Hi all,

I am a newbie to this list.

The mazda blew her thermostat housing, and she got a little warm (the temp gauge was 1 led above half (where it sits normally - electronic dashboard))

I was losing coolant, so I stripped the head off, and replaced the gasket.

Put everything back, made sure that the crank was at TDC, the sprocket on the cam is at A (the line by the A is lined up with the downward arrow at the top of the timing belt housing (the mark is on the alloy bit) and the dizzy is set to #1 plug.

My manual (which is an australian one by gregory's) says the dizzy runs ANTI CLOCKWISE and that the firing order is 1,3,4,2.

Well everything went back fine, but now she will not run properly.

I have checked the timing belt about 10 times, and it lines up perfectly, the dizzy is also right.

It backfires, is hard to start and get to idle, when it is trying to idle it feels lumpy. After about 1500 RPM it seems more stable, but lacks power ie tried to reverse out the garage and it did not like moving and felt like it was struggling.

Things replaced:

Head gasket, coil, sparkplugs, oil, coolant, oil filter, air filter, 2 cracked vaccuum hoses.

Things checked:

no oil in water or water in the oil, compression test 1100 - 1200 KPA on cylinders (160 - 170 PSI),

Things that are missing:

Air injection system on the exhaust manifold, anti back fire valve (all relevent hoses are blocked off) electrical thermo sensor under the inlet manifold (it is broken, think the heat made it brittle and broke while moving the inlet manifold back to the firewall to get the head out)

Any idea ?

It sounds like a 2 stroke mower .. is a b*tch to start .. what other things could be wrong with it? The car was running like a dream before the thermostat housing sprung the leak, purred along with not a problem in the world.

I have owned it for several years, its had timing belt replaced and regular services, I just didn't realise thermostat housing was corroded until it blew out coolant spectacularly.
Thanks in advance.

 

Try reversing the firing order at the dizzy cap.

 

yep

absolutely correct

of course the fact that the workshop manual has the wrong instructions for the distributor didn't help

it is not anticlockwise like the manual said
swapped 2 and 3 leads and suddely car is better

thanks !