Uh Houston, I think we have a problem. My engine is beginning to disappear!



I worked real hard to keep it visible but for some reason, that dad blasted manual keeps tellin` me I need to put everything back on it that I took off of it!



Mazda got 600 of my US dollars over the course of the last week. The parts list was 2 pages. Found another solenoid tonight I am going to have to order a replacement for. There goes another 50 bucks!



Making progress but things are slow.

 

That fusion tape works REALLY well! It isn`t sticky on either side I noticed, but toss out the notion of getting it apart after you roll it over on itself one time! Much better than electrical tape!



Ya know, not much has really bothered me about all of this entire project except one thing.



It`s that DINKY oil filter which sits on top of the motor........................ what was Mazda thinkin?!!!

 

They were all asian males who subscribed to that "size doesn't matter".



Just use a decent quality filter. The nature of the rotary is such that you should cut the change intervals down from most piston engines anyway.

At any rate, glad things are going smooth. Your moving faster than I did. Good to ya.

 

Have 4 mm silicone hose here. Been using a bunch. Found some 8 mm on EBay the other day & ordered it for a few areas where I need a larger hose. Unfortunately.........I couldn`t find any 6 mm silicone hose. Would like to locate some. Looking for it in black. I found red, blue & gray but.......



Seems like little set backs like these eat up more of my "garage" time than anything else.



Think I may look in the McMaster Carr catalog & see what they have. Too bad the local auto parts places around town don`t carry it. Seems like they wouldn`t have any problem selling the stuff.

 

I bought the entire kit for the FD from here, but they will sell you 6mm whatever color...unfortunately there's a minimum order of 10 ft. -----> http://www.hosetechniques.com/products/ind...roducts_id=2813

 

Found a place that I could buy the hose sizes I needed for a reasonable price. Extreme PSI was the outfit I bought from. They had the hose in 6 & 8 mm. Bought about 5 ft of each size. Looks like it will be plenty. If I wouldn`t have already had the 4 mm hose that I had bought some years ago, going the route of a hose kit would have been convenient.



Got the LIM & UIM on. Exhaust manifold is attached & a few other areas have been completed. Now I am starting the turbocharger installation section in the manual. My turbos are leaking a little oil but my cast iron housing is fine. Minor cracks around the intake section unlike the serious cracking I am seeing with the other replacement set I bought. The replacement set I found had 11K miles on them & looked decent except for their housing which was cracked in a few areas including around the wastegate door. Am going to remove the snails with the cartridges intact & put them into my good turbo housings & then use the engine to align the angles of everything before tightening all of the bolts down. My engine will be my alignment fixture in other words. Should be fairly straight forward.



Getting closer with each passing day!

 

Had a little too much free time on my hands the other afternoon so while I was tearing everything apart on the turbocharger, figured I would go ahead & port the wastegate. Thought that if I decided to run a catless exhaust later down the road, I would be all set & not have to worry about boost creep as others have reported. Have a high flow cat on the car now so also thought, why not go ahead & do this so that if the problem did arise with the current exhaust that I am using, I could kill 2 birds with one stone. Flipped on the mill & off I went!



Assembled one side of the turbocharger tonight. With the engine in front of me, alignment of the snail was easy. Getting tired so think I am gonna call it quits for the day. Will see about finishing it tomorrow hopefully.

 

Forgot to mention, cleaned up the cast iron turbo housings while I was at it. Hadn`t used the sandblaster in awhile. Think most of the stuff wound up in my hair versus piling up in the driveway where I was working!



Need to locate a turbo heat shield too. Mine didn`t have one since it had been rebuilt sometime back. Would be nice to block some of that heat from other things positioned nearby. Another thing to add to the "to acquire" list.

 

Even though I have no intention of ever going without a cat (noise and stench) I sometimes wish I would have taken the time to port the wastegate when I was in there too.



As for the heatshields, when you find them....and IMO they're needed, they will likely have at least some rust. FWIW, I scuffed mine down with a pad, rinsed with enamel reducer and used some of the left-over DEI ceramic headerwrap sealer/paint. Cleaned them up nicely and the stuff has stuck well. Still looks good a year and half later. Some of those little 10mm bolts were a bitch though. Probably overkill, but I chased the threads and used a little hi-temp anti-seize when reinstalling. Same for the exhaust manifold shield too.



It's all lookin' good.

 

I agree with you on the need for the cat to cut down on the noise & stench. One of the main reasons I decided to use one in the first place after getting the car. Also figured at the miles that were on the factory ones, they were not flowing as well as they could. Went without a cat on the `83 & sometimes the smell of the exhaust is pretty potent. Used a pre-silencer on the exhaust system for that car & it is fairly quiet. Still, the fumes can get strong at times. Hoping also, that if I ever have a need to pass emissions around here ( which we don`t have in TN yet ), with the cat on the `94, I can get approved. This remains to be seen.



Think djseven is supposed to be back in town from honeymooning today. May give him a call & see if he has a heatshield for a turbo laying around. I know the last time I was over there, he said he had a bunch of stuff from his dealings with RX`s over the years. Hopefully he may be able to come up with one. Also know what you mean about those bolts rusting. They were pretty nasty on mine too. Had a couple of studs on the exhaust manifold I had to replace because they were uncooperative in their removal. Seems like rust likes to "thrive" around the turbo & exhaust areas.



Where did you find the ceramic paint at? You have me interested in this.



Thanks for the encouragement! Lots to do but it really hasn`t been too bad. Tearing into the car like this has helped me learn quite a few things & made me more familiar with how things go together & work. Staring into the engine compartment & letting someone else do all of this instead, wouldn`t have taught me much. Well, maybe that I need to make more money to put aside, to give to a mechanic when the car breaks!