Hello all,
I am joining this site as the owner of a 94 Mazda protege DX 1.8 SOHC W/ manual trans.
I got this car in 2006 for free as payment for fixing a friends window. It sat for 2 years in his backyard before he bought the battery for me to drive it off. At this time it had around 138k on the odometer, and needed a little exhaust work.....well...Now she is at 240k.
She has a broken rear trailing arm, leaking struts, and erratic idle at stops, and at the moment she has her head off, getting some much needed TLC. Here is the clean surface of the Block, where the fresh cylinder head will sit when it returns from the machine shop.....


Here is a side shot of the block. Really I should be replacing the freeze/expansion plugs in the block before returning the head, but right now i need this car back together. So, a quick cleaning will have to do for now. (For cleaning and personal choice, I removed the A/C compressor (In-op.), and P/S Pump brackets and swung them up and out of the way.)

I can access these plugs and the plugs on the other side by later. (Hint: Raise car, remove starter on back, reach up from under car to remove plugs...Front: remove exhaust manifold, and lower exhaust bracket on lower block to access the front plugs....)

Also, with the head out to be serviced (Cleaned, pressure checked, milled, and valve job) I will be replacing the water pump, which is always best done in conjunction with the timing belt and components. Here the water pump is removed, after removing the timing belt, and camshaft sprocket, and we can see the outside of the number 1 cylinder....

From the looks of things, The water pump was still working ( no over heating or loss of coolant the entire 100k I've driven it), but the timing belt was due after 240k...



OK folks its time for me to hit the bed, 6Am comes early when it gets this cold at night...
Tomorrow, I will replace the Cam and crank seals, and clean up the area around the timing components to prepare for installing the timing belt.

 

OK, so here i am 2 days later, no more additions to the thread, and no closer to getting my car done.....
The victor reinz head bolts i bought,part # GS33556,
Are not the proper length bolts....Looking all over the internet, and every parts distributor within 100 miles, Can not get me the right bolts. Every one only shows the part listed above as the only option for head bolts. The closest mazda dealer wants 100 dollars for the bolts!!!
Does anyone know if and how I can re-use these old head bolts? Also, Do i need to seal the threads going into coolant passages? And which ones are coolant passages??

Thank you in advance!!PLEASE HELP LOL

 

Fish:
Now and then we have some cool people here who go this deep into the engine, but not often.
This engine is closely related to the one in the Mazda Miata. Try your luck on Miata forums and, please, keep dating this thread up. That way we can learn from you!

All the best.

 

The head bolts are not stretch bolts so i would reuse them if they are not pitted.

 

OK, You make the 3rd person to tell me this in 2 days, the other 2 guys were old managers of mine at my work, and both ASE MASTERS since the mid 80's....So After looking at my bolts, I only see minor build up in the threads.
I think a little soak in gasoline over night, and cleaning in the solvent tank with a wire brush should clean these bad boys right up.

hixx, Do you know about which bolts go into coolant jackets???

I was thinking about just sealing them all in a Teflon sealer before putting them in. All Haynes tells me is to apply oil to the threads and heads before installing, nothing about sealing them....

Thank You in advance for the help

 

Hey tan,
I'M NO QUITTER!!! LOL Ill keep ya posted!! The funny part is I really wanted to go deeper, but financially could not do it right now...X-mas is right around the corner...
I am thinking about doing more of a step by step for assembly of the head. I have already put the head on the block with the gasket,but i should be able to remove it and take a few shots before installing bolts and torque them down.

I also have to find a new timing cover, mine has almost disintegrated

I am learning this car is hard to find parts for, unless your upgrading to higher performance....

 

"X-mas is right around the corner..."

Well, sit down and make your list: new timing chain cover, torque wrenches, micrometer.....I hope you were nice!


Oh, now it occurs to me, you might be shopping to fill some stockings yourself.

There are special thread chasing dies available. In my book they said you should clean the threads with those and put oil on them so the torque applied to the nuts will actually compress the gasket rather than getting lost by friction. Grim and hixx will know better.

 

No sealer needed for the threads regardless of whether they go into coolant jackets. I dip the heads of mine in oil before i install them to be sure they don't bind when torqued. I just brush the threads and don't apply any sealer.

 

Yes, 11 and 13, he wants xbox everything, and she wants touchscreen this and iphone that.....whatever happen to cool tools and barbie dolls lmao!!! But, if your loading up the sled, ill take a new top and bottom box, the biggest one you can pull behind that thing

I soaked the bolts in the parts washer all day, and got a new wire brush today to clean these threads. On my way home i picked up this thread sealer in preparation to use it if anyone told me yes to yesterdays questions, and brought home the tap and die set. I will run the bolts thru, but do not think i am gonna pull the head back off the shims to clean the holes.


Ok, so if you guys are saying no sealer, i am going with that, Now I can take back this 9 dollar bottle of sealer.....i'll never use it lol...
I have never sealed any threads either, just oiled them, and torqued them.

I posted a pic of the bolts, the brown you see is just topical rust i think from washing them today at work, and not putting any oil on them to prevent the rusting. I see no pits or damage to the bolts. Heck with it its going together tomorrow.



I have off on tuesday and sunday, so my time to actually get my hands on this thing have been difficult lol.....



Thank you guys again for the help, I'll be back to update tomorrow evening.

Fish94

 

I hope you got the special dies for chasing existing threads. http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&key...l_8ekx3hkgk2_b