so by 8.5 and up, do u mean cars birth date or by car year, i have an 08, but it was made in 07.. how do i know is mines an 8.5

if it was purchased in 07 then its an early 08. The 08.5 probably started to come out by early to mid year of 2008. I'm sure there's a way to check either by vin or on a tag off the car. I'm not familiar with mazda (this is my first) but my previous bmw you were able to check by the vin - there was this site I would go on "realoem" made just for bmw and if you type in your vin you get all the basic info of your model plus when it was built (month and year).

no theres no need to check your vin, if its an 08.5 you have piano black interior and different seats, also white was only made starting in 08.5

cool, thanks, And Whos had there engine rebuilt, and how much did it cost.... What exactly was done

mines got the metalic gray interior around the radio and on the doors. So its the shity 08?

i wouldnt say its shitty theres plenty of pre 08.5 that made power, the newer ones are just less prone to crank walk

whats the best way to beat that? new injectors. fuel pump, and good tune?

I waited 15 minutes before I started putting the Mods to this car. This car and engine were made to mod. Best base I have ever worked from. Yea I have blown engines before and a few transmissions (other platforms) but WTH this car is crazy fun to drive and have yet to hurt it. Wasted my tires in 10,000 miles. I have had more smiles per mile than any other car. If you are concerned about it leave it stock still fun, but if you have 5K you can turn this car into the terror of the neighborhood. The platform has issues...so what.... so does everthing else.

Some explain what crank walk is?

its when ur rods pack there bags and leave, here is a pic of what it looks like
http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f2...4/23blowup.gif

LoL i know the side effect, im talking about what it really is. I dont understand that. And is it just caused from upgrading the breathing mods on the car? And another quick question, i installed the SRI, and im curious as to if this will cause the car to run lean without a re-tune, or if by unplugging the battery, it will reread the intake amd adapt

After you install any component that will alter engine dynamics, you're going to want to:

1. Disconnect negative battery cable.

2. Pump brake pedal to completely drain power.

3. Let sit for 30-60 minutes.

4. Reconnect battery cable and drive car modestly for 100 miles.

Your ECU should be fully adjusted to the new parameters after this. Keep in mind that these steps are for simple bolt-ons. Anything more demanding than breather or exhaust mods will most likely require a tune of some sort.

Crank walk is when the crank tends to move across it's bearing surfaces, adding a bending load to the connecting rods.

The "walk" part only applies to when it's running. Engine off, some people call it "end play," or "runout," and few other terms floating around, but basically:

Crankshafts aren't supposed to move very much along their axis of rotation. If they do, man, all sortsa shit can go wrong.

So by purchasing forged rods and such, problem solved?

yes pretty much

the main thing crank walk is caused by is putting a beefy ass clutch in right?

There's also something about thrust washer tolerances and planet alignment.

Blown Motor - Still at the Dealer
 

i hoped to never have to post here, but it looks like i've been hit with the rod problem everyone else seems to be having...

i was day driving to work on the highway - 6th gear at about 70mph when the car felt like it stuttered. check engine light then oil light. i cut the motor off and pulled to the side of the road - oil everywhere. towed it to my buddy's shop and yup - #4 rod snapped sending something straight down through the oil pan. motor is shot.

so - 5 hours later and a ton of work, the car is back to stock and being towed to the dealer. since it was a weekend, of course Mazda's not open for the dealer to start the warranty claim. i spoke to them today and they're in the process of sending pictures / e-mails to Mazda.

the only thing that remains on the car is my gauge cluster - boost gauge and wideband O2 which i removed the bung from. haven't heard back yet but from what the service guys were telling me, i should be getting a remanned longblock from Mazda. Car was remapped back to stock with my AP as well.

Mods - CPE Downpipe, Cobb FMIC, CPE CAI, Denso IVT22 gapped @ .026, Turbosmart 50/50 BPV - Recirc, custom AP tune by P&L Tuning (Chicago, IL).

