i am about to buy an FD and the seller is claiming that the engine is a mazda reman with about 25k miles on it, but cant find his receipt that he got from the first owner of the car who had the work done.

what i'm wondering is: is there a way to identify a mazda remanufactured engine from a factory assembly line engine? i thought there was a blue mazda tag put on the front cover of reman's for FD's, but the seller says there is RM616 written on the front cover with a red paint marker and no blue blue tag with mazda reman stamped on it.

 

There's always a tag when you purchase a reman however it's quite easy to remove it....

 

Does the tag have to say "reman"? An engine I bought has the blue tag, but nowhere does it state "reman". There was some debate about this on an old thread but no one could come up with anything conclusive...any new info?

 

What are the downfalls to a reman?

 

Honestly, there really is no way as there isn't anything with a big stamp that says REMAN on the engine. All you can do is get a compression test done and see the "current" health of the engine. As in the end, that's all that really matters regardless of who built or how old the engine is..

In the past, quality of remans was suspect. In the last few years, there have not been the same complaints. Mazda does not rebuild those motors. They contract that work out here in the states and it's renewed or changed about every 2-3 years.

 

The engine in my car had a reman. I have the receit for it from the dealer. I have since rebuilt that motor and there was no out side indication of it being a reman except the housing were marked in red paint pen as front and rear. Intenally the rotors were marked with red paint pen that was still visible after I cleaned them. Some external items were noticeably tagged as well for the reinstall.

 

reman filler neck for coolant is 1 piece i believe, original engine will have a 2 piece. anyone have pictures

 

yeah i'd like to see some pictures

 

anyone?

 

There will always be a blue plate (1x2 inch with the word REMANUFACTURED stamped on it, as well as a model and serial number) on the front oil cover that is siliconed on. But it is easy to remove.

Also if the reman was put together with used rotor housings, the housings will be painted silver. When I bought a reman over a year ago, they had one in that had used housings (painted silver). I asked the guy if I could wait till the next one came in and he gave that one to someone else. I was lucky and the next one came with new housings, rotors, e-shaft, bearings, etc.

However, I took apart the engine to port it and found the build quality was crap. Sealant was inside the combustion chamber, they used irons that were questionable (had them resurfaced), and other things I didn't like.

 

yeah its really easy to take off. when i took my car apart i found the tag like hot glued on. it peeled off like nothing.

 

The remans all have silver paint on the front cover that is chipping away. Almost all have the blue tag that DOES NOT say "reman", just a date (month/year) and another number. There is usually black marker writing of some numbers near the tag as well. Some of the pre-98 or so remans did not have the tag from what I understand. The remans also have anodized-looking red marker/paint on the heads of all the tension bolts.

Anytime you see the pink oilpan sealant then it was a reman too, the original sealant was gray/whitish.

 

Mine was from 10/03....painted front cover, pink sealant....

 

Yep I forgot all the tension bolts on mine did have that read marker on them too. No tag though.

 

I agree with Mahjik - just find out the health of the motor that's in there. If it's a strong motor, it doesn't matter if the man on the moon built it - a good motor is a good motor.

That blue tag is VERY hard to see with the motor in the car - you'd likely have to take a few things apart to get to it, and it may not be there.

The one-piece thermostat neck isn't a giveaway. My car DEFINITELY has a reman in it (I have the receipt and everything) and I have a two-piece thermostat neck that was painted silver. That part was just a change in the production line over time, and some later FD's with original motors might have come with that one-piece neck.

Dale