+1 on the Miata Thermoswitch. Looks just like the one I had on my car....before the S5 switch was discovered to be the easier/better alternative.

If you can find an OEM connector from someone with a trashed harness, you might consider replacing that with the FC switch while your in there.

 

You can go buy a pressure pump from a local auto parts store. It's the complete opposite of a vaccum pump.

 

I actually have an FC thermoswitch, so is that really where the thermoswitch goes? Ya the picture I took its really hard to see the location, heres a better pic. From what i've read, the FC thermoswitch plugs directly into the FD's harness connector, so all I gotta do is buy a harness connector pigtail for the stock FD thermoswitch?

 

Yes. There should be an OEM-type connector for that sensor. If there isn't one, it's a Miata thermoswitch. Get an original connector and it should plug right into your Series 5 switch.

 

from the looks of that picture something tells me that a non sequential conversion will be coming soon!!!

 

Happy Easter everyone! Hope your enjoying your Sunday, but the work never stops grrr I still have to work today and last night I pulled out the primary and secondary fuel rails and injectors and will send them out first thing Monday morning to be cleaned and balanced at WitchHunter performance.

Anyway Got a few quick questions.... in this pic, this is the Air Control Valve looks like is that right?



While checking my front main seal for leakage I believe im looking in the right place... as you can see there is this oily substance in the picture under the main pulley which suggests that its leaking, but when I touch it, it doesnt feel oily it actually feels greasy? like some kind of grease. This is gonna sound stupid but I even tasted it ( then spit it out afterwards obviously) and it sure doesnt taste like oil, everything is pointing to grease.

Another thing my car doesnt leak oil right now not even a drop on my driveway in about a year since I did all the oil repairs and my dip stick hasnt shown "low oil" in a long time, I check it weekly.
Does anybody know what this is?





Last thing... when I did a few vacuum hoses lat time I think I did it wrong because it appears that some of these hoses are NOT vacuum lines as they have an oily substance traveling though them, would it be best just to use factory hoses for these lines?

 

That oil leak does indeed look like it's coming from the front seal but look above the crank pulley and see if there's the same oily residue up there. If so, it's possible the leak originates from higher up although there's not much I can think of off the top of my head that has oil flowing through it up higher. Your cooler feed banjo bolt looks leak-free.

Some of the vacuum lines are used for the PCV system. One of the oil filler neck breather lines heads over to the turbos so it can pull greasy oily crankcase slime though it. I wouldn't be bothered if the insides of the lines are oily.

 

Its actually not a leak, its more like a creep and it isn't even dripping. I actually just spent several hours just now researching this leak and found a few threads of other FD owners with the same problem I have in that its not dripping, it just feels slightly oily. Because I don't see any actual oil dripping from there, I don't think the front main seal is leaking, I believe it has to do with the PCV system possibly malfunctioning.

Apparently, if the PCV valve malfunctions and sticks, it can cause boost to try to force its way out of places like the front cover, the oil pan gasket area etc. As long as everything is functioning properly this obviously should not happen. I'm not 100% sure if i'm right, but while i'm here and now that I know what I know, i'm gonna replace both pcv valves. I don't wanna ruin all the hard work I did last year to fix all the oil leaks by having a malfunctioning PVC system.

 

I know this is a vacuum hose thread but I dont wanna start a new thread for this. Tommorow i'm gonna replace the water pump and the big question I always wondered is... Should I use the OEM gasket alone and torque down to spec, or should I use Premium RTV or both?

 

Ok I ran into a problem today so I decided to call it quits for the night. When I was removing the old water pump, I noticed that there way a VERY small coolant leak which is leaking from the rear of the waterpump housing where the gasket meets the engine, so I decided to remove the housing to fix that while im here.

Problem is the housing doesn't come all the way out, because it's hitting the subframe? I found a thread on here that states that I need to remove the long water pump housing studs in order to remove the entire housing, but I don't see a way to remove the studs, how in the world do I remove the long water pump housing studs to get everything out??

 

Pretty sure if I remember the FSM correctly you have to remove the front crossmember (the one the SMIC/battery tray sits on). It's just 4 10mm bolts and comes right out once you remove the intake/IC/battery.

 

Ok got it. While taking things apart, there were a few other things I noticed that seemed odd.

