What did I do to my baby

[Tony the Tiger]

About 3 weeks ago I was in way home from work and decided to do my final pull for etune I was working on. I pulled off the the next exit and back onto the highway thinking I would do my pull and take her home for the evening. Well I rolled down the on ramp and set it into 4th and stompt on it. Everything was fine until about 5600rpm. There was a a stumble and and then the motor slowly winded down as if I had let off the gas. I slowly drifted to the side of the highway where she finally died.

I jumped out the car and popped the hood expecting that I had blown a intercooler hose or something but found no issue. I jumped into car and tried to start it but all it would do is crank. I spent the rest of the evening on the side of the highway trying to troubleshoot the issue but got nothing.

I locked up the car and went home with a million things going thru my head and feeling lost without my car. I spent the next two days trying to get a local shop to scoop up the car so it can be diagnosed. Only issue is that I live in a small town on Eastern side of Tennessee and no shop wanted to touch it stating it was too high tech and that the turbo was beyond their capabilities.

So it was off to the Mazda stealership to have it diagnosed. After a few days I finally received a call telling me that the motor was blown and had bad compression on three of four of the cylinders. Cylinder 1 65/ cylinder 2 73/ cylinder 3 68/ cylinder 4 163. They followed up with some ungodly quote for a used motor with 93k installed for $6500.

Days later I had the car towed back to the house where she resides in the garage being slowly dismantled. As I get time I am working on removing the head to investigate what the cause of failure may or may not be. I have been all over the forum and Google and have yet to find a case where 3 out 4 cylinders have crapped out. My thinking is that the head lifted during the pull and that the head gasket failed across those three cylinders. As of now I'm not sure what the failure is but my hope is that block is still good

[tripppleP]

Sorry to hear of your misfortune. I don't have any answers but I'm constantly reading about MS3s. If I run across anything similar I will pass it along. Good luck man.

[whatsabrooklyn]

sorry man, that stinks. did any smoke of any color come out? or any knocking noises? did the clutch vibrate when you pushed on it?

maybe it is the headgasket...

do you have a log of the pull?

ps. i would not pay that much for a used motor, look into rebuilding if it is usable

[MSMS3]

Originally Posted by Tony the Tiger About 3 weeks ago I was in way home from work and decided to do my final pull for etune I was working on. I pulled off the the next exit and back onto the highway thinking I would do my pull and take her home for the evening. Well I rolled down the on ramp and set it into 4th and stompt on it. Everything was fine until about 5600rpm. There was a a stumble and and then the motor slowly winded down as if I had let off the gas. I slowly drifted to the side of the highway where she finally died. I jumped out the car and popped the hood expecting that I had blown a intercooler hose or something but found no issue. I jumped into car and tried to start it but all it would do is crank. I spent the rest of the evening on the side of the highway trying to troubleshoot the issue but got nothing. I locked up the car and went home with a million things going thru my head and feeling lost without my car. I spent the next two days trying to get a local shop to scoop up the car so it can be diagnosed. Only issue is that I live in a small town on Eastern side of Tennessee and no shop wanted to touch it stating it was too high tech and that the turbo was beyond their capabilities. So it was off to the Mazda stealership to have it diagnosed. After a few days I finally received a call telling me that the motor was blown and had bad compression on three of four of the cylinders. Cylinder 1 65/ cylinder 2 73/ cylinder 3 68/ cylinder 4 163. They followed up with some ungodly quote for a used motor with 93k installed for $6500. Days later I had the car towed back to the house where she resides in the garage being slowly dismantled. As I get time I am working on removing the head to investigate what the cause of failure may or may not be. I have been all over the forum and Google and have yet to find a case where 3 out 4 cylinders have crapped out. My thinking is that the head lifted during the pull and that the head gasket failed across those three cylinders. As of now I'm not sure what the failure is but my hope is that block is still good

Before you pull the cylinder head first do your own compression test to verify whether the dealer is shooting straight with you. Report results back here.

And yes, if you were logging, post the log.

[Polish_Eagle]

Do a leak down test to diagnose what failed.

[MSMS3]

Originally Posted by Polish_Eagle Do a leak down test to diagnose what failed.

Let’s get the static compression numbers first. Then the leakdown.

[Db09ms3]

Check your fluids (oil & coolant) for contamination as well.

[Jeff23spl]

Which year and mods ?
sorry for you but as other said, validate compression again...
-picture of the spark plugs

head gasket aren't failing that much on ours engine especially if it is the factory one.

it look odd that 1 cylinder remain fine with 3 blown....with the story, i would have checked timing chain to see if VVt has fallen, slip, or anything else there...but it would have loose all cylinder compression including the last one....
The timing tool is nice but you can easily put #1 at tdc and look at the cam end to be aligned with the head surface to see if everything is still aligned...

with rod knock or broken ringlands, the engine would start again until a rod break apart and pull thru the bloc...And you would ear it....

[Tony the Tiger]

So I totally missed all the posts that you guys posted. Thanks and I now feel like an idiot (to explain later ).

I have been slowly pulling the head off in the past few weeks and finally got it off last night. I was expecting to find the head gasket damaged or the block having an issue but I found nothing. I really wish I would have read the posts earlier and checked the compression myself but here I am.

I have a few items that I came across while doing the tear down that may help determine what actually happened. First is the excessive oil in the intake manifold and connecting piping.
Second is the excessive soot buildup on the intake valves whi h looks to be born for a car with a 100k on the dash. The last item is the side to side play of the VVT on the intake cam of .015 to .020. Not sure if that is ok or not.

I am going to continue to look around and do more research to see if I can come up with anything else that may have caused the questionable low compression. Also need to find info on the head studs to see if they were stretched.

If I come up with nothing I will have the head cleaned and decked and begin to reinstall the head. Also going to look at whatever else that would be need to be done while the head is off as a preventative measure.

This is a list of mods that I can remember.
3" exhaust with cat delete
3" dp
Egr delete
2.5 intake piping
Grimspeed boost control
Upgraded tmic
Corksport hpfp internals

Will see about getting the data log load here shortly. Again thanks for the assistance so far and any other information is greatly appreciated.

[Tony the Tiger]

Here is the data log for that fateful moment in time.

[Jeff23spl]

you will need new headbolts and head surface planned at minimum.

I would open and check the VVT pin for wear, if the locking pin has made it's way on the case, just replace it...(There is a thread about this)
Make sure to read the how to VVT thread also about which mandatory parts you need to avoid timing slippage...

I would also install new injectors seals because the factory tend to be very weak. It could even be the reason for low compression...

The gunk you see is the result of EGR + oil from blow by or turbo seals...make sure to clean the valves, you can nut blast them without any risks of dropping stuff in the engine. You may even remove valves to clean them on a wire brush instead of nut blasting...
Check for proper valve sealing with the head upside down, have the valves closed by turning the cams, poor some brake cleaner on the head bol to hide valves and if there is no liquid leaking on the ports, take an air nozzle, hold each valves down and gently spray air into ports to see if air is going through making some bubbles...If a lot of bubles or leaks, you need to service it because it may be part of your compression losses....(keep in mind if you shoot too much pressure and the valve lift because of this, you will see bubles even if the seat is perfect....)