It finally happened
 

I always knew that I would loose the engine, being an 04 and heavily modded. I just did not think it would happen so soon. I've been having some ongoing small problems and one large problem with heat for sometime. My friends Ray (Charles R. Hill), Jeff (Mazda Maniac) and Eric (Easy_E1) were in town this weekend for an event and to work on my car.

Jeff & Ray have been trying to blame several of the small problems on an engine problem for some time and I resisted because the driveability was so smooth. Like an idiot I blamed my problem on some other mechanical problem or tuning. They did a compression test, and found that I was consistently down 50 pounds. It looks like I am joining the club on engine failure.

Jeff figures that it was one too many over heating sessions that may have caused this, Ray is not sure.

I will have Ray rebuild the engine as soon as his move to Arizona is complete. He's talking about a live video session. Since Ray is still working on it, I'll expand this thread as stuff happens.

Aye :(

Do you think u can put it back to stock and have Mazda replace the engine? you probably can save a few bucks there

Sorry to hear that Phil.............................another auto 04 down the tubes. I know it's not the fact that it's the 04 or the fact that it's and auto necessarily, it's just another one bites the dust.

Oh man, that's not good news.

At least you have the Black Halo Team helping you out.
Another incentive to get Ray finally out to the west even quicker.

Good luck Phil.

:(:(

My local Mazda shop put me in the computer as having excessive mods so I doubt that will be workable. On top of that some of the stock stuff that I had was adapted when the s/c went on and several others have borrowed stuff over the years when theirs engines went south.

Here in Vegas it has not made any difference if it was MT or AT quite a few 04s and 05s have lost the engines (mostly early 04s). Easy E-1 I believe is on his 4th motor and Phoenix has a similar problem. One of the Mechanics from the local dealer told us that they were replacing equal numbers of engines in AT & MT but that was last year.

My failure was most likely due to overheating as I have always stayed ahead of the game on oiling and carbon buildup. I don't think I will ever know what caused it for sure.

^^oh ... I see.

Hmm, if CRH gonna rebuild ur engine u will know if u're carbon lock or whatever.

Have you run a compression check on ur engine b4 you install the SC ?

Yeah, a good compression tester is a rotary enthusiasts best friend.:)

Sorry to hear Phil. If Ray is going to be working on it for you, he may be able to give a better idea of what occurred upon doing so.

Ray will defiantly do the rebuild and if it is carbon he will know. The car is still running and while down on compression and low end power, will operate. I intend to use it while waiting for Ray's move.

Well that just blows, Phil.

I'll go run mine around the block just for you.

hard luck Phil - I think it was the oversized jugs that did it ....

HA!
Seriously Phil do a good carbon cleansing before the final diag is given. Plugs out, lots of atf in,in all 3 chambers of each rotor, hand rotate her and let her sit overnight. Use the starter the next morning (with plugs out), put the plugs in, let the neighbors know about the toxic cloud headed their way, then fire her up.
After that buy a water meth system.:)
Good luck friend.
If you do need a rebuild do some reading on JHB's site
OD

Phil,

sorry to hear about this. :( Your car was a BLAST to drive and I'm sure after the BHR team is all done with it, it'll be better then EVER. Time to upgrade to a 6 port AT. ;)

We'll talk more in a few weeks when I get there.

sorry about the news phil...your rebuild will def. be in good hands cant wait to see the broadcast!

Phil, Are you in good hands ?

Yes, u're in good hands :) (got that line from All State Commercial )

That really sucks man, sorry to hear it, but definitely do a full de-carbon before you start tearing that sucker apart.

Ray and I were discussing this a little while ago. Does seem strange to lose one so early in it's life. I think Phil said it had about 15,000 miles on it. I lost my first one at about 30,000 miles.
But anyway on to bigger and better things. I can foresee a quick turn around for you Phil on the engine rebuild. We were talking about 1 week maximum. Picked up and delivered.
That's how we roll. :eyetwitch

Sorry Phil.

Time to upgrade with a 2nd oil cooler

I still have two oil coolers on my car (1st mod I made). The only cooler I removed was a second tranny cooler that was not needed when I installed the BHR radiator. Why am I still overheating with all the cooling stuff I have added? I don't think any one really knows but everything will be looked at during the rebuild process.

I have been told that Jeff, Ray and Eric are planning on a live video of the rebuild process with something about using several cameras or some such stuff. I will let them say more about it but I did ask them to have it happen on this thread so that we would have it for posterity.

Since my car is still running (and not that badly), the unholy trio will drive the car to Phoenix when they are here for the SoCal joint meet (now called the Tristate meet).

Are you just saying overheating, or have you been watching the temps sit in the danger zone?

If you've been watching the temps, do you know approx how much cooling the mods have done over stock?

Having gone through a rebuild recently, I know just how much of a bummer it is.

Jeff, Ray, Eric and I discussed this quite extensivly as I do not want to go thru this every 15000 miles. The consensis was that my problem was due to over heating. I am not sure if we will ever know for sure. I understand how you felt.

Ever since summer hit, I have been activly watching the temperatures. When the air temps were down below 100 I did not have a problem as my scan gauge temperature was showing 230 on occasion but would drop down very quickly. As soon as the air temps rose to 105 and higher I was recording temps of well over 230 and not droping off very quickly. Ray and I were having converstions during that time to try and figure out what was suddenly wrong.

I would not venture to say that the readings I was getting earlier were correct and that I was interperating them correctly to venture any input on what each of the cooling mods were doing at any given time. At the time I felt confident of them but not now.

Phil,

So sorry to hear that, man. I've always rooted for you as one of our AT pioneers.

I would agree with the others, do a good carbon cleaning on it (seafoam, I believe it is called) and see if the numbers improve at all.

If all else fails, move here to the midwest!

Everyone is relatively sure it's not carbon. A move to the mid west is out - I require year round sunshine. I have been at shows in Chicago in the winter - everyone looks like they are sick:) :) The pot holes are so big they would swallow my poor 8:uhh: :Eyecrazy: . I could not take the cold and the humidity. You guys are a stronger breed for living in that climate.

Those are the people that come to Chicago for those shows. :)

That's what we say about the people in Minnesota. :)