guys, gave myself a bit of a scare tonight, full throttle in 2nd gear, somewhere around the 6k mark it sounded like the engine had some issues, sort of a medium loudish grhgrhgrh noise for about 1/3rd of a second, then I backed off. still drives perfect, but haven't gone for any more full throttle high rpm runs.

I'm thinking tomorrow I'll have a good look around under the bonnet see if I can't see anything obvious out of place, then wire up the multimeter onto the o2 sensor output and get someone to watch it while I slowly increase revs / throttle position, in some high gear.

Anyone got better suggestions, and any thoughts on how likely the engine is to have suffered bad damage, if it drives fine now? I can't afford a rebuild at the mo...

 

Well Blow, It doesn't sound good does it.
When I blew my seals, there was no change in engine tone, or power. Just refused to start when I stopped it. I figure under slow cranking, the broken part of the seal can exit through the exhaust port. Perhaps if the piece of apex seal is small enough, it can exit while the engine is under power?
I would perform a compression test first.
take out the plugs and listen for the usual three "wooshes" from each rotor, then use a compression tester to see how much/how even the pulses are.
Hope your luck is better than mine!
Dave

 

If you suspect any detonation the first thing you should do would be a compression test.

 

and yes, a mazda rotary compression tester is much nicer and more accurate.
more importantly, i'd find out if there is actually pinging happening. it'd be nice to have an accurate air/fuel gauge or availability to equipment. you can detonate and not hurt anything, but if you ignore the problem, it could eventually, and quite possibly soon, destroy your housings.

 

So if the idle is silky smooth, does that mean the apex seals are in good shape?

 

it started fine, and idles no different. I'm working under the assumption that I got away with it, otherwise I'm f*c*ed anyway
I want to know what I can check that might have caused it to happen.
I'm thinking I might just drive it sedately until I finish this tank of fuel, incase it's to do with that. Then test further.