Guess I have a few questions :

1. I was holding about 20psi with the custom tune putting down about 280hp / 293 lb/ft tourque at the wheels. Need new rods to be safe?

2. I was hopefully going to be modding the car with CDFP internals, turbo manifold and have my turbo reworked. Will it be safer with the new rods?

I'll post again once I hear from the dealer.

Currently Driving - 2010 Mazda 6 v6 - LOADED which is impressive.

^^^^Don't worry man. Mazda doesn't do remanufactured engines for mazdaspeeds. They use brand new longblocks.

... Didn't u here a ticking noise somewhat prior to this? Something slightly outta the ordinary, because usually u will here the crank walk prior to it throwing a rod...

Unfortunately 20 psi with flow mods on the stock pump caused some prior damage to the rods that finally let go.

I'm still fairly new to the forums so I don't have a post count high enough to reply to PMs, so if you have a question for me, post it here. I'll be monitoring this thread, updating you all with my status. Here's my reply to you lex.



1. First of all, how many miles were on the car and how many were modded?
- about 27K miles (almost all highway). Only about 8K modded


2. Were you using flat foot shifting?
- Never flat foot shifted the car.

3. Did you do any hard pulls with the car a few days before it blew?
- Nope. The car has been pretty much babied other than on the dyno and the few times I had a civic or cobalt SS think they were hot shit.

4. Before it blew did you get any weird signs from the car such as vibrating clutch, smoke out the exhaust ... anything out of the ordinary the few days or weeks prior to the blow-up?
- None whatsoever.

5. Was your fuel pressure dropping under WOT?
- If I remember correctly, it held nicely above 1500cfm (missing a digit?).

6. What stage map were you running?
- I ran the stage 2 + FMIC 93 octane for a while before the custome tune.

And no - no ticking or anything. Day driving - I had the radio on but it was low. I didn't even hear anything when the rod snapped - just the stutter afterwards.

U were running 20psi on the stock turbo

well with the FMIC it would hit about 20 and then drop down to about 16 after 3rd gear. Again, it was only boosted like that on the dyno pretty much. Plus the car was not tuned aggressively. I'm pretty sure I've seen other people boost that and not have problems...am I wrong?

I should mention, I have logs from my AP on a 3rd gear pull. At that point, my fuel pump was hitting 1600-1700 psi. The only thing I noticed is my AFR dipped to about 9.75 at about 5500rpm. If you would like to dissect the log, here it is.

I'd appreciate any feedback you'd have.

Third_Gear_Current_Plugs.csv

That is what I was wondering..... nope

ILSpeed308

Im curious.
91 or 93 Octane fuel.
Was Cruise control on when you blew?

Sounds like I could blow at anytime...... gulp. Cruising at 70. Wow.

Any MS3 with blown engine for sale here?

I run 93 only and typically BP gas only if it's nearby. Still waiting to hear back from the dealer too.

In both pulls, something very strange happens near the end of the pull. It's as though the throttle is released and re-applied very quickly. Was the car cutting out or was the pedal released and re-applied?

The boost in one pull looks like this:

12.62
14.07
14.94
14.36
13.63
12.91
-2.03
16.24

And the second pull

7.25
12.33
13.78
15.37
16.39
15.66
15.08
15.08
2.03
19.14

Another strange thing is how much air mass your MAF is reading:

70.48
108.1
145.21
175.63
211.63
234.82
247.07
257.03
95.45
257.95
270.08


Almost 260 grams/second is tall order for a stock turbo at 14-15psi.

check out line 158 in the log,

his pedal position drops to 0 then back to 100%. either he lifted his foot for a split second or the signal from the sensor got disrupted. Everything on that line drops significantly.

IL, did you lift?

EDIT: NVM saw the RPM and looks like a shift point on both pulls

What is odd tho is that you were pushing 20psi and werent making that much power for your mods. what type of dyno were the numbers from? Buddy wasnt making proper power for the amount of mods he had, and it turned out he had blowby in a cylinder. couldve been the culprit for you too.

