Another Zoom Zoom Boom

And another one bites the dust. Mazdaspeed 3 just let go at the track. Engine seems to be in one piece so not sure what the total damage is yet. Gotta get it home first lol.

Well that sucks, sorry for your luck man.

Like I said in my email, that sucks sorry to hear it. Fortunately the swap is pretty simple, hopefully you can find a decently priced block on the forums. If not just throw an n/a block in it and trade it in haha.

If I were you I'd try not to fall into the trap of spending big bucks on a built motor to get it going again. You end up with a big bill and a car that has no traction through third.

Yea no its going to probably just get redone to normal specs and go from them, nothing special. But it will get traded in at some point.

Well I got almost the same on trade that i paid for it new so at least they keep their value so a trade in should be a positive thing once you dump a couple grand into it to get it going again.

Yea i gotta get it checked out first cause it was white smoke but they didnt find any metal or anything on the track and the exterior of the block appears to be intact and nothing is leaking. So we will see.

Turns out it was the head gasket and bent 2 valves in cylinder 4. In the process now of strippin this thing down to get the head to the machine shop. Then its going to go back to stock until i can trade it in.

Glad to hear it was nothing too serious

Bent valves? How does that happen with no other failure point?

Well thats what a shop told me, we are tearing it down now and see what is all wrong.

So the head is still on and the ship told you it has bent valves and a bad head gasket? That shop sucks

Yea pretty much. So we took most the stuff off yesterday and the head will be off today to see exactly what the issues are.

Shouldn't be bent valve's unless your timing belt slipped or broke or something of that nature i would think... Guessing there saying bent valves cause it has compression loss??? Which could just be from the head gasket.

if he blew a head gasket, sucked water into the cylinder, cylinder tried to compress the coolant while a valve was open and bent it? idk random theory.

Another win for team jack stand

If the valves are open it won't compress water it will shoot the water out the open valve

cut a soda can in half. fill one half with water. smash it with a sledge hammer. all that water can't go straight out the bottom. i'm just saying, if he got enough in the cylinder in one gulp its possible it could bend a valve. i hear what your saying, i was just throwing a random theory out there.

So tell me this what forces are acting on the valve to bend it? If there is water in the cylinder all the air comes out as the piston comes up at which point there is water around the entire valve the pressure in the cylinder from trying to compress the water is equal in all directions at which point the rods can no longer push so it bends rods break pistons crack cylinders lifts heads..... All the prices that are trying to contain the pressure take the abuse not the valve that is sitting in the water

fair enough, got me there.

brngrhd wrote:

So the head is still on and the ship told you it has bent valves and a bad head gasket? That shop sucks

Why cant you diagnose a bent valve with a leak down test and a head gasket with a cooling system pressure test?

I guess I suck too.

Next time I will just pull the head off and tell the customer I'm not sure why I took it off but sounded like a good idea.

Oh you can but what bent the valve? I guess I like to know the whole story.....

yea so we got the whole thing tore apart and there wasnt any issue with any valves. two pistons melted and dug into the cylinder walls. so its at a better shop now that can actually tell what the issue is and its finally getting put back together. cant wait to get it back on the street.

Do you have a wideband in your car?

I had a COBB AP on and everything looked good the day it happened but i wasnt logging so i cant be certain. I did hit a higher PSI then my target though.

^ haha this sounds familiar.