Snowflake

Senti_Mentel

Member
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Pure White Mp5
Snowflake can be a masculine name

Hey guys, I just bought a p5 a little over a month ago(her name is snowflake), and I've always liked giving my cars a little personal touch and do as much of their maintenance myself as I can(I'm no master mechanic). So I figured it would be fun to get some input and advice from other members, as well as Keep a log of everything I do, and what better way to do so then to start a build thread.

Here she is on the lot.

IMG_20170802_174311194_HDR (2).jpg

So here we go.

I bought the car in August off a lot for a pretty good price, and aside from some asthetic issues she seemed fine. Since then I've noticed a few things.

The biggest issue is that she needs new valve stem seals, shoots a nice big blue smoke cloud on startup(I'm assuming the dealer was warming it up since it never did this while I was looking at the car). But it still has compression, no blow-by, and after a few she runs fine.

So in about a week I'll be taking her to a friend of mine to have those replaced, and so long as he doesn't find anything else majorly wrong I'll get her back right as rain.

So while I've been waiting for that i decided to get to work on a couple things:
First...the audio.

So Snowflake came with the factory head unit, but I had a spare higher end off brand Soundstream double-din(with gps) head unit from one of my last projects as well as two 10in subs in a box with an amp. Pull the OEM head unit out with some spare ford/mazda keys i had and pick up a harness to make things easy, and start wiring things up. I ran the 0/1 gauge power wire from the battery through a pre existing cutout in the firewall just above the interior fuse box and made a fitting gasket to keep the
wire from rubbing and shorting out on the fire wall, ran power and remote on though the driver side door panels to the back behind the seat and through the pop out section with a notch for the huge 1/0 gauge wire to fit through to the amp. Then ran the ground to the chassis (-) through the opposite cutout on the passenger side.
Then I ran 3 sets of rca outs(1 for sub, 2 more for an upcoming 4 channel amp and some new comp speakers for the doors) as well as a back up camera video cable to the back through the passenger side door frames. Ran a mic and cable up the drivers A pillar to just left of the visor, and ran the gps antennae to the passenger side strut column which gets held in place by a nice strong magnet... And viola, mad beats we drop. The subs and head unit are in. With GPS to boot.
Photos of this install to come.

Second... the wheels.

A few of you might have already seen this part, but I'm adding it here for posterity.
I debated on just getting after markets, but i honestly like the OEM protege wheels. So instead... Lets refinish them.
I started with this...
IMG_20170909_160444788_HDR.jpg
View attachment 217432
each wheel was pretty bad but this one was the worst.

I started with a chemical stripper which mostly just loosened the paint up enough to actually be removed with the wire wheel in a grinder.The grinder works quickly but can't hit the tight corners so i also went to town with my dremmel and a flap disk. After that i used a metal reinforced body filler to fill any major curb rash or pitting. Sand it all up to 600 grit nice and smooth, then cleaned it again and used a self etching primer. Two coats of primer, knock it back with steel wool, clean again, and then the color goes on. Its a black wheel paint by duplicolor. Just 2 coats of color to get a nice dark black, let it dry, and then the matte clear coat. 3 coats all within the same 4 hours to get a nice protective coat and i leave it to dry over night.

Next day i ended up with this:
IMG_20170913_133058686_HDR.jpg
IMG_20170913_133050002_HDR.jpg

1 wheel every Saturday for a month, catching up on my youtube and researching more while i wait between coats.

Here she is with her new kicks:
IMG_20170914_145816240_HDR.jpg

So what do you guys think...

More to come.
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What I've done so far
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-New Head unit and Subs installed(Soundstream HU)
-OEM wheels refinished to back the match back accents.
 
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The biggest issue is that she needs new valve stem seals, shoots a nice big blue smoke cloud on startup(I'm assuming the dealer was warming it up since it never did this while I was looking at the car). But it still has compression, no blow-by, and after a few she runs fine.
.

You've probably got seized oil rings on your pistons... It's a specific problem with our engine.

Screenshot_2017-09-15-17-33-19.png


There's an easy test to find out...

Let your car sit overnight then remove the plugs and look down the holes.
If the pistons are wet with oil it came from the valve seals.

Put your plugs back in and crank your engine for about 20 seconds and shut it off.

Pull the plugs again and check for oil again on the pistons.
If they are wet, the oil got past the oil rings.

https://www.mazdas247.com/forum/showthread.php?123770462-Smoke-on-cold-start/page2
 
Okay, well thanks for the tip, ill test that theory tomorrow morning. Will update here when i know and see what my next course of action would be.

fingers crossed
 
So i went out this morning to pull the plugs and check for oil after cranking the engine. I pulled the plugs for cylinder 1 and 4 one at a time and after reinstalling them i have a massive loss in power. to be honest I'm at a complete loss, any help would be greatly appreciated since now i cant even drive the car.
 
