Im thinking he got the timing belt off a tooth. That would lower the vacuum available in the intake so that the IAC cannot compensate. This will require removing the upper timing cover im afraid to inspect it.

 

The mechanic says, he got it on correct, but I'm at his mercy without taking it to someone else. Would you take it to the mazda dealer or is that throwing money away...

 

I finaly got so frustrated I took it to the local Mazda dealer and they are conducting a complete diagnostic check. What I'm concerned about so far is they said all 4 cyclinder now have low compression. varies from 135 to the lowest 105. They said spec is 140 to 190 each. Could this be because of the Head job that was done? and maybe the cams not put in right? The car does not smoke nor use oil.

 

Did they do a valve job when they took the heads off? Should have if not. If the cam is out of time it could cause compression problems though.

 

Just got it back from the mazda dealer, he said the cams look good, timing was way off, but compression is still low. They think it's because the car overheated before I bought it. I wish my mechanic would have checked this before I spent 900.00 on a headgasket and head resurfacing !!!! Shouldn't he check this before all that work? or even after? My next option is to replace the motor. Have you heard of these engines imported from Japan? I found one company out of California, "Nippon Motors", best price $550.00 shipped to my door. 6 month warranty. Everyone I have talked to says these imported motors are realy good. any advise?

 

All is not lost yet. As far as him checking the compression before removing the head he would not be able to trust the readings with a blown head gasket. With the head off you can only do a visual inspection of the cylinder walls to determine if it likely has ring damage. Even then it is an estimated guess.
That said it is possible to bring that compression back up but it is a dice roll. Assuming he did a valve job then the rings are not sealing well causing loss of compression. This can be determined by doing a wet/dry compression test. You check each cylinders compression dry then add oil to the cylinder and run the test again. If the compression comes up significantly it is getting by the rings not the valves. Transversely if the compression does not come back up the valves are leaking and if they did a valve job then they need to fix it free.
But assuming it is rings we need to get them to reseal so get a few bottles of Techron or Seafoam and add 1 to each tank of gas for a few tanks firstly. Change your oil and use a straight 30 weight oil,add half a bottle of Seafoam into the crankcase. This will remove any carbon on the rings which could be causing them to stick in the piston ring grooves. Drive the car 200 miles with the Seafoam in the crankcase then change your oil again. Keep Techron/Seafoam in the gas tank and give it a month. I seriously doubt that that much compression loss is from the rings but it is possible. It should be smoking if the rings were leaking that badly IMHO. The wet/dry compression test would determine if whoever did the valve job owes you a redo so it would be wise to invest in that one.

 

A valve job was not done. Sounds like I should do the wet / Dry test. I will give that a try, I'll get back to you. Do most places carry the seafoam? Autozone, o'riley's etc...

 

Wet dry test was done. I had and average of 30-50 PSI jump from dry to wet in all four cyclinders. What amazes me is the car has never smoked and doesn't seem to burn oil. The seafom is in and I'll get back with the results. If this doesn't work what do you think of those imported engines from Japan? Best price I found was Nippon Motors in Cal. 550 shipped to my door.

On Sunday while driving it, I'm starting to get an occasional oil light coming on and off

What do you think of these low miles engines?


thanks for all the feedback....