Docs lap dog has been rummaging through his handbag again
Docs lap dog has been rummaging through his handbag again
actually,.............
Focus ST Modifications
banter aside........the fact that your car IS available in the USDM will make it seem a lot more unreliable than our sturdy 5 pot than it really is. If the Focus was available in the US i'm a positive the yanks would have discovered 5001 ways to destroy our motor.
Peak Power output is for talking, torque is for winning.
How's my posting? If you have a complaint Call: 1 800 555 BLWME
idiot
At the end of the day we are speculating on the cause and I am not sure it will yield any solutions. I do respect the guys in the States who do tear these motors apart and try to get to the causes. Only research will yield the answers. By the way, anyone here want the blown motor who has the wherewithal to do some Aussie mechanical research? I have one I can donate if you are quick. If these were the engines of crashed aircraft they would be able to tell us exactly which bit failed and why. kmh001, those Mazda engineers you talk to want to let us in on the function of the BS and the consequences of deleting it? I don't know any of these guys personally.
Cosmic I only talk to them when they take my car away for weeks at a time and pretend they're going to fix it. I think they just like having an MPS to drive around in.
I've had lengthy discussions with them about the cause of the hesitation, which yielded a bit of info about the engine. But I don't have a direct line to them.
Where are you located?
Last edited by kmh001; 06-05-2009 at 11:06 PM.
I am in central QLD and the engine is in Bundaberg (unless it has been scrapped, they said they would hang onto it for a while in case I wanted any bits). Already scavenged the fuel pump.
^^What he said !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Peak Power output is for talking, torque is for winning.
How's my posting? If you have a complaint Call: 1 800 555 BLWME
Just a reminder that the thread is for discussing the potential causes of MZR failures such as the one documented in the pull-down on MS forums, and perhaps cosmics.
A minimum of banter is fine; I've no problems with some side discussion, but we aren't here in this thread to discuss the comparative modded reliability or otherwise between different makes and models.
As cosmic said "Mazda forums no one gives a toss about Fords", so while some comparative comment is fine, lets not get caught up in it.
I have put several feelers out for permission to repost the specific MS forums content. As yet, no response. As soon as I get a chance I will try to find some pics of the parts in question (pistons, primarily) and describe the evidence shown in the pt-performance pull-down.
I agree with doc that if there was a persistent problem with vacuum and PCV systems, users would be seeing periodic episodes of smoking at various rpm and loads. That isn't happenning, which suggests that the sudden boom events such as cosmics are the result of a one-off (for the engine) catastrophic event.
What we want to try and ascertain through discussion is the cause of this event. I think there is some scope for this to be something other than a generic knock induced failure. I would expect prior symptoms in that case, and at least for cosmic, that doesn't seem to have happenned.
I am not writing off the oil hydrolock theory, but I doubt very much that it is a PCV system flaw as as doc mentioned, prior symptoms would exemplify this. I suspect PCV mods would just be barking up the wrong tree...
Can anyone write off fuel concentration in the oil reaching a danger level that lights up under the pistons and creates far higher than normal crankcase pressures? If this is possible, wouldn't this account for perfectly functional PCV systems being overcome and creating an oil hydrolock event? Something like this would happen spontaneously with no prior warning. In suggesting this I am reminded of pictures of the settled content of catch cans that showed as much as 10% or more fuel.
It is not possible for combustion to occur in an isolated area within the crank case. It's a highly flammable environment which is made more so by the already high temperature and the vent system adding oxygen. Hot spots may lead to oil vapourisation, but if it goes the next step and ignition takes place, the entire crank case will burn, probably explosively.
A melted PCV valve would be evidence of a crank case fire. The blue spots mentioned on the MS forum are merely evidence of a hot spot. Those hot spots would have been vapourising oil, but not causing ignition.
Although it's a separate issue, the presence of excessive fuel in the oil actually adds weight to this because it would increase the flammability of the crank case environment and hence the impossibility of having a little fire burning under a piston or wherever.
But as I said before, I don't consider 10% fuel in the catch can to be abnormal given they're direct injection with forced induction, their age and what people are doing to them. Direct injection means that injector contamination will sometimes occur and will result in non-atomised fuel dribbling past the rings. This is ops normal in the diesel world.
If you're worried about excessive fuel in the oil you need to be looking at what Audi Toyota etc forums are saying about their experiences with DI. Personally I don't see a problem with it. Just go for a long drive and the fuel, water and other light weight vapors in the oil will be eliminated.
Now we have a compelling reason to go on more cruises.
Last edited by kmh001; 07-05-2009 at 05:15 PM.
Gone to Volvo
you're right, my bad....im bored to tears with stories of mazda's exploding anyway. Been hearing it since highschool. hope the new engine goes well for you cosmic...
I'll tell you a story about fuel in the oil. Years ago before synthetic oil was widely available and engines always had sludge, a drag racer that I used to work with routinely put a couple of litres of petrol in the sump with the old oil of his 351 and ran it for a while to flush out the sludge.
We thought it should have exploded or caught fire but it never did.
Maybe our engines are doing a good job of keeping themselves clean on the inside?
Last edited by kmh001; 07-05-2009 at 09:50 PM.
Gone to Volvo
I dunno about that - doesnt seem to be any signs of un-usual burning in the sump.
Heres some pics of the bottom end of a blown 2.3ltr MZR (Those who have just eaten, you may want to look away...)
I did have some pics of the cylinder heads, but cant find them just now (got em at home i think). I do remember tho that they were damn black and caked with carbon..
Last edited by Wardski; 09-08-2009 at 06:37 PM.