No, bet he didn't lift, and two times exactly the same, not happening, it's a sensor issue, mine has it also, usually right around the time Boost kicks in.

look at the logs again, both times the rpm drops by over 1k, its a shift, not a cut.

hes just datalogging so many parameters that the frequency is very low

It's strange that the shift seems to be followed by a shot of boost and then he lets go.

I noticed that when I logged a lot of parameters with the ap, they didnt always line up. his timestep is about 1 Hz. Lots of readings can change in that instant and some probably did before and after the ap took the reading. Maybe he kept pulling thru the shift to get an accurate pull from start to finish in a gear??

I'm sure it was a shift that you guys are noticing. Numbers were from a mustang dyno, so that may explain why they seem a bit low.

And by blowby you mean the PCV was not functioning properly? I'm not too technical when it comes to the workings of a motor - hence why I'm here.

I never felt or heard the car detonate, but I did have issues a while back after putting my FMIC in....

The car seemed to hesitate under boost for a split second. That was before the IVT22's got put in. I put those in at a .026 gap and the issue went away...for a while. I thought I was running too rich and fouling plugs out, so i bought another set, gapped them and the issue went away again but seemed to return after a while. On the latest set of plugs I hadn't had it happen at all. Any ideas?

And if you see me shift and then let off the gas it's probably because I was on a 40mph speed limit street at the time.

Do the MAF readings seem that out of ordinary for this intake? I also had the COBB Turbo Inlet installed if I forgot to mention before.

BLOWBY - good quick explination

My buddy's symptoms were lack of boost until high rpm, sluggish throttle response and a bit of smoking from time to time

okay but I didn't have any symptoms like your buddy really. never smoked and it would boost fine at low rpm also. the only problems the car ever had were the hesitation i mentioned above.

FYI - Log from a warmup if anyone is interested. I don't see much to gain from checking it but more eyes on it may help.

Here it is.

warmup.csv

looks like your gonna need a new dynotune!!!!!

why do you say that? does it seem like the tune was not performed well? the car seemed to pull a lot smoother afterwards and made what i think are decent numbers on a mustang dyno. i have the flash saved in my AP for later if i need it.

no upgraded CDFP=bad

I would agree it would be bad if my fuel pressure was dropping with the mods, but it never did. constantly ran above 15-1600 psi with no problem.

its worth a try dude

well it was on my list to do in the summer next year - gut the fuel pump, have the turbo worked and install a PG turbo manifold but now we'll see what happens with the dealer.

throwing around the idea of buying a forged motor if they don't warranty it.

well - Mazda denied my warranty claim...because i had a fucking boost gauge installed.

fight that shit

dude, a boost gauge?? thats just wrong. i would go to mazda with a water gun filled with piss

Sorry to hear this but how did they justify a boost gauge causing the engine to blow?

I haven't gotten any justification yet because the dealer just called back a few hours ago. I called them back and here's the new story :

Service lead was the one who got the call from Mazda - even though he wasn't involved with the warranty process at all. I explained what was going on and asked for what Mazda's reasoning was on how a boost gauge caused my failure. He was like "So all you had was a boost gauge?" I said yeah "Of course" He was like "Well that's not right...I've been working with Mazda for 15 years and there's no way they can justify a boost gauge causing a rod to snap in half".

So...I now have the service lead and shop lead on my side. The service lead has since called Mazda to explain that there's no way a boost gauge could cause a motor to blow. They're fighting for me...so we'll see. More updates to come obviously.

ps - anyone bought a forged motor from PG? That is probably where i'll go if they don't warranty my shit.

I have the EXACT same problem as IDRVSLO with my 09 MS3 right now. it's been in the shop for the past month and they've replaced the clutch, slave cylinder and they just ordered a short block. I told them from the beginning it was either the cam or crank and they didnt believe me. I don't know if his was fixed or not, but if anyone knows what the problem was with his it'd be a huuuuuuuuuuge help. I could just tell the dealer what to fix rather than them just farting around and replacing random things. Thanks

I'm new so I can't PM IDRVSLO yet, otherwise I would. Still trying to get the hang of this, bear with me.

