After a crankshaft pulley vibrated loose, it became necessary to rebuild at least the bottom half of the engine
Deciding that I should take this seriously and replace everything I could, I opted for a full engine rebuild (everything but new pistons and rings) while I had the engine out
Took two weeks to rebuild, replace and generally refresh the engine. When re-installed in the car it started on the first roll
In the process of engine removal I went through a number of procedures to make reassembling easier:
- Color coding all fasteners. This both helped identify what size it was and weather it had been disassembled already or not. Through this process I learned that Mazda uses only 4 main fastener sizes.
- Laying out the disassembled parts in a grid indicating where they came from (i.e. all valves laid out exactly how they came so that none of them would have to be re-seated.
While this was a first attempt at serious engine work, overall I consider it quite a large success, not in the least since the engine started on the first try when put back into the car. A feat I have been sometimes unable to replicate with smaller and far less complex repairs.
The following changes were made to the engine while I had it removed from the car:
- New oil and water pumps
- All new seals and gaskets from intake to exhaust, including head gasket and valve seals
- Recovering exhaust header
- New harmonic balancer
- New crankshaft
- New main and thrust bearings
- New timing belt and associated bearings
- Off-engine oil filter for ease of access
- New oil temperature sender and gauge
- New shifter boot and oils
- Entirely new fluids in entire driveline
- Cleaned and serviced all parts of engine
