Ambient

Well today I was doing my new camshaft install. Just had a wilder cam ground to replace my jspec intake cam. I was great, other than a mishap of usuing a ft/lb torque wrench, instead of a in/lb....and breaking off a bolt on one of the cam bearings/caps. That was resolve with a very small flathead, and twisted out, replaced with a new bolt.

Well after having a BITCH of a time getting the timing belt back on right and timed correctly(Or so I thought). We started her up.

Crunch Crunch Crunch Bang Pow. Was pretty much it...then nothing.

I thorughly checked my timing, and have no clue how I could have let this happen. But I'm suspecting bent valves...hopefully nothing wrong with the pistons themselves.

After kicking myself in the *** a BUNCH of times, the reality set in that I had just blown my 01 motor with 7,000 miles on it. And needless to say cried when I had to get it towed.

I thought of one of two things...since I'll have the block all apart, I can just put in FS-ZE pistons at 10.5:1 and get new valves and whatever else needed. Or I'll just repair it and say forget this damn sport compact crap. It has done nothing but empty my pockets and granted me a few races that I won. What other satisfaction do you get? Why is there so much pleasure in it?

You spend money to make your car faster....You prove to a bunch of nobodies that you are faster and can beat them in a street race. Whootpy-Do. Meanwhile you have a car that has no resale value...empty pockets and the joy of telling people "hey I beat this or that" It just dawned on me that there is no reason to even do it anymore, it's a waste of time and money.

So even though I contributed little, I tried to help others. It's just not worth it to me anymore. I'll be selling the jspec intake cam. My muffler from the catback, and my intake. The other two cams (mazdaspeed exhaust and wild intake cam) have been spoken for.

So hopefully even though it is fun for a while, you all realize just how inane this is. It took a big loss for me to.

mazdaspeedwest

sorry to hear all that man, DIY can be a hit or miss. but your missing one point, at least from my point of view, that i'm not in this to just race some dude on the street, it's about a passion for customization and uniqueness, it's been around since Henry Ford first rolled out his Model T. The speed part of it for me is strictly personal, the auxillaration and rush it gives is a great high. As for racing at the track, things change abit as this is a more competitive arena and it does bring bragging rights with it, but again, it's the personal joy it brings to drive on the edge and go as fast as you can under safe conditions. It will most certainly improve your daily driving skills 10 fold.

Chalk it up to a lesson learned and keep your chin up and keep going forward.

eeterp

I hope you're still around. If not, anybody have his Email? Well, I don't know the extent of damage to your car and I'm not aware what you planned on doing to it but, maybe I can help. If infact you nee a new engine, I'll sell you mine.

I recently swapped the fs-ze into my car as you may know, and I still have my stock 1.8L. It has 18500 miles on it. Someone else IS interested but, not comitted, yet. You can Email me at eeterp@hotmail.com or maybe someone will post your Email address.

Gesturewomotion

dood atleast you figured that out now... hell i've spent about 12000 dollars on my old crx and got a return of about 4000... now i'm buying a protege... figures huh? lol i say stay stupid... it's more fun... latas... Blue

mazdaproud

I am sorry about what happenned to you, but something was wrong. It's almost impossible for valve float to happenned at idle speed because of valve springs not being stiffer enough simply because the pistons speed it's not too great at low rpm's. Usually valve float happens at high rpm's when the piston speeds are high and the valve springs is not stiffer enough to close the valve before the piston reaches the top.
You either did something wrong installing the cam or the cam was bad or too too too agressive. You probably did not set the timing right, probably missed a tooth on the cam gear.
Why did you replace the J-spec intake cam w/out getting new valve springs?
Is your car under warranty? Just put in back to stock and tell them the engine blew up.

UCSBgeek

this is an old post! lol look at those encouraging posts by TheMAN!!!!!!!!!

sweetprotege93

Well considering the post is so old and I have heard from ambient recently, I guess you decided to keep your car and mod it! Good choice!

KpaBap

Dood! Teh worst spam of all - thread revive.