Removing oil pan

I don't think we are talking about pulling the motor without pulling the trans...that's just silly lol...we are talking about the plate at the bottom of the block between the oil pan and the block...the piece that the oil return line goes into on the MSP...there are two 10mm bolts (itty bitty bolts at that lol) inside the bellhousing of the transmission behind the flywheel, if you look at the bottom of your transmission there are two rubber boots that you can take out right next to that plate, those are the access holes to those two bolts so you can remove that plate
 
What rubber boots? Where are you seeing rubber boots on the main cap support plate or the transmission housing?? I'm looking at pictures of some old motors and don't see a damn place where rubber boots are.


they are located on the trans bell housing...if you look straight up from the bottom they should be directly behind the flywheel's location (to the passenger side)...take a look at the bottom of your car, you will see them...they get really really dirty though and kind of blend in with the trans housing
 
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see where the red circles are? that's where the boots should be...however they are removed in this picture cause I had to access the plate

look at any of the pics of the back side of the flywheels as well...you will see two notches parallel to each other that run right up to where those two bolts would be...I can't seem to find any pictures of that side of the flywheel in my pics though
 
don't see what you're talking about. see my post above where i circled the rear main seal housing and look at the transmission pic here.
 

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I think someone drilled your transmission case for you. b/c heres the bottom of a MSP tranny case.
 

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go outside and look underneath your car...you will see it, it's on every 3rd gen 2.0L protege I've EVER worked on, and I have used it MANY times

I'm sorry sam, I've got nothing but respect for your knowledge with this engine, but the boots are there and they are specifically for that...and you can see that if you look at your transmissions in person on the outside of the housings...see the picture I posted above (which was my old trans from the protege, not from the probe)
 
I think someone drilled your transmission case for you...

nope, cause this wasn't on just the one transmission...it was on both of the 3rd gen trans I've had, as well as on Brandon's spicy msp (msp1222), as well as on Greg's LX (xdj_dubx)

not to mention they all had the exact same rubber gromet/boot inside the holes, which were cleanly there and also line up perfectly with the notches on the backside of every 3rd gen 2.0L flywheel I've seen...and by notches I don't mean drilled notches, I mean perfectly cast round half-pipe shaped indentations going straight up to the location of those two bolts
 
Well look at the pics of the the one I posted. I have pics of various cars I did and none of them have the holes shown in your picture.
 
I have personally worked on more than a fair handful of these cars and it's there

and I did look at the picture you posted, idk if the transmission is just grimed up too much inside the bell housing to see the holes or if that trans isn't specifically from a 3rd gen 2.0L protege...but I know for a fact that those holes and gromets are there on every single msp I've done oil pans on

please don't shut down what I'm saying until you go and take a look at the bottom of your car, I respect your knowledge of these engines but I also know from first hand experience working on many of these engines as well that they are there...I also know for a fact on two of them that I've worked on have not had their transmissions drilled for that considering they are either the original owners or I know the original owners personally

now granted, the only msp's that I've worked on that particular area were 03s, idk if they made any revisions to the bell housing for the 03.5s or if there were any differences in parts on any msps that were produced at different factories (hell, I don't even know anything about whether or not they even produced the msp at different factories, but that's irrelevant)...what I do know is that I've used those holes several times both on my car and on other's, and the casting of the flywheel is no coincidence

it's not a far stretch that mazda could have produced them with and without those holes...
 
and lol, sorry if I can't keep up with your edits of prior posts adding new pictures...you have made your point from them, however my point still stands: this isn't just on my transmission, and this is also on transmissions that have not had work done to them (as well as on cars with the original engine and never having had the crankcase opened up)
 
tell ya what, I go back to my parent's house tomorrow night where my car is located and all my spare engine parts are located...I'll take pictures of it for ya, and I'll even see if I can get ahold of a couple of the msp guys out there to take a look at theirs

like I said, it may not be the same across all msps
 
All I can say is that you are lucky to have that shortcut access.

Regardless, if you have or don't have those access holes, just pull the engine out to send off to get machined. Get the block cleaned, prepped, and re-honed at a machine shop, so you have a reliable engine that will last longer than with just a band aid fix.
 
for some reason the last link didn't work, but yes I do fully agree with you on that last point
 
i just did my rod bearings...... no access holes for me? didnt even know about the two bolts in the bell housing till i talked with ken. I however seperated the bell housing enought to see them and then drilled two holes in the housing. once i was done i got it sealed up and was done. wish i had access holes tho, would've saved a lot of time.
 
We pulled the drive axle off and pushed the tranny apart from the base plate exposing the bolts...took them off and looks like there is no damage to the crank and no spun bearings from what we can see the rods look good...however we see something odd about cylinder #4 we're going to be pulling the cylinder head off tommorow possibly a wrist pin or a bent rod...but the cylinder walls look okay...we need to get a better look by taking the head off
 
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