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I just couldn't let this car sit. My buddy bought it not running two years ago with 94k on the clock. He asked me to look at it last winter and a MAF and a couple of VSV's and it started and ran but had poor hot start. It sat in his drive for another year untouched except for the new dent on the fender. I should have walked away from it like a three-legged dog on the side of the road, blind in one eye, covered in fleas, with kidney failure. But, I just couldn't get it out of my mind how well it drove and fit and now she is in my garage. Pulled the engine yesterday with my son. Now to decide to build it ourselves or to send it out. Your opinions are highly valued.
I recommend you get an engine from Mazda. With 94k on the clock, I really doubt the housings are going to be in good shape.
That said, you can tear the engine down and, if you don't like what you see, reassemble it and Mazda will likely still take it as core. This is what Mr. Pockets did. He was going to rebuild it himself and then saw the sorry state of his housings. So, he threw the seals and such back in the keg, fastened everything down finger tight, and sent it in as his core.
If you do decide to go with a Mazda motor, Scherer Mazda in Peoria (a.k.a. MazdaSwag) are great to work with. They let me drop off my old motor while picking up the replacement. It's a bit of a hike and you have to pay tax but it beats having to deal with LTL freight. Price after taxes was about $3200. A full rebuild kit is $1500 and two new rotor housings are about $1700.
If your engine is a 6-port, the Mazda part number is N3H3-02-200R-V0. You can google that number and hunt around for the best deal. Should be around $2900 + tax/freight.
This is the one I purchased: https://www.mazdaswag.com/oem-parts/...e-n3h302200rv0
If you want to order from them, contact them first to make sure about the details.
I recommend you get an engine from Mazda. With 94k on the clock, I really doubt the housings are going to be in good shape.
That said, you can tear the engine down and, if you don't like what you see, reassemble it and Mazda will likely still take it as core. This is what Mr. Pockets did. He was going to rebuild it himself and then saw the sorry state of his housings. So, he threw the seals and such back in the keg, fastened everything down finger tight, and sent it in as his core.
Great advice. Sorry for the double post, I thought I did it wrong when it didn't show up at first.
I am also e-mailing with Kevin at Rotary Resurrection at the moment too, but shipping costs are going to add up more than I thought.
It's going to be hard to beat the $3k Mazda rebuild. Probably $3,300 with tax and gaskets vs. $3,600 for Kevin to build and ship.
I recommend you get an engine from Mazda. With 94k on the clock, I really doubt the housings are going to be in good shape.
That said, you can tear the engine down and, if you don't like what you see, reassemble it and Mazda will likely still take it as core. This is what Mr. Pockets did. He was going to rebuild it himself and then saw the sorry state of his housings. So, he threw the seals and such back in the keg, fastened everything down finger tight, and sent it in as his core.
If you do decide to go with a Mazda motor, Scherer Mazda in Peoria (a.k.a. MazdaSwag) are great to work with. They let me drop off my old motor while picking up the replacement. It's a bit of a hike and you have to pay tax but it beats having to deal with LTL freight. Price after taxes was about $3200. A full rebuild kit is $1500 and two new rotor housings are about $1700.
Thanks for sharing your thread, it was a great read and is probably where I am going. Just to be clear, I can leave the oil pan, flywheel, IM/EM studs, and front pulley on the core since those are included on the reman?
The keg stays together. Everything is stripped off the keg except the front cover, flywheel, e-shaft pulley, water pump, hoist brackets and oil level switch. You'll get new exhaust studs with the new engine so don't fight with getting those off of your old one. It's NBD if you leave some in or if some won't part with their nuts.
Mazda also include a new thermostat and a full overhaul gasket set. You'll get all the gaskets you'll need to get the keg dressed again. You'll also get a bunch of extras that you won't need (like front cover gasket, and a few others). Since they're included, replace all of your old ones.
This is also a good time to send your injectors off to be cleaned and tested. I'm partial to WitchHunter Performance (despite the fact that they're in the dark ages of e-commerce).
I also strongly recommend you take a MityVac hand pump to your oil injectors and intake solenoids while they're off the engine. Replace any that don't hold vacuum.
NaP is giving you sound advice. The parts for a rebuild cost about as much as a Mazda reman, and most rebuilds by a first-time enthusiast fail and end up costing quite a bit more to get running in the end.
Thanks to all of the good advice and for those that have contributed to all of the great write ups on the site. I followed the advice you all gave and bought a factory reman from Scherer Mazda (mazdaswag) and made the 2.5 hour trip Saturday morning to pick it up. The team was very helpful to get it unloaded and loaded back in my jeep. Cost was right at $3,300 including the tax. Came with a full gasket set and most all of the studs installed.
Glad to hear they took care of you as well as they did me.
Let me know if you need any help with anything. As long as you don't consider Champaign or Rockford as a suburb, I can probably drop by and help you out if you get in a bind or need advice.
Got everything in place Sunday Night, but din't want to rush the startup on a tired brain. Last night I double checked everything, pulled the fuel pump fuse and cranked 10 sec and rested a minute and repeated a couple of times. I was hoping to see some movement on the oil pressure gauge, but it never moved. I was a little worried, but decided to give it a try anyway. Put the fuse back in and had my wife cycle the ignition switch until i could tell the fuel rail was getting pressure.
had her turn it over and it fired up instantly and purred like a sewing machine at 2k revs with a little smoke from the tail pipe from the oil I put in the spark plug holes before installing. I had her hold and vary the revs from 2k to 3k while I checked for leaks, but didn't see any. I think we held it too long, because after 10 minutes, while I was putting the front tires on and dropping it from the jacks, the RPM fell to 1k even though she pushed the pedal down. I had her lift from the pedal and it idled fine and was able to pick up the revs again.
I took it on an easy 75 mile drive keeping the throttle light and the engine below 4k. I was feeling pretty good that I got below the $100 invested per mile mark
I adjusted the clutch a little tighter, but I can still feel a little bit of clunk from engagement when sifting into 2nd or 1st at a stop. Not sure if I should adjust more or give the clutch a few more miles to break in.
I can also smell just a little bit of oil, but I cannot see any leaks or smoke. I plan to look a little closer tonight when I replace the alternator belt. (the belt was in the correct sleeve, but the part number didn't match, so I used the old one to get it started)
01-02-2019, 04:29 PM
New IL owner
