Well, my motor is back out again, 1200 miles on this one as well. This time a spun beaing. Copper flakes in the oil pan. That chick Babet must be to blame. She gets pulled apart this weekend to asess the damage. This motor had Cermet coated irons and rotor housings as well as all new seals and springs and micro polished eshaft. There wasn't a single piece that wasn't either new or completely refinished and inspected. That LS2 is looking pretting f**king good right about now.

That's two motors from two different builders who know their **** and less than 2500 miles total. 2000 have been breakin miles. This is crap. I can't win. Who knows how much damage has been done to the side housings and ****. All new stuff, over 3k in parts alone. It had stock mazda seals and OEM bearings. Oil pressure was good and was just getting it up to 7500 rpm. No over reving or anything. Boost was only 7 psi. I hope all I will need is new bearings. Please cross your fingers for me. I haven't been able to drive my car for over a year now. I just get teased with breakin miles

 

good luck, an ls7 is looig like the best option now.

 

Hope you get those rotary bugs sorted out.

 

Yeah, because everybody has a spare twenty grand laying around.
Anyways, best of luck getting your issues sorted out. I would think this would fall under some kind of warranty provided by your engine builder.

 

I can't believe how bad that sucks. Sorry to hear this .

 

Well the diagnosis is in. The front bearing went out. It got ate up from oil starvation my engine builder said. Now, I had a full pan of oil and good oil pressure prior to the bearing failure. The pressure was bad after the bearing went out obviously. Even after the failure, when the car was started cold the next morning, the pressure was fine till it heated up. Then it went lazy and wouldn't build up over 40 psi or so.

Any ideas how a functioning oil pump, good oil pressure, and a full oil level could still result in "oil starvation"

Mike

 

were you pulling some high lateral G's? I've heard stories high reving and turning can cause starvation...

 

do you have a build sheet w bearing clearances? initially sounds like a clearance issue.
hc

 

No, straight line pull.

 

I do not, my builder should have that info if he makes a point of writing it down. I know he checked it but I do not know what it was. He checked rotor to housing clearances and end play and all those things. Assembled stuff, took measurements and then disassebled again to make sure all was good. I really can't see him not checking a crucial item like that. Nothing is absolute though. i will ask.

Mike

 

If it were oil starvation then something else failed and killed the oil pressure or there was trash in the oil system.

 

i would be suspicous about the clearance. It sounds like the thrust bearing was too tight, or fell.

 

would having the altenator belt on too tight cause this to happen? Just curious

 

no. That would lead to permature bearing failure in your alternator. I don't think you can put so much tension on the belt it would destroy anything else before the small bearings on your belt driven components. Remove and replace with new engine builder. Who is it if you don't mind me asking?

 

But that would be a gnarly twenty grand spent. Lots of fun if you ask me!

 

A bearing can spin for reasons other than oil starvation...improper installation and clearance come to mind. It's easy to get that key a little out of alignment during install. Another consideration is that each time you replace a bearing, you remove a bit of material from the rotor/gear making it more likely to spin later. Also used bearings are already heat cycled, clearanced, and hardened while new bearings are not. FOr these reasons I keep my bearing change habits to an absolute minimum.

I'd almost guarantee your eshaft is junk too, along with the adjacent rotor bearing. You'll be quite lucky if your adjoining iron faces and rotor tips are not ground off as well because spun bearings tend to put a lot of play in the rotating assembly and the sides of the rotor can actually rub the irons due to the shaft tilting.

 

What was the caused the failure of your first motor ?

 

That sucks! I hope you get some "help" from your motor builder.
Otherwise, an LS1 swap sounds like a pretty good alternative,

 

What kind of oil were you using? (Brand/weight)