Mazda Gurus assemble!! need your halp!!

[tehstocker99]

Ok so the 323 (with a bpt) has been having some sketchy acting up going on. I have replaced the radiator atleast 3 times now thinking if was faulty radiators, it would also randomly start to overheat and most the time the needle drops back down to the middle, if not, i turn the car off and restart with the needle back to the middle...it's not that cold in bama to cool an engine in 5sec. now i think it's other problems.

Some of the things going on : The idle is too high, on the boost gauge (when at idle) reading vacuum fine for a bit, then the needle starts to jump between about 14-20vac. like a spaz. but when i tap the clutch pedal it stops and goes back to steady 20vac. Also have oil leaks coming from the valve cover (changed several times as well) I have been thinking that I'm boosting the wrong parts of my engine due to bad head gasket (used old head bolts when rebuilding the motor). ANY questions/ideas please post up!! It's getting very tiresome!!

Thanks a lot!

another thing forgot to add, while driving when i go to shift and engage the clutch, my rpms increase extra 100-300rpm...usually when "revving" they decrease very slowly to the high idle, 2000-2500 mark

[therieldeal]

what are you running for a PCV valve?

could be a blown headgasket, did you do a compression test?

could be a lot of things...

[pumer1904]

take out ur thermastat and see if it stops teh over heatig also is your radiator fan coming on ????

if not just put a new headgasket on also but do whut jon said first a compression test

now on the valvle cover leaking oil where are u leaking oil from the valve cover cam seals or by the distributor????

[tehstocker99]

Hey Jon, I'm using a new Mazda OEM PCV valve. No compression test, I guess I will do that before anything starts.

Pumer, the leak is on the coil/distributor side (right if looking on the engine). will do that thermostat thing, someone else hinted that as well

[pumer1904]

the leak sounds like u dont have any gasket maker put on the distributor side that is needed so u wont have any leaks from their

[yunvmyegt]

the dist o ring is always leaky on any ive seen...after theyre flat they dont seal to well....

[jay]

Oil leaks could be dist oring, or pinched gaskets, or blowby. What happens when you take the oil cap off when it's idling?
Where is your boost guage reading vacuum from?
Are you running an AFR?

[tehstocker99]

well i have that gasket maker goo in between the gasket and the valve cover (in that insert) and some between the gasket and the head and plenty in the "sharp turn" areas (crankshaft, distributor). The gauge is hooked up to the vac line right off the intake manifold, right before the check valve before the...forgot the name of it..little sensor bolted to the firewall..damn

also will taking the thermostat be "unhealthy" for the car? what are the negatives of doing so? will it just take longer to warm the car up?

[tehstocker99]

added another thing to the 1st post

[91SuperProtLX]

If its overheating its prob the headgasket if you think its bad, on rubber valve cover gaskets you need no RTV (goo) anywhere but where the humps are, get a new gasket and clean off everything real well, and put like a dab of RTV just where the sharp edges are.

If you take the thermo out it will run cooler, and warm up slower, no damage will happen.

Y do you keep changing the rad? Is it leaking?

Is it really overheating? If you turn it off and turn it back on and its right, then the sending unit for the guage could be bad, maybe the guage is bad itself, if its not pissin out steam or fluid then its prob not overheating.

The high idle and the revving when shifting could be from the IAC not working right, or the idle screw being adjusted too much.

[wheresthericego]

****ty thread title is ****ty
Why not actually post the problem and what it pertains to instead of garsh this is weird

[tehstocker99]

don't hate^
this way people open the thread out of curiosity, and if they know the problem they might as well post if they opened it...and plus the title would have to be a paragraph long b/c I can't sum up everything in a sentence, trying to get all of my problems figured out in one thread

If its overheating its prob the headgasket if you think its bad, on rubber valve cover gaskets you need no RTV (goo) anywhere but where the humps are, get a new gasket and clean off everything real well, and put like a dab of RTV just where the sharp edges are.

If you take the thermo out it will run cooler, and warm up slower, no damage will happen.

Y do you keep changing the rad? Is it leaking?

Is it really overheating? If you turn it off and turn it back on and its right, then the sending unit for the guage could be bad, maybe the guage is bad itself, if its not pissin out steam or fluid then its prob not overheating.

The high idle and the revving when shifting could be from the IAC not working right, or the idle screw being adjusted too much.

thanks a lot man! yeah i got a j/y radiator(2) and both leaked, got me a GTX aluminum one now, going to install once the car is in the air again

the idle screw is all the way tightened and hasn't really been touched (been playing with the maf and the screw hoping that was the problem for idling)

would it be cheaper/easier to just get a new throttle body? (anywhere but dealer lol)