[alyster]

In June I blew the head gasket. Head warped beyond repair.

Located a used head, got it resurfaced and a valve job at my
local machine shop. Hunted for head bolts high and low. The
Ford guys said "oh, those are obsolete," so I came here looking
for some help. Various suggestions, but finally I found a dealer
in Salt Lake City who had them in old stock. $11/each for 10
of them.

For such a normal sort of car, this little sucker has a lot of
exotic parts...

The next problem --> when my head warped, the plastic end
caps on the fuel injectors melted. Those things, aka the "pintle
protection caps" are not a part that Ford or Mazda recognizes.
From what I could tell by looking at them, they're just a sheath
for the tip of the injector. But, they are important because the
injector-to-intake seal slides over them. So, I sliced the melted
parts off of the end and stuck the injectors in with partial shields.
Working fine thus far.

I didn't really have to fix the car, I guess. At the time I owned
two other cars, but I just sold my baby (87 M6) and needed to
either fix this one as a daily driver or junk it and buy something
else.

I"m a little torn right now. The cost and lack of availability of
parts for this car is far worse than it is for any car I've ever
owned. Still, it's a fun car. Maybe I'll just drive it until it
totally goes kaput?

I've got a cross-country driving trip for fun planned soon, so
that may be a perfect chance for the car to bite me in the a%%.
Or maybe I can bring a rust free California car out East and sell
it off? Heh.

Anyway, just wanted to share my story. This is the first time that
I've ever done anything serious involving the guts of a car engine.
Seems to work okay if you take it slow.

-kal

 

[93EGTinLR]

you should have been able to get the head bolts from Mazda fairly easy as I understand it uses a 1.8 BP motor also....just with diff intake adn exhaust...but I believe the head is very similar if not exact to ours on the GT...along wiht the slides you mentioned for the injectors...man I wish I had known you needed a head...I have one sitting around here that I have been trying to sell...info in the for sale section...along with soem other parts


but congrats on getting it back on the road

 

[alyster]

I checked with both the Ford and Mazda dealers about the covers for the
injectors, and neither one of them showed it as a part that could be bought
separate from the injector -- I've seen both of their parts microfiches.

As far as the head bolts go, the Mazda ones for the 1.8 cost the same, but
I wasn't willing to take the gamble on buying a set of them and having
them not be right. *shrug* I am curious, since my research indicates
that the heads on the 95-99 Protege and 99 Miata are the same.

 

[93EGTinLR]

that is strange that they did not offer those parts...but as you said they may be part of the injector...in which case I would see about finding one in a j/y and seeing about getting the injectors from it to source the parts you require