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I have a 93 mx-3 se that the anti-freeze is bubling air up in the radiator when running and turning brownish like oil.I checked compression on all cyclenders and they are 120 even.IF you take the oil fill cap off when its running the motor stumbles and cuts right off,you can here what it sounds like sucking air in the valve cover when you remove the cap.
Could this be a intake gasket leak or something to do with the water pump,does run hot also.

I cant imagine its the head gasket as the compression is good,oil looks good and the plugs look good also.

HELP < HELP Please. tomlbby@verizon.net

Your compression is good? It's 120. That's horrible. Our engines should have 190psi. A rebuild is called for at 150psi. 120psi hasn't been 'good compression' since the 50's. I'd say it's 100% a head gasket/warped head/warped deck issue.

lakersfan1 wrote:Your compression is good? It's 120. That's horrible. Our engines should have 190psi. A rebuild is called for at 150psi. 120psi hasn't been 'good compression' since the 50's. I'd say it's 100% a head gasket/warped head/warped deck issue.

Thanks, shows you how much I know about these cars.
Head gasket a big chore on these?
Anyone wanna buy it?

The head gasket is a bit of work since it's a V6 with two heads. The head gaskets are also a little expensive because of the odd engine size. You'd almost be better off getting a KLDE off a Mazda 626 and swapping the whole engine out.

bowtech1 wrote:I have a 93 mx-3 se that the anti-freeze is bubling air up in the radiator when running and turning brownish like oil.I checked compression on all cyclenders and they are 120 even.IF you take the oil fill cap off when its running the motor stumbles and cuts right off,you can here what it sounds like sucking air in the valve cover when you remove the cap.
Could this be a intake gasket leak or something to do with the water pump,does run hot also.

I cant imagine its the head gasket as the compression is good,oil looks good and the plugs look good also.

HELP < HELP Please. tomlbby@verizon.net

My car always died if I took the oil cap off. I thought the K8 compression was a lot lower than 180 -190. I know a DE only has like 140-160. And a ZE 180-210.?

Anyone else had this issue with theirs?
Im trying to avoid the head gasket.

Did you do a cylinder leak down test.?This will pinpoint where your leak is before ripping the motor apart.

how is that done?you need specialtools?

Good how-to here. http://www.2carpros.com/topics/compress.htm

I found a 93 mazda with a automatic 4 cyclander my car is a v6 1.8 standard.will the motors swap out even though the 4 is an auto without much work.

slimmyslim1420 wrote: My car always died if I took the oil cap off. I thought the K8 compression was a lot lower than 180 -190. I know a DE only has like 140-160. And a ZE 180-210.?

No. If a DE only had 160PSI, you'd want to replace that s---. Read the online shop manual. For K8, 193PSI is the new, from the factory compression. The minimum is 142, but If my compression was under 170, I'd tear it out and rebuild it again.

lakersfan1 wrote:

slimmyslim1420 wrote: My car always died if I took the oil cap off. I thought the K8 compression was a lot lower than 180 -190. I know a DE only has like 140-160. And a ZE 180-210.?

No. If a DE only had 160PSI, you'd want to replace that shat. Read the online shop manual. For K8, 193PSI is the new, from the factory compression. The minimum is 142, but If my compression was under 170, I'd tear it out and rebuild it again.

So what should the average psi be for a used DE? And if a K8 has 193psi new what does a ZE have new?

For the ZE, I believe perfect compression is 210psi.

The KL-DE is suppose to be 203 Psi NEW, and i believe the ZE was about 220 psi NEW

But i had my MX-6 KL-DE with 190 psi across all 6 and it has about 150,000 miles, and the last ZE i had had 240 psi in about 4 cylinders and 220 in the others...damn that engine was strong...lol. My friends ZE is 210 across all 6.