Did you check for oil before cranking the engine??

Are you getting any codes ??

Coils , Plugs , & Wires would be a nice treat for your car... They're not much money....
 
So i went out this morning to pull the plugs and check for oil after cranking the engine. I pulled the plugs for cylinder 1 and 4 one at a time and after reinstalling them i have a massive loss in power. to be honest I'm at a complete loss, any help would be greatly appreciated since now i cant even drive the car.
Did you plug everything back in correctly?
 
Yeah everything is back together correctly as far as i can tell, no codes, just the loss of power, and yeah i checked for oil and honestly i didn't see anything aside from some carbon buildup, cant tell if they are wet before or after. im going to try and re seat the coil packs that are directly over top of cylinder 2 and 3, after that I'm at a complete loss.
 
Okay crisis averted, silly me somehow managed to dislodge a wiring harness attached to one of the fuel injectors. Cars running fine again. I'll try testing it again tomorrow morning and see if I can get an answer as to either rings or valve stem seals.
 
good call

hey so what looks sharp on my P5 is the side moldings. paint them the same color as the rims. Also please get a cold air intake. theres already a whole cut for one in the engine bay. like the car man and there is so much that you can do. darken the taillights too is just the start to the madness!
 

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hey so what looks sharp on my P5 is the side moldings. paint them the same color as the rims. Also please get a cold air intake. theres already a whole cut for one in the engine bay. like the car man and there is so much that you can do. darken the taillights too is just the start to the madness!
Msp guys take the moldings off. Makes a Hugh difference
 
Hey guys sorry it took me so long to give an update. I just got a transfer order to move for the company i work with so I've been busy packing and getting ready for the move.

I did check the cylinders again but unfortunately I didn't learn anything definitive. I don't have a strong enough beam of light to be able to see anything clearly inside aside from carbon buildup, but i don't see the glossy texture i would expect if there was oil on top of the piston. So I'm still hopeful its just valve stem seals. Cross your fingers.

Anyway the place I'll be moving to has a garage in it so I should be able to go a little more in depth after the move but until then my plans are mostly at a stand still. I'll definitely be buying a brighter light and try this again.

I will update again soon but might not be for another week for so. move should be complete after Oct 4th though and I just got my new slotted/drilled rotors in. That should be fun and quite possibly my next project along with painting and restoring the calipers.
Wish me luck.
 
Moldings and cold air intakes mean squat when you need a new engine or a rebuild...

Find out where you stand before spending money on esthetics...
 
Awwww yes, a white p5 build i can follow up on.
Hope to see more progress soon, will definitely hope on the valve stem seals.
 
No worries, I definitely need to know whats up with the motor but i don't plan on doing anything for pure aesthetics until she has a clean bill of health. The rotors on the other hand are definitely a necessity.

The lot that i bought the car from must have acid washed the wheels or something because of the horrible corrosion centered around the wheels. Bubbled paint on the wheels, extreme rust on all 4 calipers, and the rotors are absolutely shot. Plus I've already replaced one seized caliper on the driver side, so I definitely plan on swapping to my new rotors and I've got left over caliper paint from a previous project so I will slap that on the calipers after me any my wire wheel go to town on them to avoid further corrosion.

One question though. I honestly have never rebuilt a caliper, but have heard from multiple people that you don't always get great results. Now the front calipers are only 30 $$ or so, but the rears are at least 56$$ plus shipping at the cheapest place i can find(rockauto). So what do you guys think i should do? rebuild the rear calipers? Just bite the bullet later on and buy new?? Any experience would be helpful.
 
... So what do you guys think i should do? rebuild the rear calipers? Just bite the bullet later on and buy new?? Any experience would be helpful.

Find out if you need a new engine or to rebuild yours !!!

That's way more important !!

Either way the parts for the rear calipers may not be available....

Screenshot_2017-09-23-21-15-56.png
 
You might be able to just deal with the oil burning,... It all depends on how much it's burning.

Some guys were burning a quart every 300-500 miles. You're probably burning all the time, just not as much as at startup.

Switching to high mileage dino oil and 10w30 can help.
(synthetic burns faster and costs more)

Keep a real close eye on your oil level. Check it regularly. (you need to find out how much it's burning anyway)
 
.... So what do you guys think i should do? rebuild the rear calipers? Just bite the bullet later on and buy new?? Any experience would be helpful.

You're probably better off just getting new calipers...
The rebuild parts would still cost $20-$30 and your calipers bore is probably all rusty.

You've also got a 90% chance of breaking off your bleeder screw as well... Then you're buying a new caliper anyway.

This what my rear piston looked like... I'm sure the bore is all rusted to hell too.

Screenshot_2017-09-24-08-49-43.png


I just scraped the rust off and pushed it back in... F#ck It.
Not supposed to put oil on brake parts either... F#ck It.

Screenshot_2017-09-24-08-50-08.png
 
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