My FD is leaking a ton of oil out of the front cover. Everyone wants about $1200 to replace a $15 gasket. Has anyone here replaced this gasket themselves? How hard is it? What needs to come out? Were any special tools necessary? I have the shop manual available but am looking for some real world experience.

 

goodluck

 

That was helpful. No one has done this themselves?

 

from the local rotary shop, you have to take everything off the front of the car, water pump, eccentric shaft, drain coolant, refill it, IC and IC lines. Mainly its just a major time consuming pain in the *** to take everything off and back on. I was quoted 1800 at 70ish / hr I think at my shop.

Tim

 

i don't know how exactly how to do the project but u will probably need an engine crain and some feeler gages and a torque wrench. You most likely need the torque wrench to screw or nuts back in. to almost 10 lbs. other wize the block could snap because if some of the screws are diffrently torqued then you either could lose compression or somthing else... I learned this from a auto tec course i took awile ago. I m just saying this to help with what ever i can.

 

All I can find is on C-39 and C-73 of the shop manual. Looks like I have to disconnect the oil pump, the oil cooler line, and the water pump. Then I need gaskets for the front cover, eccentric shaft, and oil lines. I already have a good torque wrench. With all the stuff I need to pull out, looks like a good time to upgrade to dual oil coolers.

No DIY people on this one???

 

Never DMS (done myself) on this one. You have to pull lots of crap off the front of the motor.

Hardest part of the whole job will be getting the E-shaft nut off the front pulley. That sucker is so freakin' tight! I've seen a 3/4 Impact not budge it.

There comes a point when the motor is getting older and you have to do these types of jobs, I'd rather just throw in a rebuilt motor and be done with it.

Jeff

 

it took me two days to break the torque on that bolt!!!! its disgusting. . . i eventually had to heat it up.

jeff is right. just save up some cash and do a rebuild. itll be more, but its just too hard to do that yourself. . . not to mention the part about the thrust bearing. . . that might prove to be fun trying to keep that thing lined up correctly. then you have to scrape that gasket off as well. . . thats a horrible task. its pretty hard. i know once i get mine off ill be replacing it with the japanese metal gasket. even the intake/block gasket is metal in japan. those bastards!!!!

paul

 

I've been told that it already has a reman so it would be 3+ years old and 20k miles or so. For all the $$ it takes to have someone do this, I was thinking about taking it to KDR and have the motor ported or something. Pulling off the front cover looks like at least 1/2 the labor of just pulling the whole motor out.

Anyone know the size of the E-shaft nut? How about a 1/2" breaker bar with 3' of pipe?

The motor has excellent compression so I would hate to pull it apart just for the hell of it. Not ready to go down the ported motor path just yet. Maybe I'll just continue to drive it around blowing oil all over the place - it's a rolling Superfund Site

 

If it's a rebuilt maybe that e-shaft bolt won't be so bad, it's the loctite that the factory uses. I had to heat mine to bright red to get it out. The thrust bearing is another issue, not hard but you need to be careful putting it back together. Search under Unorthdox pullies(sp) to get an idea how to hold the e-shaft in place while putting things together. The other thing I can think of is the OMP lines, they wrap around the front cover, thend to be brittle and don't look like fun to change and you will have to move them. BTW the breaker bar might work, I have heard of people bracing it agienst the frame and using the starter to loosen the e-shaft bolt. Not sure it's a good idea but it might work if done carefully Good Luck Jeff

 

Dave at KDR just replaced mine. Told me it was an 18 hour job and he always replaces them with the 20B gasket so it will never leak again. I wouldnt attempt this myself.

 

rick at rotary performance just did man. stupid mazda remans. good thing he did cause he noticed about 5 other things wrong with the internal section when the cover was off. cost me 1330 in labor and 100 in parts. also the spring that controls the oil pump pressure broke so i was driving around with 10 lbs of pressure. good thing he caught that. there was also the nut at the end of the oil pump shaft. it wasnt crimped so it could have just spun off at anytime, dropping my pump in my pan. id say leave it to a pro. 1330 in labor was hard to swallow, but i missed he for the two months that i was trying to find the leak. i will never buy a reman. NEVER. the car came with one. REMANS SUCK AND MAZDUH ITSELF SUCKS. good luck man.
kris

 

To do a front cover gasket you must unbolt and lay on the side the p/s and a/c to take them off of the bracket they are on because that has to come off also because it is bolted to the front cover. You will have to take off the OMP and let it hang. I would take off the alt and air pump just for the sake of more room. You will have to take off the main pulley which is a 19mm and pain in the ***. The oil pan will also have to come off. And you will need something to hold the motor up because motor mounts have to come off to get the pan off. Its really a pain in the butt. If you can, pay that shop to do it for you. I have done a couple and they really are one that I wouldnt recomend doing yourself.

 

Can't you take off the cover without removing the pan? Looks like you can just remove the screws holding on the front of the pan.

I just can't see paying $1200 just to fix an oil leak. I'd rather put the $$ into the second oil cooler or something else. I know this is a pain but it can't be any more so than doing the vacuum hose job, etc...

Is there anything else I should fix while I have the front of the motor apart?

 

I think you should be able to pull the front cover without pulling the pan. Yes, do this.
http://fc3s-pro.com/TECH/HOWTO/OTB/otb.html I think I double posted the link

 

If you try this you'll probably just end up with a leaking oil pan gasket...

 

I didn't think the FD had the thermal pellet that the FC has??

My pan does not have a gasket. Just the super sticky goop Mazda uses in place of the gasket. I think it will hold...

 

A Primitive Way to go is using instant Gasket. We used it on small engine applications

 

but i don't think u'd wanna mess around with a big expensive rotary engine with instant gasket

 

you would be surprised about the instant gaskets. if you get the good stuff its way better than a real gasket. i learned the hard way and i now know that mazda gaskets are shitty. go to a toyota dealership and ask for some F.I.P.G. i work at one and just used this. worked like a charm. in fact toyota doesnt really use any gaskets anymore. the FIPG replaces the use for any gasket that oil comes in contact with. makes taking an oul pan off easy
kris