The car I wanted doesn't like me very much but that's okay

Hello all. I'm bored and would love to share my experience with this fine piece of machinery. Bought in TX, I was looking for a car because someone made me rear-end them my '06 Escape. I wanted something I could be proud of and have fun driving. Wasn't expecting dude to sell me a POS but I seem to love learning the hard way. Drove that mf from TX about 200-300miles with a loose swing mount, multiple leaks, stripped out and loose throttle body elbow clamp from the TMIC, and no 2nd gear. But I got warranty with the purchase so new trans was only $100 deductible(me:1 ms3:4). So I wasn't tripping on 2nd gear because dude said "We put new clutch and turbo in" which kinda eliminated 2 big concerns. But the more I've taken everything apart, the more I keep finding. I've had a P0300 which I had to put in new(all parts are usually from the dealer unless otherwise stated)spark plugs and tighten the boost line fitting that goes on top of the CS Power series 3" Intake. Ran better but I did do a PCM update because there is a TSB stating if the update doesn't fix it and there's no driveability issues, replace the Dual Mass Flywheel. Expensive repair right.? Well everytime I checked for misfire data, there were a few here and there, for some reason mostly on cylinder 3. Never felt a miss though, like a hard obvious misfire. But when I did my transmission under warranty, I ate it and spent some of my settlement money from the Escape on the XClutch StreetPlus Kit. Only a little bit more extra in relevance to the total cost of the first option on CS, and better than OE. Well it came with a flywheel and that seems to have fixed it. HOWEVER......I found some small scratches on the turbo compressor housing so I'm hoping warranty will help me out before it's out... AND I gotta do oil pan re-seal because I've done every single seal up top, valve cover, HPFP, and the turbo isnt leaking but I swear it looks like rear main seal(anyone ever seen that..?). But the issue with that is I just did rear main seal and there's a small hole at the very bottom of the pan/trans where it seems to be dripping from but I can clearly see the corner of the pan leaking. So with all that said and done... hopefully all we got left is oil pan and turbo before critical damage occurs to all my hard effort :'/ Just hoping that rear main isn't leaking on the new clutchyyy.............

 

That sounds like a hell of a journey so far

 

Definitely been a journey but I can't complain, she's treated me pretty good so far. Forgot to post pics of my wreck btw it was pretty brutal.

 

Here's the murder scene of my POS. Basically lady cut across 3 lanes plus the turn lane and stopped at the median where I was already turning at. I hit her left rear corner doing about 35-40(that thing had terrible stopping distance). Also attached a vid of my car as of right now.

 

Ouch lol Well glad your all good and glad you joined the forum man! Lots of good guys full of knowledge about the platform. Feel free to ask me if you have any questions. Sounds like you are willing to put in the effort to fix it up which is great. Honestly sounds like my luck sort of lol Check out my build thread and you'll see what I mean probably. Car has seemed go have everything bad almost but I still love it/hate it all at the same time haha

 

At work with no cars in my stalls right now, thought I would upload some more content on my car. Another long story is my rims. So i have these 18x8 Lightning series Konig wheels. Never did reverse mount tires before but found out the hard way by cracking one rim from using the tire machine’s prybar. Sad because I can really tell a difference in acceleration with less weight at the wheels. Well I couldnt set off the balance too bad so I had a buddy sell me 2 stock rims that have been stripped and sanded. Dont look bad but im still mismatching. Whole reason being is Konig discontinued that specific rim size. In the pictures you can also see the rim has another crack with JB Weld steelstik on it. That’s from originally trying to mess with my tires and failing. So besides that my car came with full megan racing coilover struts and rear shocks with lowering springs all the way. Rode like complete garbage. So I decided since it is my daily for now between me and my girlfriend, I went OE on the springs from Mazda and ordered these Bilsteins from autozone. Also had to get all new mounts and bushings for the struts and springs. I tried to capture my oil leak I’ve got going on and I did pull the shift fork boot back and put a borescope in the case, couldn’t really see a lot of oil. I did see some kind of built up around the starter and i cleaned EVERYTHING before putting my transmission and clutch in. However I did do my valve cover gasket when I did my transmission along with a new intake manifold gasket and PCV valve and hose. But I rolled the valve cover gasket first time right in that spot under the HPFP, realized the second time it’s a lot easier with the bolts out of the cover going back in. So hopefully I’m just seeing oil that dripped down onto the starter. And after driving the car past couple days, the oil pan leak has become very evident. I am waiting for an axle seal to come in tomorrow so I can close out my transmission job and open a new one for my turbo before extended warranty ends. The transmission they sent me had a bad seal on the driver’s side axle so gotta seal that up so I dont have to keep topping my trans off every day(annoying). One small thing I thought about also that I had to fix was one of the bolts for the EGR tube to the block was stripped out. So i had to drill the hole and stick a slightly bigger bolt in there. Was scary as hell but I pulled it off. I also included a picture of my rear main, wasn’t too bad but definitely was leaking.

 

My old trans, if they don’t call it back for core I’ll probably end up rebuilding it just to have or maybe if someone needs it..?

 

Can someone re-assure me and tell me that an oil pan leak can leak from that hole on the bellhousing.? Just did rear main when I did my trans.?

 

Amazing, the oil pan can leak into the case. Didnt know that, cleaned the bell housing with brake cleaner until it was coming out clear. Hopefully after reseal there’s no issues. It can leak into the bellhousing at the spot where i have my finger, on either side.

