Well, man I got the new head on and the car runs fine, the only problem is sometimes the oil light will flicker on and the engine will stumble. This happened right after I took the car out for a test drive. So I came back and removed the oil pan and participated in some deep cleaning because there was build up everywhere. I put everything back together and the light hasn't come on in two days. The other day I was driving rather hard and when I got to my destination as I pulled into the parking spot the hesitation and the flickering of the light happend again so I shut the car off and waited till the next morning. I started the car and drove to work and it worked fine, no light, but I noticed when I stopped on a hill the light came on and the engine hesitated again once I was over the hill it seemed to be fine. I also checked the oil pressure switch and it had a little bit of oil on the tip but nothing dripping off or from the block either. After cleaning off all the oil residue and everything, do you think I may need an oil pump? I am not sure what the problem is with oil right now because if I drive easy it seems to be fine (no light) for the most part? Do you think something is blocking one of the oil ports and causing the light to flash on and off? The oil light comes on because there is a drop in pressure right? You have a lot of knowledge and I wanted to get your take on this. If you don't remember me, I am the one who you were responding to before that needed picks of the bracket that held the intake manifold in place. Thanks for your help in advance, Paul

 

I am not babyhuey, but both my 323's had the oil pick up screen partially plugged for the oil pump. I had to take them off and soak the filter screen. I then re-installed and no random oil light coming on.

 

Hello again. Yes I remember the head removal part. Judging by the amount of black goo visible when you had the valve cover off I have no doubt you needed to do some serious cleaning of the pan and pickup screen. How did the oil pump pickup screen look when you pulled the pan after that first drive? Was it badly clogged with junk? Am wondering if the same thiing is happening again as bkey suggested. As the oil is circulating it is picking up more loose debris in the lubrication system and the first place it will go is right to that pickup screen. After a good hard drive it may be so restricted that the light pops on untill the pump can try to draw enough oil thru to get pressure back up.
I hope you also changed the oil filter after cleaning the pan. The screen will get the big chunks but the filter will catch everything else and will clog up just as fast and create the exact same problem. Might even be worse. Remember that the the oil is draw up thru the screen, pressurized by the oil pump, goes past the pressure control plunger and then thru the oil filter and on to the rest of the engine. Now if the oil filter is badly restricted and you are zooming around town, the pressure control plunger is at almost full dump back into the pan. Now you come to a stop and the sticking plunger continues to release pressure back into the pan but the pump is now at idle and barely putting out any oil volume/pressure. Oil light comes on untill plunger manages to get closed and system can build pressure again so light goes out. Sorry if am rambling but just kind of thinking out loud as it were.
I think I would go ahead and change the oil and filter again and see if that works. If light still comes on you might want to pull the pan back down and see if the screen is clogged again and clean it out really good and since you have the pan off if would certainly not hurt to pull the oil pressure control plunger, give it a good check to make sure it and the plunger bore are not damaged and then clean it out really good and make sure it moves easily so it can properly control oil pressure. Mazda oil pumps are pretty tough so would hold off on worrying about it for now.

 

Awwww man, I pulled the pan and yes debris was stuck to it, I cleaned everything. I see you mentioned the Oil Pressure Control Plugger, where is that located so I can give that a look.

 

The control plunger is at the very front of the engine towards the front part of the car. You will not be able to see it or access it with the stiffener in the way. The stiffener is the 3 or 4 inch thick aluminum part between the oil pan and the cylinder block. Once the stiffener is removed you will see a snap ring and then a metal plug. under that is the plunger spring and finally the plunger itself. Post you a pic so you can see better. If the screen was really clogged up with debris then that may well have been the problem and getting access to the plunger may not be necessary. It is a bit of a bugger to get to. Stiffener may not look like it is too difficult to remove but there are two hidden 10mm bolts in the bellhousing area that you have to remove the transmission to access. Up to you though. I would be fairly tempted to clean up inside the pan and block area really good. Change the oil filter and give it a go.

