came from inside the LIM, 2nd runner away from the firewall

 

That's an important piece and it's half of the secondary injector diffuser. Its purpose is to atomize the fuel better and therefore help prevent flooding. You can get to them by removing the secondary fuel rail and Ray at Malloy Mazda will sell you a new set of secondary diffusers for about $30.

 

awesome, I knew someone could tell me right away. So I'm not going to cause any immediate damage if I run the car without this piece until it comes in?

BTW: thanks for the ultra quick and complete response.

 

It won't cause any damage running it that way and on second look that came from a primary injector diffuser, not a secondary injector diffuser. You'll have to remove the ACV and the rat's nest to pull the primary fuel injector rail which is obviously more of a pain in the ***. The primary injectors are keyed to fit in the hole one way and you should buy a new set of primary injector insulators for $4.00 and replace them while you're in there.

 

good thing my ACV and rats nest are sitting in the garage


Are the primary diffusers also a 1 piece unit? So just 1 primary diffuser, and 2 insulators will do the trick?

 

That should do the trick if the other one isn't broken too. If the LIM is off you should be able to see the other one in one of the primary intake runners in the center iron sitting under one of the primary injectors. If you don't see it then the other one may be broken off too.

 

well I plan to do this with the LIM on the car, by taking off the UIM and going from the top. So I'll just go ahead and order both, just to be sure. Thanks for all the help.

 

You dont 'need' to run the diffusers. I havent had any problems without em.

 

what about having 1 of the primary diffusers and not the other? uneven delivery?

 

Ditto. You don't "need" them. Can't say that you'll have an issue running lopsided like that, but I don't see why you would.

I've run mine without them with no issues. If you have nice clean injectors, the fuel will atomize just fine without them.

 

What happened to the rest of it?

 

The rest of it is probably still in the socket.

 

Or spread evenly like butter inside the rotor housing, by now.