Oh No! We Blew The Motor! - Ecotec Swapped Miata - ChampCar at Gingerman

Our first race weekend ended in disaster with a bent valve in our 2.4L Ecotec swapped miata taking us out of the race. Reliability issues were numerous with the engine literally shaking itself apart. The good news is that the car handles amazing, the oil pan did its job and we maintained good oil pressure all weekend, and the car can put down competitive times. We will learn from this weekend and hopefully rebuild and be back faster and more reliable for the next race!
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[@mostlyuselessgarage]

Just guessing here, but it sounds like your failure mode is a combination of issues. Spinning high RPMs, oil pressure, and those crank pulley and timing failures. It seems folks like to bag on this swap about blowing motors, but endurance racing is pretty much THE most extreme sustained duty cycle for any car. You guys were killing it out there. Great job guys!

[@jayjohnson600]

Check the oil pressure log traces. Video at 19:05 the oil pressure is bottoming around mid-30's and touched 34psi at 4900rpm.

[@cabriniman]

For what it's worth - our first ecotec motor lasted 23.25 hours of a true 24 before it blew and it went immediately after some horrifying money shifts. I do not believe these motors are forgiving that way. The next motor lasted over 100 hard track hours before blowing with a fuel cutoff at 6,250. The dyno doesn't lie, these motors don't make more power past that. I've seen oil pressure all over the place throughout. High when cold and much MUCH lower when warm. We run an original "ecotec" Miata pan for reference. About being down on power at weird times - check your intake temps. I don't know your tune or ECU (sorry too lazy to check) but in my experience high intake temps have massively hindered the power. We generally run without a driver side headlight in our NB with aggressive good vents. Good luck on your next motor. We've had good luck with more patient shifting and aggressive fuel cutoffs. I cringed watching the Saturday footage when the driver was shifting at 6,700. Great videos!

[@ruggedbadgerracing]

What RPM were your money shifts at? When it blew, what was the failure?

[@aygwm]

Those bearings were crying on every turn

[@stevec5280]

I've got money on the exhaust valve seats failing on cylinder 2. That was a quasi normal failure we saw on the ecotecs

[@ruggedbadgerracing]

Bent intake valve, not sure why thought

[@stevec5280]

@@ruggedbadgerracing huh, that is weird. Only one intake valve bent?

[@tdb19872]

Having crank pully and sheared key problems right? If UT ran like that for any amount of time you were running with no oil pressure, smoked your engine. Cheap insurance to keep that from ever happening again is extending the crank keyway and using a full length key. Bad ass rig and sweet video though, subscribed.

[@ruggedbadgerracing]

Thanks, oil pressure never dropped below 32psi, but others see issues. I didn't know if it was an ecotec thing.

[@38bfast]

RPM going up in a turn oil pressure going down

[@ruggedbadgerracing]

What behavior do you typically see in the Ecotec? Is it linear with RPM?

[@stevec5280]

​@@ruggedbadgerracingtypically. I don't recall what the pressure relief is on the factory pumps though

[@38bfast]

@@ruggedbadgerracing Rpm should track with pressure. you can see in your video at higher RPM on the straight you were up around 70+ psi. I seen in your video into the 30 psi in a turn but still with high rpm. simple look at the data, If RPM goes up OP should aways go up. Up until it hits the pressure relief valve pressure the it should flatten. If you have rpm going up and OP going down thats oil starve. This is for any engine. And generally when the get to a starve situation they make foam of the oil. Bearings don't much like that. No saying this is what took out your motor but it for sure is an issue.

[@ReneES-em1ye]

I think when you had the bad exhaust leak the oxygen sensor was sending false readings and subsequently the system was trying to compensate with too lean of a mixture then followed by a too rich mixture. Back & forth and back & forth until whatever failed.

[@ruggedbadgerracing]

That could be, I am confirming that the ECU is actually using the O2 readings.

[@38bfast]

your getting oil starve

[@ruggedbadgerracing]

What's the minimum oil pressure you would be looking for?

[@38bfast]

@@ruggedbadgerracing more about the starve than a pressure drop. when it goes to starve its sucking air and foaming the oil