Mazda 3.0L Engine Tune-Up

I have received a number of E-mails questioning why tuning up a Mazda 3.0L V6 engine is so expensive. I believe the subject is coming up now because so many of the 2000’s Mazda vehicles are getting into the maintenance mileage for spark plug replacement or are setting misfire codes as some of my E-mailers are experiencing. Since one of my customers with a 2003 Mazda MPV with 3.0L engine began setting a misfire code, I took some pictures so as to explain the expense.

Here’s what it looks like with the hood open and nothing touched.

Here it is with the plastic engine cover removed and the upper metal intake manifold/throttle assembly in view that must be removed to replace the rear spark plugs and coil on plug assemblies. The coil on plug assemblies look much like their Ford counterpart as in the second picture. They short out underneath the manifold. When doing one of these vehicles I always replace the coil on plug assemblies and give the customer a break on the set.

These pictures shows the upper intake off and the valve covers exposed where the spark plug holes are. Another item that should be replaced on one of these tune-ups is the PCV hose from the back of the upper intake manifold. It is a pattern failure on these engines and deteriorates at the intake fitting. I had already replaced my customer’s hose in the past on this one and the improved replacement from Mazda showed very little wear. Anyway, this is the reason why these are so expensive to tune up. That ends this installment of the Automotive inside baseball blog post.  :)

That’s all for this update, but if you’re appreciative of the information, here is a link to my new novel COLD BLOODED for Nook and Kindle. If you’re kind enough to read it and like it, please review it on the site you purchase it from. Thank You! Every little bit helps my writing gig. :)

Delta Smelt

The Department of the Interior under Kenneth Salazar sent two of their moonbeam scientists in before Federal Judge Oliver Wanger to argue why the delta smelt minnow like fish is more important than California’s Central Valley agriculture Insanity. The Interior Department has managed to send the Central Valley into a depression with forty percent unemployment and caused grocery costs sky rocketing to consumers across the nation. Judge Wanger called these two cheese-balls out, stating the Interior Department used ‘bad faith’, and claimed their testimony was "an attempt to mislead and to deceive the court into accepting not only what is not the best science, it's not science." Finally, someone stands up for human beings over fish bait. The Central Valley of California is arguably the richest agricultural area in the country, which feeds the nation. Using junk science based in the whacko crapolla of ‘a mosquito is fish bait is a frog is a tree is a boy’ reasoning, the Interior Department for reasons unfathomable to even a federal judge, has sought to destroy the nation’s grocery basket in California’s Central Valley. They’ve wrecked the economy there, put whole areas out of work, ruined the lives of countless people, and for what? Fish bait. I can only conclude the Interior Department under that incompetent boob Salazar must be on a mission to emulate the third world where populations regularly starve to death.

This is all right in line with the Feds threatening to imprison the guy in Idaho who thought his own kids’ lives were more important than a grizzly bear. Maybe Judge Wanger’s stand will call into question all of these EPA and Interior Department Eco-Zombies acting as a real life plague on mankind.

'Ringer'

Although I was not impressed with the advertisements for ‘Ringer’, I recorded and watched Sarah Michelle Gellar’s new series pilot. Let me state first I never missed an episode of ‘Buffy’. I watched them all with my kids until they left the house to go out on their own. After they moved out I was still tasked with the responsibility to tape all episodes for their viewing convenience. I didn’t mind because I was hooked on ‘Buffy’ completely. They even bought me the DVD set for my birthday one year. Because I like Gellar, I hope she finds an audience for her new show. I’m not it. ‘Ringer’ was without doubt the goofiest premise for a TV series I’ve seen in quite a while. Actually… that statement is unfair, because I have no idea what the premise was for it. I pulled the ripcord at the halfway point before my brain began to emulsify, and turned to my new Kindle for solid entertainment. Pointless, humorless, and mind-numbingly dull are the only words I can think of to describe what I did see of it. Good luck, Buffster. For old times’ sake, I wish you well.  :)

Medal of Honor

Sgt. Dakota Meyer rushed back into an Afghanistan hellhole five times to save his fellow soldiers in spite of an air support blunder which eventually cost the lives of four Marines Into Hell. His last foray was on foot to retrieve the bodies of his comrades. Alongside him was Staff Sgt. Juan Rodriguez-Chavez who received the Navy Cross for his heroic actions. They left no one behind but the dead bodies of their enemy. When your head gets close to exploding over the media’s obsession with self indulgent Hollywood idiots and gang bangers, remember we have hundreds of thousands of young men and women like Marines, Meyer and Rodriguez-Chavez, who believe in something beyond their next narcissistic moment.

