Certain parts of an engine shouldn’t be visible from the outside. If they are, something went wrong. It’s often not normal wear and tear that puts a rod through a block, so being able to see straight through this Mazda 2.0-liter Skyactiv engine means bad things happened inside.
The engine came from a 2017 Mazda CX-3 with an unknown history. However, its last moments weren’t pretty. The latest video from I Do Cars tore it down in search of an answer, discovering all kinds of damage to several components. It can’t get much worse for an engine.
It had a broken timing chain, a damaged bed plate, spun journals, bent bolts, bent valves, scored cylinder bores, and plenty of metal debris in places where there shouldn’t be any. The oil pump was shot, with embedded metal fragments and a piston squirter in the pan, and the failure even destroyed the counterbalances.
Oh, and part of the exploding connecting rod cap got lodged between the block and crank.
The engine annihilated itself, with oil starvation at a high rpm likely causing the failure. There were signs of discoloration on the rods and plenty of heat damage to the cylinders and pistons. It should serve as a reminder that oil is quite essential. Also, occasionally check your car’s oil dipstick to ensure you don’t add any extra holes to your engine by accident.
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