'06 Mazdaspeed 6 build for daily use

[mindys]

Update:

Made a boost leak tester and pressurized the system. Found a massive leak at the EGR pipe. The gasket near the EGR valve was so crooked that one of the bolts was not even going through the hole in the gasket. Good thing I had a spare so I replaced it and now all good. AFRs at idle stay around 14.7, stft around 0. Did a 35 Mile drive and stft+ltft stayed between -10 and +10.

After the drive had a decent coolant leak from the thermostat area. I believe it was the hose from the radiator not being clapped well enough since it was easy to turn the bolt on the clamp. Still am questioning the cooling system. I did some decent pulls up to 5K and temps never went above 195. Fans never turned on. Idk how is it possible for the coolant to remain below 200 after last night's drive....

[mituc]

LTFTs netween -10 and +10 means that the MAF cal you have is pretty messy. The ECU logic will adapt to these variations but the variation only points to shitty MAF cal or another on-going issue.

As for the ECTs... while the car is moving and the coolant is flowing through the radiator there is no reason why the coolant temps will climb above 190-195.

[mindys]

Originally Posted by mituc LTFTs netween -10 and +10 means that the MAF cal you have is pretty messy. The ECU logic will adapt to these variations but the variation only points to shitty MAF cal or another on-going issue. As for the ECTs... while the car is moving and the coolant is flowing through the radiator there is no reason why the coolant temps will climb above 190-195.

Sorry, should have been clearer. The fuel trims are around 0 for both short and long time, with slight variations with varied throttle input. I just said -10 to 10 just to say they are definitely in range. I will keep monitoring them for a while and see if anything goes wrong.

With cooling, I will wait until it gets warmer here (should be pretty soon) and then I will get a good idea of how well the cooling system works. So far so good though.

[Fstrnyou]

My car runs at 200 ECT. Even if it's below freezing outside.
But, during a WOT pull, the coolant temp drops a few degrees, likely due to the higher rpms pushing more coolant through the system. The thermostat is somewhat slow to react.

[mituc]

Originally Posted by Fstrnyou The thermostat is somewhat slow to react.

Change it before it fails, because it will. I had similar symptoms and I was very lucky to catch it failing while the temps were still below freezing (the ECTs were in the mid/high 230s).

If it failed during the summer vacation nobody would have heard that fan spinning like nuts because you kind of expect that during summer when the AC blows to the max.

[mindys]

I also am replacing the thermostat since it is old and I have coolant leaking out from the bottom of the housing. Might be that the gasket is not installed correctly or maybe there is a small crack on the housing, but either way I will just replace it and not worry about it anymore. Then have to decide what to do with the small radiator leak that I have....

[Fstrnyou]

Mine has been running at 200 since the thermostat was new. I would have put the old one back in if I hadn't accidentally thrown it away. That was well over a year ago. The engine I'm currently building will get a genuine Mazda t-stat.

[Spectrix]

Stock thermostat here, temperature is nearly always steady at 185*f, I haven't seen it go past 195*f.

[mindys]

Welp, replaced thermostat and no more leaks! The issue was that when I reused my old thermostat, I bought a new gasket from the dealer. When I placed it into the groove in the thermostat, it seemed like it didn't fit that well as the gasket was too thin and there was a rather large amount of empty space in the groove. The new thermostat had a new gasket with it, and this gasket was maybe 50% thicker than the one I bought... Weird, since I got the gasket from the dealer.

But my woes continue. I am having the clutch slip at 50mph+ 4k+ RPM. I have a suspicion that my RMS is leaking a little since I every now and then see a black spot right under the bellhousing drain hole under the car. The liquid is this really thick oil that seems to be mixed with the clutch material dust. I really am hoping that the problem is between the RMS and oil pan, not the RMS itself. The reason why I suspect this area is because the L3 with TC manual did not specify to place RTV between the oil pan and the area where the RMS mounts after the oil pan was mounted. The speed6 manual does (see attachment). Since I was following the engine manual when doing the engine, I did not do this step.

My plan now is to probably drop the oil pan and see what's going on in that area. If I have to replace the clutch, I am not sure if I have the patience to do that anymore due to the sheer amount of work it will take. At that point, might try to sell the car in the state that it is and recoup some of the money that I put into it. Or maybe take it to a shop in the area and see how much they would charge for the job.

[mindys]

Welp, have not dropped the oil pan yet, but will probably do it during the next oil change.

I did replace all the front lower control arms since three of them had the ball joint boots ripped. The steering is quite a bit more responsive now as well. Just need to do an alignment since my steering wheel is at 45 degree angle when car is going straight

Next plans are to take care of some electrical issues. The driver door window will not go down, so I will try to replace the driver's side window switch module to see if that will fix it. Also need to replace the keyless antenna in the bumper since I am having issues with that.

Then I will tackle some of the cosmetic issues. Most likely start with replacing the hood and the rear doors due to rust. Then will see if I can get new sheet metal welded in at the rear wheel arches. Interior also needs a good clean up.

Slowly but surely this car is getting back into proper shape