 

Was able to get the pan back in today. Hopefully she’s sealed up now.!

 

Clean. Nice


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Sorry I haven’t posted in a while. Been very busy with work and the Speed has not been happy. After the oil pan re-seal, the leak almost seemed to get worse. Now I have made mistakes but a simple silicone gasket isn’t something I could see myself messing up. Not only that but, after picking up my girlfriend from the city(200 miles there and back roughly), the transmission started knocking. Like sounds like rod knock. I sent this video(file too large but very loud knock/tapping from the gearbox side of trans)to my extended warranty and they have a “new” one on the way now. So, I got another rear main seal and silicone for the oil pan AGAIN. Been spraying about a can of brake cleaner through the transmission case almost once or twice a week to try and keep my clutch and flywheel clean. Also, P0300 returned a few days ago. Don’t know if it is because of oil on the flywheel or if I,ve got something else going on. I do think I may have leaky injector seals but I will check that out further when I have time. Doesn’t run rough or misfire on acceleration so hopefully nothing major.

 

Update: Sooo ya boi needs a new motor. Waiting on extended warranty to get back with me they already did the inspection. Specifications on crank end play is .5mm and I have an astounding 2.5mm of play(sheeesh). Also i found these marks on the crankcase when i pulled the pan again. The crank end play can explain the rear main leaking problem, as well as some of my noise. Also, it looks like the rod cap bolts have been making contact where I am seeing those marks. So I will keep everyone updated and let you guys know if the Speed is getting a new motor or not.! Also tried to get them to warranty my turbo since it has those markings as previously mentioned.

 

Well update: Just got my used engine and turbo in.! However I want to just rebuild one of the turbos and was wondering if anyone knew anything about rebuild kits.? Also I am hoping to get the Speed back to life ASAP. So hopefully within the next week or so I will have it running again. Will keep updated.!

 

Welp here is a few pictures. We got a leaky rear main, carbon buildup at its’ most severe state, and the threaded portion of the filter adapter housing was snapped off at some point so i gotta swap that over. Crank play is within spec on this motor though so hopefully i can get her all cleaned up for the most part and my gaskets and everything come in soon. Crank turns smoothly, I did order a new water pump and pilot bearing as well. I really want to do new pulleys but they’re a little pricey(more than I can afford at this time). Anyone got any tips or suggestions before installation.?

 

Now's a good time to do a VTCS delete and port the intake manifold for some extra power/response.

 

Keep the vtcs controller plugged in though it won't trigger a cel as long as it's connected doesn't need to have anything in the manifold connected

 

VTCS delete..? Also, how do i port the intake.?

 

ALRIGHT, long time no post. I just fixed every single problem I have been having with my car. The culprit.? DA MF BOV THAT CAME WITH MY CAR. I was doing some research and, a BOV and BPV operate on different principles. One of them being, at idle, the BPV will use the recirculated air, in a sense, to support the engine running at idle(especially under a load). Well how did I come to find this theory of operation out.? Me and my local Mazda tech were stumped and both thought the LPFP was going out. Keep in mind my in-tank pump is only a year old. Well ya boi was getting P0101, P0171, P0172, and P0300 ON TOP OF my car starting to stall at idle on my way to work last week. Ran fuel pressure before my HPFP and got the readings in the video I will include.(Bouncing between 25-70ish psi at idle). This led both me and the other technician to believe, “LPFP”. Replaced, and after first test drive, same stalling at idle issue. Another symptom of all this, car tends to “fall on its’ face” after shifting, and lower than usual RPM drop after throttle release. Well after I replaced my LPFP and the issue was still there(stalling), that is when I thought about my blocked off intake port underneath the main intake hose to the turbocharger. So I read up a bit on converting from BPV(stock) to BOV(modified). And literally, I read almost word for word what my poor Speed has been doing. Obviously after my LPFP replacement, still had the lean AND rich codes. Needless to say, slapped a stock BPV that my fellow Mazda technician had(conveniently) laying around on my car, RUNS LITERALLY 100x BETTER NO EXAGGERATION. If you are going to run BOV, don’t(without tuning atleast). Or you will be as puzzled as I have been for the past 2 years. Apologies if there is a thread about this on here but, I haven’t found anything for this specific problem so hopefully I can help or provide knowledge to someone.! For specific info on MY BOV, it is a sequential BOV with only 1 vacuum port on its, body. I am assuming this valve would not allow airflow at idle conditions and/or was purging mass amounts of air out of the intake system without accounting for it. So in turn, my car thinks it is losing a shit ton of air and starts dumping fuel. Explaining a both lean(P0171) AND rich(P0172) condition. Hope this helps or at least informs somebody.! Will include pics of BOV as well. My Speed is running smoother than EVER.

 

This is all pertaining to my specific experience. Just for the record and for research purposes however…
PROS OF BOV
-Drastically faster spool times
-Stututututu
-Personally can’t say much else
CONS OF BOV
-Post-throttle release bogging down
-Decreased fuel economy
-Stalling at idle/rough idle
-Risk of engine/catalyst damage
-Increased engine noise(not just the cool stututu part, like overall loudness)
-Bogging down with any engine or electrical load
EDIT—- NO TUNE OR ACCESSPORT