I Accidentally Blew Up The NB [2-Day VVT Engine Swap]

[@justarandom404]

This makes me feel a little better about my last oil change. Drained oil, replaced oil filter from the top, checked a couple other things - air filter etc on a new to me miata. Then poured 4 quarts of mobil 1 5w-30 in, which drained directly onto the ground. Literally right as the last drop of 4 qts was in I saw the oil running onto my shoes from under the car. Then, salt in the wound, as I'm scrambling to pour clean up powder and etc my gearhead neighbor walks up. Thanks for sharing this, liked and subscribed, great channel

[@guidosaur7506]

I've done this before. I caught it about halfway through though. Had my friend bring me more oil to make up for it. Left the oil cap off when I went down the road and sprayed it all over my hood. Had my friend then bring me a spare oil cap and some paper towels. Later found the oem oil cap was still around the top of the engine bay.

[@BigIsleJ]

Been there, done that :)

[@JesusChrist-gs9pk]

I've done this at work with a John Deere engine that takes 14 qts. Learned to have constant anxiety while pumping oil

[@jdcompton328]

Omg, I did that before. To this day I double and triple check the drain plug is back in. Even then I have anxiety about filling the motor back up.

[@svckr]

Speaking of spilled oil: Rebuilt my crashed VVT NBFL in my best friends driveway. We just replaced the timing belt, water pump cam seals and whatnot. Then came time to fire up the car for the first time in like 4 months. We were so excited! Checked the oil level, the cooling fluid, the timing. All fine. Okay, time to turn the ignition. And it started after cranking just a few seconds. As we stand in front of the car, with the engine running pretty smoothly, I'm like "hey, what's that gulping, gargling noise?" … "year what *is* that?" … and then we notice the oil just splashing out the back of the VVT oil feed line. Apparently we did not fasten the banjo bolt at the back of the cam cover … 🥲

[@jeremiahgaskins9127]

I had the brilliant idea early in my car days while draining oil on ramps that to get more out it should be ground level, so without thinking I fired it up, backed off the ramps and let it drain more... Realizing I started a car with no oil and now can't reach the drain plug... So I had to start it back up with no oil to get it back on the ramps... yup.

[@FDB77]

A 31 minute CarPassion video?! Oh boy, this just made my day :)

[@CarsMeetsBikes]

I watched the whole dam thing

[@tylerreed7385]

Ikr I didn't expect to see it was used to shorter vids so pressed it watching like 15mins like 🤣🤣

[@matos_x_]

Yea, was able to eat lunch and watch the first half and the eat dinner and watch the second half, it’s like 2 videos!

[@LoganDiehl2]

I turbo charged my stock motor NB2, and planned to leave the motor unopened with a reasonable ~200whp. I talked to different tuners, messed with the tune myself, and then got a remote tuner to get me running. He used the tune I had been working and didn't see there was a 10° cold advance on top of everything. Drove it a couple months that way, then - rodknock. 6 months later, the Miata is running good with a forged built bottom end. Sorting some more things out now, then going for 300+whp!

[@TheCarPassionChannel]

Man, those special condition spark modifiers are always messing things up. So easy to miss!

[@joelhernandez393]

Is that setting something that comes with a base map? Where do you find a setting like that in ts?

[@TheCarPassionChannel]

@@joelhernandez393 You take a datalog and make sure the final spark advance matches your spark map. If it's off by 5°, that means there's something modifying the advance (there are a lot of advanced modifiers that are normal but you just don't want them to come in at the wrong time)

[@racerjoe88]

On my old engine setup in my 240. I had to do a cylinder head so I swapped everything out. Grabbed a brand new head gasket that was on the wall and put it together. Started driving the car and the head gasket blew. Turns out I put a head gasket for a completely different engine in an had to do everything again

[@---fk1ct]

Hi Greg. Here's my story. I have an NC with a fully forged and built 2.5 and a Fab9 EFR kit. Two years ago, during a tuning session I melted the engine all the way down to zero compression. I didnt realize it dropped all the coolant during warm-up. My fault, I put a Aim dash in front of my gauge binnacle on the steering column. When I'm logging with the laptop, the dash must be unplugged to give me access to the CANBUS. So I'm relying on the ECUTech readout on my laptop screen during these drives. Took me two more years to afford a new engine, and I just did the swap myself for the first time to make sure everything is to my satisfaction. I am currently about to fill all fluids! Its been a journey. Your channel is inspiration.

[@PcItalian]

Put the oil cap on the dash board near the wheel when there's no oil. I do this, even during oil changes.

[@aygwm]

I put mine on top of the latch so I can’t close the hood.

[@Friendsofdonr]

I wired in my first MS into my mx6, couldn't get it to start and sent it to a shop. After 3months I confiscated it back... When I got it back it did start and run roughly. I took a few test drives and it just fell on it's face above 3k rpms. I knew very little about cars and just added throttle, it'd stumble more and then pick up. After a couple trips around the block, I really wanted to drive it. Late one night I decided I was going to drive it. My wife on the way out the door said "Don't call me if it blows up". Less than a mile up the road, and 6 miles on my first boosted car, I did a full pull. At 5500rpms, 14.7 psi, no working 02 sensor, and 27* of timing on 87oct the bottom end let go while detonating. I learned a very expensive lesson that night, Don't do boost kids. You'll get hooked, here I am years later, multiple rebuilds and still hooked on that feeling of boost building and the tires breaking loose.

[@imnota]

That's literally my worst nightmare. Once I had my car sitting in front of my house with no oil in it for about a week because I broke the oil filter housing cap and was waiting for the dealership to get the part in stock (and therefore couldn't finish my oil change), and I was shit scared of forgetting for some reason and going to start it, even tho there was almost no way I would forget. Also the reason why after recently getting an e36 one of my first mod is gonna be an oil pressure gauge. For some reason I trust my daily with no gauge but that thing I just can't.

