My Auction Mazdaspeed

[Enki]

It's supposed to be o-ringed, but if they got rid of that and used RTV, your best bet may be to get a small ball peen hammer and a razorblade and tap the razor under the cover along the corners and see if that gets it loose. You'll probably need a wire wheel and a drill to clean the shit out of the oring channel though, so have fun with that.

 

[Trademark]

It's supposed to be o-ringed, but if they got rid of that and used RTV, your best bet may be to get a small ball peen hammer and a razorblade and tap the razor under the cover along the corners and see if that gets it loose. You'll probably need a wire wheel and a drill to clean the shit out of the oring channel though, so have fun with that.

Yea. I've already been prepping myself for how awful of a cleanup process that's going to be. Thankfully, it may actually be the least of my problems at this point lol. I think my big concern was that there was some kind of hidden bolt or something keeping the cover on. I ran out of daylight before I could really inspect too much further, but I'm pretty confident I hit all the bolts holding it in. Razor and hammer sounds like a solid plan, though. I'll give that a whack (pun intended) tomorrow and see how it shakes out.

 

[Enki]

Just in case, image search for "mazdaspeed 3 valve cover" and you should be able to find a front or rear showing all the bolt locations. it's a bunch on the outside and i think 2 on the inside if memory serves. check especially on the short ends and corners.

 

[Crazycanadian]

When it comes to the rust on the plugs.. I wouldn't be to worried about that... I've seen water creep down into the plugs through the inter cooler ducting during some big rain storms and lots of hwy driving.. It's not something to worry about being a major problem... Replace the plugs and coils.. The water can cause the misfire codes and poor running issues.. Not generally an idle issue. Usually a misfire under boost..

Rather then worrying about getting the Access Port up to data log and loose what ever "tune" might be in the ecu... Get an OBDlink or vLinker FS dongle. download ForScan on your lap top and use it to scan and log the car. The program is free to use. It doesn't care if you've got a tune or not, plus it allows you to log more pids that Cobb or Versatuner don't have access to. A good log will tell you where to look for the idle problem and take most of the guess work out of diagnosing it.

 

[Trademark]

When it comes to the rust on the plugs.. I wouldn't be to worried about that... I've seen water creep down into the plugs through the inter cooler ducting during some big rain storms and lots of hwy driving.. It's not something to worry about being a major problem... Replace the plugs and coils.. The water can cause the misfire codes and poor running issues.. Not generally an idle issue. Usually a misfire under boost..

Rather then worrying about getting the Access Port up to data log and loose what ever "tune" might be in the ecu... Get an OBDlink or vLinker FS dongle. download ForScan on your lap top and use it to scan and log the car. The program is free to use. It doesn't care if you've got a tune or not, plus it allows you to log more pids that Cobb or Versatuner don't have access to. A good log will tell you where to look for the idle problem and take most of the guess work out of diagnosing it.

That's is a really good idea. One I wish I had before I bought the Cobb lol. I'm actually currently running into the whole "lose your tune" issue, but what worries me more is that the AP is telling me that if it's not an OEM or Cobb tune I could brick my ECU by changing it. I'm speculating that the tune is probably a Cobb tune, though, as the car has their intake and turbo inlet hose already.

The rust that REALLY worries me is what I can see down inside the cylinders through the spark plug holes. I'm REALLY hoping it's just stuff that flaked off the plugs and whatnot while I was removing the plugs. Once I can fight the cover off I'll be able to tell more hopefully.

 

[Crazycanadian]

That's is a really good idea. One I wish I had before I bought the Cobb lol. I'm actually currently running into the whole "lose your tune" issue, but what worries me more is that the AP is telling me that if it's not an OEM or Cobb tune I could brick my ECU by changing it. I'm speculating that the tune is probably a Cobb tune, though, as the car has their intake and turbo inlet hose already.

The rust that REALLY worries me is what I can see down inside the cylinders through the spark plug holes. I'm REALLY hoping it's just stuff that flaked off the plugs and whatnot while I was removing the plugs. Once I can fight the cover off I'll be able to tell more hopefully.

a leak down test is your best friend for telling what kinda health the engine is in. (Compression tests don't show everything)

If you are worried about the ECU stuff, contact who ever you are going to use for tuning in the future and ask them about it.. Otherwsie, With a small paid subscription ForScan can flash your ECU back to stock.

 

[Trademark]

a leak down test is your best friend for telling what kinda health the engine is in. (Compression tests don't show everything)

If you are worried about the ECU stuff, contact who ever you are going to use for tuning in the future and ask them about it.. Otherwsie, With a small paid subscription ForScan can flash your ECU back to stock.

That just might have to be the route I go for the tuning part. I'm thinking that may be a while in the making, though, given where I'm at with the engine.

New problem arose today. Hood release cable pulled through into the cabin at the end of the day a couple days ago, and now I can't get the hood up. I had the hood taken off, but laid it back on it to cover it up for the night. Now it's latched all the way down, with no access to get to the safety lever part. I can reach the actual hand-actuated lever, but not the one the cable moves. So before I break either the hood, latch, or bumper to resolve this issue I was hoping somebody else had run into this and knows a trick.

The other half of that would be; when I can't get it open the right way, which part do y'all think breaks first when I just start wrenching on the back of the hood to get it free? Also, anybody ever seen a MS3 with a hood that opens like a Viper? This might be a first. Pity I can only do it once, I suppose.

And where do y'all think is the best source for replacement parts like the hood latch, cable, etc. after this is worked out? I see a few sites online advertising real or OEM Mazda parts, but I'm suspicious of everywhere these days.

Thank you all for the advice and insight, I absolutely wouldn't make it through this project without it.



***Edit to add since it won't let me post again***

Joking aside on the hood issue, I was able to fix it with the help of my father-in-law just now. Apparently it's a 3 handed operation, but I was able to remove the latch assembly from under the car and pull it off with the hood.

I am still curious where y'all recommend getting quality replacement parts, though. I'm finding that whomever had this car last did a number on the engine bay and I have all kinds of missing or broken bits and bobs that will likely need to be replaced as the project goes on. I'd like to have this as clean and complete feeling as I can, with just enough power and noise to make for a rowdy daily when I want something a little less refined than my normal ride. So making sure it has all of its pieces and having them intact is an important goal for this build, I feel.