insanely hot ... upper-90s ...

good job!

.

 

I guess it's not Texas, but miserable none the less! I cant take it.

 

Recently it’s been low-mid 90s here with a nice breeze; almost feels like Spring again

 

I went for a nice drive today despite the weather being hot (lower 90's). Got a good 60 miles of twisty country back roads in, coolant temps stayed between 190F and 210F. New brakes are very good, much improved since replacing the front calipers. Checked for leaks at a few points, everything seems to be good with the replaced oil lines. Oil pan still leaks, but only when the car is parked. I will have to address that over the winter. Happy the car is back on the road for the season. Inspection is Monday, I don't anticipate any issues as the hole in the rocker is fixed and no CEL's.

 

Got by inspection without issues, car was exempt from emissions this year and no peep about the rocker repair. Planning to take her out this weekend again for some more twisty road fun.

 

no more salty roads, please

 

I think this season is over. I spent most of the fall driving around every weekend. Forgot how much I love this car on twisty roads. Had a great 2 hour drive on Saturday with rare 60 degree weather in December here in PA. Forecast is calling for 3-5 inches of snow on Wednesday this week, so its likely parked until the spring. Thanks to every one for their help and advice in getting this car refreshed. I haven't had any issues since the summer when I made the repairs to the oil cooler line, brakes, and the rust repair.

 

Back at it again after a good spring of driving. I hunted down an exhaust leak near the back of the car. Had no real problems with the exhaust leak once it was diagnosed and the gasket and new hardware was installed. To my surprise, there never was a gasket back there. It also doesn't look like the previous owner used the proper hardware from Greddy.




Now the starter on the other hand I am having issues with. Installed it without much issue. However upon trying to start the car for the fist time it seems like it isn't getting power for some reason. Car powers on and accessories work. Battery is tested good at 12.7 Volts. Turn the key and nothing, no crank whatsoever. Going to check the fuses tomorrow, maybe I blew something? I also used the silver bolt that came with the starter instead of the bronze/copper one on my original starter, maybe that was a mistake? Otherwise I'm a bit lost.

 

Starter Update: Still checking off possible issues, and the situation continues to get weirder. The starter has power from the battery, I confirmed 12V+ using my multi-meter. Swapped the Headlight and Starter relays, and was able to get the car to fire - once. Once the car warmed up, I turned it off and attempted to start again - no dice. Tried a few more times, no dice. Hooked the car up to a donor car to jump start, just in case my battery was the issue. No dice. I'm now thinking it has to either do with: relays, trigger switch wire on starter, or plunger on clutch. I'm going to ask the wife to help me test the battery for voltage drop on startup later this afternoon. Next step after that is to pull the new starter off and put the old one back on, that way I can rule out the new starter. The older starter worked fine before pulling it off, and I had non of these issues before installing the new one. If the old one doesn't work upon re-install I know my issue is battery, relay, switch related. If it does, its likely the new starter.

 

Thats definitely weird. Could simply be a warranty job on starter. Once i bought a fan for wood heater that kept tripping house safety switches. Replacement did not. No idea really. Just electronics! Hope you get it sorted quickly.

 

Update: It's alive! I think I had two separate issues, but they both seem to be sorted now. I think the starter fuse was bad, switching with the headlight fuse allowed me to start the car that one time and the headlights haven't worked since. That fuse must be bad. As far as getting it to start reliably, after many tests with the multi-meter, and going down a bunch of rabbit holes - it ended up just being the connection from the battery to the starter itself. Even though it read 12V from the multi-meter, when I installed the new starter I was very careful not to over tighten this bolt - but clearly I didn't tighten it enough to make a good reliable connection.

I got frustrated with going down the rabbit hole that I thought I would just install the old starter back on the car (to make sure it wasn't the new starter causing the issue), and when I went to take the old one off, I noticed it was barely tightened at all. A turn or two more and the bolt was nice and snug. I was able to start the car 5 times in a row with no issues. I'm going to continue to check it, but I think the issue is solved. So stupid of me, and something so simple!

 

Great!
Dont beat yourself up too much we’ve all been there …
Ummm some more than others 🤪

 

I cant believe how big of a difference the new starter has made to starting performance. According to my last compression test, the old starter was cranking at 260 RPM - which seems pretty good. Well, with the new one on now, hot starting has gone from about 5 seconds to 1 second. Nice!