He replaced the clutch, no change.
Shortly after that his engine blew, it is believed the pulsing through the clutch was evidence of bent rod(s).
Ill try and find the threads and post them here.
The short block should solve your woes.

EDIT to add links:
Start of the clutch pulsing http://www.mazdaspeedforums.org/foru...s-toast-14367/
Clutch replaced no change http://www.mazdaspeedforums.org/foru...e-noise-15058/
2 days later Rod exits block http://www.mazdaspeedforums.org/foru...e-blows-15126/

Yup, bent rods for IDRVSLO

I've had crazy vibration from all the pedals ever since installing the TRZ transmission and rear motor mounts. I'm assuming this pulsing is a little more violent than just vibrating pedals. Is this correct?

Hey dale, People said that the pulsating clutch is very noticeable. I too have the upgraded motor mount and thought the same thing.

But everyone who had the problem before they blew said it was nothing like the mm vibration.

I also had the pulsing clutch before my engine blew. Mazda said it was a wear part and would not investigate further unless I wanted to pay for a clutch. Then, my engine exploded into little bits.... Err... I threw a rod through the block (cylinder4).

The pulsing in the clutch pedal is just that. It pulses.

It could be easily misinterpreted as a bad clutch as it occurs right at the friction point. It was a rapid pulsing sensation (Mazda figured it was warped fingers on the pressure plate). It was harsh enough that my foot would pulse with the clutch.

Hope this gives you a better idea of what it feels like.

*EDIT*

The Mazda tech was very surprised when he found my clutch in excellent shape while he was replacing my engine under warranty. They did not replace the clutch and it feels like new in the new setup.

Very worried about my car of late (09 MS3 GT). The car is not pulling nearly as hard of late and lately, a lot of time when I do an aggressive run through the gears it exhibits lots of black smoke, like it's running really rich. Sometimes it doesn't do this, sometimes only when shifting, and rarely, it will smoke through the whole pull. It's definitely gas, b/c I burn absolutely NO oil since my second oil change.

Used to, I could be rolling in 2nd, about 3500 rpm I could get into it (no dumping the clutch or anything, just push down on the gas pedal) and it would light the tires up, burn them till shifting, then spin them in 3rd a bit, and bark the crap out of them in 4th. Now, it won't even squeak the tires when I do this in 2nd. Just barks in 3rd slightly and nothing in 4th. Not to mention, the butt dyno (I know, not accurate) is just a total meh. When I used to do this, my heart would race and I would be like, HOLY F'n !!!! It would smash me to the back of the seat and pull like a BEAST.

Now, it just doesn't pull very hard, smoke that black pig rich black soot (you can even see the fumes in the air like on a hot sunny day road heat).

Very worried my cars going. I've changed the oil religiously (early at that) and ran Mobil 1 synthetic, and now PP 5w-30 synth. All mods have been on a long time except one... some kind of PCV thingy that was like $20 supposedly fixing smoking turbos (I never had this problem, just bought it for some reason and put it in). I didn't reset the ECU however when I did it.

Mods so far:

SU Billet aluminum shifter bushings

Cobb SRI

Cobb Test Pipe (removes catalytic converter)

Turbosmart Forged BPV

Some kind of PCV fix thingy (cost like 20) to prevent smoking (never had any tho)

Penzoil Platinum 5w-30 oil


Upcoming mods this week (Christmas presents from wifey):

PG High Pressure Fuel Pump upgrade internals (already bought, sitting on my bench)

Cobb Turbo Inlet Hoses (bought, on way now)

CP-e Rear Motor Mount (bought, on way now)

Denzo Iridium 1 step colder plugs (bought, on way now)

Coil pack spring stretch - FREE (since I'm in there already)

Tranny mount, eventually.

Your car is probably fine man. It's probably a combo of the colder weather and your fuel pump not keeping up with your mods. I'm so trying to get a PTP fuel pump ASAP.

