Alexander Gatzkiewicz

Since the last post I've moved across the country to Central South Carolina and started school. The car has been losing some coolant so I've been working on replacing the head gasket. A lot of the turbo parts specific to the mazdaspeed engine such as the gaskets and oil return line are either exorbitantly expensive or no longer made. After finally getting most of the engine buttoned back up I tryed to torque the crank bolt down but noticed the cams didn't move but the belt jumped timing a few teeth. Fortunately the 1.8 is a non interference engine so none of the valves got bent. For anyone else removing cam caps are directional and position specific. All but the first cap on both cams were backward, the E for the exhaust cam should be as seen from the back of the engine not the front. The intake side is a bit harder tell but can be determined via the way the number on the cap sits.

Exhaust cam cap as seen from center of head. Firewall is to the left, radiator is to the right.