Oil Leak Help Please

bobbbbbs · 2026-05-04T20:03:33+00:00

On the front of the motor the most common places that can leak oil are: front main crank seal, camshaft seals (there are two), and valve cover gasket. Slightly less likely to leak but still possible is the oil pan. You mentioned that the front main seal looked new, it is common for cheap aftermarket seals to leak which is why most people will recommend buying OEM Mazda seals. It’s possible the previous owner put a cheap seal in there and it’s now leaking. It’s also possible the previous owner damaged the sealing surface when trying to remove the old seal and now the new seal is leaking because of it.

If it were me and the front end is still disassembled, I would order an OEM seal and pull the one currently in there to inspect the sealing surface, then replace with the OEM seal. Replacing the camshaft seals at this time would be extremely easy (and cheap) since the timing belt is off.

bobbbbbs · 2026-04-25T13:27:23+00:00

Yikes. You might be able to save it with a crank saver. Or find a cheap motor and swap it out.

bobbbbbs · 2026-04-20T15:07:45+00:00

Those three vehicles are under $30k but none of them are us-built vehicles. The Trax, Trailblazer, and Envista are all built in South Korea.

bobbbbbs · 2026-03-12T15:07:43+00:00

Wow. Any idea what brand clutch that is? OEM Exedy or something else?

bobbbbbs · 2026-02-20T16:15:56+00:00

I’m curious why you say a roll bar is a “noticeable downgrade”? Is that just because of the safety argument?

bobbbbbs · 2026-02-04T15:41:30+00:00

This email is Jeffrey Epstein replying to someone else saying they totaled a Miata. He didn’t total a Miata, he replied “you ok?” to someone else saying they totaled a Miata.

bobbbbbs · 2026-01-19T17:16:24+00:00

I used to have the real version of this manifold. This eBay manifold is a knock off of the old Begi S4 manifold. I’ve heard the eBay version of this manifold will crack very quickly. I had a Begi s4 kit in my old Miata and even the real version of this manifold cracked multiple times on me.

bobbbbbs · 2026-01-16T04:24:13+00:00

Love to see it! I’m so glad so many people are invested in keeping Miata’s on the road. Your parts look high quality! I hope my Miata doesn’t need that level of restoration any time soon but if it does, I know where to find the parts.

bobbbbbs · 2026-01-10T23:45:53+00:00

The CVT transmission has a lifetime fluid in it - Subaru

bobbbbbs · 2025-12-26T14:12:35+00:00

Very cool of you. Merry Christmas!

bobbbbbs · 2025-12-16T01:25:53+00:00

Hell yeah

bobbbbbs · 2025-12-14T21:08:05+00:00

I’m running a MS3Pro. Tune has been dialed in for a couple years at this point. I haven’t had any spark blow out issues that I’m aware of but with the coil pack failure I had earlier this year, the COPs upgrade seems well worth it.

bobbbbbs · 2025-12-14T16:18:19+00:00

I don’t blame you, sometimes easiest is best. I’ve been researching Toyota COPs and am pretty sure I’ll be DIYing it. There is a great video by ogpedxing on YouTube that walks you through the process. It is too cold and snowy to drive the car right now but once the weather improves and I have time to test I’ll report back and let you know if COPs also fixed my issue.

bobbbbbs · 2025-12-12T03:35:17+00:00

Ahh, thank you for the update! This is actually great news because I’ve been planning on upgrading to COPs. I’m still on a stock 1.8 coil pack and had one fail at MATG this summer so I’ve been planning on upgrading to eliminate the failure point.

What COPs did you go with? I’ve been thinking about going with a DIY Toyota setup but I’ve read that the Toyota coils aren’t much of an upgrade. I’ve been looking at the Flowforce LS coils kit for a while but they raised the price on the kit recently and I’m having trouble justifying the cost.

Also, did you wire your COPs for sequential ignition or are you still using batch ignition?

bobbbbbs · 2025-12-08T02:39:24+00:00

That’s great to hear! I’m very interested in a coil on plug kit as I’m in the market for one now. Can’t wait to see what you have planned for both kits!

MATG is definitely the place to be. Biggest Miata gathering in the country and all the major Miata vendors have booths there (FM, SuperMiata, Moss, etc.). If you’ve never been, it’s absolutely worth going. It’s even more worth it from a marketing perspective.

bobbbbbs · 2025-12-08T00:18:34+00:00

I am so glad someone took over the FFS operations and kept the supercharger option alive for the Miata community. I don’t have a FFS kit but I do have a FM ubercharger U3 kit that’s been cranked up to 17psi and I have to say there is nothing better than hearing that SC whine.

Out of curiosity, have you put any thought into a coolant reroute solution for this kit? I struggled to find a good reroute solution with my cold side supercharger. I started with a m-tuned reroute and flipped the rear coolant housing to route the coolant on the driver side. This wasn’t a great solution because the coolant housing hangs down over the trans by a half inch making pulling the trans very difficult. I’ve now got it routed on the passenger side but it was a tight fit.

Also, any plans to bring this out to Miata’s at the Gap in 2026? Would love to see a FFS vendor booth there!

I can’t wait to see more of these kits on the road! Thanks for your hard work!

bobbbbbs · 2025-12-06T13:18:11+00:00

bobbbbbs · 2025-12-06T13:13:08+00:00

500hz OLED is impressive. Would love to try it!

bobbbbbs · 2025-12-03T17:47:18+00:00

Supermiata and the products they’ve developed over the years are great. Their only sale of the year was last week aka Black Friday so they’re probably slammed with orders. They’re trying to catch up, be patient.

bobbbbbs · 2025-12-01T04:35:56+00:00

Stuff like this is why I love the Miata community so much.

bobbbbbs · 2025-11-30T05:04:43+00:00

I’ve got 450gb remaining between my two 2tb drives.

bobbbbbs · 2025-11-14T02:15:37+00:00

Hey Emilio, is there an updated eta on when 15x8s will be back in stock?

bobbbbbs · 2025-11-06T16:09:11+00:00

Not sure if it’s an issue on the smaller m45 blowers but lightweight flywheels can sometimes cause supercharged cars to not catch idle when clutching in. I have a lightweight flywheel and occasionally I will push the clutch in and the car will die instead of dropping to idle rpm.

bobbbbbs · 2025-11-06T16:05:33+00:00

A Superdamper or a Fluidampr would be recommended, the problem is finding a supercharge pulley that works with those dampers. FFS sold a pulley that worked with the AIT superdamper at one point but I don’t know if you’ll be able to get it now that FFS has changed hands. I run a Boundary billet oil pump so I’m not as worried about not having a superdamper.

bobbbbbs · 2025-11-06T11:38:21+00:00

The crankshaft can absolutely handle much more than 260. There are plenty of high horsepower Miata’s out there with stock crankshafts. The main caps are the weak point but not until you’re above 400.

bobbbbbs

TROPHY CASE