I hope so. The Protege Garage CDFP internals go in tonight, along with the cp-e rear motor mount. Then reset the ECU and baby it for a 100 miles before I find out. I'll report back though.

I will say this though, to further my post, occasionally it will pull hard like the old days. But it is getting fewer and farther in between. It's really odd. I'm guessing a tune would alleviate this maybe?

I was thinking of getting the Cobb AP, do you think this would fix my problems?

Either way, I'm still scared as shit anymore. It's just this constant unsettling feeling, worrying about my engine going bad and debating whether to sink more money into it or bail. I absolutely LOVE the car, especially when it's running right. It is so fun to drive a torque-y beast with a 6 speed and low gearing. lol But at the same time, popping the engine is constantly in the back of my mind and most of the time prevents me from even driving it spirit-idly.

p.s. should I take off the PCV fix mod? Now that I think about it, it's been running poorly on and off ever since I did that mod. I bought it to protect the car, thinking it couldn't harm anything. I doubt it is, but it is a strange coincidence.

I think you just answered your own question.
Take it out and see if it cures it.
If not try something else, you checked all your hoses right?
I wouldnt go adding any other mods till you figure it out.

Do you have a dashhawk, dashdaq, or AP to log and post logs?

just get a compression and leakdown test, relatively cheap and will tell you immediately if the motor is shot. no reason to agonize over what could be causing the issue, if the tests come back ok, and your parameters are within spec, your butt dyno is used to the power and you need to add more mods.

No dashhawk or AP to log with yet. I plan on getting the AP though, maybe next February. I will take the PTP PCV fix off today and see what happens.

Where does one get the compression and leakdown test done at? Also, how long does it take, what is required and how much does it cost? Thanks.

You can get a leak down and compression test done at the dealership or any mechanics shop that is worth their weight.

Car; 2007 Mazdaspeed 3 with 61000 miles.
Cylinder; Not sure yet, suspect #1
Damage; Suspect broken rod. block pieces and oil in front of block. Rear of block has the start of a hole and a crack down to the oil pan.
RPM; about 4000
Mods; MS Intake, MS exhaust
Exhaust Manifold; Stock
Situation; It blew coming down a hill while engine braking and zero fuel (foot off accelerator).
Warranty; taking the car in on Monday, 12-28-09.
Oil; Mobile 1

I can't wait to see your situation, this is a very interesting situation. MS parts from dealership. Just Intake & CBE hmmmm. keep us posted.

did you have an AP

gonna tell him tough shit. powertrain warranty expires at 60k unless he got some sort of extended warranty. sorry for your troubles man, good luck

I have the Mazda extended warranty to 100k miles. It's the best warranty they offered. I recently had the tensioner pulley and serpentene belt replaced under the extended warranty. In the past under the manufacturers warranty, I have had two turbos replaced, the fuel pump TSB, the ABS unit, the shutter valve TSB and the motor mount TSB.

Never any other mods on the car. I wanted to stay with the Mazdaspeed parts only to maintain the warranty.

wow, you go a lemon. sorry dude

The funny thing is, KOMO 4 news showed up and interviewed me on cars breaking down during the holiday season. It aired on TV later that night. Also, my son was with me and I video taped the entire scene, to prove that I was on the off ramp, just in case they question what happened. The freeway comes down a steep hill to the off ramp and I was engine braking in gear to minimize brake wear and there was a car in front of me and a car behind me. The car shook and I heard a metalic ping sound from something dropping under the car and trailing behind me. I immediately pushed in the clutch and felt the clutch pedal vibrating heavily. As soon as I depressed the clutch, the engine died. There was a trail of oil all the way down the off ramp to where I stopped.

