Well, I finally started the motor rebuild today. Beforehand I bought the Turrentine videos which have helped me very much. So far I removed the downpipe, intake, lots of misc. lins, intercooler, battery & tray, belts, alternator, airpump, crossbar, and probably a few things I've forgotten. Since buying the videos, I've decided to have the motor rebuilt and ported instead of doing it myself, part of this reason being that I need the car ready to go before Sept 22 (gotta go back to school), the other motivator is my desire to have a healthy motor to start from, so I won't have to worry about it as much during the year, when I don't have easy access to a garage. Along with having it rebuilt, I'm putting in a new clutch, Profec B, downpipe, boost gauge, egt gauge, garfinkle's solid motor mounts, probably a new hood, trailing arms and toe links, and possibly a full new stereo (why not, one of the guys I work with worked at circuit city doing them for like 3 years and the Bose is wearing out).
After all this, I'm hoping to get the new used fenders painted and mounted to replace those which came damaged on the car. Also, the Volks SE37Ks I bought off of eBay from PFS are being powdercoated, the chemist at the company I work for said it would adhere better then any of the urethanes availible, and he called in a favor so they'll be gloss black, for free. No more white wheels for me. If I have any money left over at the end of summer, I need a PFC, fuel pump and injectors plus a wide band and datalogit for some tuning after the motor is well broken in. Sorry for the long writeup, but I'm kinda excited about this stuff finally getting under way, I've been collecting these parts for over a year and had to leave the car while at school. I'll take some pics and shrink em down to post later. If you guys have any suggestions or comments I'm happy to hear them. Thanks, Josh.

 

Well, I spent today unbolting the remaining items and finally pulling the motor out of the car. Its much easier to move with some strong help. I don't have an adaptor for the motor stand so I unbolted a few things and set the whole motor on a 50gal metal drum and started pulling stuff off. I've got a couple hours tomorrow to get the remaining items seperated from the block and then its off to Rotary Reliability and Racing for a rebuild and street port.
Also, last night I ordered a new O2 sensor, vacuum lines and a triple gauge pod to replace the dual autometer I had planned to install. While the motor is away I'll be installing gauges, wiring up the Profec B spec II, and cleaning the motor compartment plus putting in a new clutch. I'll take some pics of the car when the parts are installed and when I get the wheels back from the powder coater's. Josh.

 

good luck with your project josh.Hope everything turns out for the best.

 

sounds like you have some work cut out for you. Hope everything goes good and try to gets some picts of the progress. I would be excited if i had been waiting a whole year to start on my car

 

Thanks guys, here is an update: I unbolted everything but the flywheel this morning and drove down to Rotary Reliability and Racing (Fast Freddy's) in Santa Ana and dropped off the motor. Nick was gone so I didn't get to talk to him, but I spoke with two mechanics there, Sean and Luis (?), both were knowledgable and Luis (?) was very helpful in that he wanted to know my plans and gave the pros and cons of different mods, plus their experience with ceramic apex seals. The shop wasn't very big, but they had several FDs, FCs and a couple FBs. One customer car had a custom radiator intercooler setup that was just bitching, I wish I had pictures of it. Also, I swung by mazda of Redlands to order a few parts, consisting of a few gaskets and the injector diffusers, two of which I managed to break. Josh

 

Why would you choose them when you are in Redlands, mech less choose them anyhow? Luis does 3rd gen's and the other guy does only 2nd gen. "If" you are lucky, Nick might touch the block but the pull and install will be Luis. You do not need ceramic apex seals.

 

Join the MazdaComp program, they should get you parts for a lot cheaper than the dealerships. www.mazdamotorsports.com

-s-

 

GoRacer- I chose them because Nick is a friend of my father, and I first met him almost ten years ago. They've got a lot of experience, I didn't want to send it off to Pineapple or pay for Tripoint or Petit to do it, and by having them do it I'll get more new parts then if I had it done at R&R Rotary. Luis actually spoke against the ceramic apex seals, saying that they had tried four different types and had better luck with the older Mazda 3mm seals. From Redlands (or San Bernardino, where I pulled the motor) its not very far to Santa Ana. Thanks though for sharing your opinions.

scotty305- I want to , I just need to get it together so I can go racing and show proof of having done so. Maybe in a couple months after getting the car running right I'll have a couple autocrosses or something under my belt and the results so I can join the program. Thanks for bringing it up though. Josh

 

Update- the motor is still being worked on, and I started cleaning parts today, repainting stuff that needed it. Also, my Volk SE37k's came back today from the powdercoater's, they are just beautiful. High gloss black is a great color for them, they look so much better then in white. Josh

 

My hose techniques sillicon kit came in yesterday (well, wednesday) and I started on the vaccum hose job. I decided to weigh the volks, and without tires, valve stems or weights they are as follows: fronts 17x8.5" 14.8 lbs, rear 17x9.5" 16.4 lbs. Also, these were weighed on a very accurate scale used for weighing chemicals and making paints, so, they really are really light. Josh

 

keep it up , you are on the way to running her again

 

SomeGuy sg- thanks, I'm hoping it'll be together for sevenstock next weekend here in SoCal, but it might not happen.

Update-finished with the rat's nest and most of the vacuum lines, also I took the wheels in and ordered new tires and some lug nuts to fit em. For the set of tires, including 2x 245/45 17 and 2x 275/40 17 Yokohama AVS ES 100's mounted, balanced and out the door I'm paying $608 from a local tire shop. Josh

 

Finally broke down and bought a ViS Knightstports style CF hood off of ebay. With shipping and the purchase price it ended up being like $610 or so, I'm hoping it will arrive in a week of so, as its only coming from LA and the feedback section had a lot of positives on shipping. Josh