what the hell is wrong with my car?

[Ryan]

My parts store tell me that 12pt 12mm is the most common single socket they sell.

Remember to get it in the drive that matches your torque wrench!

[myfirstmazda]

got the socket, started tearing into this thing, and now I have a question... not to sound like an idiot, but how do you undo the idler for the timing belt? I have the upper cover off it, but not the lower half. I didn't want to do that unless I really had to.

[Ryan]

Loosen the bolt, and its held against the belt by a spring....

Just push

Or just slide it off the cam gear.

[myfirstmazda]

It can be done!!! kind of a pain in the a$$, though... (man, sorry for the crappy picture...)



here's my next question... 2,3,&4 are all black. only #1 looks like it's running right. what would cause this? I'm thinking this is more closely related to my smoking problem than the gasket is, but it needed to be done anyway. what does everyone think? injectors?

[Inodoro Pereyra]

Well, the pic is out of focus, and my eyesight doesn't help, but I'd say you NEED to take that head to a machine shop.

Meanwhile, check that you have spark on #1. But either way, you may have spark and fuel, but if there's no compression in the cylinder, you will get something like that.

Fix the head first. Then, once that's out of the way, you can take care of the rest.

[myfirstmazda]

this thing's going back together this weekend, so I don't have the time or money to take it to a machine shop. I'm going to clean it up (and take a better picture) and re-install it. there's nothing else I can do right now, this HAS to be back together by monday morning, so I can't leave it at a machine shop for 4-5 days.

[Inodoro Pereyra]

Hmmm...I don't think you have much of a choice...

I'll wait for you to post a better picture to see if I'm wrong...but that head looks nasty....

[myfirstmazda]

well, yeah, 3 of the cylinders are rich as hell. I don't think that means the head is messed up, I think that means fuel delivery since I just finished making sure the spark was good. but also this could just be left over from when the spark was a little weak. it was only a week ago. that much crap wouldn't burn itself off that fast. my next question: how can I clean up the two pistons that are currently sitting at the bottom of their bores? I don''t want to turn the engine over at all for fear of messing up the valve timing.

[myfirstmazda]

here's #1:



here's #2:



here's #3:



here's #4:



that's as clean as I felt like getting them. everything else is baked-on carbon. it's all back together now, and running fine, but we'll keep an eye on it for a few days to see if it still smokes. if it does, I'm gonna price a set of injectors. maybe they're all gummed up or something.

[Inodoro Pereyra]

The head looks fine. I guess all the nastiness in the first picture was because of the bad head gasket. You should not have any more problems now.

[myfirstmazda]

well, I figure as long as it's not leaving puddles in the driveway anymore, I consider it a success.

(boy, that picture WAS pretty terrible, wasn't it?)

[Inodoro Pereyra]

Yeah, you can call it a success...

The pic was bad, and my eyesight is also bad. Maybe somebody else would've seen it differently.
Either way, I would recommend you to run a good cleaner through the engine, to get rid of as much carbon as possible. A good option would be the Z-Max combo. That should help you clean up valves , injectors and piston rings of any leftover crap.

[myfirstmazda]

thing is, I ran seafoam through the intake about 2 months ago, and I ALWAYS use chevron gas. I'm surprised at how much crap I found in there. but like I said, it may have been weak spark. I drove the car around a little tonight, and it still has "flat spots" in acceleration, like it surges or hesitates. any ideas on that? and, yes, it did that before.

[Inodoro Pereyra]

Hmmm...probably that weak spark you mentioned?
I think you said before you replaced the spark plugs (sorry, I don't feel like re reading all 4 pages to confirm ). Did you gap them?
Most people (including most of the idiots that work at the major auto part stores) seem to think spark plugs don't need to be gapped. They do, especially if you have a weak ignition system to start with.

[myfirstmazda]

they're platinum, and I specifically asked about the gap on them and was told they did not need it.