I took a look under the car today and it looks like it is the #1 cylinder. The one closest to the drivers side of the car. It cracked the block from the oil pan up to where the rod hit the side of the block.

smart move on the warranty...i as well purchased the extended 100,00 mile plan a couple months back...as a long term car that is a DD, there is no way in HELL i would keep this thing without a warranty...i understand most cat's here want speed....but honestly this car for a DD is plenty fast for NJ roads....and realistically i rarely get to use the HP/TQ i have except up to the speed limit....Tickets in this neck of the woods are keeping police forces locally in funds....tickets are fund raisers in a way....they got my son twice and me once this past year...we slowed down....not by choice though. And the warranty is not by choice either, but this cars track record needs a warranty for those that need it for piece of mind or financial reasons...for me it's both reasons.

Out of curiosity, how is the car driven? Is it driven hard? Did you have any symptoms prior to the blow-up?

Seems some of the early speeds have a design issue that surfaces after some time.

I commute to work about 80 miles a day and about 70 of that is freeway miles. I get on it probably 4 times a day WOT, passing people mostly, but for the rush too. I never race people just because I fear the racing/reckless driving ticket and what it may do to my security clearance at work.

I feel I have really taken care of the car. I change the oil every 3k miles with AMSOIL or Mobile 1. I watch my scan gauge II for KR every time I get on it and let off the instant I see a reading. I used to seafoam the engine every 10k miles, but missed the last 15k miles...Not sure if that was prolonging the engine or not. I pay att
ention to every change in noises and didn't notice anything different that night except one. About a mile before it blew, I noticed a KR reading of 3.8 degrees, so I let off the gas and upshifted to 6th gear to lower the rpms. A few moments later, the road turned to a hill and I downshifted to engine brake down the hill. About 3/4 mile later, it happenned under no load or throttle. Is this a candidate for the PCV issue? I'm going to ask the dealership to check for oil in the cylinders.

asic, when you go WOT to pass people on the freeway, do you downshift to 5th or 4th?

I check my RPMs first and try to get them to at least 3500 before going wot. I'll either shift down or punch it as long as i'm above 3500 RPMs. I also check the KR reading right when I punch it too. That is why I wait until i'm above that 3000-3500 range, because of the random KR that we are all getting.

Also, would a bad injector leak fuel into the engine? That or the oil injestion would make the most sense to my case with no throttle.

Update: Mazda road-side assistance is coming to get my car this morning and the dealership knows the car is coming in.

Just hope they don't try the old "spirited driving" excuse to void your warranty. I am one of the few guys who had their engine warrantied. While they were ripping it down, deciding whether or not to warranty it, I made sure they checked the clutch wear. They were quite surprised that it was in great shape at 64 000 km and that really made them realize I didn't bag the crap out of my car. This was one piece of evidence that helped to convince them I was nice to my car (although I hope a clutch with 64 000km on it would be in good shape).

Good luck man :)

I still have plenty of clutch left as far as it "feels" when I shift. It's the original clutch with 61,000 miles. I'm not sure how long the clutch should last under calm driving conditions?

Update: The car is at the dealership now.

good luck, keep us posted

Thanks for keeping us updated. A number of things could happen and yes this is a strange way for a car to go but we're not strangers to strange here.

Was the car smoking or burning lots of oil?

It genuinely sounds like you had a case of the rod bending/weakening over time which we've seen on many other cars or some strange hydrolock situation.

I would get as much info from the dealership as possible regarding what the cause was. Ask about the oil (although you will find oil in the cylinders simply because it blew), ask about the injectors etc etc.

I noticed just a little bit of oil smoke in the mornings when I started the car to warm it up, but that would go away pretty quick. It actually doesn't seem any different than a year ago. I'll call them often. They said they would let me come and look at the engine once they get it broken down.

bring your camera and take lots of pics

Hmm, smoke at cold startup are signs of a tired engine, valve seals leak, rings leak. How long has it been smoking in the morning for?

It's hard to tell if it is really smoke or not with the cold weather, but It didn't smell right, so I concluded it was smoke. It was very faint and lasted about a minute or two. I think it has been doing it for a while, like maybe a year or about the last 15k miles.

No updates yet.

