I have my engine taken completely apart and I am currently standing on the edge of a slipperly slope deciding what parts to replace. It is given that I am going to replace all internal seals, gaskets, springs, ect with a standard rebuild kit.

However, I have also read that replacing the thermal pellet, oil metering pump lines is a good idea.

The chain that drives my oil pump seems like it has about 1/2 inch of slack in it - should I go ahead and replace that and the sprockets as well? I want to do the job right, but at the same time I don't want to waste money on parts that really don't need to be replaced.

A little background on the engine - it was replaced by Mazda under warranty around 55k (according to carfax). The car now has 105k, meaning the engine has about 50k. I pulled it due to increasingly difficult starting and low compression (80psi on front and 60psi on rear). The internals of the engine look perfect, all of the apex and side seals are intact. The only thing I could find wrong were two corner seals depressed into the rear rotor, and 1 depressed into the front. I am fairly confident that this is was the cause of my low compression. Is it normal for corner seals to get stuck down in the rotor?

One other thing - I read a post about a guy having his oil lines blow off his oil cooler after a rebuild, so I want to replace the clips with new ones... but from mazdaspeed they are $20 each! Has anyone tried a different kind of generic clip for this or should I just play it safe and shell out $40 to use OEM?

Thanks a lot,
-Charlie

 

I havnt seen to many get stuck unless the tips are pinched down during detonation. What you could try to spraying a little PB blaster on them, let them sit for a bit, then take a flat head and try to turn them. Turn them so the solid potion is in the apex seal groove and then tap them out. This has worked for me if they have just a little too much carbon build up but your going to want to clean the hole well and make sure they go up and down well when your putting it back together.

 

...you're on the right track, clean every nook a best as you can if you don't get them professionally cleaned...after degreasing, spend a good few hours with wire brush, do some scraping in grooves using old seals and finally steel wool. remember to coat with oil afterwards or rotors will begin to rust quickly. Also use the rx-8 wafer spings for cornerseals instead of rx-7 wire springs. Or check out the cool corner seals by Hurley.
http://www.hurley-engineering.ltd.uk/default.aspx

 

normally corner seals are stuck for a reason, usually this is due to water ingested into the engine and the engine sits for a period of time without being run or being open to the atmosphere(spark plugs removed, exhaust off the engine, etc) for extended periods of time without being run.

you have checked that all the coolant seal walls are intact right? were the coolant seals still in one piece as well or was there small spots blown out of them from overheating?

as for the oil cooler line clips, well... normally i just re-compress the springs and they work fine. problem is a number of people just push on the line and think it is locked when it may not be fully seated, once in place you should always pull and twist on the hose to be sure it is fully locked in place because simply looking at the spring it is impossible to tell. a little vaseline on the steel ends will aid in the installation and checking of the hoses also.