When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Tough to say but attention to detail is one of the big factors that sets good rebuilds apart from bad.
Him not masking off threaded fasteners, oil/coolant orifices, gasketed mating surfaces, and similar makes me wonder about his attention to detail.
Also, if he's known for budget rebuilds and you asked for a budget rebuild you may end up with something similar to what I got with OJ Imports. The reason I went with a reman this time was because I learned the hard way that "budget" and "Renesis" don't belong on the same continent. Or, more realistically, "budget" should be recalibrated to mean $3000 for the engine alone.
No issues that aren't my own stupidity to report (swapped in my LiFePO4 battery last night, hooked up charger, forgot to disconnect before driving off. Need new cable now.).
No issues that aren't my own stupidity to report (swapped in my LiFePO4 battery last night, hooked up charger, forgot to disconnect before driving off. Need new cable now.).
oh man i do **** like that all the time. Junkyard bound i suppose? Ofc until you get the new one.
It's good. Noticeably more power... Except half-way through the first session on the track last Friday when my 200 CPSI cat started to disintegrate.
Rewind a bit:
I did the oil change a while back and overfilled a bit. Drained it down to just below the full mark on the stick. Drove it for several weeks until my first autocross in the car. First run, almost finished, car misfires and blows a GIGANTIC cloud of oil smoke out the back. Thought I killed the engine.
Took the car back to the paddock and checked the intake: lots of oil. Looks like I didn't drain enough oil for the high RPM, high g-force autocross. Skipped the rest of my morning runs to clean out the intake, TB, and MAF. Ran fine in the afternoon.
The oil bath and misfires evidently didn't do anything good to the cat and it failed a while later later at a track day. Luckily I've been teaching myself to weld because I had to cut the cat off the midpipe to gut it. What a mess. I'd have just parked the car but the CX-3 just went into the shop (an annoying story of insurance annoyingness) so my '8 is my daily.
And now it very loud and very ricey. I ordered a TurboXS cat'd midpipe and a 3" to 2.5" reducer from Summit Racing. Should arrive today. My plan is to cut my current 2.5" midpipe off just before the rear flange, weld the reducer on, and then weld the 3" TurboXS pipe to that.
Why am I not just going with a 3" exhaust from the header back? Mostly money. At some point, I'll fabricate my own 3" exhaust and have a good starting point with the TurboXS midpipe. But, for now, it's nowhere near as big a priority as paying for the engine that's already in the car.
But the car is good. Feels strong.
Dead cat.
Last edited by NotAPreppie; 06-07-2018 at 01:12 PM.
It's good. Noticeably more power... Except half-way through the first session on the track last Friday when my 200 CPSI cat started to disintegrate.
Rewind a bit:
I did the oil change a while back and overfilled a bit. Drained it down to just below the full mark on the stick. Drove it for several weeks until my first autocross in the car. First run, almost finished, car misfires and blows a GIGANTIC cloud of oil smoke out the back. Thought I killed the engine.
Took the car back to the paddock and checked the intake: lots of oil. Looks like I didn't drain enough oil for the high RPM, high g-force autocross. Skipped the rest of my morning runs to clean out the intake, TB, and MAF. Ran fine in the afternoon.
The oil bath and misfires evidently didn't do anything good to the cat and it failed a while later later at a track day. Luckily I've been teaching myself to weld because I had to cut the cat off the midpipe to gut it. What a mess. I'd have just parked the car but the CX-3 just went into the shop (an annoying story of insurance annoyingness) so my '8 is my daily.
And now it very loud and very ricey. I ordered a TurboXS cat'd midpipe and a 3" to 2.5" reducer from Summit Racing. Should arrive today. My plan is to cut my current 2.5" midpipe off just before the rear flange, weld the reducer on, and then weld the 3" TurboXS pipe to that.
Why am I not just going with a 3" exhaust from the header back? Mostly money. At some point, I'll fabricate my own 3" exhaust and have a good starting point with the TurboXS midpipe. But, for now, it's nowhere near as big a priority as paying for the engine that's already in the car.
But the car is good. Feels strong.
I've got a brand new turboxs catted pipe in my garage I am wanting to install, but Im having to deal with trying to step down the size from the turboxs to the mazdaspeed catback flange. Do you have a link/part number for the reducer? And if possible please get pictures of your work or at least let me know how you did it. I currently don't have a catalytic and the turboxs cat I have is better than nothing.
