POSTS

Engine Swap

By astrophoenix

Last Thursday I was getting on the highway, accelerating gently up the onramp, w hen I heard a loud “Pop!”. Then the car had no power and the tach started slowly sliding lower and lower.

The battery light flashed once.

Then the check engine light came on and stayed on.

By this time I had coasted to the shoulder.

Turns out I had lost at least one apex seal in rotor #2.

Fortunately, I was at about 90,500 miles and the powertrain warranty had been extended by Mazda to 100,000 miles.

So I’m getting a Mazda-remanufactured engine installed at Berge Mazda.

Took a few pictures in the middle of the swap.

[caption id=“attachment_153” align=“alignnone” width=“300” caption=“The grisly tableau greeting me this morning, with engines and a transmission up on spikes! (or barrels anyway)”]front wheels off, hood off, engine and transmission on barrels[/caption] [caption id=“attachment_155” align=“alignnone” width=“300” caption=“Awful empty in there!”]engine bay with no engine[/caption] [caption id=“attachment_156” align=“alignnone” width=“300” caption=“spiffy new clutch I just got in August”]new clutch. orange.[/caption] [caption id=“attachment_157” align=“alignnone” width=“300” caption=“old engine; accessories waiting to be moved to the new engine.”]dirty old engine, new orange clutch[/caption] [caption id=“attachment_158” align=“alignnone” width=“300” caption=“Front and Driver\’s side of the old engine.“]front of the dirty old engine. all belts still on, even[/caption] [caption id=“attachment_160” align=“alignnone” width=“300” caption=“Passenger\’s side of the old engine; you can see the intake tract and the exhaust.“]intake and exhaust still attached to the old engine[/caption] [caption id=“attachment_161” align=“alignnone” width=“300” caption=“New engine! yep, it\’s a 13B”]13B Mazda[/caption] [caption id=“attachment_163” align=“alignnone” width=“300” caption=“Front and Driver\’s side of the new engine. You can see the spark plugs sticking out the side.“]spark plugs[/caption] [caption id=“attachment_164” align=“alignnone” width=“300” caption=“Rear and passenger\’s side of the new engine. You can see the flywheel, the intake ports at the top of the side, and the exhaust ports along the bottom. Also, along the top you can see the oil injection ports.“][/caption] [caption id=“attachment_165” align=“alignnone” width=“300” caption=“Close up of the intake ports (upper row), and exhaust ports (lower row) on the new engine.”][/caption] [caption id=“attachment_166” align=“alignnone” width=“300” caption=“Why does my transmission remind me of the doomsday machine from the old Star Trek so much?”]antimatter chain reaction required[/caption]