As I was leaving the salvage yard today, I heard the unmistakable rotary note, and loud as ****. I saw him coming and was wondering about the mods, as he got closer I realized it was a stocker in pretty bad shape.
I asked anyway if it was stock and the guy immediately said it was for sale at this very moment for $150. I said I'll be here tomarrow for it.

I think it's an 83, I didn't ask. Red gsl with dredded red interior.

Looking under the hood I saw a puddle of oil on top of the the front housing beside the front end side housing dripping down the front housing onto the ground. I don't think the guy even knew much less cared. He said he just bought it and couldn't afford to put an exhaust on it. (It was loud.)
I'm assuming this is the dowel pin oil leak I've heard of?
I did search, and only found one account of success.
Any new ideas? Testimonials?

Thanks
Joe

 

Define puddle, if its small its probably a dowel pin leak, should put a light coating of oil on the 12A MAZDA mark. $150 isnt bad, depending on what else is needed on this. but the dowel pin leak isnt bad, i might need a whole quart of oil between changes.

 

ahhh, tyhats the same leak i have. Some people have tried jb weld and such. they say the only real cure is a rebuild.

 

Sounds to me like you are in for an engine rebuild!!! YAY!!!

 

silver dollar on the ground, more than a coating on the engine. obvious leak in that corner.

Nah, I'll just sell the car, or rag it to death, or maybe both.

 

bye it and part it out....

 

I want the oil cooler.
And does the antenna motor work?

 

You don't have to rebuild the engine if it runs okay, just disassemble it and pop it back together with new O-rings (basically, you need a Mazda gasket set)

Cost: $100ish and time, plus fluids.

 

I too have the same problem and really like how it runs... Is there any warping problems or is it just a big seal that goes around the outside. Oh and its only on the plug side on each housing... it does suck.

 

you know, every one talks full rebuild, but if the engine has a bad oil control ring but great compression,. do people just replace the control ring? I realize other gaskets would need to be replaced just because you took it apart, but other than that, can apex seals and such be used again?

 

Sure they can.

The oil leak is due to the dowel pin O-rings hardening and cracking. The main oil gallery in the engine goes through the upper dowel pins, which is why there are O-rings at the upper dowels between each housing. Heat gets to them, causing the hardening, cracking, and leaking all over the top of the engine. (It seems much more common on the beehive equipped cars, which run the oil *much* hotter)

Now on the other hand, if your oil control O-rings are shot (smoky exhaust), then a rebuild might be a good idea.

As always, if you want to do it right, measure all the seals so you know they're still OK... or at least, so you know how much life is left in the engine.

 

The only reason i say that he rebuilds it is because it seems that if you pull and take apart the engine, you might as well take a bit of extra time to rebuild the thing. I think that it is well worth it, but i guess if you are on a budget (like most of us are) the gasket set is a wise investment.

 

ive done this twice. if it runs good hopefully you dont need to do anything more.

the last one i did, the rotor housings were peeled all the way around, so i changed em

 

And while the engine is out you might as well detail the engine bay.

And fix all the interior trim.

And go through the tranny and rearend.

And the suspension.

And strip down the body, have it chemically dip-stripped, fix any rust problems in the 3-bay garage you built for the project, repaint it, and then reassemble it with new Mazda fasteners.


Or you can KNOW where to draw the line and just throw the damned thing back together and get on with your life?

 

^ that should be in a tv commercial or something...

 

When I was much younger and a whole lot more stupid, I truly believed I needed those very expensive fasteners the VW dealer happily sold me for my 1976 Dasher.

 

For the time it takes, it might be wise to put in new seal springs, no?

 

I'll jump in here as I bought a $600 FB and rebuilt the motor due to oil puddling on top of the motor.

Basically I bought a seal and gasket kit as the minimum parts needed. I knew I would have to go back and get more parts....

So I broke the engine down and realized that the rotors really needed a cleaning, so I soaked them in Berryman Chem dip and the carbon almost flakes off. I needed new apex seal springs, new corner seal inserts and I opted for new corner seals, and corner seal springs (FD aka race springs).

Total cost was abour 400 including hard seals and gaskets, special tools, and all the materials you will use to clean and prep the motor for re-assembly. Hopefully the rotor housings and side plates are in good condition...

Joe Breese
82 GS

That's my car in the avitar to the left in an autocross only a few weeks after the rebuild.....

 

Well I drove the pos 50 miles home today with no exhaust. It was quite an adventure with an expired plate and no insurance, I was asking for it.
Carb needs work, probably mess with it a little, slap on a stock exhaust from the scap pile and sell it.
Anyone interested?

 

Hey Joe, on a completely unrelated note, when you cleaned that transmission you sold me, did you remove and reinstall the reverse lights switch?

 

Don't think so, may have to clean it, there a leak or...?

 

Nope. But I did figure out why it wouldn't go in reverse...

 

From the switch? Do tell.

 

Yeah! It was threaded in too far. Maybe it was supposed to have a washer. Now it does, and it works fine.

...took me about 2 hours of looking at the thing with the tail housing taken off to figure it out though... hehe.

 

It's shaped like this

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[threads] (|) <====== ball on spring for sensor
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The shift fork was hitting the threads instead of the spring/ball thing.