Project "Quickie" ( 2.0L 8V parts fit 1.5/1.6 8V )

[PrecisionBoost]

Ya.... it was kind of a strange knock.... now we know why it's something that none of could "put our finger on"

I kept thinking it was still a knock in the top end.... I've heard knocking from damaged bearings and they usually are very distinctive.... and usually the sound will change with oil pressure.

Additionally a top end knock should change with oil pressure, changing the oil and using a different viscosity.... but after a number of oil changes it just didn't seem to make a bit of difference (and now we know why)

Tom was saying "holy crap... and to think I was driving 140km/h with the rod like that"

At least I know whats happening now and I can get on with putting together my Red Lanos for winter.

My Mazdaspeed 3 is a beast..... when the tires are cold ( near freezing) and haven't been driven on the car struggles to get traction until 3rd gear even if I'm driving it nicely.

It would be hell to drive in winter... I'd have to start in 2nd and shift so the RPM never exceeds 2200 RPM or I'd be spinning my tires all over the place.

[PrecisionBoost]

Well.... Tom and I removed the 1.6L SOHC from project Polar express and I've got it on an engine stand.

I've removed the cam carrier from the old 1.6L SOHC and it looks like everything is identical between the 1.5L SOHC and 1.6L SOHC

In fact I made a nice discovery that I had suspected for a few years.

The upper valvetrain is identical between the 1.6L SOHC / 1.5L SOHC and 2.0L SOHC

A few years back I found a german performance site that used the same part numbers for the 8V versions of the 2.0L and 1.6L

I can't verify the hydraulic tappets but they look identical from memory

I do however have a set of forged cam followers from the 2.0L 8V (for my C20GET) and they are indeed identical to both the 1.5L and 1.6L cam followers.

Here is a picture...... left is the forged follower and right is the stock follower from my 1.5L SOHC..... the forged followers are about 20grams lighter than stock.

[PrecisionBoost]

Well.... the 1.6/1.5 hybrid is finally put together and ready to go into the Lanos.

Tom's bugging me to drop in a turbo since the 1.6L 8V has decently low compression pistons.

I'm tempted but at this point I need it to be good on ice and snow, so turboing it will only lead to a less reliable winter car.

All in all it was quite an interesting bit of work, there were definitly some differences between the 1.5L and 1.6L but I made it work.

I ended up using the cam/carrier from the 1.5L and the 1.6L cylinder head and block.

I needed to move the 1.5L oil pump and pan over to the 1.6L in order to fit the cranshaft positioning sensor

I also had to knock a frost plug out of the 1.6L, pull the coolant temp sensor out of the 1.5L head and then press it into the 1.6L cylinder head.

I had to take the studs from the 1.5L cylinder head and move them over to the 1.6L in order to fit the 1.5L intake.

I also moved most of the upper drivetrain from the 1.5L over to the 1.6L as there was a significant difference in wear between the two cylinder heads.

The good news is that the 1.6L had a valve job a few months back ( Tom had a bad cylinder head gasket so he cleaned/lapped the valves)

There is definitly a difference in casting between the old 1.6L block and the newer 1.5L block

One issue I will have to deal with is making a new bracket for the exhaust since the 1.6L block is missing several holes for the 1.5L exhaust mount (lower edge of block )

The engine has about 160,000 miles on it but everything looked really good so I didn't bother with rebuilding the bottom end.

When it was in the white Polar Express car it ran great, and I'm sure it will suffice just fine as my winter engine for the next 10 years.

Odds are I will probably end up with the itch to modify the Lanos long before the engine starts to get worn out.

It should be very interesting to see how well it runs with the extra displacement, the original 1.6L SOHC allways had more power than the 1.5L SOHC.

I will probably use that trick with the octane selector to advance timing and fuel with the 1.6L and give it even more power.

Here is a picture of the engine/tranny ready to go

[PrecisionBoost]

I guess I forgot to update this as to it's end, after all that work making a 1.5/1.6 hybrid it turned out the old 1.6L oil pump was not so good.

At first I thought it was just a situation where the pump didn't want to prime so I inserted more engine assembly grease and even added oil through one of the upper ports.

In the end I came to the conclusion that it was FUBAR and this car simply wasn't going to work as a winter driver unless I did another swap.

It was already cold out so I just parked it until spring and threw some winter tires onto the Mazdaspeed 3

In the spring I mixed some 2 stroke oil into the fuel and have been driving it around like that for the last three years.

I only start it up six or seven times a year and drive it around my shop when ever we need to move it out of the way, or if I need to put air in the tires ( one front has a slow leak )

All in all it's probably been driven a few hours with zero oil and despite extremely loud ticking sound from the cylinder head and some hesitation starting initially it's still alive somehow.

One time I let it idle for a half hour by accident, I was called away to deal with a customer and forgot that I left it running.

It was registering a hotter than normal temperature but to my surprise it didn't overheat enough to push the temp gauge into the red, I'm surprised it didn't seize or start on fire.


One of these days I will get around to dropping in a low mileage engine of some sort, I have very little spare time and what time I do have is usually put towards my Calibra or Passport Optima