MAZDASPEEDFD

iTrader: (1)

I finally got a Mazda reman engine installed in my car (I got a little over 100K miles out of the original engine) and everything seems great but I've got a few questions about new/rebuilt motors since I'm pretty new at this.

On the night that I brought the car home from the shop, I parked and washed the car, and when I started her up again, the add coolant light and buzzer turned on so I immediately shut her off. I checked the reservoir and the coolant level was a little low (but not too low), so I added some water and started her up again. The buzzer turned on but I decided to wait it out and checked the reservoir while the car was on and the water level was fine.

After a couple of minutes, the buzzer turned off and everything seemed fine. I started her up again in the morning and again the buzzer turns on, and a couple minutes later turns off. So I bring the car over to the shop and they tell me that the water/coolant is just circulating through the system for the first time so I should check the coolant level every morning and the problem should go away in a couple of days.

I drove the car around today and everything seemed fine. So is this "coolant, buzzer, circulating" thing normal for a newly installed engine?

Also, I got an almost new set of turbos put in (12,000 miles on turbo), and they're set up to run non-seq. I was told that until I have a boost controller put in, the wastegate would stay open and I wouldn't be able to boost past 6-7 lbs. Is it normal to run with the wastegate open like this without a boost controller? I get almost no boost up to 3,000-3,500 rpm, and it's pretty hard breaking in a motor when I'm trying not to pass that range of engine speed.

One more issue---the idle seems to always set at around 1,000 rpm. When they first fired up the motor, they adjusted the idle to the normal 750. Before I took the car home the next day, I took a test drive and noticed that the idle was sitting at 1,000 again. So before I took her home, I had them adjust the idle again. It seems that the engine doesn't want to stay at the 750 idle and jumps back up to 1,000 after I start driving it. Sometimes it will bring itself down to 750 and idle there, but for the most part it's at 1,000-1,100 rpm. Leaking vaccum lines? I had the old ones replaced with silicone ones when the motor was out.

Sorry for the long post, and thanks to all who took the time to read it. Any help is appreciatred---

Jason

alberto_mg

you need a new mechanic. the people you took it to need a swift kick in the *****. maybe two hard kicks.

No, the coolant buzzer going off is not normal after a new engine. It is normal if the morons working on your car didn't get all the air pockets out of the coolant system. Do a search on "burp" and you'll understand the procedure.

As for non-sequential operation, you should still be able to make 10 psi. I have a feeling the morons removed the 2 factory hoses that go from the turbo to the wastegate and turbo to the prespooler when they did the vacuum hoses. Those 2 hoses have pills in it that help control boost levels to 10 psi. When you remove them, you are only able to run 7 psi. Search for "pills" for more info.

As for the idle, I'm not sure. You might want to have the voltage readings on your TPS sensor checked. There is a good thread by damian in the Advanced Tech section about doing that.

bajaman

Yeah, I agree that it sounds like the coolant system was not 'burped' properly. Filling the system on a FD is NOT a simple task, to put it simply. Probably one of THE most misunderstood/improperly done tasks by most owners.
And yeah, the mechanics should be admonished in the strongest possible terms about their poor work.

Herblenny

iTrader: (13)

I'm guessing you are running PFC or other aftermarket ECU??

or did your mechanic converted into non-seq with stock ecu because they didn't want to mess with all 60+ vac lines..

jsplit

The coolant buzzer thing is pretty normal on a new engine if you do not burp the system. It takes a long time for the coolant to cycle and get into every place it needs to within the system. I've seen this happen many times before.

Second thing you might wanna check is that the coolant level sensor is hooked up nice and secure. It's on the secondary harness on the drivers side of the car. Mine was loose / mangled last week after dropping in my reman and I was scratching my head for a bit because I had burped the system properly and there certainly was sufficient coolant.

RotaryResurrection

iTrader: (8)

Woah there, buddy. I don't see anything wrong with the minor issues he's having. I'd consider it normal.

IF you yourself fully understood the procedure you'd know that it often requires several heat cycles to completely burp the system. Sure, you can get it 95% full, which is what it sounds like they did. It generally takes about 3 days to completely get one full, in my experience (hundreds of engines). It's normal to send customers home after having explained this, and instructed them to check their coolant every day for a week before driving.

They may not be as moronic as you think. The pills aren't what push boost up to 10psi, they just help in that operation. The wastegate solenoid is what raises boost. This is just one more thing to remove, and I usually pull it along with the others during a NS conversion, since most people will want to run low boost for the street and high boost for the track, they'll be buying a controller anyway, so it doesnt make sense to leave an old solenoid hanging there with some unnecessary lines. Regardless, leaving this solenoid off is part of the simplification process and also restricts boost, which is all the better for breaking in an engine. And finally, the NS conversion probably moves more air and requires more fuel on the top end, so IMO a setup that supported 12psi with twins might not support 10psi with nonsequentials, so this is just another form of safeguard until the tuning can be sorted out.


That's what nonsequential conversion is. Positive pressure builds by 3500, boost kicks in hard around 3500-3800 and carries until redline very strong. After reading all the hundreds of threads about this on this forum you didn't know?



To the contrary. You want to break in an engine with as little boost as possible. With a turbo setup that spools very quickly, it's HARD to stay out of boost, thus it's harder to properly break in the engine. Having a turbo setup that spools slow, or modifying one to do so, is a better way to break in the engine, since it's easier to stay out of boost and control yourself, therefore it's easier to break in the engine properly.

