Advice needed to help a sad person!

[Mrmagicdan]

Hi all,
I had a fantastic day at Santa Pod on Saturday, bit chilly but good fun.
Driving home in my 5 and almost home when my power steering went, I then noticed my engine making a noise, much like stones in a washing machine,
Got recovered home and called my bro.
He is a fantastic mechanic and gave me the bad news,
I need a new crank shaft, bearings and potentially new pistons.
Normally this would be massive and as I only paid a grand for the car it would be a write off as garages and there labour would bankrupt me but as my labour will be almos free I think I will try and source the parts and get it done.
Does any one know the best place to get these parts from (that dosn't cost the earth!) and has this happened to any one else?
Your advice will be welcomed with open arms!

[Eighteeteewhy]

Easier to just replace the engine, I would have thought?

[Mrmagicdan]

I'm gonna keep my options open and my bro is gonna do some resserch for me but I have just seen a 1.6 mk1 import engine on the nutz forum for £250, not bad and I'm presuming that it would be a straight swap even though it's from an import?

[Eighteeteewhy]

Have a word with the OP of this thread...

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

[MX-5 Lazza]

Also ask Autolink & MX5 Heaven for replacement engine prices as I think they will deliver.
Replacing the engine will definitely be a better plan than rebuilding the old one. Any idea why the old one has died? They are fairly bullet-proof and this sort of thing is very rare on a well serviced engine. The only thing I can think of that would cause it is letting the oil run low for too long.

[Mrmagicdan]

Cheers mate, I have no idea why, I checked the oil before I left for Santa pod and it was a little low so I topped it up, it dosnt get driven a lot as its not my daily and id only had it for a few weeks so I didnt get round to checking it before the weekend, maybe the previous owners hadnt kept it topped up regularly, who knows, I'm just going to put it down to a freak occurrence and a bit of bad luck! On the plus side though, I'll get I nice new (newish!) engine and while the old one is out I can detail the engine bay!

[Mrmagicdan]

Just thought I'd share this, an interesting article about broken crankshafts, makes me feel slightly better knowing it may well of been bad luck and not user error!

http://www.miata.net/garage/crankshaft.html

[MX-5 Lazza]

Except yours is a 92 so doesn't have the short nose crank
Even if it does get that particular problem (bad servicing can cause the crank to be damaged on all MX5 engines) they can be repaired fairly easily. If yours has bearing and possibly piston damage then it's something else.

[Mrmagicdan]

That's a fair point lazza!
I think I've decided to get a replacement engine, there seems to be quite a choice out there, I've only seen a few crankshafts and they are new ones which are fairly expensive compared to the price of a whole engine!
But this situation has a silver lining (no matter what problems I face in life I always look for the silver lining and always find it!)
I can properly service and detail my new engine and engine bay and it'll be nice to spend some time bonding with my bro and I'll learn some stuff along the way!

[MX-5 Lazza]

It's also much easier to replace the cam belt, pulley & tensioner, water pump, clutch, engine temp sensor, thermostat, and heater hoses (back of the block) with an engine that's out of the car so I'd do all of that too.