[@lcq4blackstar]

Just want to give Greg a HUGE shout out! I was trying to get virtual dyno to read my logs for the first time but was running into issues... I stumbled across his tutorial on KZbin, having never seen any of his videos before. I don't own a miata but he reached out to my questions and even found the issue in my log file through email! What a great guy and car enthusiast who truly wants to help others! I subscribed and love following along on his miata adventures, in the end doesn't matter the platform we choose but support and learn with like minded people!🍻

[@johnvirgilsgarage]

I had a custom $8k BBF built to be an NA tow engine. Then promptly added a turbo with not enough ring gap and broke two pistons. On the plus side I built it myself the next go around and now it's a forged bottom end monster with a bigger turbo 😁

[@johnberumen1666]

Was replacing my valve cover gasket and as I removing rtv with a screwdriver bit, the bit fell into an oil galley. Removed the head and the oil pan to finally see the bit come out as the bare block was turned over!

[@cyclingbutterbean]

Well Greg. I gotta say this is a first for me on KZbin. No need to belittle you on it. You already have. The first is actually seeing someone admit it! Good on you. It's never what you have done. It's what you have seen done. If admitting to this error prevents just 1 person from going through the same thing you have done a great deed. Learn from your mistakes and others too. Thanks for sharing!

[@Asomesauc]

Something I always try to do when changing oil is put the oil on top of the engine keep reminding yourself you can't drive away or close the hood without the oil being removed so you definitely probably would not forget at that point because I've been there done that

[@Unwitnessed]

Over torqued my oil filter with that big nut supplied in some filters. Oil cooler leaked profusely and took two more tries to finally get it to stop leaking. Its been two years and I suspect its leaking again or oil pan is taking a crap :(... Just as Im getting closer to get it supercharged again. Brother overtorqued my control arms where the coilover shock bottom bolt is. Took me two days to finally get it bent back large enough to put my Xidas. Then took me a week of HARD banging to my diff bushing until I bought a sawzall which made them pop out almost right away when adding relief cuts. The sadfab bushing you posted about are awesome and it was worth it!

[@clandeene]

Exactly the video I needed!!! Thank you so much I literally got the VVT 2003 engine home and on the hoist yesterday and pretty nervous about starting this engine swap with it being the first engine swap for me… But you were extremely thorough I felt like you answered every question I had been wondering about putting this vvt motor in my green nb1 1999 (exactly yours 🤗) Now it’s time for me to throw the vvt motor on the engine stand, swap over some of the newer parts on the old stock nb1 motor and like you said at the beginning-just go for it!! I’m going to try to do my best to give filming the adventure a shot but regardless I’ll check back in when I’m finished and have a second stall opened up in my garage once again so I stop getting HOA fines from working on cars outside 😅 …nearly $2,000 in fines and on my last chance before they really get serious whatever that means…😰

[@aaronm2452]

My comment may be off topic of this particular video, I just wanted to say I bought a CPC hat over a year ago, the grey one with the black bill and round logo. I wear it nearly every day. It's holding up very well. Easily cleaned when it gets sweat build up in the summer. The colors have not faded or show any signs or wear. I hand wash it and let it air dry. Great product! Thanks Greg.

[@TheCarPassionChannel]

Great to hear! Hand wash + air dry is definitely the way.

[@lockjawjak]

Oil pressure gauge is the #1 priority for me in every build. Doesn't matter if no other part of the dash works, you can tell the most about an engine's health from changes in oil pressure

[@DatNinjaGuyD]

reason why i swapped my nb1 oil pressure gauge to a 1.6

[@dil6969]

Best practice to prevent this kind of oopsie is taking the oil cap off first and placing it on the hood catch. That way, you cannot close the hood without realizing there's no oil in it. I've come close to doing this a couple times at my work but both times this method prevented it.

[@hewbambam]

I put my key on the oil container I'm planning to use and put that somewhere obvious like on the windshield

[@peanutbutterpadre1519]

one time I forgot I was in the process of re-gearing my truck and did a 4wd launch with 3.55 gears in the front and 3.73 in the back luckily nothing broke but it definitely felt very very wrong.

[@matthewglover322]

Removed the aircon fan recently from my mx5 mk1 around 2y after I removed on the rest of the aircon system. I was tired at the time of removal. Upon driving the car I wondered why it overheated in slow traffic! I had removed the regular cooling fan instead! Doh! I used your videos for both a cambelt change, wideband install and a clutch change. We all have special moments so don't worry!

[@TeddyD802]

I did my dream build, 1.9L turbo NA. Worked on it all winter , machinist took 2 months, turbo supplier took 3 months. Finally I carefully put it all together with no assistance. Drive it 50 miles and find out I have excessive blow by in the crank case and the turbo oil can’t drain so it leaks past the seals. I was totally crushed, I sat in my garage going through the stages of grief. I took the turbo off and I’ve been putting on more break in miles. I ordered a scope to look inside the bore but I haven’t had the courage to look yet.

[@madspikes205]

It happens, top marks for putting your hand up!! I once forgot to do the cam bolt up on a 205GTi, all was fine until the key snapped off and pulley spun on the cam... Valves into pistons... Keep up the great work!

[@TheOnlyToblin]

Was swapping an exhaust. Loosened the back wheels for some reason. Swapped the exhaust, drove towards home. Heard a wobbly sound. Realised that the wheels were loose pretty much seconds from them falling off. Crap.

[@imnota]

Not that big of a fuckup, happenned once to everyone, you only really fucked up if they actually came off. On my dad's Audi it's literally the worst thing, you can get those fuckers tight as can be, like so tight they're about to strip, you drive 15 meters, and they start wobbling like you forgot to tighten them. Then you go to tighten them, they feel like they were put on by hand and now you're good to go. It seems like the hub bore is too tight and only goes all the way in after driving to help it settle, it's a fully stock car with factory wheel and no rust or shit on the hub bore or on the wheel. Just weird.

