Brannon9827 MSP Build

So back in the summer of 2014 I blew the head gasket on my car. This was because of the feed coolant elbow at the turbo. It then sat at my house for 6 months. Then I decided to bring the mazda back to life. When I started this I did not know much about these cars. I found this forum and began asking away. And you guys answered and helped me tremendously. So now I want to return the favor and show you guys my build. And hopefully this helps others.
So I had the car towed to my friends, who helped me out a ton with the entire build. And then we began the build.
So we then started taking things apart and pulled the motor out.


Then we began taking the motor apart.

..... well I can only upload 5 images at a time so this may take a little while.. I got a lot to share so bear with me. I'm going to try and get everything on here in good time.

Brannon9827 said:

So back in the summer of 2014 I blew the head gasket on my car. This was because of the feed coolant elbow at the turbo. It then sat at my house for 6 months. Then I decided to bring the mazda back to life. When I started this I did not know much about these cars. I found this forum and began asking away. And you guys answered and helped me tremendously. So now I want to return the favor and show you guys my build. And hopefully this helps others.
So I had the car towed to my friends, who helped me out a ton with the entire build. And then we began the build.
So we then started taking things apart and pulled the motor out.
View attachment 213143View attachment 213144
View attachment 213145
Then we began taking the motor apart.
View attachment 213146View attachment 213147
..... well I can only upload 5 images at a time so this may take a little while.. I got a lot to share so bear with me. I'm going to try and get everything on here in good time.

Click to expand...

I took the head, crank, block, and flywheel to get resurfaced. I also bored the block .040 over.
I then started ordering parts.
ARP Bolts, gasket kits, water pump kit, Wiseco pistons, K1 rods, oil squirters.

I also bought FMIC, hardpipes, new BOV,
Radiator, electric fans, new belts, corksport exhaust, air intake from street unit, and pope exhaust manifold.

Brannon9827 said:

I took the head, crank, block, and flywheel to get resurfaced. I also bored the block .040 over. View attachment 213148View attachment 213149View attachment 213150View attachment 213151
I then started ordering parts.
ARP Bolts, gasket kits, water pump kit, Wiseco pistons, K1 rods, oil squirters.
View attachment 213152
I also bought FMIC, hardpipes, new BOV,
Radiator, electric fans, new belts, corksport exhaust, air intake from street unit, and pope exhaust manifold.

Click to expand...

Now we started putting everything back together.
We took a screwdriver and a rubber mallet and began to gently tap out the oil squirters. 2 came out easily the other 2 we had to give a couple of good hits for them to come out. We then put loctite on the new ones and carefully tapped them in as well.
We then started with the ARP bolts.

And then the crank.

Then we started putting together the rods and pistons.


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Brannon9827 said:

Now we started putting everything back together. View attachment 213153
We took a screwdriver and a rubber mallet and began to gently tap out the oil squirters. 2 came out easily the other 2 we had to give a couple of good hits for them to come out. We then put loctite on the new ones and carefully tapped them in as well. View attachment 213154
We then started with the ARP bolts.
View attachment 213155
And then the crank.
View attachment 213156
Then we started putting together the rods and pistons.
View attachment 213157

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Click to expand...

So then we started installing the pistons. When installing we greased the bearings for lubrication during first start up, that way things are lubed up until oil gets back to flowing to everything. Also we lubed the sides of the pistons and put a little oil on top of the pistons and starting turning the crank to make sure everything was in line and moving smoothly.
Then we added the gasket and the other ARP Bolts. And put the head, cams,and valve cover back on. I attached the arp head bolt sheet as well.
Then I got a spec stage 3 clutch from street unit.

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I then installed the clutch.View attachment 213189
After that I put the turbo and exhaust manifold (this is a pope) together and painted it with high heat automotive paint.
Apparently this stuff kinda works like heat wrap.
View attachment 213190View attachment 213191
Then I decided to Paint the engine. So this is the primer coat. I did 2 coats of primer.
View attachment 213192View attachment 213193
And then applied 1 coat of paint.
View attachment 213194
Then attached the exhaust manifold and turbo.
View attachment 213195View attachment 213196
Then the transmission.
View attachment 213197
I then put everything back together and added the C3 FMIC kit along with the new air intake.
Now that i had everything back in the car. It has been sitting for 8 months since I blew the head gasket. Now it was ready to start up for the first time.
Got into the car and turned it over. Nothing happened...... Tried again and still nothing... I did everything to try and get the car to start but nothing.
We could not figure it out. We had checked everything. We double checked everything. It took us 2 days to figure out the problem. The machine shop did not properly shim the valves on the head. So we took the engine back out. Doing this chipped off like half of the paint on the engine. Sent it back to get it fixed. Got it fixed and a week later we had everything back in the car again. Now time to start. I put the key in and turned it over and it started right up. But after a while we noticed that i was not getting oil pressure. This also took us about 2 days to figure out. A dirt dobber ( if you know what that is) built a little nest in one of my oil jackets. We finally fixed that and then the car ran pretty good. I drove it around for like 3 days back and forth to work real easy to break the engine in. Then i noticed the turbo was making a weird sound. We checked it out and the turbo was BAD!!! So i went and bought a Garrett GT2871R turbo and installed it.
Here is a pic of the GT2871R beside the original turbo. View attachment 213198
So we got this bad boy installed and then I realized that this thing needed a tune bad!! So I ordered WRX injectors along with a PLX wideband and a SS AFC.
And now this is pretty much where I am at. I have everything installed now I just need to tune it. I have been doing research on the SS AFC thread. Now I just have to go do it. So that's where I am with this build. I will let you guys know how the tune comes out.
And here is a pic from underneath the hood.

Here is everything I have upgraded not included what I have replaced.
K1 rods
Wiseco Pistons
ARP Main and head bolts
Stage 3 SPEC Clutch
Air intake Manifold
Pope Exhaust Manifold
GT2871R turbo
Corksport Exhaust
PLX wideband
SS AFC
Greddy boost controller and turbo timer
Forge Actuator WG
WRX 440 Injectors
NGK Spark plugs
Fuel pump
Spark plug wires

Nice work man it looks great, you have a nice and very unique/rare car that should last a long time (depending on the condition of the trans). After having an Ebay fmic setup for the past 5 years I like how clean that C3 kit looks in comparison. If you use a hosting site like Photobucket you can embed your pics to make them easier to view.

Thanks! And i will have to set up a photo bucket. I have a lot of pics. And it looks like some didn't go through when I posted this.

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