The "Holy crap, I must love to punish myself thread"

M

MX5RACER

I just got back from buying my third Mazdaspeed Protege!

The first one I bought running and drove it until my daughter was born and upgraded to a Mazdaspeed 6.
The second one I bought with a blown motor and got it running, drove it for a year or so then sold it.
This one also has a large hole in the block similar to my second. Funny enough, both of the blown up motored cars were Laser Blue.

The new car currently has an inch of body shop dust sitting on it due to being parked in a body shop yard for a month. It has some Alteza (Blacked out) style taillights, anyone want to trade... lol, and an Injen cold air intake.

I will post some pictures as soon as I can get some of the dust off it.
 
Just getting to the house after a quick spray to get some of the dust of.
photo 1.webp
photo 2.webp
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Engine after a hot bath. If you look just between the heat shield and the radiator, you can see a shiny reflection from the flash reflecting off the crank thru the hole in the block (shocked)!
photo 4.webp
 
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Well, I still had my brother's truck and did not have my keys so I was locked out of the house, but not the garage. So I took some time and washed/waxed a portion of the bumper that had a yellow paint scrape on it. Here are the before and after shots.

Before
bumper 1.webp

After
bumper 2.webp
 
Got the first box of parts in the mail! Set of great condition '03 MSP floor mats, a remote fob, wheel lock key, less than 100 mile stock brake pads and a Mazda Factory Service Manual (in binder no less!) all for $50!

I will check the set of floor mats in my project and see which set is nicer and sell other one. Look for a set mats for sale soon!

I am picking up the motor on Saturday, which is a 626 motor, so I will have a 626 manifold for sale as well, if I do not trade it for stock parts locally first. Build will be coming together quickly, I hope to have it 100% back on the road before the year is over!
 
Only minor work done this weekend. Picked up new motor, cleaned up headlights and ordered a bunch of parts.

One cleaned up, one to go.
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Much better, I can see clearly now the haze is gone!
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New engine.
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Opened up the old (Blown) motor to try and salvage the girdle plate. Well that aint gunna happen!

There's the problem!
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Another view of the carnage.
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use the plate off the 626 engine. Add a 10AN fitting in the same location as the MSP location or tap the oil pan
 
FML! Hit a major snag. The motor I bought which was supposed to be a FS motor is actually a FP motor! FML! I was making great strides and was only waiting on the girdle plate and then I could get the new motor back in. Damn it man!
 
When I pulled off the turbo/manifold assembly off the old engine I found a nice hole in the S-pipe from something exiting the block at high speed!

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Here is the S-pipe all repaired. Used a plasma cutter to remove the broken piece around the hole as a piece of the S-pipe was sticking into the S-pipe. We then heated the whole area up around the hole and once glowing we filled it in with welding rod.

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Once we welded it all up we threw it into a cardboard box and closed it up so that it would cool really slowly.
 
What a pain the ass! I orded the girdle plate that I needed and it was never shipped and/or ordered from Mazda. It was a similar cost from Mazdaspeed directly as it was from an online parts supplier, and I ordered more parts from them so I ordered it. Well, fast forward two weeks... it has not shipped from Mazda yet. Cancelled the order.

I have a non-turbo girdle plate that I made to make work. I found a hydraulic fitting that would work. When I bought the fitting it was supposed to be 3/8" NPT thread. I bought a NPT tap set and did a test hole in the broken girdle plate and found out this fitting is not a 3/8" NPT thread. It is not even NPT thread. It turned out to be a 19mm X 1.5 thread! These taps are +$30 online, with no local retailers stocking this. I had a 3/8" NPT tap and 3/8" die in my set that I bought; so I ground off the threads on the fitting and re-cut 3/8" NPT threads. I then tapped the non-turbo girdle plate with the 3/8" NPT tap and I was able to finally adapt the girdle plate for the turbo return.

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I was able to button up the new motor on Saturday and Yesterday I was able to spend two hours in the garage and I got the motor off the stand, replaced the rear-main seal, attached the flywheel/clutch assembly and attached the transmissin. I was also able to get the motor into the car and resting on its mounts. I have less than a hour's work and I should be firing it up.

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I cannot figure out what the name for this car will be yet. I am torn between "You Dirty b****" and "Phoenix" (Car was on fire when the original owner blew the motor up). I will wait until I fire her back up before I finalize the name.
 
Pretty goo progress for a months time. Hope all goes well for you when you fire her up. I like you dirty b****. Phoenix would work better if she was Spicy.
 
Nice progress,

I am happy that I am not the only NUTBAR on the planet who keeps building Proteges.
 
Sorry for not keeping this thread up to date.

Monday night Phoenix rose from the ashes and started right up! Smokey as hell though!

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Smoke is from the oil in the cat from the previous motor exploding.

Monday night was both happy and frustrating at the same time. She fired right up, idle lumpy and missed when rev'd. Power steering pump seems to also have been claimed by the fire as it starting whining and leaking fluid. As soon as I shut off the car, fluid came out of the reservoir.

Last night I replaced the front brake pads, finished mounting up the lower crossbracing on the subframe and mounted up the headlights. I pulled the power steering/compressor belt and fired up the motor again and let it get hot. Slight rev to the engine would cause a light miss. I let the motor return to idle and heard a popping/clicking noise every once in a while. Turned off the lights in the garage and rev'd the motor up and saw a nice blue arc coming from the number 1 coil pack on cylinder 2. Replaced the wire from the coil to cylinder 3, shut the lights off and still saw that blue arc. Replaced the coil with one from my spares pile... blue arc is gone. Idle stablized and miss is gone! Hopefully there is still daylight when I get home and I can begin putting the front bumper back on (The shop that had the car had removed it to check for fire damage).

I am happy to report that all smoking has stopped!
 
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