[@neilgoyette2631]

First time i did a clutch on my NB i did the entire job in record time! When i was cleaning up before starting the car, i found this little tiny, unopened box on the floor near the clutch kit box.... it was the pilot bearing 😭 i did the entire job over again the next day and the day after that i went to the drift event i was prepping for. What a time it was lmao. DON'T FORGET THE PILOT BEARING.

[@xgouldiex]

Done something similar on my lorry, had to replace the clutch and it's a engine and gearbox out together job as not enough room. I got it all out fitted the new clutch and had the flywheel resurfaced proceeded to fit the engine and gearbox back in and then took it for a test only to realise 5 minutes into the drive I forgot to lock tight the flywheel bolts (stated in manaul must locktite) so another 2 days work for 6 little blobs of locktite

[@brysonshires9742]

Just wait till the new pilot bearing fails after 2 months🙃

[@DQUARAJR]

I feel your pain. I swapped in a NA8 motor into my ‘90 only to find out the new motor had zero oil pressure at idle. I found a new junk yard motor, swapped it out in two days and dyno tuned it in time for the next track day that weekend. One thing to keep in mind with the VVT motor, your NB1 injectors are slightly smaller than the NB2 injectors, so if you go for 150whp, you may need the NB2 injectors to get there safely. You don’t have to make an extension harness for the cam sensor as the wiring comes from the rear of the engine. I cut open the factory loom and folded the cam wiring back on itself to end at the new cam sensor location. I ran a VVTuner and DIYPNP for years in my car. The easiest way I found was to bring the cam and crank sensors into the ECU through the factory harness and run them out through the expansion plug to the VVTuner. The VVTuner can be used in pass through mode and send the sensor signals back out. I ran them back through the expansion plug to the CAM and Crank signal inputs on the DIYPNP. It works great and the car made just shy of 150whp on 93 octane here in swampy S. FL. Keep up the great work!

[@musicjnk]

Winter 2020, decided to turbo my 1.8 NA and refresh the engine, dropped a screw in a cylinder without noticing, started the engine a few days after, huge jackhammer sound, head and piston ruined on cyl 2. Swapped the head, engine ran but started to rodknock after 50ish km. Decided to replace it with a vvt engine, ended up waiting for 5 months to get it shipped from the UK (brexit+covid times), received a NB 1.8 non-vvt engine... But now, car runs solid and pulls like a train!

[@TheJem1311]

I bought a '96 Ram with the 12 valve cummins. It had a real bad oil leak coming from the front. Turns out it was the Killer Dowel Pin that had popped out. Front gear case was cracked. So in order to do the KDP you have to slide the floating cam shaft out of the front. The job itself takes many, many hours. So I decided to pop the cam gear off of the cam shaft instead of sliding the cam out. It all went well until it was time to put the gear back on. I managed to get the gear on most of the way, "lightly" and "carefully" tapping it in after heating it up... I ended up pushing the camshaft in towards the back of the engine and popping out the freeze plug behind the cam shaft, and the gear never sat in properly. I ended up having to drop the transmission to be able to get to the freeze plug. An 8 hour job turned into 2 full days, a lot of money spent and time wasted. Atleast I got to look at my clutch make sure it was good and change the rear main seal aswell. All is good now. 12valve cummins with the 5 speed. We live and we learn

[@shadowkeeper0]

My random miata story. I have a NB2 1.8 VVT with a GT2554R on a hydra ems. I have that car and tune for almost 10 years now, on a stock engine. Couple of summers ago, i was fed up with not being able to have the ac full blowing and having some fun on the street, at the same time. (Summers in Greece are just as hot as in southern California). So i bought 2 SPAL fans and a shroud for my aftermarket radiator. It was so effective that without AC, i would never overheat under normal pulls with only one of the fans running. So i configured the bigger of the two to start spinning at a set temperature like 104c (219f), which at that time i would almost never reach without the AC on (when the AC was ON both fans were set to run). All these were done at the end of that summer. A winter comes and goes. Next summer comes and i start to get some crazy misfires under full load after repeating pulls. So i start to chase the problem...i change spark plugs...nothing...i gap them closer....no change...i borrow a set of coils...no change. I even pull timing after some logs...no change. After quite a while of serious disheartening. I check one last log of the misfire happening and i observe something strange, when those misfires happen, which also trigger the knock sensor threshold, the voltage of the ECU was dropping really low momentarily, like 11.5 volts. Long story short, at the same time the voltage was dropping and the car misfired, the coolant temperature was always 104c.... So the bigger SPAL fan was drawing momentarily at startup so many amps, it was sapping the power out of the coils and spark plugs.... I learned two things from this endeavor, tuning is exceptionally complicated to be done in a refined way and always have the critical information displayed on the dash like a knock sensor idiot light, temperatures, oil pressures etc and always tune accordingly in your ecu, protection strategies.

[@mikespencer9913]

In fairness, nothing has happened yet. But I’m one of the very few unbalanced individuals that own both a Miata and a Harley. My Harley is old enough that the engine is within 11 CCs of being the same size as my 1.6 Mazda! Over the weekend I drained the oil of the Harley and, after failing several times to remove the ‘old’ Oil Filter, I decided to just replace the oil and reuse the filter. It’s now Monday afternoon and my Harley hasn’t had ANY oil in it since Saturday morning! I’m scared $#!+less that I’m going to fry the engine because I forgot to add oil! Thanks, Greg, for preventing a catastrophe! :p

[@stefkorsman4191]

Every time I do a oil change (mechanic here) I make sure to put the oil cap on the hood latch in the bumper, so when closing the hood you can't and get reminded that its either not on or there's no oil in it.

