Mazda Performance | CorkSport Mazda Performance Blog

July 5, 2017April 10, 2024

The Engine Build Process on a 2009 MazdaSpeed 3

A Mazdaspeed bent valve. — The bent valve on my Mazdaspeed.

What’s up, fellow Mazda enthusiasts!

You’ve probably heard the phrase “built block” lately on social media or at your local car meet, but you might be wondering what that actually means. In fact, you’ve probably heard it enough times that you don’t even notice it. For you newbies, it’s when the engine internals are replaced with performance parts. Whether you do or don’t understand what a built block is, I thought I would share my knowledge and experience through the engine building process for my 2009 Mazdaspeed 3.

The incident

The moment we all dread (or maybe even look forward to?) finally happened … zoom zoom BOOM (ZZB). I was merging onto the highway, within the speed limit, when the engine went silent and my dashboard became a Christmas tree of lights. I tried to start it … nothing. Well, shit.

I called the tow truck and brought my Mazdaspeed back to CorkSport HQ. A compression test gave me the quick, sad story. It was 0 0 0 0 across the board. Obviously, something gave out. That something turned out to be the friction washers on the crankshaft.

I now pronounce you piston and valve. You may kiss the valve.

The diagnosis

The engine slipped timing and bent all of the valves. Luckily, I didn’t vent the engine block in the process, so that could be reused. After all this, I didn’t trust the engine. So it was time to get built!

A 2009 Mazdaspeed bare block. — The bare block from my Mazdaspeed.

I pulled the engine and transmission from the vehicle and stripped them down to the bare components so the machine shop could do their magic. But, before we could let them start, I had to get some parts ordered for the machine shop to consider in the build tolerance. Just look at that stack of money … I mean parts.

The engine build parts

Forged Mazdaspeed internals. — Forged internals for the Mazdaspeed.

The bare engine block, a new used cylinder head, ACT 6-Puck clutch, and forged internals were sent to M & B Cylinder Heads for some much-needed love. The block was bored and cross-hatched to match up with the pistons, the main bearing journals were line honed where needed, and the deck surface was cut down just a hair to provide a new surface that’s true and flat. Since I wasn’t going for just a bare bones build, I opted to have some added processes done to help with reliability and performance.

I planned to run without the balance shaft, commonly called a BSD (balance shaft delete), to increase the oil capacity of the oil pan. This would remove some rotating mass to help the engine rev more freely. However, this does come with some compromises, mainly in severe NVH (noise, vibration, harshness) the driver experiences. For this reason, I had the rotating assembly (crankshaft, connecting rods, pistons, clutch assembly, and crank pulley) balanced to further reduce vibrations.
My build goal was at least 450 whp to further benefit the effect of the CorkSport Mazdaspeed camshafts, so I had the cylinder head ported to improve flow. The intake runners were opened up and cut to a single runner setup along with the exhaust ports. Both intake and exhaust had most of the work performed on the “bowl” area of the runners — the area just above the valve seat. To top it off, the combustion chamber was touched up to remove any sharp points to help reduce hot spots that may cause detonation.

Check out the cylinder head porting:

Mazdaspeed single runner. — Here’s the single runner.

Mazdaspeed exhaust runner. — And here’s the exhaust runner.

The engine build operation

After what felt like an eternity, we got all the completed parts back from M & B and were ready to begin the assembly process. This is when I really stepped back and let Vincent take the lead. He’s the master when it comes to engine blueprinting and assembly.

The blueprinting process is arguably the most critical and time-consuming process of the engine build process. Each cylinder diameter is measured at three different vertical locations to determine cylinder taper, then measured again 90 degrees from the previous locations to determine cylinder roundness. The piston outer diameter is measured as well and verified for the cylinder it was matched to at the machine shop. Once the block and pistons are confirmed, then the finer details are set in motion with the piston ring gaps, the main bearing and connecting rod bearing crush, and setting the main and head studs. I’m just skimming the surface here. Please note that all of this is measured down to the tens-of-thousandths of an inch. That’s 0.0001” for clarity. This really is a precise art.

Mazdaspeed engine build blueprint papers. — Precision means paperwork. Here are the blueprint papers for the Mazdaspeed engine build.

With the short block assembled, it’s time to focus on the cylinder head. The cylinder head almost seems easy after the short block assembly. The cylinder head comes assembled with the seals, valves, and springs from the machine shop. What’s left to Vincent is the tappet and camshaft installation. The tappets are non-adjustable solid tappets and each has a specific and precise thickness. Once the camshafts are installed, the gap between the camshaft base circle and the tappet is measured and adjusted until the correct gap is achieved. Then the complete the cylinder head can be installed on the short block and the head tightening sequence performed.

If you want to see a really awesome video of this whole process, including a bunch of detail I haven’t added to this blog, you’re in luck (thanks to CorkSport’s Brett White).

I hope you enjoyed this tale as much as I enjoyed writing it. This not the end of my build, so hang tight for the rest of the engine and vehicle in a later post. We’d love to hear about your build, whether it’s a few bolt-on parts or a crazy built engine and car. Comment below and tell us about it!

Barrett @ CS

Connect with us

You may also like

June 29, 2017April 27, 2023

CorkSport’s New Mazdaspeed Front Lip

This Mazdaspeed with CorkSport's new front lip has style and speed. — Check out this stylish Mazdaspeed.

Hello, CorkSport family! If you haven’t visited our New Products page lately, then you’ve been missing out on some cool product releases. Look at this picture. Can you guess which part I’m referring to?

