(unamused)

Original problem before any repairs: rough (rolling) idle and getting worse (but no CEL), blue startup smoke, oil consumption, slight pinging under load, way overdue timing belt, curiosity and a misguided sense of adventure.

Read on for the summary... resolving one set of problems leads to worse...

FIRST
3 weeks ago, after many hours of online research and reading (have the Mazda Service information) I tore into my engine to replace the timing belt for the first time (myself and the car). Car has approximately 230,000 km (~142,915 mi) and the belt was original. While in there, I changed my crankshaft (front) oil seal, camshaft seals, valve-stem seals (hoping this would cure blue startup smoke issue, oil consumption), water pump and gasket, thermostat, valve cover grommets/bushings/gasket, timing belt, alternator & power steering belts, oil change (synthetic) with filter, coolant flush/change (pet-friendly coolant), spark plugs. All parts from Mazda except fluids/plugs.

RESULT
After much trial/error and a few new tools, I finally got all the work done and the car back together. No CEL... YAY! and timing felt great - no more marbles. Sadly, startup smoke got WORSE! Still blue - about 15 seconds after start up, fog the block for about 1 minute then gone. Only happened after resting overnight, no smoke in cruise. AND my crankshaft oil seal (which was not previously leaking, and despite careful removal/replacement) started LEAKING!

THEN
After many more hours of online research and reading the service information, I decided to do the valve stem seal job completely over, with a better (really awesome) spring compressor tool and with a completely NEW set of seals just to be safe. Since I didn't know if I had damaged a seal, or if one was simply installed incorrectly, I didn't want to chance taking the engine apart a third time so I chalked it up to the learning experience and bit the bullet ($160 x 2). I replaced the oil seal even more carefully, this time very lightly coating the outside edge with red high-temp pematex. All valve seals re-replaced (one on #2 cylinder seemed loose - didn't find any obvious damage to any of the seals). The good news is that I'm getting very good at the timing and belt install...

AND
While in there, as a second major project decided to completely remove the intake manifold for proper cleaning (throttle body was really dirty), bought new gaskets for both the intake manifold, dynamic chamber, EGR valve upgrade kit (brings EGR into the coolant loop with throttle body) - comes with new hoses, EGR and throttle body gaskets, new intake side o-rings for the fuel injectors (really, the new ones don't seem any better than the old ones!). While I had the intake apart, I discovered my car was a victim of the VICS/VCTS recall problem - my VICS screws were all tight, but two VCTS screws missing and the butterfly valves jammed on #3/4 cyl. I discovered my car had already been dealt with by Mazda so I'm no longer eligible for any warranty! I wonder if they only checked the VICS. I was lucky to find the two screws with a magnet in the bottom of the dynamic chamber and cleaned/reassembled using blue loctite on the VCTS screws. I didn't touch the VICS screws since they were so tight I feared stripping them on removal. I debated doing the VCTS delete, however I'm still reading up on this and at this point I want my car running normally before I do any other major work to what was a previously very awesome car.

LATEST RESULT
The good news - crankshaft oil seal seems to be tight, timing great (no CEL). Valve stem seals? Who the heck knows with all the other smoke coming out of my rig - all I know is the Toyo tool I used comes with an installer and I don't see how I could have screwed up the install of any seals this time. New problem after the second major repair: Horrible idle - engine shaking/vibrating (puff puff sound) at idle, jerky throttle response on decel, WTF smoke out the whole damn neighborhood on start-up with mostly whiteish (or does it have a bit of blue tint?) smoke and it lasts and lasts and lasts... acceleration on the throttle seems mushy AND I seem to have an intake leak - suspect the intake manifold gasket as at least one culprit - WTF again - it was new, carefully installed, bolts torqued...

I checked all the vacuum lines were installed, I sprayed intake cleaner around the engine and the RPM definitely increases. How the heck could the intake gasket be leaking??? I pulled the fuel rail to double check the o-rings installed, but that didn't help. And what the heck is causing this horrible smoking??? I have no evidence of any coolant in the oil. Is it possible the updated EGR valve could be leaking coolant? I quadruple checked I hooked up the lines correctly - and I'm debating whether I should reinstall the old one to rule out the smoke. Is it possible for a leaking intake to cause white smoke? I read in the Mazda troubleshooting that this could be the case, but I don't understand how...


Any suggestions before I start removing the intake system again? As well, I was unable to completely remove my dynamic chamber for cleaning due to that annoying line that goes from the bottom of the throttle body area to the exhaust manifold. That nut remains completely seized despite repeated soaking with Liquid Wrench and I don't dare touch the exhaust side of the same line due to rust/corrosion. It would sure make removal/install easier if I was able to remove this fitting. As a final note - 6 months ago I changed 3 of my four engine mounts (Mazda OEM - 2 were broken) and I've been sitting on #1. It was my intention to tackle this thing during one of these projects, however that in itself is a pain in the butt as I've read, and I'm stuck on the lower nut of the electrical bracket. Any tips/tricks on this project also appreciated.

Thanks to whomever reads this, and I hope you can help with some intel to help me recover my car to a happy state.

 

cracks in head?
maybe should've had head planed for flatness.
My first test would have been compression test, before doing anything---Piston rings?
I thought white smoke was coolant, unless yours is a DIESEL!

 

Thanks for the reply, but I don't know why I would suddenly have cracks in my head when I've shown no previous signs. The valve stems seals were replaced with the head on the car - I never touched the cylinder head studs.

Not diesel - I don't even think the Protege5 came in diesel???

Compression check done prior to any work and all cyl checked out. Wasn't able to do a leakdown test due to lack of appropriate equipment.

