Massive Sludge in my new KLZE...New Pics's

[Daninski]

I believe that's the knock sensor. Suggest they include a KL31 or 36 ECU for causing you these problems or make them pay to 'make it right'.

Here's their statement under About us. "At Tiger Auto Parts we are committed to providing the best quality service and automotive collision parts available. " They're in violation of their ISO9000 certification for sending out a motor like this. Look up ISO9000. Anyway

[Pritchett]

Ok...is s knock sensor capable of leaking oil?

[wytbishop]

I don't think the knock sensor goes through to the oil bath. It's just basically a microphone that senses bad noises in the engine.

[MrMazda92]

I believe that's the knock sensor. Suggest they include a KL31 or 36 ECU for causing you these problems or make them pay to 'make it right'.

Here's their statement under About us. "At Tiger Auto Parts we are committed to providing the best quality service and automotive collision parts available. " They're in violation of their ISO9000 certification for sending out a motor like this. Look up ISO9000. Anyway

This is your "tear them a new a--hole and make them beg for a quick end" card. Aka trump card.

Get a ZE for all of us XD freshly rebuilt! =P

Nah, but on a more serious note... I will never buy through them. :/ This alone is making me feel VERY inclined to buy a local DE and gut it before I even pull out my wallet. No shipping... I'd settle for 30 less hp.

[Pritchett]

Right..to my understanding a knock sensor is a microphone that senses detonation and retards the timing. It's just weird that there would be a nice bit of oil on it when that huge cylinder type thingy is right above it. I didn't turn the motor over or upside down so I thought it was weird that it would seep out a high spot on the motor.

If you couldn't tell im quite new at all of this and I do appreciate all your guys help. Also as a few of you mentioned my dad also advised me to run diesel oil, not only to flush but also as a permenant replacement for regular oil. Something to do with the amount of certifications or something. Keeping that in mind would a 4 stroke motorcycle oil be better again? I know oil I use in my quad is way better then the regular oil, as I did use regular in my quad once due to 4 stroke atv oil being unavailible. It turned my internals blue from the excessive heat.

I need to prop the block up to have access to the oil pan drain plug as I don't have an engine stand as I want to clean this gunk outta me motor. Maybe a can of carb cleaner will unplug those vents(the rear one is plugged too)

Oh yeah...I did take my plugs out, all of them showed exellent tan colored tips. Also the pistons and valves(intake) all looked solid. Flat pistons too for anyone still in doubt that this is a ZE. I've yet to pull the oil pan to check out the bearings and rods.

I'm going to call mike on monday and go over what I found, if...when he tries to tell me the motor is fine(which it might be) I'll state the tiger policy shown above by dan, hopefully I can get something outta the deal...I'll give this engine a shot but something for my cleaning labour would be nice

EDIT- you just gave me an idea....Maybe I can tell tiger aka mike about the uproar this has caused on the mx-3.com community. Maybe the thought of having this much bad publicity will work in my favor. A few members here already stated that they will never buy from these guys, or they'd rather go with a DE instead..might be just enough to persuade him to try and save face by helping me out somehow.

P.S- I will try and see if I can get rebuilt ZE's for all...maybe even get them to blueprint them.

[MrMazda92]

EDIT- you just gave me an idea....Maybe I can tell tiger aka mike about the uproar this has caused on the mx-3.com community. Maybe the thought of having this much bad publicity will work in my favor. A few members here already stated that they will never buy from these guys, or they'd rather go with a DE instead..might be just enough to persuade him to try and save face by helping me out somehow.

P.S- I will try and see if I can get rebuilt ZE's for all...maybe even get them to blueprint them.

I'll sign anything you want me to sign, just get me a blueprinted ZE!! XD

Nah, but seriously. If you want someone to batter them like a hillbilly on his wife... I'll be more than glad to make them cry

[RX8SE3P]

Ok, I'll give you some advice, I had a ZE engine that looked like your K8 did. I could and should have returned it but installed it. It burned through oil and blew smoke and was not powerful. Can't even imagine how crap that engine will be.

Ended up getting the company who I purchased it from to buy me a rebuild kit with all the gaskets and stuff + rings etc. I spent a little more and got some other stuff too for the rebuild and rebuilt it myself and hot washed the lot, looked silver afterwards! Worked out much better that way, I would never trust anyone else to rebuild these engines unless they are reputable and/or have done these engines before.

What would have been the least amount of work and best solution would have been to go to a local place, see the engines with the valve cover off and picked the nicest one. Also pull a spark plug, if it's black on the tip or really oily on the actual tip, don't bother with the engine. Mine were oily. All those things can be done real easy by yourself with a couple tools in 5 minutes.

But don't believe all these seafoam stories and crap. Sorry guys. I know how hard bad sludge is to get off, even hot washing struggles with my piston lands. You won't get all that crap off. If you're keeping that engine, rip it apart and do it properly with a hotwash (it's like acid and even gets the stains out) and get all new bearings/rings/gaskets etc. Seriously, my rebuild cost me about $500-600 because I done it myself. There's full mazda manuals with 1000 pages of info on PDFs.

