Help, went through a puddle, now no spark.

bruce · Postby **bruce** » Mon Feb 01, 2010 12:00 pm

Bizarre-o!
Yes, how many kays? When was it last done?

mattah · Postby **mattah** » Mon Feb 01, 2010 5:51 pm

Sorry, was off surfing with my brother for a couple of days.

The car has done 206000kms. I've had the car roughly 3 months and done probably 3k in it. Just my luck, but I did get the car for a pretty amazing price, so I am not fussed.

Where can I get these kits with cam seals etc? I've seen one on ebay but are there any I can get from within Australia?

bruce · Postby **bruce** » Mon Feb 01, 2010 5:54 pm

Mazda spares?
Any evidence the belt was done at 100K or 200K?

Bauer · Postby **Bauer** » Mon Feb 01, 2010 5:57 pm

mattah wrote:Where can I get these kits with cam seals etc? I've seen one on ebay but are there any I can get from within Australia?

I got mine off the shelf at Repco. Was a Gates kit. Belt, idler and tensioner pulley and seals (with springs in them)

Mania list a Bosch kit I noticed - but they were closed for xmas when I went shopping

mattah · Postby **mattah** » Mon Feb 01, 2010 6:59 pm

bruce wrote:Mazda spares?
Any evidence the belt was done at 100K or 200K?

Not much in the way of service records unfortunately, it's am imported Eunos Roadster. The previous owner's father was a mechanic, and she said he gave it a service March 2009, and she hadn't used it much since then. Obviously not a big service!

Thanks for the help, I might go chase up that Gates kit.

mattah · Postby **mattah** » Tue Feb 16, 2010 3:40 pm

For those that are interested, I'm changing the belt and water pump now.

I sourced all the bits from various locations. I got the tensioners, belt and water pump from ebay out of the US for roughly $200 shipped (belt is an OEM replacement, the other stuff is all Japanese made, so hopefully the quality is alright). I got cam seals, water pump gaskets and the O ring for the CAS from Mazda for roughly $80.

This is what I am looking at now. Needless to say I am disgusted at my engine. :lol:

I think the cam seals really need changing! I wasn't going to do the crank seal, but at this point I think I may as well, as who knows when it was last changed!

bruce · Postby **bruce** » Tue Feb 16, 2010 3:48 pm

Nice piccie. Guess the belt was never ever changed.

93_Clubman · Postby **93_Clubman** » Tue Feb 16, 2010 4:04 pm

re crank seal: some people leave them if they're not leaking & look ok, but given the possibility yours may never have been done, if the timing belt is an indication, it's probably worth doing. some discussion here: viewtopic.php?f=29&t=35140

mattah · Postby **mattah** » Tue Feb 16, 2010 11:05 pm

Well I went through a can of degreaser today cleaning all that up. Everything on track should be finishing up tomorrow morning. The only problem I have is that I took out the CAS to replace the O ring, and now can't seem to get it all the way back in. Also, I didn't mark the orientation of it relative to the head, so I'm not sure how I'll be going with that tomorrow.

mattah · Postby **mattah** » Wed Feb 17, 2010 7:30 pm

Ok. Everything in, back together, started up engine and it's pretty noisy. Lots of valve noise, and seems to run pretty rough. But it does run at least, idles steadily (with noise etc). Is it possible I have done damage to one or more valves? As I mentioned before, I think the CAS may be in a little bit off also, but I wouldn't imagine the timing to be causing that much noise.

Before the belt went the car did exhibit some valve noise, but it seemed to stop when warmed up.

Thoughts?

AJ · Postby AJ » Wed Feb 17, 2010 8:32 pm

as the engine is non interference, I doubt you've damaged any valves, sounds more like one or both cams are a tooth out on the belt.

mattah · Postby **mattah** » Wed Feb 17, 2010 9:01 pm

I did think at the time that the belt was very tight across the top between the two cam gears, so I'll try and loosen it off one and see if that helps.

I'm getting a bit over this whole taking everything apart thing.

de Bounce · Postby **de Bounce** » Wed Feb 17, 2010 9:08 pm

There are a couple of video's and a write up about changing the belt which appear quite good!
MX-5 Unleashed - Here
Also goes into aligning/timing the crank and cams.

mattah · Postby **mattah** » Wed Feb 17, 2010 9:40 pm

Good link, ta. I am pretty sure the crank and cams are correctly timed, but the belt is almost certainly too tight. I'll go over it again and see how it goes tomorrow.