HOW TO: Remove Valve Seals In and Out of Car

[sleeveless]

I don't know if anybody wrote this but Mazda when doing just a vvt replacement has us peg the timing cover for the timing chain tensioner, was wondering if u had to take the crank bolt out to actually do this in car? The tsb has us remove the intake cam to do the vvt I mean yes it's sketchy but u may be able to get away with just replacing the cam washers.

I personally would just pull it all apart and pull the head off personally.

[mitchellbuehler]

For what it's worth, 15mm worked best straight for the intake, exhaust required me to use both 13mm and 15mm. The way the head is laid out made it a bitch on the exhaust side. I also used a 1' extension rather than a 6" and had a second guy help me with getting the retainers/keepers in place

[ido Kerpel]

Hey!

I'm Ido and the proud dad of a 24 year old daughter who bought a silver '04 Hatchback Mazda 3 in Vancouver last year and was as proud as a peacock with her new car. It appeared soon, however, that her quick buy with borrowed funds was not as good as her good mood at the time. She also lives about 12 hours away which makes helping her with the continuing trouble of the beast a challenge. Don't get me wrong: she loves everything about her car. It's dad who gets called and tries to wrap his head around the issues at hand, however. But this week she's here at home and dad's trying to solve the problem of her oil guzzling 2.3L engine (a quart for every couple of hours driving).

After a few days of Forum and YouTube studies I've concluded that the PCV valve is not the culprit and a bear to get at anyway. May need replacing at some point but not now.
Oil scraper piston rings perhaps (may get to that, pretty close to the bottom).
Valve stem seals are on the top of my list for now and I just found this thread by ROKUSEK with fantastic pictures (sharp as can be with plenty of light) on your forum showing how to remove these little suckers. The fact that it was done on the authors' coffee table proves true mechanical enthusiasm and zeal for the work at hand (my wife would never eeever let me).
So thank you for this forum and all your contributions with a special thanks to the forum host !!!