready to drive hundreds of miles carrying way too much gear and make it to Overland Expo.
Debated selling the miata instead of Lando…He is a better kitty
We are off!
Less than a day after starting the new motor we were packing up and rolling out for a 1000 mile road trip including finding some dirt. Only good ideas. #ABG
Uh Oh
Turns out that minor coolant smell that has lingered for a year or two was an actual problem. This summer heat plus a bit of bad intake was too much and burst the heater core.
Time for a trail fix….bypassing the heater core because we don’t need it when it’s 90 °F
At least Colleen found a nice campground near the highway. Check it out if you’re in the area.
Quick stop before crossing into Oregon to change oil since the motor is brand new. Good news it was just the normal mildly shiny oil after a fresh break in period. We should be good for a very long engine life. Yes I was respectful and cleaned up the few drips I made. Sorry locals for my less than ideal maintenance spot. A local bug inspected my work and approved after walking all over the car.
Enjoying the area of Bend, Redmond and Expo. It was a great weekend that included finding cool vendors, buying more stuff for our off-roading adventures, cleaning up trash and meeting people. Other side bonus was the Miata ran great aside from cooling issues caused by the ghetto intake. I’ll be working on that before the next trip, for now celebrating a win.
Meeting Justin from Donut was great, super cool dude. We ended up doing a quick trail clean up with Gambler 500 and Bronco Nation. Unfortunately the local area has many homeless and lots of dumping in public lands. Doing out best to help out when we can. Miata was able to carry 4 tires out and lended a hand loading up Tate’s trailer. Fun way to start off a Saturday, one good deed for our trip.
More tiny car adventures are in our future, the motor feels strong.
Side note, apparently we won over the hearts of PNW Expo and are going to be featured in an upcoming post on The Compass. Will add link when I can! Screencapture