Don't let the stealership try to jerk into "lack of proper maintenance" for oil changes. I wouldn't even mention that fact to the dealer. If the rings were worn, it wouldn't cause the rod to let go, it would just smoke a lot. A rod busting loose is some serious stress-related item, or wrist-pin torque-down issue, not related to cylinder wear.

They can't say anything about maintenance. I have had all the maintenance done at the dealership every 3000 miles and have all the receipts and the maintenance log filled out. I also wrote up a 7 page memo to the service manager explaining the sequence of events, step by step, leading up to the engine failure with pictures of the scene and oil trail down the offramp and diagrams of where it happened on the freeway.

So far, they have determined that the cause is undetermined.

They did tear down the engine today and I got a good look at the damage. Driver's side cylinder, they call it #4, was all messed up. Hole in one side of the block and a crack in the other side. The rod was snapped in 2, the piston was broken in half. All 4 valves were bent. They can't determine the cause and for the life of me, I can't figure it out either. The wrist pin and crank rod bearing both had clean free play. Remember, this happened with my foot OFF the gas, coasting in gear down a hill at about 3800 RPMS, so it couldn't have been detonation or pre-ignition. The tech and I checked the crankshaft endplay and it was HUGE. He said it looked like 8-10 thousands, but it looked more like 1/32 of an inch to me! I posted some picture, but will post more pictures when I get more time. They gave me a loaner car today. I can't figure out what caused this. My best friend and Saturn mechanic told me it sounded like hydrolock because the rod had a bend in the break. But that night, it wasn't wet out or raining. I don't know, maybe the oil ingestion issue that PTP found? It's impossible to tell since the piston was broken. That part of the head was covered with oil, but it could have come from the broken piston.

Sounds like possible crankwalk, also could be why mazda tightened up the tolerances on the 08.5/09 thrust washer

Good pictures - what is that bolt from?

What happened is that the rod likely snapped on a upstroke and this is why the piston impacted the head.

All Mazda motors blow this way - a rod that has a prior bend that fatigues and lets go.

I have my reservations about calling it hydrolock although it is certainly not out of the question.

If you get a clear picture of the rod bearings (both big end and small end) I can tell you if the rod was bent for a while or not. My inclination is that it was.

I have seen these motors out of tolerance as well. Crankwalk results in off axis loads on the rods that can fatigue, bend, and break them. Some of the earlier cars seem to have had this problem more frequently and unfortunately ended up blowing giving the MS3 a "weak motor" reputation.

From the spark plug it looks like you had quite a bit of blowby in that cylinder which again points to a misaligned assembly (bent rod).

If you are interested in more of what happened, I can tell you more from detailed pictures of bearings, the bottom of the piston, the cylinder wall. Most techs won't be able to troubleshoot a complex failure like this.

Basically goes with what im saying, the ones that should be of most concern is the 07-08 as the 08.5/09 have a lot less of chance.

Power is not the reason for blowing as crankwalk is a defect, and mazda knew something about it as they made changes in the 08.5/09 to tighten up the tolerances

It's the oil pan bolt from the 5th picture, just below the big crack in the block. When he took out the bolt, those 2 big pieces of block fell off the engine. That was tons of force to shear-shift that bolt like that.

Here's some more pictures. Look at the #1 and #4 intake valves....This probably would have been avoided with a catch can. I'f I kept this car, i'd install a catch can for sure now and seafoam it regularly. The last picture is my Merry Christmas Mazda picture. This happened the day after Christmas. I got this car in late 2006, so it was one of the first MS3's. I guess, It makes sense to never buy a first year model. Hopefully, i'm getting a 2010 block, but who knows. Is there a part number difference on the block crank, rods, etc??

These cars do run pretty dirty. It certainly looks like cyl 1 was running poorer comparing the spark plug to the others.

How come you had to change 2 turbos on the car?

I have read this more and more frequently.

1) Where does this information come from? Reference, Source?
2) What is the build date that the thrust washer was changed? This is most important as there is not an official 08.5 it is a term used on the forums if you were to talk to a service rep about a 08.5 he wouldnt know what you were talking about. What we need is build date that the part number changed...... anyone?