[@maxp8892]

I had a friend of mine help me do an engine swap (McCulley Race engine) in my NB. We did it over the weekend and he drainded the oil and finger tightened the drain plug back in the oil pan. Got the engine back in the car and we drove it over the next 2 weeks off and on. I was driving it on my own when the oil plug fell out. Caught it and saved it, only had to put new rod and main bearings in the car. I have now learned to make a check list and check everything myself. No matter who is helping.

[@paulkimble4548]

So my first engine rebuild was a Honda 350x that belonged to my mom and I may have sent a valve through the piston on it. This threw me into the world of engine rebuilding on a budget. I found a donor engine eBay that was “running when pulled” that came to me with the cam eaten halve way through the head. Being a teenager that was all of my budget blown to learn the lessen of never believe it ran when I parked it. Fast forward I find a replacement head and was able to scrape the money together for a new piston gaskets and machine work. Where I learned the next lesson, “use a ring compressor”, and then another lesson “if it doesn’t spin freely don’t force it”. I had successfully folded a ring over and put a huge score in my cylinder wall. Fast forward anther few months I had enough money the third time for get a new piston and more machine work. Luckily this time I was armed with more patience and some valuable life lessons. Head up Greg, dad’s aren’t perfect 😂😂😂

[@jarentimmer9226]

For one I was a lube tech for a year and I've had several close calls that helped me develop a system that makes sure I won't forget to add oil and torque the drain plug. The second my story is my current turbo build I locked up the stock clutch to the flywheel at about 180hp. I did this 4hrs before an autocross event and really wanted to make the event. I swapped in another decent stock clutch and made the event. I slipped all the way through 2nd gear and limped through the event. I then decided to have my car running as soon as possible so I picked up a ebay XTD clutch and swapped that in. That lasted about 500 miles before the pressure plate exploded. Long story short I finally took the time and ordered a quality clutch and installed it for the last time. However after doing 3 clutch changes in under 4 months I'm pretty damn good at pulling the transmission on jack stands haha!

[@andrewjutras]

Brave man. I wimped out and had a shop do mine. One day I'll man up and do it

[@str8slayn1]

My biggest mistake was buying a 96 NA8. I'll admit it. I was a 1.8 owner. But I've learned from my errors

[@TheCarPassionChannel]

👎

[@JacobRouse]

I changed the oil on my sisters car once. When I was done I hopped in to go get lunch. Backed up & saw a trail of oil from where it was parked. Shut it off, got out & looked underneath at the oil filter only to see it gushing oil. I forgot to check to see if the old O-ring was off the block. It wasn’t resulting in the leak. Luckily I had another oil filter, but no more oil. Had to walk a mile 1 way to the gas station to get more. A neighbor saw me on the way back & gave me a lift. Lesson learned, I always double check the ring.

[@AlfredvanKuik]

When installing the turbo on my 1.6 NA, we opened up the oil feed in the block and then decided to slowly and securely drive the car onto the ramps, forgetting and somehow not noticing for a long time we had that bolt undone. It sprayed oil absolutely everywhere but luckily didn't drain enough to do internal damage. That is only one of my many stupid mistakes over the years :p

[@fumbulz60]

I pull the dip stick half way out and leave it like that until refill the crankcase so I don't forget. I'm paranoid about doing what you did after what 3 of my friends did years ago. First one changed his oil in a hurry and drove to our car club meet up, hung out then drove home. He stopped at a video store a block from his house and came out so see a big puddle of oil under his car. He had only hand tightened the drain plug and it fell out in the parking lot of the video store. Lucky him. The second friend was in the same car club and had never changed the oil in a car before but decided to do so because all of us did. He drained what he thought was the engine oil in his FWD car and then proceeded to add 4 more quarts to the engine only to find that it wouldn't start. He had drained the manual transmission oil, not the engine oil and now had 8 quarts in the engine. Another friend decided to do his own oil change for the first time on his early '70 Firebird. He drained the engine oil correctly and changed the filter and then put in 5 quarts of engine oil but there was noting on the dip stick. He had put the oil into the AT by mistake. He never tried working on his car again. All three of these people were smart but very young, they weren't mechanics but thought how hard could it be to change my own oil. Keep making these great videos, one day I'll get another Miata.

[@acuirt1]

When I bought my miata the transmission was on its way out, so I went ahead, bought a new transmission and clutch just to make it safe, as I was swapping it (using your videos as a reference) the transmission wasnt wanting to go into place. Being physically tired and knowing another day was going to cost me $65 (had to pay to use the garage at the time) I slammed it forward to find out the clutch line was in the way. I already put away the transmission jack so I set it on my shoulder, took one step backwards, cleared the path, then set it in place. Good to know my back pain was for a safe drive though.

[@caspymiata]

I pulled my entire motor and trans to reseal everything for efficiency, but forgot to torque my flywheel and crank bolt when I put it all back in. Within a week I had the trans out again because it left me stranded. I didn't find out about the crank until I did a pull and suddenly had no power - because it came loose and sheared my woodruff and mangled my crank keyway. :X

[@frogsshadow4189]

A tip that I've used every time since I learned it. Take the dip stick out half way and leave it hanging. This does 2 things, reminds you when you lower the car to put oil in and ads a vent to allow the oil to drain faster

[@karrb0n]

Greg! Not sure if you remember but I had reached out to you about a year ago, fighting with my NB2, trying to get it to start even though fuel/spark were fine. Well it ended up being the ECU itself that pooped the bed..... Thank you again for your suggestions!

[@gialloradio]

Over tightening rod and main bearings. I had heard horror stories about rod caps coming off so I was paranoid so I added 5 pounds of extra torque just in case. I was a newbie (first engine pull and rebuild) long story short I spun 2 of the 4 rod bearings - had to pull engine again remachine everything add new bearings and the engine held together as expected.

