Hi guys,

so as i love to do, here is a small background story before i ask for advice

This winter i bought a car from a local fellow for $500 with a blown motor, he was selling it for $3000 before the motor blew.
I was hopefull, i bought a donner fb for $300, and as soon as winter came to a close i started my work. The dooner had a blown clutch, and the body was rusted in some places, if it had papers i would be driving it now :P I checked that the motor was working fine. i started it for the first time in -20c weather, it started fine, and was holding it's idle without a choker in no time at all. Oil presure was normal and no oil leaks where seen. I was very happy at this time.

I soon found out that my project car not only had a blown motor but had a leaking trany, the break discks where worn out, and one break caliper was shot. The trany was easily fixed with a new oil seal, and i replaced the front shock assembly with rotors and calipers together from the doner car.

Needless to say i was very happy to have a donner car, and having the engine in my project car. The first start didn't go well, the car wouldn't idle at all, i kept it running for 2-3 minutes then shut it off, as i could no longer breath all windows and doors in my garage where open, fan was on as well. I attampted 2 more starts hoping that the car would idle ones warmed up.
No luck there.

I had found some small problems however and was eager to fix them. My rpm was not showing nor was the oil pressure. I first checked that all the sensers where working properly, then checked all the wiring. The car was a mess with lots of wires cut, was a hastle making sence of it all. The problem turned out to be the cluster. It was easily fixed hower.

My next start showed some new problems, I found that the exchaust pipe was leaking in 2 places and assosiated my no idling issue to this. I also lost all my oil due to my carlesness, didn't tighten one of the bolts holding the oil cooler in place. Wierd how the first 3 or 4 starts resulted in no oil loss. but thats life.

Once i took the exhaust off, i had a small suprise, the pipe was leaking at EVERY joint. Except where it connected to a muffler. Today i finaly replaced all of the exhaust pipe, starting from the exhaust manifold finishing at the muffler itself, which i also replaced lol. To do this i had to fix every place the exhaust attaches to the body, as they where modefied VERY poorly.

So finaly came my last start in this story. The car started, once again would not want to idle, had to hold it above 1000rpm or it would die. I had to adjust the ignition timing just to get it to run. I was about to start tuning the carb when i found a small oil leak in the last place i expected. This was a finishing blow to my mood. I was hoping to get the car on the street in the next couple of weeks, but with this issue i'm no longer that hopefull.

I'm now afraid that in order to fix this leak i will have to rebuild the motor, so i want to get your advise before i go reaping the engine out of the car again.

The leak is right at the join of the first rotor housing and where the distributor is located(forgot what the plate is called) right by the letter "m" of 12a Mazda.


Have you guys seen this before? Can it be fixed without doing a complete tear down of the motor?

I'm also thinking of just forgeting this oil issue until i have finished the car completly, and just driving it as it is for now, untill i save up for a rebuild or a new 13b motor.

Also any one know why the car doesn't hold an idle after a swap? The engine and carb where not modefied since i took it off, except for ignition timing, and it was working fine before.

What you guys think?

Thanks in advance, i know i'm in great hands with you guys.

p.s. if you are wondering, i repainted everything my hand touched so the car is looking very good and i'm waiting to start my final touch ups, body paint and redoing the interior.

 

Dowel pin leak. To fix properly it takes a rebuild. Some have had varying rates of success with some of the stop leak products for oil systems. Dowel pin leak is quite common on beehive engines with more than 100-125k on them.

 

Thanks, did my search on dowel pin leaks and found some nice sugestions i'm gona try to get it running for now untill i decide what to do.