MX-3.com

over the summer I purchased a head gasket SET for $40 to build my engine, as well as rod bearings $60, piston rings set $30.. well I ran into problems 2 months later, my motor oil is now silver!! and I am leaking oil like crazy, over heated once due to a small hole in the line (easy fix). I relaize that probably the metal shavings that are appearing are probably from the rod bearings and piston rings( couldn't tell you why probably cheap parts) anywho I need to get a set of good reliable head gaskets, piston rings and rod bearings sometime in the duration of the winter. I now put my car away for the winter and bought a 97 golf VW. oh another thing is that when my car is in idle it completly stalls and skips like crazy when I am turing over ( timing is correct, new cap & rotor, plugs wires) I think I might be misfiring, but I just got my heads done so they are brand new!!
please I need loads of help in order to fix it, I want to try and not rip out my engine AGAIN, but if I have to I gotta do it right..... so any feedback would be greatly appreaciated, thank-you ladies and gents!!

yep , my G/F bought a gasket set for her RS and she still leaks oil, extremly bad

has anyone else who's bought piston rings and rod bearings, gasketset, building their motor encountered any problems

i bought pistons and rings off ebay... but not gaskets..so i hope i dont get into trouble... i have been driving it for probably 6 months i think im alright..

There are certian things I wouldn't but cheap. Internal engine parts are on the list. Timing belts, pulleys, etc.. too. It's not worth the risk.

fowljesse wrote:There are certian things I wouldn't but cheap. Internal engine parts are on the list. Timing belts, pulleys, etc.. too. It's not worth the risk.

Quoted for truth ^. No name eBay crap FTL.

Cheaping out on internals, tsk tsk. I'd put my money on having to rip apart the whole damn thing again, but at least if you're doing the work you won't have to pay for labour. Take it as a hard lesson well learned dude.

Stupid question but your have all the specs and knowledge to do a rebuild? Micrometer, calipers etc. Tolerence specs are there for a reason. Lots of good machine shops in your area to do the machining and assembly for you with warranty.

I put my mx3 away for the winter, I guess I am going to rip out the engine I first built from scratch AGAIN... ah well it will keep me busy through the winter, + since I know how to do it once it should go a little smoother the 2nd time around....

just a quick note who would I buy head gaskets, piston rings, and rod bearings from? which company whould you suggest the best?

if its a seal, a gasket, anything critical like that the only place you should be buying your parts is MAZDA, for 40 bucks i say you got what you paid for

For anyone reading this:
China has gotten VERY good at making copies of ALL kinds of things. They can make something cheap to look like ANYTHING you can think of. They can even put authentic looking labels, engravings, etc... on their junk. If something is significantly cheaper than something elses, it's probably junk. Buyer beware! I'm very careful about what I buy on Ebay. Even something as simple as bolts, that seem like they'd be impossible to screw up can be made out of low grade metal, or manufactured badly, so they can crack (example: cross drilled rotors). You'd think head gaskets are pretty much all the same... You could even hold up Ebay ones to Mazda ones, and they may look exactly the same..
I'm just saying... Beware!

I bought an ebay gasket set off of ebay for my eventual BP... paid ~80 for it. Hope it does well... DomesticGaskets or something. Cali based.

like I said before, I bought the gaskets, rod bearings, and pistons rings back in early sept, so its not that old and I am seeing my engine oil flakey silver... my question is that would I have to go out and buy new head bolts or should I re-use them????? thoughts?

you cant re-use head bolts..they are strech bolts, and one time use only.

you should replace the headbolts every time you remove the head but you can get away with using them once after you remove them the 1st time.

in other words, for the new repair you need new headbolts

The manual provides an acceptable spec for reusing head bolts. I bought new ones, but ended up reusing them, as I had to tear apart heads again, but they were well within stretch spec. I say new ones though.