Possible Cracked Exhaust Mani?

[MSpeedPro#793]

I changed my belts today on my 03.5 MSP and after installing the belts i gave it a few revs from the throttle boby and i believe i seen some exhaust coming from under the top of the heat shield on my mani near the cam gear side. I'm just wondering what some of u have to say about that.. It also could be the reason why after 10 minutes on driving when the car is at temp it feels like i'm pulling a trailer when i try to hit boost.

 

[mazda3gboostin]

moat likely its cracked and is common on the msp

 

[MSpeedPro#793]

do u think that would also be causing the boost problem? also for a quick fix till i get a original mani by buying a obx ebay one or something of the ebay site ?

 

[mazda3gboostin]

the ebay ones tend to crack to hit up discreetspeed hes selling one that isnt cracked

 

[Preferio]

The OBX manifold on eBay has a T3 flange, so it won't work with the T25. There are the Thunder knock-offs and I've got one, but it's only had 2,000 miles put on it, so I can't vouch for it's longevity. The actual Thunder units were prone to cracking, so I can only assume this will eventually do the same. To combat that, I rewelded mine completely after I received it and before it went onto my engine. But for $200...

 

[dirtysouth_msp]

Have you checked the manifold bolts and manifold gasket? You may not need a new manifold. Take the heat shield off before jumping to conclusions.

 

[jdwk]

It only takes a couple minutes to take off the heatshield. It is kind of a puzzle to take off, but you'll find the angle you need without too much trouble. Don't force it. You'll need an O2 sensor socket or you can wedge a crescent wrench behind the shield once it is lose to remove the O2 sensor before you can take the shield off completely.

Once you get the shield off, I highly recommend breaking out the dremmel and cutting straight down from the O2 sensor hole so you don't have to remove the O2 sensor next time. For years, I said I wasn't going to cut it. Once I finally did, I was so relieved the next time I had to remove the heatshield.

 

[MSpeedPro#793]

Thanks guys. I bought a exhaust & a turbo gasket just incase. What are the torq specs for the exhaust manifold bolts? Also is it common for the bolts to possibly break?

 

[tweety2300]

Studs won't break unless over tightened, they can back out though

 

[jdwk]

http://www.mazdas247.com/forum/showthread.php?123707285-MazdaSpeed-Protege-turbo-torque-specs

Torque specs are in a sticky. Yes the stock bolts break. When mine first started leaking, one bolt had completely backed out and another was totally gone. When I got the replacement it would not go in because part of the original was still there. It was ok with just one broken bolt, but I later snapped a head off another bolt when tightening them down just to spec and broke down and bought the ARP studs.

I had to remove everything in front the engine to get a drill in the engine bay to extract the two broken bolts. I am sure there is some bolt or stud that would be better than stock and not cost the crazy amount of money that ARP charges.

 

[tweety2300]

I said studs not bolts, I've never seen a car use bolts stock only studs

 

[jdwk]

Stock is a combination of studs and bolts. I paid Mazda $6 a bolt to replace the two that were gone, of course one half was still in the block. I still have all the stock bolts and studs. I believe Mazda only used studs in the center because bolts did not fit between the exhaust runners.

If you've never seen a stock car with bolts then you've never seen a stock car.

 

[tweety2300]

I see what your saying now lol nuts not bolts. Everybody calls things differently. They really don't have to be that tight with a multilayer gasket. As in literally about as tight as valve cover bolts.

 

[jdwk]

The outside four fasteners on the manifold were bolts, the two on the left and two on the right. The inside 6 were studs with nuts. Maybe Mazda changed this at some point, but that's the way my car came from the factory.

 

[tweety2300]

Might just be the msp, my mp3 uses all studs

 

[MSPCHI]

Hey, I might have the same issue? I was using Seafoam on my engine a while ago and there was some of the seafoam smoke coming from exactly where you said. Heelllp!