First, this nipple is capped off in the picture and Idk if it supposed to be like that or not. It is a steel nipple attached to the engine itself. Is this supposed to be capped off? Just curious...



Another thing, I found this little piece here in the picture sitting on the engine directly under the ACV. Maby when I removed it, this piece fell out, because it kinda looks like it supposed to go there, but im not sure.

 

yeah it goes there....... why are you messing around with all that stuff anyway?...I though you where just doing a vacuum hose job?...

 

I am just doing a vacuum hose job, but while i'm here anything else besides a vacuum hose that is questionable is also getting replaced, because this is not something I wanna do again anytime in the near future

I just got a better picture of the unknown nipple which is capped off, i'm not sure if this is OEM or if somebody capped it off who didn't know what they were doing, anybody have an idea what this is for? Hard to see from the picture, but the nipple is attached the the engine block

 

I'm at the point to where i'm testing all the solenoid valves and actuators to verify that they are good before re-installation. I read the factory manual, and it states that I need to use compressed air pressure to test the turbo actuators for proper operation. I dont have compressed air, is there another way to check these actuators (Turbo Control and Charge Control) for proper functionality?

 

I went out and bought a MityVac Silverline for the sole purpose of testing those solenoids. It was $200CDN. I'd suggest barrowing one?

 

The nipple is supposed to be capped off. Long story, but yes it's capped, yes that's right.

The round thing (I call it the "wagon wheel") goes between the ACV and upper intake manifold. There's a hole there it fits into. Make sure it stays in place when you bolt the ACV on, if it slips out of its groove the ACV won't seal right.

Dale

 

Can you please explain to me why its capped off? I know that its fine the way it is but it bothers me to not know what something does or how it works

 

damn Ernesto, get rid of all that stuff +1000000 headaches and go non sequential

 

Ok I just got the fuel injectors back from WitchHunter, but everything I labeled is gone so idk which one goes where anymore. When I received them, they did relabel them in bags as ....1,2,3 and 4 that I can figure out, but idk which ones are the primary and which ones are the secondary. I THINK the primary's are the shorter red ones and secondary's are the longer gray ones is that right?

Another thing, I noticed when I removed the solenoid rack that there are vacuum hoses that plug into the fuel pressure regulator. This might sound like a stupid question, but only air travels through those lines correct?

 

secondaries are the shorter red ones.

 

Ok thanks and another thing, are the primary and Secondary injectors interchangeable with each other? To clerify, I mean if both primary injectors are in the primary fuel rail, does it matter which one goes where as long as they are in the right fuel rail? or does each and every injector belong in only 1 specific location...

 

Doesn't matter where the injectors go (primary/secondary). Also, you'll only be able to install the injectors in the correct rail due to the size difference.

The capped nipple - on FC's, that nipple is part of the crankcase ventilation system. Some FD's have this FC-style center iron with that extra nipple - not sure why some do and some don't, but there ya go. If it's left open, you get a big oily mess there.

This doesn't mean it's an FC iron or anything weird, it's just that *style*. Many people have motors with it, so there's a good reason it's there, but it's something only Mazda knows.

Dale

 

Wow I was thinking that capped nipple was for the PCV system but I wasnt sure that's def good to know.

Last night I was reinstalling my new OEM water pump and gasket and everything was going great and I was torqing all the bolt down to OEM spec and one of the bolts broke!!!It was badly rusted with corrosion, but I didnt think to clean it and use antiseize and the stud is stuck in the engine block. It looks like the stud broke pretty flush with the block, how would I go about repairing something like that??

 

Typically broken bolts can be removed by carefully drilling into the center of the broken bolt and using a removal tool to bite into it and then back it out. Then of course cleaning out the hole with a tap to remove any junk left behind. It can be a pain though especially on small bolts and keeping the drill going in straight.

Typically good idea to replace all those bolts because they are always rusted as you can see.

Also one VERY important thing on your fuel rails....make sure that you put the plastic spacer under your primaries and use the correct bolts. The bolts for the primary rail and secondary rail are NOT interchangeable and will cause you to have a leak. **EDIT** Replace the FPD too, they are known to leak and cause fires.

While you're under there you might consider removing all the double throttle crap and removing the butterflies from your UIM.