diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index 93f84db582d..ca90e9f6d90 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -100,7 +100,6 @@ ui-precompiled = [
 ]
 ui-enabled = ["dapps"]
 dapps = ["parity-dapps"]
-miner-debug = ["ethcore/miner-debug"]
 json-tests = ["ethcore/json-tests"]
 test-heavy = ["ethcore/test-heavy"]
 evm-debug = ["ethcore/evm-debug"]
diff --git a/ethcore/Cargo.toml b/ethcore/Cargo.toml
index bb0db865dbc..c9db7cf9f68 100644
--- a/ethcore/Cargo.toml
+++ b/ethcore/Cargo.toml
@@ -74,10 +74,6 @@ trie-standardmap = { path = "../util/trie-standardmap" }
 kvdb-rocksdb = { path = "../util/kvdb-rocksdb" }
 
 [features]
-# Disables seal verification for mined blocks.
-# This allows you to submit any seal via RPC to test and benchmark
-# how fast pending block get's created while running on the mainnet.
-miner-debug = []
 # Display EVM debug traces.
 evm-debug = ["slow-blocks"]
 # Display EVM debug traces when running tests.
diff --git a/ethcore/src/ethereum/ethash.rs b/ethcore/src/ethereum/ethash.rs
index 50e02172dea..09e9caf727b 100644
--- a/ethcore/src/ethereum/ethash.rs
+++ b/ethcore/src/ethereum/ethash.rs
@@ -289,18 +289,11 @@ impl Engine<EthereumMachine> for Arc<Ethash> {
 		self.machine.note_rewards(block, &[(author, result_block_reward)], &uncle_rewards)
 	}
 
-	#[cfg(not(feature = "miner-debug"))]
 	fn verify_local_seal(&self, header: &Header) -> Result<(), Error> {
 		self.verify_block_basic(header)
 			.and_then(|_| self.verify_block_unordered(header))
 	}
 
-	#[cfg(feature = "miner-debug")]
-	fn verify_local_seal(&self, _header: &Header) -> Result<(), Error> {
-		warn!("Skipping seal verification, running in miner testing mode.");
-		Ok(())
-	}
-
 	fn verify_block_basic(&self, header: &Header) -> Result<(), Error> {
 		// check the seal fields.
 		let seal = Seal::parse_seal(header.seal())?;
diff --git a/ethcore/src/miner/miner.rs b/ethcore/src/miner/miner.rs
index 53a67bc5f21..1fb364726a5 100644
--- a/ethcore/src/miner/miner.rs
+++ b/ethcore/src/miner/miner.rs
@@ -95,7 +95,7 @@ const DEFAULT_MINIMAL_GAS_PRICE: u64 = 20_000_000_000;
 /// before stopping attempts to push more transactions to the block.
 /// This is an optimization that prevents traversing the entire pool
 /// in case we have only a fraction of available block gas limit left.
-const MAX_SKIPPED_TRANSACTIONS: usize = 128;
+const MAX_SKIPPED_TRANSACTIONS: usize = 8;
 
 /// Configures the behaviour of the miner.
 #[derive(Debug, PartialEq)]
@@ -391,7 +391,7 @@ impl Miner {
 		let max_transactions = if min_tx_gas.is_zero() {
 			usize::max_value()
 		} else {
-			MAX_SKIPPED_TRANSACTIONS.saturating_add((*open_block.block().header().gas_limit() / min_tx_gas).as_u64() as usize)
+			(*open_block.block().header().gas_limit() / min_tx_gas).as_u64() as usize
 		};
 
 		let pending: Vec<Arc<_>> = self.transaction_queue.pending(