With Mazda, it's all about the VIN number, that's how they know exactly what part to put in a particular car.

It might be a shot in the dark, but you could try calling the parts dept. and asking them for price and stock on the thrust washer. If they did change the part, then 2 choices should appear on their screen, and they'll ask for your VIN to figure out which one fits your particular car. The build date is usually encoded in it, but the most important element is the VIS and VDS sections, which refer back to their database and describes virtually everything about your particular car.

One catch - if the new washer fits every engine block, they may show 2 parts with a note that one of them is no longer available - or not, they might have simply changed the database to show only one part, so you'll never know...

This happened to me with my last car. About 7 years after it was built, the secondary butterfly controller for the intake manifold failed for the 2nd time. The first time I was about to just replace some grommets, then Ford redesigned it as a non-serviceable assembly, probably because it was such a common problem. The dealer ran my VIN and said ya, this is the only thing available now.

Anyway, like I said, it's a shot in the dark. BTW, why do you want to know?

Build date and vin from xxxxxx is basically the same thing.
It is those two things that are referenced in TSB's and recalls to specify if something needs to be done or is already incorporated.

I have an 08.
Just curious which one mine has.
08.5 is a term used on the forums to describe some interior changes, Mazda does not use the term 08.5 and I have yet to see a hard evidence of when this different thrust washer was incorporated, so I am trying to narrow it down, rather than have people assume the 08.5 blanket statement is correct.

There is an 08.5, it is the mid year change that they did and updated the interior and other things over the 08, i dont know about the part number but i have heard from numerous people that they did make a change.
Now i do not know if the part number would show up differently if they stopped making the earlier one

It isn't, that's what I was trying to get across. Yeah, they translate that into build dates for TSB's and recalls, but this hasn't reached that level (yet). Even if one does apply to your build date, they still run the VIN to make sure.

Truth is, automakers can and do change various parts throughout a single model year. Example, the car behind yours on the line could have gotten a motor with the revised washer while your got the older one the same day.

Only the VIN number can be used to accurately query their database about a particular car. And I suspect that by now the revised thrust washer only pops up as a single part number for all 07-09 MS3 VIN's, since it's such a minor change.

Besides, even you had that information, whaddya gonna do, tear down your whole motor and replace it with the new one just in case? :)

He'll sleep better at night.

You really can't tell from that picture because that cylinder got flooded with oil when the rod and piston broke, but i have noticed that there was more buildup in that cylinder when I check the spark plugs last.

I thought everyone has been going through turbos? A friend of mine went through 3.

Tomorrow afternoon, I should be able to get pictures of the rod, piston and cylinder separately.

Crankwalk...Interesting. Since were all turbo car guys, I am sure many people are familiar with the severe crankwalk issues Mitsu had with the first gen 4G63. I know it was resolved mid 90's. Maybe someone (smarter than me) might want to check some of the posts on those forums and look for similarities?

Just a thought....

The 4g63 had a thrust bearing that was starved of oil at idle once the oil squirters got stuck open due to oil coking or debris. I haven't seen people report bad bearings here - perhaps poor tolerances from the get-go.

That was on the 2nd gen 7bolt blocks that had that problem and as lex said the oil squirters would commonly get stuck open

Is there any correlation to the years? What I mean is, I seem to see a lot more 2007's blowing than the other years, for some reason.

Too early to tell. The 07s have been on the road for longer and have had more wear, abuse, etc. Will have to wait a few years to tell.

Also people learned the DOs and DONTs over the years. A good number of blowups are due to user issues.

Is part throttle boosting still a bad thing? I remember for a while everyone was saying getting into low boost period is a bad idea. Go WOT or go home was thrown around a lot.

Loading the engine at low RPMs (lugging etc) is hard on the rotating assembly. High torque (spikes) at low RPM are always bad.

Ya, but it's so darn fun! :)