[@toddkane3152]

Slapped valves in a 1.8T VW cylinder head (my own car) after a timing belt break and didn't verify that the valve guides were good - They were not. I had one day per week to work on it (at work) and was in a rush. The valves hung and one of the valve heads broke off and even punched a hole in a cylinder wall (!). I found a replacement engine and had it running on my day off the following week.

[@markszekeres7214]

I did a rushed timing belt change leading up to a track day. I had the car on the hoist draining over the oil night...decided I wanted to install my new oil heat exchanger on top of all the other work. Worst idea was to fill it with 10w-60 race oil and not try to prefill the new oil heat exchanger hoses. Drove it to the track, all was fine. 1st session lasted a whole 5 laps as the engine locked up/seized while on track....that wasn't fun.

[@elicowan1658]

Very relatable video. Just put a 6 speed from an 04 msm into my 91 which came with a five speed. Made a checklist of all the things, used your clutch job video to get the process figured out, torqued everything down… and forgot to loctite my new Fidanza lightened flywheel’s bolts. 30 miles later my car sounded like a diesel truck. For those 30 miles though I was (carefully) enjoying the short gearing in my stock motor that you mentioned with the shorter diff. Now I get to drop the transmission again 🙃 easier to do it right the first time.

[@JesusChrist-gs9pk]

Me and a buddy spent 2 nights on the weekend trying to swap his trans on his WRX, had it out and almost back in the first night. Couldn't get the thing to seat flush with the engine. took it out, realigned the clutch 3 or 4 times before calling it a night at like 2:30am. Came back the next night tried it a couple more times, still couldn't get it. After sitting and having a few beers being angry because we should of been done already... Turns out the used trans we bought had the dowel pins in it... and so did our engine... Had a good laugh, learned the hard way.

[@1legionary]

I was putting an oil cooler on my NA and forgot to tighten the feed line coming off the filter plate. luckily the oil pressure gauge functioned well and i got it to a gas station before running dry, put more in, got it home almost out of oil again. and 2 months later no knock so fingers crossed i got away with just some mild shame and a lot of cleaning lol. will come back when i get a funnier story

[@emerc5210]

I put the check valve for the brake booster in backwards on an ls swapped brz i had just built. Luckily I was still in my neighborhood as I literally stood on the brake pedal to get it to stop.

[@grembal.]

When I first bought my nb I was so elated that I had bought a miata that I didnt even bother to check the oil level before driving it home. Drove from Anaheim to Riverside on 2 qts of oil X). Subsequent oil changes I noticed there was some nice glitter coming out and now it's currently having its engine rebuilt. Also a week after I had bought the same NB I hit a curb pretty hard taking a left turn a little too fast on old dry rotted tires. The rear kicked out and my inexperienced self didn't know how to correct so I ended up slamming into the curb taking out most of the passenger side front suspension and bending the subframe :o. I think I may have cursed this car, but I still love it and love working on it, so maybe it's blursed

[@andrewjutras]

Definitely blursed. Miata's are always blessed in some way or another despite all the problems they inevitably get themselves into!

[@jeffhaft7378]

I'm working on it I'm working on it.... intercooler tomorrow after work lol. Correction.....I need to heat up and give the turbo drain line a little more of a bend, sits too low to the oil pan and there would be way too much tension on the fitting to the oil pan if I connect it.

[@someguyonyoutube9220]

I used to daily a 2007 mini cooper. the engines are plagued with oil and timing problems but one day on my way to work, my oil pump failed and I drove to a safe place to pull over. I changed out the oil filter (didn't change it out last oil change because I forgot to get one) and drove the car around the block, surprise surprise (I was not surprised), the motor would stall frequently as I am coasting 20mph. Luckily I was doing this near home so I started it up and got speed to coast it back to the driveway. This happened earlier this year but finally taking it in for inspection (just to get numbers on the paper) for motor replacement. I know it will need a new motor and will cost a lot. I do not want the car anymore as I have a newer WRX that I've been playing with. WRX costs way too much and putting too many miles on it to want to mod it anymore so I found a NB miata for sale that needs a lot of love (240k miles, 9 previous owners, 1 accident with no frame damage supposedly). I check it out saturday (with intentions to buy) to finally start my project miata. I am so excited, I've wanted a miata for 7 years and I hopefully can pick this one up this weekend. I've been watching you since the very beginning of the broke and boosted build. Can't wait to share to you if I get the car this weekend :)

[@1one3_Racing]

I build race cars as a hobby. If theres a stupid thing to do, I've done it. I've dropped an engine on the floor. A few times. Once was with an engine sling like yours. It was a fwd vehicle and the engine rolled forwards and tipped the bridge over and the whole engine dropped out. I've also dropped one off a forklift, off an engine stand, off a pallet, off an engine stand again (the stand fell over) and off a jack. I've forgotten oil before oil. I only ran it 30 seconds or so before I saw the empty bottles and stopped. Car still ran fine for over 100,000km. Now I put the oil cap in the bonnet catch so it won't close until I move it. I've not done up wheel nuts. I've left suspension bolts loose. I've run power backwards through an ECU. I've not properly a retainer and dropped a valve into a cylinder. I've spun the crank on a floating crank engine and introduced the valve to the piston again.

[@whatleytom]

I was building up my first engine build a VVT BP. Somehow when putting on the oil pump I'd not spotted the old o-ring on the block before adding the new o-ring. Torqued everything down and heard a crack. Investigated a little and couldn't see anything so stupidly assumed all would be rosy. Fast forward to the engine being all back together and in the car, much work as you know, and the car fired up first go. The downside being that oil was literally being pumped out onto the floor through a big crack on the oil pump housing. Engine had to come all the way back out, but was a good excuse to upgrade to a boundary. Still, I know that feeling, and it was not a happy day knowing you have to undo all of that work. Makes you stronger though for sure. Thanks for making the great content and keep at it.

