Did mazda put white putty on the PPF?
 

I am pretty sure this is a stupid question and the answer is no, but I thought I would verify before I ripped it off the old FD. I have been having clunky shifting problems as well as wheel hop ever since I bought her, and process of elimination brought me to the PPF. I figured it was cracked. It appears that it is cracked back near the differential and then covered with a thick bead of white putty. I chipped it away and indeed there is a crack under there. I just wanted to be absolutely positive that it wasn't a seam in the ppf from the factory.

My theory is that the person before me was an idiot and knew he cracked the ppf. He tried to fix it with putty instead of replacing it. IDIOT! It is a brace!!! You would have to weld it or replace it because it bears a physical load.

Either that or the person who sold it to me knew it was cracked and it was rattling so he put some putty on it so it wouldn't make noise and tip me off.

Anyway. Please verify that I did get screwed and this is my problem. Thanks!

No putty, all the seams are welded as you said. Close inspection should show the metal fatique at the crack anyways.

Yep, you got screwed...:D

Look at it this way, now you have an excuse to just purchase the Mazdaspeed PPF now. :)

When I bought a new PPF from Mazdaspeed Motorsports Development, it had the white putty on it. My old stock one didn't. HTH

I would have hauled my ~13,000 mile PPF out to take pictures of what a flawless example looks like, and probably would have been willing to part with it for cheap, except.... Grant Robbins of Granny's Speed Shop took it 3 years ago to use for measurements to fabricate a torque arm for his FD V8 kit and never returned it... when asked repeatedly... along with my engine cradle, steering rack, vehicle speed sender, two of the trans. tunnel aluminum cross braces, and driveline... :D

my MS PPF did not have any "putty" on it. I would think that he/she JB welded it. not safe, just a reason as Rynberg said to buy the real deal. good luck.

What's a PPF?

The Power Plant Frame is the rigid brace that bolts to the rear of the transmission and the differential housing, suspending the transmission between the engine and the differential. There is no transmission brace in an FD, so the PPF takes the load of supporting the transmission and resisting twisting of the differential.

Mine has something that resembles caulking more than putty. It is around some of the steel laminate, mostly on the "inside" of the PPF. I am 99.999% sure that it is the factory piece and has never been touched.

The stock PPF has white caulking and I could see that being called putty. The stock PPF has all the seams covered in the stuff. I'm really familiar with the PPF since I'm putting yet another motor in a FD tonight.

I've worked on all sorts of FDs, 20+, they all have it. Most of the times it is blackened from oil, grease, roadgrime, etc...

Jeff
FD saver

Mine looks like this: