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I think I am going to rebuild my ZE too. Mine was blowing smoke and has no power.

Rather than risk another crap engine it might just pay to do a simple rebuild. Nothing flashy, just stock parts.

Did you replace the oil pump?

Yes Oil Pump was changed. You might as well do that while it is apart and make sure all oil ports throughout the engine are clear.

Hey I noticed you said you found a discrepancy with the oil control ring and what the mazda manual said. That Ross racing print off said the oil control ring must point to the bottom of the piston but the mazda manual says it should point to the top.

I'm going to follow what mazda say as well.

Oh and my friend said that I will need to compress the HLA's before installing but is this actually correct? Or do we just put them in as usual?

(reading the mazda manual but have not found anything about compressing them yet).

Thanks.

I also read in the manual that the HLA "should" be installed into their correct places. Does this mean I was meant to note where all those HLA's came from and put them back into their exact spots?

I didn't do that but I am going to try cleaning the HLAs out as best I can. All of them seem nice and stiff. I didn't have a whole lot of noise before the rebuild either. I can't see how it would affect things if they were all working ok. I hope it won't matter

Don't worry too much about that. It isn't a big deal. I didn't bother because I was cleaning all of them. The only reason they recommend doing that is so that the HLAs are all worn-in to the same degree as the valve they are used with. It could just mean a little more or a little less noise when you are finished. Like I said, no worries.

Added an update since I now moved the rebuild KLZE into my other MX-3 (which just had a stock KLZE in it). The car runs great, but I think I need to change out my CVs soon.