No rebuilt rotary has 100% compression to begin with. That is why you break them in. Since compression loss shows up most at low rpm's, this causes minor issues with idle. The best thing to do is set the idle up around 1000 or so until breakin is done, so you don't have to worry about it changing every few days (as it will, as compression rises and the engine becomes more efficient). You should have allowed them to leave it where it was until you broke it in...it's not like it's a difficult job to adjust it to personal preference later on, regardless, as it's just a screw and locknut right on top of the throttlebody. But yes, as the engine breaks in, it'll pull more vacuum at idle ,and will idle more smoothly, and idle will increase several times until it stabilizes, all because the engine is becoming more efficient and sealing better as time goes on. Also, never make any TPS adjustments during the time that the idle is adjusted high, or you'll be readusting it right back once you lower the idle. Remember that by changing the idle, you're changing the position of the tps, too.

Me personally, I like my cars to idle around 900-950. Especially since they're usually ported with a lighter flywheel and slightly stronger clutch. This makes city driving easier and idle smoother. There are no ill effects from changing your idle from the stock setting.

All this sounds normal to me, and no big deal at all. Drive your car for 1500 miles then you won't have these issues.

MAZDASPEEDFD

iTrader: (1)

Thanks to all for the replys.

Well, I got the car back on Tuesday, and the buzzer only acted up that day and on Wednesday. So hopefully that problem is gone.

So w/o the pills, is it normal to have almost zero boost up to 3k-3.5k rpm (I haven't taken the car any higher since I'm still breaking it in). Also, I don't plan on boosting more than the factory 10 lbs, so is a boost controller really necessary to get the turbo's to spool correctly? I originally planed to have a boost and fuel controller installed before I got my car out of the shop, but I decided to have them install it after the motor was broken in so that they could run it on a dyno. Do you think that was the reason they set the turbo's to run as mentioned?

I'm still running the stock ECU. The mechanic replaced the vacuum lines (I was there to watch him replace the ones on the rats nest, he also replaced on of the broken solenoids for me since he had a spare). I wasn't there to watch him replace any others, but all the vacuum lines that I can see with everything in place in the engine bay are replaced also. I bought the Hose Techniques set for the FD...how much left over hose should there be after a complete vac. line upgrade? Maybe I can guage the thoroughness of the vacuum line install this way.

Well, I'm off to the shop with my new found knowledge on the subject. Any more info on the subject is welcome. Thanks again alberto mg, bajaman, herblenny and jsplit---
Jason

...I think I'll wear my steel-toe boots to the shop...

alberto_mg

sorry, i'm a little bitter right now due to an incident *not* involving my current mechanic so i might have come off a little rough but...

i do fully understand what it takes. when i had my motor done, my mechanic made sure to properly cycle and bleed the coolant system. i think any competent shop should do the same. it doesn't sound like they did all that great of a job explaining things to him or else he wouldn't be here asking us

MAZDASPEEDFD

iTrader: (1)

Thanks for the input Resurrection, I was writing my reply before I saw your post.

The mechanic explained a lot of those issues that you mentioned to me before. But it's a lot harder to believe the mechanic after getting the run around by many other shops. But getting the same reply from you makes it easier to believe, since there is no incentive for you to bs me. Thanks for taking the time to show me the other side of the situation (the mechanics point of view).

I was just tired of "wondering" what could cause all these problems, instead of "knowing". And I needed an unbiased explanation for it all.

Thanks to all again,
Jason <--- taking off the boots and switching to sandals

RotaryResurrection

iTrader: (8)

I thought I went through that already.

1) you stated that you have converted to nonsequential. By DEFINITION, nonsequential slows down spool time to around 3500-4000. IN stock sequential form, you have a turbo that comes on quick, and another that takes over for midrange. IN nonsequential, they run parallel, at the same time, which happens to be from 3500 on up. Regardless of the pill configuration, boost solenoid or controller, you will NOT spool any faster than 3500 with nonsequentials.

2) as I said already, pills don't really increase the boost, they just function with the stock wastegate solenoid to regulate boost. IF you go to the "I want to run 7psi" thread, I've posted a more in depth description of how this works, and I'm not really inclined to retype it all now. What I'd do if I were you is tell them you want the stock wastegate solenoid and wastegate actuator pill reinstalled for stock 10psi on top end...you still will not spool any earlier, however.

I thought you said you converted to nonsequential?

Half of the vacuum rack stuff is sequential turbo control,, the other half is emissions. If that **** is still installed on the motor, then you shouldn't be nonsequential. I don't understand. If you didnt tell them to do the nonsequential conversion, then you have ample reason to bitch.

MAZDASPEEDFD

iTrader: (1)

I bought a fairly new set of turbo's and an exhaust manifold that were converted to NS by means of welding the necessary components. For some reason, when I told them to swap the old vacuum lines to silicon, I completely forgot that I wouldn't need most of the vacuum lines anyway since I'm going non-seq. I guess I was so focused on the individual changes that I wanted done that I didn't put the two together to remember the whole point of going non-seq in the first place. I guess I'm going to have to dedicate a weekend to reading up on the forum and eliminating the rats nest myself.

Since I don't plan on adjusting the boost at any given time, should I just go ahead and get the pills reinstalled? Is there any other advantage that the boost controller has over using the pills other then having the ability to adjust the amount of boost.

Thanks again,
Jason

alberto_mg

a good boost controller will control boost a lot better than just re-installing the pills. the boost controller will cycle the solenoids to try and keep your boost level. the pills won't do that. someone else should be able to provide you with a more in depth explanation.