[btothefnrock]

Long story short, one of my Miata motors had a catastrophic failure. Its a completely OEM stock Long nose 1.6L, no mods, no boost, nothing. I pulled the engine and found a spun rod bearing on the #2 Cyl, and 2 other damaged rod bearings (#3 and #4 Cyl).......



and this...

Funny thing was, other than the horrible noise, it would still pull hard to redline. It also still Comp tested around 150 per Cyl...

Also, crazy enough, it didn't tear up the block at all- still has 100% perfect looking Cross-Hatching all around (not using the block again without getting it checked out first still obviously)

Has anyone else split a skirt on a stock, factory sealed 1.6L?

New motor is going in this weekend, just figured I'd post this up to show the carnage.

 

[3MiataFamily]

That ranks right up there with the two 1.6 motors i have taken apart that had a bent connecting rod...

Very unusual...

 

[btothefnrock]

anyone else seen this??? lol still a mystery how it happened really...

 

[jux]

This is the first I've seen of destroyed skirts without boost. I've seen toasted diffs from an otherwise stock 1.6 car...but never anything like this. weird.

 

[nubskillz]

Did you own the motor for the entire length of its life? Bad maintenance or maybe a noob driver that lugged his engine a lot? I could imagine skirts getting damaged from engine lugging.

 

[ImBiginKorea]

what is engine "lugging"

--Korea

 

[jux]

It's driving at low rpm and high load...basically.

 

[Bwana]

Damage to multiple bearings points to at least some oil supply issues, wouldn't expect that to destroy a skirt like that though.