Well bearings are definitely too tight. 1 is not too bad at 0.0005" to 0.001" for most of it but the other is 0-0.0005" clearance with only a small amount of it actually at 0.001". Spec is 0.0016 to 0.0031" so both are too tight overall.

New bearings on the way to fix my mistake.

 

Any updates? I myself am getting into a build and need all the info possible to try not to do!

 

Only update since my last post is that my new bearings are on the way direct from mazda. Best piece of advice, make sure you double check out any sub work you have done by other shops. I caught the mistake easily enough but its not always easy.

 

Well the day finally came to start my newly assembled engine up over the weekend and it was a complete success. Got everything reassembled about mid day Sunday and fired her up the first time. No drama at all really, just a bit of cranking and putting the gas to it a bit and she fired right up. I've since taken it for the first run up the road after a bit of idle time and letting it get up to operating temps and making sure the timing was set properly. She now starts up dead cold about as easily as a worn in engine and I only have about 45 minutes run time on it not exceeding 3000rpm. Going to give it a few hundred KM's before I give it any more than that then I will start bringing the RPM's up a bit more.

I took some video of the first startup and a subsequent startup after checking fluid levels. Trying to get that uploaded to youtube but for some reason youtube keeps resizing the video and distorting it. I will post a link when I finally get the video up and looking proper.