She blew up on track…

Took my ms3 to willow springs today and she crapped out on the first hot lap. Turbos and track just don’t mix. Ima cut my losses and just let her go. She only had 115k miles, temps never got over 210 before it let go today , no smoke no warning no nothing.

 

So what exactly failed? Turbo?

 

no, it sounds like rod knock

 

Car looks clean I would fix it

 

It’s super clean. Kw v3’s along with everything else you can possibly do to the suspension. After sleeping on it, I think I might try and save her. The 2.5 is looking really tempting because the local wrecker has a bunch of them with low miles and ready to pick up for $150! From what I’ve seen my 2.3 head will bolt right on. We’ll see

 

I haven't done much research but I would check out a few things before doing that though, such as if tuning will be difficult with a larger displacement than the ecu expects or whatever and also how available good quality parts are so you don't just blow this one up too. I have always heard the 2.5s are not usually as strong so you would definitely have to build it solid.

 

IIRC, there is a method to the 2.5 swap, it is not a direct swap and requires effort. If you just spun a bearing, then you have the basis for a great built motor.

 

It’s stock power though, maybe 240hp? The 2.5 is in the same family, from what I’ve read the only real mod that needs to be done to it is the oil feed and return lines. The 2.5 block doesn’t have them. Everything else bolts on. I’m not a fan of built engines, it’s rare when you see one last as long as a stock engine (stock power) built by a robot lol.

$150 for a 2.5 vs $2000 for a used 2.3 vs god knows how much for a built engine. It’s my daily, I’ve taken it to the track a few times because my real track car is taking forever to finish. I think the 2.5 would be fine with dd use.

 

Built motors can be very reliable too you just have to have a builder that knows what he is doing. I have ran mine on lower power levels now that is built for 500+ for about 30k miles. I replaced my vvt but it wasn't fully new whenever I built it and that was my mistake not the builder.

If you go 2.5 route it will definitely need built to be able to last any time at all and isn't just a feed line and return line from what I had remembered reading.

 

That’s what people keep saying, but no one shows me what else needs to be done. The videos I’ve seen are pretty straight forward.

I 2.5 swapped my nc miata years ago. That was a bolt in too.

 

Ecu is a lot different on a speed compared to a miata though. I think some of it is tune related due to completely different size motor and what not but idk for sure.

 

I have a Cobb ap and a handful of local tuners. That’s one good thing about living in SoCal. The current tune wasn’t perfect, I was eventually going to get it re tuned.

 

FYI. https://www.thedrive.com/news/41606...own-on-non-approved-ecu-tunes-today-heres-why

 

First step for longevity on a speed is using a reputable etuner not some local shop

 

I saw that too, but I’ll believe it when I see it. I smogged my ms3 recently with the Cobb tune in it. Passed with no issues. We’ll see how it goes in 2 years if I still have it.

Yea because I totally wanna be 4 states away from the tuner if/when something goes south.

 

Bruh. I've been tuned ~90k miles with a remote tuner. Has not been an issue at all.

 

that’s cool, “bruh”

Kidding aside, I did rent dyno time and had a guy from Georgia remote tune my f100. But I really like my truck lol.

 

I can say etuners are definitely more capable tuning our platform. Remote tune on dyno would just be if you want to know the true HP numbers but they street tune just as well.

 

Is your local tuner helping you out now that you blew up with basically zero mods?

 

The thing is that our eTuners actually know the platform, it's strengths and pitfalls, and don't NEED to be right next door to set your car up right or help you troubleshoot issues. If one guy has tuned literally 1000+ Mazdaspeeds but he's a few states away or my other choice is a local who has maybe worked on a few or possibly none at all, I'm going with the one who has quantifiable experience over the one whose hand I can physically shake.