I bought the whole midpipe with the cat installed used from a forum member a couple of years ago. It's a 2.5" resonated midpipe with a slip-fit 200 CPSI metal catalyst welded in. The whole thing looks like 409 stainless steel (light patina of surface rust after two Chicago winters) and the markings are too corroded to be read. The thickest section of catalyst is a hair under 4" in diameter so I'm guessing it's a Flowmaster 2000125 or equivalent. The welds on it look pretty good (until I got in there with my reciprocating saw and Lincoln Handy MIG).
It started throwing a P0420 code about a year ago and finally disintegrated 2 weeks ago.
Last edited by NotAPreppie; 06-08-2018 at 08:56 AM.
I think that happens with cheaper metallic cats with a single winding. They tend to telescope under hard use.
HJS cats have tripe windings that stand up better, but they are expensive and hard to get(have to import from Germany since their American branch disappeared).
I did the oil change a while back and overfilled a bit. Drained it down to just below the full mark on the stick. Drove it for several weeks until my first autocross in the car. First run, almost finished, car misfires and blows a GIGANTIC cloud of oil smoke out the back. Thought I killed the engine.
Is this only a concern if you over-fill, or is a catch-can necessary? I plan to auto-X and road course my 07' once the new engine is in and want to minimize stressors to the engine and surrounding parts. Presently, with the old motor, the car spits oil into the intake pipe/airbox (which I suspect is due to the blown coolant seals pushing excess pressure into the crankcase).
Building my own D585 ignition, using OEM/ACdelco coils, added a SOHN adapter and bottle kit, but haven't pulled the exhaust to see if the cat is already buggered or not. If it is , I may gut it until I can get a BHR catted midpipe.
I agree with UnknownJinX and Steve... Just keep the oil level reasonable and you're fine.
Been busy but not with the car so not much of an update.
No compression test numbers as I've loaned my tester out to a friend and I'm waiting on him to send it back.
I did deal with the exhaust. The TurboXS cat'd midpipe is a nice piece of work but, disappointingly, they stuck with a donut gasket on the rear of the pipe. Fortunately, that means that install a V-band flange is stupid easy. Just toss the donut out and slip it over the ring the donut gasket sits on, weld it in place and you can mate up to any other 3" V-band segment.
I welded a matching V-band flange on a 3" -> 2.5" adapter and then cut off the existing catback pipe at an appropriate length to match. Fun fact, the Tanabe something-Medallion exhaust pipe isn't quite 2.5"... more like 2.35" or 2.4". I had planned to use a 1" wide, 2.5" exhaust clamp to hold the adapter onto the pipe but that leaked like crazy so I ended up welding the two together. The gap was just small enough that a craptacular welder like me could fill it in.
The v-band welds were done by me using my friend's $1700 ESAB welder using stainless wire (but not tri-mix). The adapter to catback pipe welds were done by me (again) using my $300 Lincoln Handy MIG and plain mild steel wire. Evidence that when you're a novice, the quality of the welder doesn't mean much.
I also had to take the MAPP gas torch to the hanger on the TurboXS pipe to bend it out of the way of the PPF.
Yup, pulled the UIM, injectors and fuel rails apart and triple-checked the wiring, gaskets and o-rings
Everything was fine with the wiring. What wasn't fine were the bottom cup gaskets for the red primaries. One was somehow folded in half and the other just completely missing. I distinctly remember putting them in so I have no idea WTF happened.
Fixed those and she fired right up, purred like a kitten...
...While puking a metric ****-ton of fuel all over the top of the engine and onto the floor of the garage.
Seems that when I put the yellow injector rail back together I mangled the top o-rings for the yellow primaries. Fix one problem, create new one. FML.
Fortunately, I had an extra set of injector gaskets and o-rings from when I sent the injectors off to WitchHunter Performance for cleaning and flow-testing. Popped those in and turned the key to "ON" to prime the fuel system. No more leaking.
I used my oil extractor to suck up the lake of fuel that had pooled in the valleys where the LIM meets the keg and letting it air-dry now.
My reman included the standard "engine overhaul gasket set" and a thermostat in the crate as well as oil pan, oil level sensor, flywheel, water pump, a full complement of exhaust/UIM/thermostat housing studs already installed.
There are items in that set that you won't use if you get a reman. Notably, the front cover gasket, water pump gasket and (possibly) the OMP copper crush gasket. You may also be able to get away with re-using your exhaust manifold and LIM gaskets but why bother when you already have new ones?
The set includes the bottom "insulator, injection" for all six injectors but nothing for the top. The larger top o-rings (Mazda call them "grommets", part # 857413252) are easily re-usable but the smaller top o-rings are what I mangled (part # 857413253).