And here's a visual on the smoke I'm producing... http://dai.ly/x337sxa

What you see here fades in and out of intensity for 15-20 minutes before I finally give up waiting and start driving... and the darn smoke kept following me down the highway!!! The problem is definitely growing worse, and acceleration on the throttle is mushy - there's a lag in response, and the engine surges. I almost turned around and went home but after 10 minutes of driving on the highway it kind of subdued itself.

 

did that car ever overheated? does it consumes coolant? just a note before i continue: using synthetic oil in an old engine usually ends in oil leaks that were not there before using it. also, if the engine consumes oil, the problem aggravates with synthetic oil. check/replace the pcv valve. that wont cure the smoke, but a bad valve can give you a little smoke. the only thing i would do is tho remove the cylinder head and take it to a machine shop for them to pressure check it. while they are doing that, replace the head gasket with a fel-pro one. when that is done, then you can concentrate on the problem you found while spraying intake cleaner around the engine. the reason i asked about overheating is that those protege cylinder heads like to warp if the engine overheats, and believe me, it will warp very fast.

 

Thanks for the input - actually I haven't been updating the thread due to lack of response on these forums.

This car has never overheated while I've owned it and its been on synthetic the entire time (1.5 years).

I found a leak in the IM area by spraying carb cleaner so that part got fixed. I was able to replace the e-clip on the VTCS rod (FINALLY!) so that's not an issue.

Found out that it was the IAC gasket that was causing the coolant smoke issue - the updated EGR valve likely exacerbated a minor leak. Though I put a new IAC gasket, I think I'm still getting an intermittent leak. I may remove the IAC again and put silicone with the gasket.

The PCV valve is only a couple of months old, and I recently cleaned/checked it to be sure all is ok.

The idle is smooth but I am getting random surges during acceleration up to about 4000 RPM and then the problem goes away.

Still getting massive startup smoke (mostly blue) which lasts way longer than it used to. Suddenly consuming ridiculous amounts of oil - can't figure out why. Plugs look ok - no engine leaks. No codes.

 

my first reaction for blue smoke is to think about worn piston rings, but you checked the compression.... and you worked the cylinder head.... i would do the following: remove the synthetic oil and put conventional oil in the engine to see if the problem changes....im running out of ideas here. a vacuum gauge can show you the overall health of the engine. many pages on the internet explain how to interpred the readings. a vacuum gauge is not too expensive.....

 

Thanks Juanky. As an aside, I haven't done a compression test since the latest work - looking for a gauge at the moment. Will check into a vacuum gauge - can I use the OBDII data and the Torque app instead or do I need a physical gauge?

Here's an update posted on another forum - which isolates my latest issue, and what I've done to troubleshoot so far:

Ever since doing the timing belt project, valve-stem seals followed by removal/cleaning of intake manifold, I've been working through various issues that for the most part have now been solved. I've started a new thread to cut to the chase of the one most troublesome problem remaining: I'm burning crazy amounts of oil all of a sudden. My engine, which used to consume roughly a litre of oil per 700-1000 km is now consuming a couple of litres per 100 km!!! Pistons #1 and 3 are covered in oil before every start, and the last couple days #2 has been starting to show signs of oil. The engine is choking on this oil and I'm at a complete loss.

I've found numerous threads of sudden excessive oil consumption following the timing belt job and/or intake work - but none of them named a specific cause/solution to this problem, even though some threads went on for several pages of troubleshooting.

I did see a few references to a vaguely described theory that a small vacuum leak can siphon oil into the combustion chamber through either the valve stem seals (even if the seals were fine), the piston rings or both. Is there any validity to this theory and if so, how specifically would it occur, and how can I isolate the cause?

• I've crawled under the engine and examined every angle with a good light and mirror searching for external leaks. Only found one very minor, new since this work began, leak from one oil pan bolt - very small seepage. And on an unrelated note, my knock sensor is oozing goo.
• One weird thing I found after pulling the exhaust shroud) was the lower left exhaust manifold bolt (facing the engine from the front of the car) was hanging on by only one thread, and covered with oil. I've never done any work to the exhaust - dunno how that bolt didn't fall out unless the shroud was keeping it in. I'm sure my cat is now toast given all that oil coming out of the exhaust.
• I've just had the valve cover off for the third time, and checked every single valve stem seal (already replaced with new set from Mazda once in the original instance, and second time to rule out installation error after I noticed an increase in startup smoke). Front engine oil seal is new, camshaft seals new (put a light skim of high temp silicone around the outside edge of all three to rule out minuscule leaks).
• Wiggled the valve stems as best as I could (didn't have a dial gauge) and results inconclusive. No oil in coolant, no coolant in oil.
• Sprayed carb cleaner all around the engine when it was last running, didn't detect any leaks - although I wasn't able to aim the spray underneath the engine (ie underside of the intake manifold)

I do plan to pull the engine and do a complete overhaul eventually, however I can't afford to do it at the moment, nor can I afford to even drive the car at the moment with all the oil going through the engine.

Any help greatly appreciated - I need my daily driver back!
2003 Mazda Protege5, 2.0 FS engine, Manual Transaxle

 

you need a vacuum gauge. the torque app will not give you the vacuum you read witha vacuum gauge. to be honest, and i dont doubt your mechanical abilities, i think the problem is the head. why? because a bad valve stem can leak oil inside the engine, but the valve can give a good seal and not show the fault with a compression test, and probably wont give you a bad vacuum check. a bad cylinder head gasket could be the cause too. thaths why,at some point, i mentioned removing the head and checking the gasket. the last time i replaced the cylinder head, i just sent it to a machine shop to get is tested and overhauled. as far as i know, the only conditions that could give you the problem you describe is bad piston rings, bad cylinder head, or bad head gasket. did you try removing the synthetic oil (you can save it) and replacing it with regular oil? just to see if there are any changes?