[@TheCarPassionChannel]

Many mistakes are made at that oil pump o-ring

[@seymoarsalvage]

Ya wanna hear the time I pulled out my driveway and immediately did a pull.... with no front lug nuts? lol

[@ghost4343]

Left the radiator cap loose drove to work...blown head gasket. One year later spun rod bearing...built it ultra mega!!!😎

[@kylewilliams691]

Can’t lie the orange vc looks good on it with the green man. Awsome work!

[@Ahelow]

Cross threading my drain plug (tbf previous owners probably over tightened it). Drop subframe and put new oil pan

[@itsmich5209]

great stuff mane. cant wait to see what you break next!!😁

[@ericrisinger1241]

I pulled my engine for a turbo build and put in a boundary oil pump. Forgot the O ring that seals the pump to block surface and had to pull it again after putting it all in and back together. Not a fun day that was

[@rustyshackleford5267]

Started with lifter tick. Did a internet mix of oil/atf/kerosene (one quart all combined) let idle per the instructions for 10 minutes. I was rewarded with rod knock. Well I ended up with forged motor as a result.

[@TheCarPassionChannel]

Lmaoo @ "rewarded", typical internet experts

[@Dawnhun1er]

I got a highlight as well. Preparing myself for the turbo watching your videos, I finally felt ready. Just to hook up the valve cover ventilation to the wrong side of the charcoal canister and as a result venting into the gas tank. The result was a blown head gasket. Now I got a built engine… so quite some time and money spent…

[@FlyinMiataVideo]

Love the shirt! :) That's a ton of work to get done in 2 days. Great video, glad you got the NB back up and running so fast!

[@realkasper]

I just watched his video where he painted that valve cover a few weeks ago I'm glad to see that the engine didn't just get trashed and you were able to put it to good use

[@TheCarPassionChannel]

Still running strong too!! It's been through nitrous and a supercharger now 🤣

[@realkasper]

hell yeah thats great to hear @@TheCarPassionChannel

[@Bocvn68]

Running a car without oil... 🤚 Same here.Long story short, what was simple alternator change lead to accidently lossing one of the oil lines for my oil cooler. I turn on the car and drove neighborhood, when I came back to my garage I saw a massive oil spot.🤦🏿

[@lurcheradogs4life]

You sir are a Legend.... I personally have had occasions that my favoured solution to my mx5 Turbo problems, was a can of petrol and a box of matches...project cars can be very testing 😬... kudos to you sir... inspiring 😉

[@therealcptslow]

At my last job working at a fairly well known local Miata shop that specializes in 2.5 NC’s, I was doing a cam upgrade (in car) for a customer and when installing the exhaust cam it didn’t seat as cleanly as it should hve. Didn’t think anything of it. Finished the job, car started and idled fine, but the second it had any load we hear a POP and it starts running like ass. After further inspection the exhaust cam had snapped in two. Being interference I feared the worst but it was over cyl 3 & 4 and somehow didn’t contact valves at all. My boss thankfully was willing to eat the parts and I ate the labor, but after doing the job again it ran perfectly and still does to this day at 300whp with a fab9 turbo kit. Close call but thankfully the only one out of a few dozen cars.

[@dirtperson4221slash2]

Oh my G! I was caught off guard with the oil fiasco. Must be going around because I only hand tightened the bolt on my last change. I got lucky tho. Those lights are sooo sweet! Myself and others will think of you every oil change from now on so thank you for jumping/ falling onto the grenade for us. Great video!

[@Ben-Rogue]

I srick a turbo on my first NA. I stupidly relied on the factory oil pressure gauge. Yeah, so about 3 months later, the turbo drain started to leak while on a road trip, and I lost all but about 1 litre. The oil pressure gauge didn't show much change until it was too late. The first sign anything was wrong was knock

[@psrb226]

as far as oil changes go, the worst i've done is accidentally keep the old filter on for one interval worst overall, was third in line in a canyon, ran over a rock, and didn't realize it busted open my oilpan until the afternoon after... the whole engine was toast but i ended up having a full refresh done on a JDM motor and it's been rock solid for the past 4 years.

[@Epiphonech]

Ran on half of oil capacity on track, then rod knock. Thatäs cause that VVT engine held the oil level so well so I checked it less often. The VVT engine is still waiting for rebuild + forged rods and current turbo setup is on non-VVT 1.8 with DIYPNP ECU. So it will be really interesting to learn about VVT tuning! Also about the Variable Intake Control (VICS) which is inactive atm.

[@noelattard2000]

Perfect time.. So had a leak from my valve cover so my coils got covered in oil and started to cause a misfire… So replaced plugs and changed valve cover. After a couple weeks I noticed an oil leak. So I pulled everyone apart again it’s a nissan frontier so the intake manifold runs over the coils so intake manifold needs to come out every time . Then I fixed the leak.. it was an issue with the gasket not sitting right. After everything went back together had a misfire one of the cylinder.. and a random misfire. So bought a new intake gasket. Installed that and still the problem was there. So I installed new plugs since I gapped “non gappable” plugs. Still no fix.. So I bought injectors since I noticed the plastic tip was broken on one of them. Still no fix. So I bought new coils.. and installed them.. Every-time I have to pull out intake manifold to do anything. Then still didn’t work so I started testing the coils and plugs.. Ended up shorting my ecu with a couple exposed coil wires.. So now with no ecu I still have to figure out what’s wrong.. And since it’s a 2.5 engine 5 speed with cruise it’s very hard to find the ecu used.. and it’s over $1000 from dealer..And all these issues could be from using non conductive grease on the connectors .. Maybe my ecu is ok and it’s the fuse power management box

[@davidlyall4769]

With that advice you just gave. I shall do that in fact just with the 5 volt reference power and ground the rest will stay the plug-and-play and if it gets it to where I'm able to start and drive the car then turbo and videotaping it proceeds.