Have plenty of paper towels or shop towels and carb/intake cleaner because everything on the top of the engine is going to be filthy. Clean everything as you go (like injectors) to avoid getting them clogged up with scunge. In fact, this would be a good time to have your injectors cleaned and flow-tested. I'm partial to WitchHunter Performance. Their website and e-commerce process is a little dated but their service is good. https://witchhunter.com/injectorserv1.php
Since you'll have to separate the exhaust manifold from the cat pipe, you should get a new ring gasket for that. IMO, it's not very robust and should be considered single-use. Part # N3H140305
Aside from that, this is a very good time to do a lot of preventative testing and maintenance.
If you don't have a MityVac, get one. http://a.co/1KQ3NIS
Use it to pull vacuum on each of the oil injectors and solenoids.
If the oil injectors don't hold vacuum, you can try to clean them with a sonicator but I just replaced mine.
The solenoids are cheap ($10-$20 each on Amazon) so just replace any that don't hold vacuum or actuate correctly.
A lot of people report that the octopus vacuum block near the red primary injectors gets brittle and breaks. I've had my engine out 3 times and mine has been fine. But, just in case you break yours, it's part # N3H113158.
White duct tape and zip-loc bags are great for labeling things. Label the injector wires, vacuum hoses, coolant hoses, etc with the tape. Collect bolts from similar areas of the engine bay into bags and label the bags.
If you don't have a clutch alignment tool, it's in that rare area of life that is both critical and inexpensive. RX-8 Clutches & Related Parts Cart Price Check Part:49-0033-03
Their flywheel stop is pretty handy too, but not necessary unless you're trying to remove the flywheel for some insane reason (you shouldn't for a Mazda reman).
Hi N.A.P.! Hope the wife and family are well.
Finally,
I am supposed to be picking up my renny this evening!! I am going to see if i can buy a clutch alignment tool from the guy. They can compression test the engine before giving it to me right? Since I took out the engine and brought it to him.
Theoretically, they could hook a starter up to the engine and spin it but... A compression test would be meaningless on a reman for two reasons:
1) The seals and housings haven't had a chance to wear into each other.
2) The engine needs to be at operating temperature.
Also, I don't recommend R&R'ing the engine that way unless you really want to break other parts. A $180 shop crane could save you a $1000 on an OMP.
Thanks for the reply. It's a rebuild not a reman and I didn't get it yet. I went down to the shop and it's not ready. I got my Apex seals though but after all this waiting the novelty has worn off and I just want my ******* engine. Now I'm waiting on the housings.
I have access to a crane but someone borrowed it without asking. For the install I'll definitely be using it.
Kamal: Looks like Charlie @ Turbo Clinic hasn't changed. If I were you I would tell him you want to be present during the rebuild. You'll want to make sure he assembles it just right and clearances everything correctly.
Kamal: Looks like Charlie @ Turbo Clinic hasn't changed. If I were you I would tell him you want to be present during the rebuild. You'll want to make sure he assembles it just right and clearances everything correctly.
He offered to let me help. I think it might turn out fine in the end.
Any guides to clearances?
Exactly why I went with a reman. Even if doing a custom build with a builder, I'd start with a reman and just take it apart to modify and clearance as fit. Many builders are **** and the ones that aren't come with a higher cost of entry. Not because they are ripping you off or capitalizing on their name, but because they take more time to do it right, they source good parts, and won't allow the use of crap parts that may impact their reputation. Building yourself runs the risk of mistakes but more importantly will cost more as we as individuals don't see quantity discounts that builders can manage. Good builders like Vargas, Pineapple, RR, MazMart, etc are known and come with a cost for good reasons. For near-stock folks, a reman is a win-win as it is well-built, comes with mostly new parts, is affordable, and is readily available.
I went through three engines trying to get a good one with my FD and it was a bloody disaster. Initially I tried to rebuild the one that ate a seal from my car; I went with a builder that came recommended and dropped my engine off to him with an initial deposit. After discussing with him that I wanted all OE parts (except for improved coolant seals) he started ordering up aftermarket hard parts from various providers that didn't match OEM. He then wanted to go to 3MM seals instead of just sourcing another healthy REW rotor and offered to use TII housings since an apex seal damaged one of mine. After fighting with him on parts allocation for two months and thinking it was finally sorted, he went dark for another month, then strung me along for another month after that with no updates on the engine. I finally showed up to his house insisting to have my engine back 'as is', letting him keep the deposit as a diagnostics and disassembly fee. I found my engine spread across five cardboard boxes under his work bench, covered in metal shavings, as he had been porting housings for other motors while mine sat. Second motor was an eBay special, got it, it was low comp, and same for the third that came from a Mad Tyte JDM reseller. Never. Again.
04-25-2018, 01:19 PM