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Cool thanks a bunch, I'll give it a go and see what happens, I appreciate all your help man, your a life saver!!!

paul

 

Hope all goes well with no more oil lights coming on. Good luck Paul.

 

***Update*** Got the new oil pump in, everything is cleaned out. Running 10W30 with new mazda fuel filter. Cleaned oil screen, pan and everything is nice and fresh. The oil light did not come on the entire time on my way to work. When I pulled in the parking lot and parked. I shifted the car in park and reved the motor real quick to 4Grand and let it drop. The RPM needle droped to like 300, the car hesitated, the oil popped on and off a couple times like it was confused and the car began to idle normally again. I did notice that I got the tick tick noise you hear about in the mazdas due to bad HLA's. I believe my oil issues are gone and now I have to troubleshoot this new ticking problem. I do not have lose of power or anything like that, it's just annoying at times hearing it. During idle when you first start the car you may not hear it, but as you drive and warm up it comes back. I was reading it could be carbon build up on the piston heads or my HLA's could be tapping due to air in oil (which I doubt) or stuck HLA. Where are the HLA's located and what is your advice on the best way to clean them before ruling out that I have bad ones? I read you can take a feeler gauage .15 and rotatat the came and if there is space then I might need to replace the ones that are worn. I heard another way you can clean ports and that may do the trick. I was thinking about starting out with running a Fully Synthetic oil while substituing a quart for the LUCAS oil treatment to see if that lubes the car any better. What kind of things would you do? A pic of HLA and location would be great? Does this intail me taking out the cams again? Will the ticking noise mess up stuff in the long run? Should I be very concerenced or fix and troubleshoot at my convience?

Follow up, I took a quart of oil out to replace with lucas Synthetic to see if that would help with the knocking and no luck. Additionally I took the valve cover back off and poured lucas all on the cams, valve caps and retainers and I still get the knock. It sounds like its coming from the exhaust cam, second lobe from the right if your looking at the motor. I guess I have a bad HLA some where? Do the 99 even have HLAs? All I see is a spring and retainers when I look at the old head. Any suggestions once again would be greatly appreciated. Follow up, the head does not appear to be starved of oil and the light has not come on so I am not sure what the deal is with the knocking. The head I got was from a junk yard and looked as though it had been sitting for a little while, but no dirt or grime it was clean.

Follow up to the follow up, I drove to work today and when I first started you could hear it but when I am on the high way, you can not and when I come to a stop sometimes you can here the knock on idle and sometimes you can not, but most of the time when I come to idle you can hear it.

 

The 2.0 in the 99 626 does not have HLA's but has mechanically adjustable valves. Adjust spec is .009"-.011" with the cam lobe pointed away from the valve and engine cold. They are adjustable with different thickness 'shims'. You would need to measure the actual valve clearance, remove the existing shim, measure the thickness of the shim, and then purchase an either thicker or thinner shim based on how much your initial measurement was off from specs. Could be the source of noise as clearance will change as engine warms up. Give them all a check and see if any are way out.

 

Yo, get this, before I saw this post I had already tried to take out the stiffner. I succeeded only to break those two hidden bolts out of their mount that looks like its bolted to the block. Now I have a nice Oil leak "Of course". I tried to jb weld where the pieces broke out of and place them back together like a jig saw puzzle, but looks as though I might have to replace that part that the two "hidden" bolts bolt into. I notice there were two 10mm bolts that hold it on, but it looked as though it was not coming off without pulling the tranny due to the bolts being too long and hitting up against the torque converter as I try to back them out. I assumed this from the space they proveided on the other side of the block for the bolts to go into. My question to you is, first, is that block that the two hidden bolts mount to replacable with out replacing something major. Second, does the tranny have to come off to get to to those two bolts that hold the mounting plate for those two hidden oil pan bolts? I hope this makes sense.

Follow up, man I figured it out, I messed up the rear crank seal housing so I priced one out at 100 bucks, I'll just drop the tranny and fix that so I can get rid of this nasty oil leak from the crack where the JB either didn't seal or I didn't reach.