I’ll give you a hint. It starts with the letter L, and ends with an I and a P. That’s right — the lip!

Why we created a new Mazdaspeed front lip

At CorkSport, we’re committed to supporting the Mazda community and always strive to bring new, cool mods to the table. Mazda decided they’re no longer going to support the Mazdaspeed platform, but as a leader in the Mazda Performance market, we’re doing our part to keep the platform alive. Due to that commitment, we believe it’s up to us to push the platform and make sure we’re the leading competitor in this market. To achieve this, we did some research and found what the market was missing.

Our research and commitment manifested in the creation of a part that increases your Mazdaspeed’s style: our new front lip. In our research, we learned that people have been trying to mold STI lips onto the front of their Mazdaspeed3s, and we knew the direct fitment style CorkSport is known for would not only give us a HUGE edge over eBay components but would allow us to create an incredible part.

The new CorkSport front lip

With a new CorkSport Mazdaspeed front lip, you know your ride is going to look stylish. — Take a look at that sick CorkSport Mazdaspeed Front Lip.

In developing this front lip, our engineer Barrett spent countless hours making sure this part would be a direct fitment for ease of installation and would deliver a clean, sleek look. Molded from 3mm ABS plastic with a black coating, our new front lip is a no-brainer when it comes to adding extra style to your Mazdaspeed. As always, we tested this lip to make sure that it would withstand high winds (around 140mph, to be exact) for all of our “Mexico” racers. Passing this test gave us the confidence we needed to be sure that we could offer a product that not only looked good but could withstand daily driving abuse.

Thinking about purchasing this front lip? Here’s what you need to know:

Two-year warranty from manufacturer defect.
One-hour install time.
With the purchase of the front lip, you get a free CorkSport trucker hat — only available through the purchase of this front lip!

Please note: This lip will not work with the CorkSport aluminum skid tray. The mounting locations do not line up.

Lastly, don’t forget, when you make a purchase with CorkSport you become part of our family. When you invest in us, we invest in you.

August 26, 2016January 30, 2019

It’s Almost Here: the New CorkSport Front Lip for Gen2 MS3

This may seem long overdue, but let me explain …

Here at CorkSport we listen to all of our awesome customers and take great care on how we plan our projects for product development. A well-fitted front lip specifically designed for the Mazdaspeed3 has understandably been a very frequent request. There is a lot that goes into producing a great product, especially a tight-fitting front lip. Long story short: We wanted to get all of our ducks in a row before we attempted to execute a custom Mazdaspeed3 product you all would love.

Continue reading “It’s Almost Here: the New CorkSport Front Lip for Gen2 MS3”

August 3, 2009January 30, 2019

Catalysts for All!

Now I know what you may be thinking – WHAT? We don’t need no steenking catalysts. But ya see, that’s the rub – those track days at the ‘ring are lots of fun, but you’re not fooling anyone when the people in the lunch line at Laguna Seca can smell your exhaust. I’ll be the first to say that catalysts serve a great purpose and beyond the evils of over-restrictive cats on stock vehicles, can be a great addition to any performance vehicle.

At CorkSport we have been listening to you, our customers, and there seems to be an interest to have the performance of a racepipe without the foul, eye-scorching smell of fuel every time you cold start the vehicle. Well, you’re in luck – we’ve recently found a source for high quality metallic substrate catalysts in a compact yet high flowing 410 stainless steel package and we plan on offering a range of products that provide these catalysts as a configurable option with our current line of racepipes.

Catalysts: How they work and their failure modes.

A catalytic converter is a device resembles a muffler or resonator – basically an enlarged section of your exhaust system that has a honeycomb structure held inside of it. The honeycomb is then coated with a substrate that creates a chemical reaction based on heat and any unburnt fuel in your exhaust system. Anyone who has used a propane space heater – the kind that glow and don’t really give off any tangible flame – has seen a catalyst at work. Substrate and brick/insert design is relatively straightforward – the more surface area you have, the more efficient the catalyst is at burning unburnt fuel. In the search for more surface area, the density of the honeycomb increases – as does restriction of the system.

This honeycomb comes in two forms – a metallic stainless foil version and a ceramic version. Based on the manufacturing process, the ceramic version must be retained in the canister with a fiberglass or vermiculite packing material around the circumference of the ceramic ‘brick’. In rotary and turbocharged applications, this material often deteriorates from excess heat and pressure allowing the ceramic substrate to rotate and/or crack.

Our catalysts

Our catalysts utilize a 200 cell metallic substrate design and have the honeycomb material all the way to the wall of the canister without any additional packing material that may deteriorate. The metallic spiral is held in place mechanically from either end to prevent movement. The canisters and tubing are made of 410 Stainless Steel and all carry a 5 year manufacturers warranty.

New products

To start with we will be offering the RX-8 Power Series Racepipe in a single resonator/single 65mm catalyst configuration (as well as a single or dual resonator configuration). We’re in the process of doing the first production run on these and hope to have them out in the next two or three weeks.

The next product we will be working with is the Mazdaspeed3 Racepipe with 80mm high flow catalyst, this should be available in the next month in production quantities.

Finally, we are also working on Mazdaspeed6 Racepipe with 80mm high flow catalyst.

Drop me an email if you’re interested in getting in on these products hot off the mandrel – we’ll have a handful of pre-tested prototypes and then full production runs of all of these products within the coming months.

– Jason