Or you can get the engine swapped to a better one. Don't play the risky game of installing that one unless you want to take it out all over again.

[slayer322]

^^ I'm with him on that one, i wouldn't even think of having that installed, even just for a beater car to go from A to B, that's reallllllllly bad sludge build-up

[Pritchett]

Well I went to cdn tire today and bought 2 cans of carb cleaner. I went to town on the front head, I didn't remove the cam's but I got alot of the sludge off. I then drained as much of the oil as I could...being on the pallet and all. The oil was a thick brown/black...but not quite black. As I said before the plugs all show exellent burn marks.

I'm going to call them tomorrow to see what they can do for me...who knows I might get awesome results.

Here's the pic, its alittle hard to see under the plastic..but you get the idea



I'll clean it alittle better again and when I'm ready to reassemble I'll make sure the mating surfaces are clean as there not in this pic.

[Pritchett]

So after a few weeks I have a bit of an update.

I did a warrenty claim on my motor and in the end I was refunded $100. Not exactly great but its something.

This whole swap thing is expensive, I need new valve cover gaskets as I had my valve covers powder coated...they look effing sweet, I will be painting the raised letters on the front valve cover either red or black with a high temp paint. I also had the company paint the fuel rail covers to match. I went yellow because my car is red and I recently pulled the fabric off my panels and with alot of work painted them yellow first, My brake calipers are also yellow.

I'm gonna be sanding/polishing my intake manifold next. My neighbour has a 94-95 civic hatch with a jdm d16(?). He said it makes 155hp on the stock motor at the crank however I can't find any d series motor...or any series motor that makes that HP. The highest output of a d series I found was 130hp. Anyway his mechanic(honda driver) seems to think when I get this motor in and we line up that he's gonna pull on me. I've never seen a MX-3 KLZE before and apparently i'll be the 2nd one to ever do it in my city. I've researched alot on this motor and watched a lot of youtube videos and I honestly can't say I'll beat him..I think I will (KLZE power ftw) but thats about it. But after he comes over and says that all his friends say that mazda's are s--- I deff want to blow the doors off that little honda...I wouldn't say I'm a mazda fanboy but I don't go around knocking peoples cars. How well does a stock KLZE do with the K8 ecu and stock exhaust. Will I get smoked or do ya think I should prepare a victory cheer??

[mikeinaus]

umm expect to see many hondas in your rear view assuming your motor turns out alright. even with the k8 ecu your going to be putting some good power to the wheels. i think your friend was talking about the B16 motors as there around 150-175hp. even with all that hp they still only have around 110-116lb of torque which makes them pretty slow off the line.

[wytbishop]

IF at all possible get your exhaust upgraded. Ebay header for a Probe/MX-6 + 2.25" piping with a good resonator and muffler will run you about $500 total but it will help the engine immensely.

[Pritchett]

Yeah..well he doesn't even know what his motor is. He thought it wasn't vtec but when he was trying to order parts up they kept telling him it was a vtec. He's got headers and a few other things, I've went for a few burns with him and it does accelerate pretty good. He was also comparing it to my K8 which we kinda raced on the highway once, said he was pedaling me...anyway he can talk all the smack he wants cause when I get my ZE in and my clutch is broke in its gonna be on. I might even take out my huge subwoofer box to lose approx 80 lbs (3/4" MDF). I can almost garentee that when I'm ready to race him he will avoid me like the plague and will only make excuses. I'm also gonna want his friends to watch to make them all feel the sting of the KLZE. Like I said this is gonna be the 2nd MX-3 to have the KLZE swap done in this city and the other guy didn't even race it to my knowledge and he might have only had a KL-DE.

Apparently he seen a mx-3 klze in manitoba..he said it sounds very deep and throaty but didn't seem very fast.

I thought ebay headers required cutting/welding to make them fit? Well my next cheque is gone before I get it, but the next one after that I have all to myself...I want to buy this stuff to give me the best chance possible

1. All the belts, timing, acc, ps....I put a new timing belt tensoner a while back for the K8 and hopefully I can reuse that.
2. Valve cover gaskets...or at least a rear cause the front on my K8 was replaced a while back too

3. spark plugs

4. a bunch of oil engine/gear cause im going to be doing a few oil changes in the first 100km

Maybe I'll be able to afford the headers/exhaust mod just as the clutch gets broke in..I also gotta rent/borrow an engine hoist. Hopefully I'll be able to do this over a weekend to not affect my work or have to bum a ride anywhere.

[Pritchett]

Oh yeah I almost forgot...I got those damn vents cleared out. I think I was catching on the head gasket, giving me the impression that the vent took a turn. Hopefully the clogged vents caused no damage besides the sludge. The guy/girl probably never did an oil change and the oil sludged up...the vents eventually plugged up and then the excessive heat would build up in the head baking the oil on the the hot parts. Makes sense to me anyway, I also can't see this damaging the motor itself..well besides the lack of oil change

[wytbishop]

Yes, you can use the timing belt tensioner from your K8.

I have a new set of valve cover gaskets I can sell you cheapish. $20+shipping.

Have you done anything to try to get the engien clean before you install it? You really should. All the oil changes in the world won't get that sludge out of there.