There was some oil in the head but not very much. I will pull the oil filter and see what I get before pulling the head again. Would it make any difference that not everything is connected, ie the alternator, power steering pump are not all put back on and the connections plugged in? I will also pull the air box to make sure I did not miss a wire or connection that I can't see.

It just does not make sense that I am getting spark but no life at all. Is it possible that the battery is not cranking fast enough to get oil pressure so that it will fire?

 

I finally gave up and took the car in to the shop. They found that I had put the exhaust cam on 90 degrees off, put it on correctly and it fired up. I would have never found this, even with looking at all the pictures that were sent and ones that I had in the books I have. I thought everything was set correctly.
The shop is saying now that I have an oil leak, possibly from the crank seal and that the pre-cat is plugged some. Can someone tell me what the pre-cat is and what I need to do to either clean it or replace all together? If this is the exhaust manifold, or the pieces from the manifold to the exhaust pipe would a header help me at all? I have not picked up the car so am only going off what I was told on the phone.

Thanks for the help, Kerwin

 

Glad to hear that the engine is up and running kerwing even if did have to take into the shop.
The pre-cat is bolted directly to the outlet of the exhaust manifold. Run just under $300 from Mazda. Why are they saying the pre-cat is plugged some? Symptoms of a partiallly restricted exhaust would be loss of power. The more restricted the greater loss. You should be able to remove the upstream O2 sensor and be able to peak in there without having to remove the converter to check the inlet for melted or damaged catalyst element. The only other fault they could have discovered would be due to the CEL being on and setting a CAT efficiency code.

 

Just picked up the car. Went to start it and drive home, the car started but would not stay running enough for me to even back up. I took the O2 sensor out of the exhaust and it ran with not problems, drove it home, it ran ok just a little on the loud side. Made a few phone calls and found that the 96/97 are the only years that used 2 cats, one at the exhaust manifold and one farther down. The first one is not cheap, is there a way to clean it out so that it is not clogged and see if that helps or am I better off just replacing it?

At least it is running again... Now to get it to run right

Thanks, Kerwin

 

I went to pull the fron cat off and noticed that there is another O2 sensor just after the cat. On a whim I pulled the lower O2 sensor and put the upper one back in and started the car. I had less power with the bottom one off than with the top one off. Would this confirm that the cat is plugged?

Kerwin

 

You sure could remove the front warm-up cat and just knock all of the monolith element out to see if the problem goes away. Make sure that if you do this you get it all as you do not want pieces falling off and damaging the main converter further down. You think the front one is expensive, the main is probably over a $1000. Knocking out the front Cat will eventually give a check engine light with CAT efficiency code so if you have to pass a emission check in your area and new replacement will eventually be needed.

 

I cleaned out the cat so it has flow now, what a difference some air makes!! Now the check engine light is blinking so I am assuming that this is telling me there is a problem with the cat. I plan on replacing it but wanted to see if that was truly the problem before spending more money.
The engine was making a taping noise so I changed the oil which seemed to help for a bit, but now the taping is back. When I had the head off I didn't replace the lifters and as many problems as I had i can't say for sure that I got them back in the same place as they wre originally. Would replacing these help the tapping noise? And am I going to cause any damage if the car is driven before replacing the lifters?

Thanks, Kerwin

 

Definitely must have been plugged up then if it revs up now. Check engine light should not have come on for quite some time after driving if it is a cat efficiency related code. Blinking CEL should be pointing to a considerable engine missfire. That is the only thing that should make it blink on and off instead of just coming on solid. Might try to see if it is setting a P0300-P0304 code and might point you to which cylinder is giving the problem. Tapping lifter will not hurt anything to drive and if it improved for a while after changing oil then probably is a lifter collapsing down. Might it be related to lack of oil reaching the cylinder head or are you getting good oil flow up to the camshaft and lifters now?

 

Finally had the codes pulled, it was a P0303. I was told this was from cylinder 3 misfire. Would changing the plugs and wires help this?

 

It might kerwing if the problem lies in a bad spark plug or plug wire shorting to ground on the cylinder head inside the plug well. Somewhat of a common thing to happen with the plug wires. You are often able to actually see a hole burned thru the hard plastic boot of the plug wire near where it connects to the spark plug. Also look for a black carbon track line running down the white part of the spark plug ceramic. Not the part in the combustion chamber but the part that sticks out of the head with the manufacture and part number infor on it. If there is a black line on it then there will usually be a matching carbon track down the inside of the plug wire boot. Both should be replaced if this is found.