2 Questions: Oil and Compression

[FlipKing]

A. 1200 miles ago I put fully synthetic in my car. Now it seems my car is ticking b-c of oil....advice? Gonna change oil now just to see how much is in car. Car doesnt smoke or skip. Will update this tonight

B. What is stock compression for a 1995 1.8. I know it is 9:1 but what are the actual numbers I should look for in a compression test?

Thanks for the help guys!!!

[RotorNutFD3S]

A. Seems some of our cars really do not like getting switched over to full synthetic suddenly. May want to look into going back to dino or a synthetic blend. Mike recommended an oil for our cars, and for the life of me, I can't remember which one it is right now, even though I've used it myself, just not on my Miata.

B. You really just want close to matching numbers in each cylinder. I've seen them low and I've seen them high, you just want an even reading across the board.

[Doppelgänger]

IIRC "ideal" numbers on a compression test is like 180 or 190psi. But you're not really looking for a specific number as much as your are consistant numbers across the cylinders. You want to be +- 10psi across the board.

Switching to synthetic oil depends on your milage. I made the mistake of putting it int oa 120k mile engine and withing 4-5k the front main seal stayed leaking pretty badly. I ALWAYS recommend using ROTELLA 20-50 in NA Miatas. It is VERY durable, pretty much stops all lifter tick (not that it's a bad thing, but just an annoyance). Switching to Valvoline MaxLife is pretty good too...that stuff works.

[Doppelgänger]

Damn Eric.... are we tied together mentally or something?

[RotorNutFD3S]

Must be... :lol:

[gearbox]

miata.net has a section devoted just to oils and fluids check it out lots of good reads. i have heard ROTELLA 20-50 is great give it a shot.

[FlipKing]

Ok, well, i just put penzoil conventional oil in it. I drained the oil and had less than 2 quarts. I burned almost 3 quarts in 1200 miles....I added a quart abt mid way through. The ticking has quieted down alot and is barely noticable now. Ill do the Rotella 20-50 next time for sure.

And thanks! I'm prob gonna do a compression test soon just to double check is everything is ok. Im damn proud of ths motor. Has ran low on oil twice and still runs like a champ. First time I had just got the car and my gma apparently wasnt big on checking it.lol This time its my fault I guess. Just dont know where all that oil went. I wont lie, im hard on my car but damn.....

[scandmx5]

Valvoline Max Life Synthetic FTW!!

[FlipKing]

It was brought to my attention that my PCV valve could be bad and that would cause a severe loss in oil. Checking that out in the morning.

[Doppelgänger]

I remember you said you put a conefilter on the end of th estock piping. When you were tinkering under the hood, did you happen to to put a little breather filter on the nipple on the valvecover? I know a lot of people seem to do this for some unknown reason....the breather system is designed for a reason. It's always best to leave this breather hooked up to a vacuum source. Even if you didn't do this...other need to read this :)

This is what i'm talking about...

[FlipKing]

Nope, didnt mess with it. But the change in oil could have caused it to stick open is what I'm thinking. A guy said he lost 4 quarts in 2 weeks because his is messed up.

[Jack-MX5ATLanta.com]

I remember you said you put a conefilter on the end of th estock piping. When you were tinkering under the hood, did you happen to to put a little breather filter on the nipple on the valvecover? I know a lot of people seem to do this for some unknown reason....the breather system is designed for a reason. It's always best to leave this breather hooked up to a vacuum source. Even if you didn't do this...other need to read this :)

This is what i'm talking about...

What effect does doing that have? Hows the original breather system work?
/thread hijack

[FlipKing]

No thread jack,lol, its helpful to me too. I just know it has somthing to do the the vaccum and stuff. I dont know where the oil would go, or why,lol

[Doppelgänger]

It works like the PCV, but is a passive system, not an active system ,PCV is controlled by the amount of vacuum produced by the position of the TB whereas the breather is always pulling vacuum on the valvecover to help equalize crankcase pressure. The PCV could be more prone to suck up more oil if the breather isn't pulling out the extra pressure.

[FlipKing]

Ahh, well, I changed out the valve. Cost me 2 bucks. I looked at the intake manifold and theres some oil at the top hole where the pcv connects to it. So we'll see.