 

So I had a good season last year, drove the car a bunch without issues. The new starter has brought the car new life, and with it my confidence to take the car to more places. Years ago I removed the stock Cat and replaced it with a BHR midpipe. I am finding that as I approach my 40's I am finding the smell and the added noise from a midpipe to be annoying. My stock Cat has sat in my garage for the past 5+ years, am I good to just slap it back on? I posted a picture of the honeycomb, and while it is definitely unclogged there does appear to be some staining of some sort, possibly oil or premix. Thoughts?

 

that’s irrelevant, I’m wondering why the catalyst appears to be off center from the pipe with the big gap on the side?

 

It's just the way the picture was taken, there is no gap on the side that is just a shadow from the way the picture was taken. If you zoom in you can see there is honeycomb within the shadow area.

 

Or you could source a high flow cat from BHR and have it welded into your mid pipe. Sell the OEM cat and cover your cost. Does Charles still supply those cats?

 

thanks for the clarification, I don’t think any of that matters otherwise. It’s either not busted up, not plugged/clogged, or not giving a CEL, or it is. Ultimately you need to pay up and get a HJS high flow metallic cat converter, but with the understanding that oil/premix consumption is not cat friendly no matter wich brand you use. I never had any problem with mine and never heard of the people who had them after me having a problem, but mine wasn’t a daily, high mileage driver.
.

 

That sight of the 8 on the stands feels too familiar, got my 8 down a unit I rent with my brother right now and it's been on stands for about a month as I get things sorted on it, including a rebuild soon since the engine's gone. First car I'm doing major work on too, so it'll be fun posting the things I discover and get up to with mine. Hopefully that car's still going well for you and still looks as good as it did in the photo posted after its rust repairs were done, looks damn beautiful man

 

A few months ago I actually did connect with Charles at BHR and purchased one of the CAT elements that he uses for the Catted version of his midpipe, though I have yet to have it installed locally. I have found this season that I am finding the midpipe mated to the Greddy exhaust to be a bit loud for my taste now that I am getting older. I will likely put the OEM Cat back on for a while and see how I like it. That will also give me time to take the BHR midpipe to a local shop and get the CAT element that Charles provided welded on or sell the midpipe if the OEM Cat better fits my current taste.

 

Thanks. It's still going and gets used most nice days/weekends. Good luck with the work on your car, sounds like you will be deep down the rabbit hole.

 

It might help to have the shop weld a true 3” flange at the aft end of the mid pipe and remove the section of pipe before the flange. I have a BHR mid pipe as well and the tail end chokes down to a smaller diameter section just before the flange.

 

Back at it for season 13 with my 8. Still considering going back to my stock cat or the BHR catted midpipe. Pretty tired of being catless, too smelly and too loud. Read that my 02 sensor is likely fried from running catless for years. Is there any way to verify this or should I just pick one up?

Also, I re-installed the stock airpump and it doesn't seem to spin up at startup. I have confirmed it is working by running it directly from the battery. Does the airpump run off a reading from the cats O2 sensor? Any other reason the airpump wouldn't kick on at startup? I checked the airpump fuse as well, and that is good.

 

Well I finally had some time to switch out my BHR midpipe and go back to the stock cat. Spent a few hours under the car but got it all completed and checked for exhaust leaks, no issues there. New factory Mazda gasket and hardware kit made the job relatively simple, just old rusty bolts take time to remove.



Speaking of, I snapped the old exhaust bolts inside the threads of the BHR midpipe, anyone have thoughts on how to fix this? I do have drill bits and a drill/tap set if that helps. I'm thinking I can try to drill it out? Thoughts are appreciated. Was hoping to sell this off to someone else who might want it.

 

Completed a bit more work this week, picked up a pretty cool trick from Chris Fix on Youtube to check for exhaust leaks. A leaf blower and some soapy water exposed a leak at the back between the catback and the muffler.





No leaks at either of the front or back cat flanges.



Added some steel zip ties to keep my rattling header heat shield in place.



And changed the oil and filter at 143,879 miles.