The unforgivable sin of letting my 2008 Mazda Miata sit for a couple weeks resulted in this. Oil GUSHING from the built in oil cooler. For those not familiar, this little doohickey provides an area where oil and coolant can interact in a manner much like someone incarcerated sees visitors; with a partition between them. This helps cool the oil by cycling cool coolant through next to it. For those also not familiar, Miatas have one fatal flaw throughout the whole lineup: the engines were never really developed for the Miata. They’re FWD engines that were adapted for a RWD platform. This results in the occasional highly questionable design compromise or packaging snafu. One of those is the fact that the upper rear bolt holding the oil cooler/oil filter adapter onto the block is completely inaccessible. They’re also torqued so much that once I did manage to wrangle my flex-head ratchet and deep socket onto a bolt I can’t even see while lying under the car I pulled something in my back trying and failing to break it loose. So this week it goes on a trailer to a shop to get the job done proper, because guess what? My first track event ever is this coming Sunday. Ever since I first got a Miata 5 years ago I’ve wanted to drive on a track and finally my budget and life line up for me to go to the Lake Garnett Grand Prix Revival, an annual event where a now-defunct racetrack is opened for moderate-speed track shenanigains, a car show, autocross event, etc.
So here’s hoping this pile of trash can be fixed in time yayy