[@Icejay932]

Was doing brake pads on my 94 mustang GT. Finished the job and went to drive it but the brakes were making a terrible screeching noise. Pulled the wheels back off to see what it was and apparently I forgot to add the 2nd brake pad on the passenger rear side… ruined my caliper and rotor so had to buy new ones but you live and learn :)

[@setharcher5869]

In high school I drove my H23 prelude for 10-15 minutes with the oil pressure warning light on to get to school on time. I didn't know what the light meant back then. My dad and brother came after school and replaced a leaking sensor and filled with oil and I drove that thing 2 more years before it finally gave up.

[@MegatronBlue17]

my brother's nb2 needed a new thermostat but he had work and I was available so I volunteered. I loosen the left side easy enough but I can't get the right one to budge...a hammer is what I need! so I have the ratchet in place and I start hitting it in a downward motion. next thing I know I have the housing and part of the neck in my hands. I had to wait for a few days for the new used one to arrive and I now I had to remove the cam gears to remove the plate so I could get the remaining part of the neck

[@LL-ph5si]

I took out the passenger side bolt in my 2002 SE's 6 speed within the first week of getting the car, thankfully you had a video on how to fix the issue and now my car is mostly back together and should be ready to go within the next week or so! THANK YOU!!

[@TheCarPassionChannel]

Welp, can't say I've never done that!

[@KGB908]

Built a 1.6. Bored it out to 1.7. Forged internals. ACL Race bearings. Everything clearanced perfectly, yada yada yada. At only 13 PSI, the thing should be a tank and last a long time. Except I didn’t use OEM seals, even though everyone told me to use OEM seals. So over the course of 500 miles, I burned up/leaked out ALL of the oil the car had. It was running so well that I didn’t check my oil at all after the break in oil changes. Heard some tapping the other day so I checked the oil level, thinking it’s lifter tick and I need to top up. There’s no oil in the car. Not “the oil is a little low.” There’s no oil in the car. Added 3.75 quarts, started it, now it’s smoking like a chimney and I’m fairly certain my tapping noise isn’t lifter tick. Sending oil to blackstone to confirm my suspicions before I yoink and rebuild. Painful to think I threw away thousands of dollars, hours of painstaking work, and my first hand built motor because I used cheap aftermarket seals and didn’t check my oil regularly. Maybe I’ll get lucky and there’s no spun bearings and the noise is just a sticky lifter or two, and the smoke is just valve stem seals. Maybe.

[@leobezryadin3896]

I'm still new and learning. I stripped the head of a bolt because I was using the open end of a wrench, so you know, just don't use the open end of the wrench...

[@wilson4079]

Tuning my turbo 1.6 for the first time I set the base timing off the balancer. I didn't check if tdc on the balancer was tdc on the engine, it was not. The original balancer had shifted on the hub and I had unknowingly set the base timing an unknown advanced amount and only found out after I had melted the tops of the pistons. Got to replace the original 200k engine with a 50k mile one in the end but rather would have avoided the whole experience in the first place.

[@dellwoodspeedshop]

I did a timing belt on my 99' and reinstalled the 4 tooth trigger wheel backwards. The car turned over but never started. It sputtered slightly. I sent it to a shop and they figured out what I had done wrong in about three months. I ended up paying over 1k in shop time and labor.

[@xgouldiex]

Been there done this.forst thing I do now when starting a oil change is place the new tub of oil on the driver's seat. So if I won't to drive it I have to pick the oil up and then realise it's still a full tub, saved my ass once or twice

[@neubauer.p]

Did a clutch on a friends 323, all buttoned up, ready for the test drive. The first 1-1.5 mile was all fine and dandy, then the trans started to sound like a straight cut dogbox. Pulled over, started to think what the hell could it be, then it hit me... Didnt put a drop of oil in the trans :D

[@markstorer7204]

Great news Greg.....really well done 👍

[@robertpratt3412]

I didn’t follow the forward and top most rule when searching for a oil leak, assumed it was a rear main and ended up doing it twice, did the clutch while I was in there ofc and then ended up dropping the subframe to do a oil pan gasket, it ended up being a $2 crush washer for my vvt banjo bolt. I spent $3000 chasing it. As for most time consuming 3 months figuring out why I was down on power ended up being fixed idle advance turned on cutting power to 98hp turned it off and made 154 n/a

[@estewar03]

15:32 classis Miata dad moment. 20 years ago when I was 17, my 2nd vehicle was an '86 2nd gen FC RX7 non-turbo 13B, only had 76K miles, didn't take long for me to ruin the apex seals banging 7K RPM w/ my HKS pod intake I bought for $260 🤦‍♂️, WAY back then, simple solution back then was to sell it. Only had it 3 months, being a teen that was an expensive 3 months, but fun as heck. Wish I would have just kept it & did a swap, but live & learn. BTW: If any NA6 guys are looking for the larger N326 AFM, I am currently selling the one from the afore mentioned car (FC RX7 NA). Never been opened or messed with (Greg, if you see this comment & want/can use this I WILL DONATE it to the channel, just cover shipping). Full part number is Denso N326 13 210 Thanks for the content Greg.

[@Hi.Im.Andrew]

a few years ago I was changing a leaky oil cooler o-ring and forgot the hose clamp for the water line that goes into the stock oil cooler on the block. On my first test drive the hose came off and I lost all engine coolant in a few seconds. Overheated the motor so bad I ended up swapping in a whole new BP6D. Very expensive mistake, but the motor I bought to replace my engine with came with a square top so kind of a win.