Sgt. Meyer stated: "Hero! I'm the furthest thing from a hero. Every man and woman who serves is a hero," adding that he would accept the award "on behalf of the Marine Corps and the guys who died." In the typical fashion of our young soldiers who do not spend their days staring into a mirror, Sgt. Meyer proves beyond any shadow of a doubt we have hope for the future.

Questions Anyone?

Amazon now puts readers in touch with the authors directly through their Kindles Ask The Author. If a reader has a question now regarding the book being read, they can address the question directly to the author. It’s a brave new world for authors, but a pretty ingenious selling point. I know many authors will be unappreciative of the potential feedback on that kind of instantaneous scale. It could mean developing a cadre of fans too, anxious for other novels the author has for sale or is in the process of writing. I’m intrigued with the prospect. Amazon certainly has decided to break new ground in the publishing world with this idea. I can easily imagine someone reading the free excerpt from ARCHANGEL or MONSTER and firing off a question or a statement of outrage.  :)

Muslim Monsters

Well, here’s another case of the United States not giving those wild and crazy guys in the religion of submission an easy target to vent on Subhumans . Since they didn’t want to cross the border into Afghanistan and get wiped off the face of the earth by young soldiers with the Stars and Stripes on their sleeves, these murderous animals ambushed a bus full of kids in their own nation. There is no hell hot enough for these child killing bastards. What possible statement can be made in a massacre of your own children? It says to me ‘I am a creature from the Dark Ages and I need a nice Hellfire missile to light me up’. Where do these monsters go after their heroic ambush of a school bus, to the Mosque for a quick dip on their prayer rugs to Allah? What words do they use with their heads bowed, ‘I killed some kids, praise be to God’?

Mad World

Boy, I no sooner write a comment about Islamists blaming the US Government and the Israelis for 9/11 than one of their idiot representatives does exactly that Blame Us. This is not one of your wild eyed sheiks of Osama’s old cauldron of terrorist murderers. It’s a former Malaysian Premier - Mahathir Mohamad. Want to guess how many billions of our hard earned dollars the state department pours into his particular third world sandpit? I know I don’t, because there’s only so much of this crap you can take before your head explodes without any help from one of the Islamist underwear bombers. Minnie Me Mohamad wants to blame Bush for the Twin Towers. I want to blame Bush for a few other things. I blame him for not shutting off all immigration from anywhere immediately after 9/11 when he had all of America with him, except for a few of our own traitors. He could have built an impenetrable barrier on our borders and stated all travelers from Muslim countries were persona non grata until further notice, like when hell freezes over or they have a complete reformation within Islam, because both would happen about the same time. He should have ordered the immediate drilling and refining necessary for complete oil independency on an emergency war footing.

Instead, we have our leaders blaming everyone other than the actual culprits – Islamists. They are responsible for widespread terror all over the world, and massacre each other in mind blowing numbers when they don’t get to murder us. Our government bows and scrapes to the religion of submission here, while calling the Islamist nutbags ‘folks’. Even the mention of the words Islamist/Terrorist brings the outrage of Muslim representatives still pressing for and overlooking female subjugation, female genital mutilation, honor killings, and the unconstitutional adherence to Sharia Law within our supposedly sovereign borders. It’s a world turned upside down, and one that should never be taken lightly. The only thing standing between us and being a foot licking satellite of an Islamist Alliance is the Second Amendment that must be protected at all costs on a day to day basis. I want to see a present day Diogenes, with symbolic lamp of truth, looking for an Arab Ally instead of an honest man. He better be an immortal because I don’t like his chances.