[@liammoore8287]

Same exact thing happened to my bp4w

[@brandonlow27]

My first car was a 1986 4Runner and I daily drove it for 6 years or so (owned it for 9). I was doing an oil change in my parents' garage while my mom was telling my girlfriend and I a story about a family member. After I filled the engine I started it to circulate the oil and check the level. 10 or 15 seconds after I started it they started yelling to shut it off. There was oil everywhere. I forgot to install the new oil filter. Fortunately the engine was fine but there was a lot of oil to clean up...

[@YeMadAzza]

The story of my yellow NA is probably the stupid story of my cars... (I've made a lot of various ones though, to be fair.) When I bought the car, it was a track-ready NA with a turbo bp4w already installed. Ran great, made about 200whp according to the previous owner. After driving it for about a year though, the motor spaghetti'd its rods, and it turned out that the bolt holding the CAS in place had fallen out! So for god knows how long it was giving itself 'dynamic timing' over every bump in the road. Lesson: Always check everything when doing services. No matter, time to build an engine. CP pistons, Manley rods, ARP everything, injectors, haltech, 3076R. Great setup, great tune from WTFAuto, made 350whp. So off to Racewars I went (local 1000m racing event). On the way to Albany where it was located, I filled up at a country service station. Unfortunately, that station was very dodgy and had water contamination in their tanks. Half way through the first day of the event, the motor catastrophically leaned out, and cylinders 1 and 2 just melted. Expensive way to learn to take your own fuel to big events. No matter, time to build another engine. Stock pistons, but manley rods, arp fasteners, basically all the old bolt ons and a brand new gtx2860 for a super responsive 250whp. Car was a blast! For about 1500kms, until one of my silicone coolant hoses from the original engine decided to let go, dropping the entire radiator worth of coolant at 110kph on the freeway, on a 40 degree day. Didn't notice it in time before the head totally cooked itself. Expensive lesson, keep an eye on that temp gauge! No matter. V8 1UZFE swap time, lol. And here we are.

[@oMTuCH33ZY]

As 3rd year apprentice at a local shop i was servicing a toyota hiace diesel van. A very simple job but i got distracted by lunch i believe and completely forgot to put a new oil filter on, so i filled it up and ran it for 5-10 seconds and wondered why it wasnt building oil pressure... Then i seen the nice fresh oil coming out from under the hoist to my feet and i knew that i done fucked up

[@lpvgs-817]

thanks miata dad for the motivation my ND has been sitting but I've been back on and gonna get it done soon

[@SuperDrifter99]

Personally havent had any big mistakes but as someone studying to become one, and with my interships, i feel really awful when i make small little mistakes and beat myself over it. Learning that people with tons of experience can and still do mistakes helps a lot with the anxiety and pressure ive been feeling. Granted ill still do my very best no matter what but now if i make a mistake i wont feel like im a failure and second guess my dreams.

[@blackinblue11]

Hard work and all the details, as always✌ Loved the T-1000 shout out:)

[@mascot7114]

i was crimping some wires on my NA and chopped my interior wiring harness because the wire crimpers also have wire cutters 😭that was a fun day of soldering

[@bobmichael97]

i did very similar to this, just over 2 months ago i supercharged my nb vvt had it running for 1 week when came a boost leak and i had 1 week from that till i was doing a track day so that whole week i was trying everything to find this boost leek i had to the day of the trackday. 4 laps in i hard brake from 160kmh to i tight corner then yellow flag came out so i cruise for 10secs then i start hearing rod knock. time to take it apart im removing everything i find my brand new turbo smart bov seized open, which i never checked nor expected being a brand new part. further down the tare down ive spun a bearing on cyl 4. so this is gonna be hard reminder for me to check my oil before track days

[@legocfl9282]

Not really a mistake, just something interesting that pertains to your NB not making any weird noises with no oil. When I bought my ‘96 NA, I’d always suspected bad piston rings because it was always burning oil and there was a ton of burnt oil and soot on the plugs. Though there were no bad sounds or ticking, it had been starved of enough oil for long enough, even with me refilling it all the time, to completely destroy every single rod bearing. I mean, they were falling apart in my hands as I was disassembling the engine. Still, no noises, ticking, or knock. I guess that’s a testament to how reliable these BPs are. Edit After seeing your bearings, mine were way worse, I have no idea how mine weren’t knocking at all… luck I suppose

[@dandil]

ok so this one time I did a 2zz swap on an mr2 and while refreshing the clutch I accidentally dropped the throw-out bearing. Seemed good so I slapped it back in. After a like a few months the clutch stopped disengaging, just a little, just enough to where you couldn't really shift. Replaced clutch master, clutch slave & line before accepting the truth: transmission had to come back out again :')

[@idrisddraig2]

Stupid mistake - Working on a 4.0 v8 1984 stretch Caddy at summer camp. full gettho settup, working on dirt with cinder blocks and 2x6 for ramps. Pouring in th eoil and wondering why my feet were getting hot - no drain plug, pouring oil straight on my feet. Big Mistake - Changing the fuel injection pump on my 1997 Delica L400, had to take the vacuum pump pulley off to get the timing gears apart. Had the smart idea to jam the vanes to tighen it back up and of course the vanes are composit. I am based in the French alps and used parts let alone new parts are hard to come by in the UK........which is the best source of parts bar Japan in the northern hemishphere.....6 miles walk home in the snow and no car for 10 days until I could get a whole pump, no individual parts available.....replacment pump was a real junker, had to make one franken pump form 2 as the replacment was a Pajero not a Delica unit and not exactly the same! Plenty of other stupid stuff, mainly involving breaking stuff before I bought a tourque wrench, having to drill stuff and JB weld bolts back in to then drive home ;)

[@analoglyfe]

Bummer this happened, it definitely gets the best of us sometimes. Dumbest thing I did was snip a wire I didn't need while the car was running. The electrical system was never the same after that

[@BuddhaOfDarkness]

Best 'how to' car vids on YT