Hi,

I am new to this forum. I eventually stumbled apon this forum after looking for some info on my Mazda 616. Hopefully i can get some info and tips on my rebuild. I can't really find a lot of info about this car. Especially not the 1.6 na engine. It seems that most people do a rotary conversion.

I bought a 1971 Mazda 616 4 door about 2 months ago. I want to use the car for gymkhana racing as well as some fun on the road. I do not want to cut it apart and build a full race car as that would just be stupid and a waste of a fairly good body.

My plan is to restore the car to a fairly original looking state, with some small subtle changes and some engine and suspension mods underneath the skin. basically a classic car with that i can also use for some fun

The car still has the original 1.6 4 cyl na engine in. It had a terrible knock!! So cant be used as is.

The gymkhana class that I want to compete in is up to 2L normally aspirated rwd. The obvious choice would be to put a 2L 16V engine in, BUT I want to use the car as a hobby and have fun with it without ruining my bank balance completely.

I decided for now to just rebuilt the original motor and modify it a bit to get more power. Maybe in the future when the rest of the car is sorted out I can do an engine transplant.

So far i have found absolutely no info or performance "advice" on the 1.6 engine. So i am following the "normal" route of mods... higher compression, bigger carburettor, head port and flow, branch, freeflow exhaust, ballance and cam. I hope this all works good together.

I will post some pics of what i have done so far.

Now i just need to figure out how to post pics....

aaaaah. got it..

This is what the car looked like when i bought it...












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As can be seen in the previous pics the body is in fairly good shape for a 40 year old car.

I proceded to strip the whole car in order to get to all the rust and do a thorough job of the bodywork. I am also going to change the color slightly.

The engine was in a very sad state. It had a bearing "knock" and some other funny noise. I suspected the timing chain.

It was FULL of oil EVERYWHERE!!! had some serious oil leaks!

When I opened the timing cover I discovered why the timing chain was so noisy.

The tensioner guides where worn off completely and the chain had almost no tension.

Even the inside of the engine was dirty!

Hello there and welcome aboard!

My favourite Mazda, series 1 Capella! Looks to be in good condition in the body, the series one's and two's did get a thicker panel metal from factory so they take a bit longer to rust! Really like that colour, a shade of blue we never got here!

The NA looks to have all the common faults they had. They did get small end bush knocks very regularly, particularly in the early engines with the single chains. Just about all 4 pot Mazda engines from the 70's leaked oil, the gaskets I've done over the years!! The NA does very well with all the old school mods like you're mentioned. I would add the double row timing chain if you can find the bits and piece's. Ebay Australia has a fair amount of the old Mazda piston gear on there. As you mentioned everyone follows the crowd and puts in a rotary engine. From factory, the NA 1.6 had 11hp less than the 12A so they weren't far away, a set of extractors and you're there!

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Too many Mazda's in the collection. 4 Mitsubishi's, 6 Toyota's and now 3 Datsun's as well.
Putting together a Mazda/Japanese motor museum. New bigger venue for the museum has been bought, watch this space!

I didn't know about the double chain. bought a new single chain kit with new tensioners.

I was VERY supprised that the local spares shop have all the parts to rebuild the motor in stock. They have all the oversize pistons, bearings, gaskets, everything. It is quite cheap aswell. This is quite impressive for a 40 year old car...

Here's some pics of the opened up motor.

The main and big end bearings had severe metal fatigue.

Nice project!

Guess you need some new parts for that enghine!

// Magnus

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Magnus Berglund
Mazda Rx7 Mariah
Mazda Rx5 x2
www.swedishrotary.com -----Updated Oct 2010

The engine still had the original pistons in.

I had the block bored to fit 60 thou oversize pistons, skimmed the block to raise the compression ratio and replaced all bearings. The crank had to be grind because of a little bit of wear.

I also machined the flywheel to get it lighter. weight before was 10.3kg and after machining went down to 6.4kg.

I then had the motor ballanced aswell.















Flywheel before and after:

Cool project! I love the first rectangular headlight Capellas. Good luck with it.

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1971 1300 Wagon Deluxe
1973 1300 Wagon

I prefer the twin round headlights again... i think it looks more sporty...

I found one with round headlights on a scrapyard. The lights and grill still in fairly good shape.

I am going to fit the round headlights. Its quite easy to fit. I only need to drill one small hole and if I really want to make a small plate bracket, but don't think it is really necessary.






I cleaned the lights and mountings a bit. Almost as good as new again....

Some cleaned up and sprayed parts.

Yeah, the series 1A and 1B like your 616, got the single row chain, it got upgraded in 1972. Just find they stretch a bit quicker but with easy access to parts shouldn't be a problem for you. We still get a lot of older parts shops here in Australia still stocking them as everyone seems to just has to do the rotary thing, suits me as I have enough overhaul parts for many a motor freshen up!

The last twin headlight conversion I did, I got the euro spec h4 light units as the factory Koito lights were still crap even being round! I do recommend upgrading the headlight wiring if you do.

Love to work so far!!

_________________
Too many Mazda's in the collection. 4 Mitsubishi's, 6 Toyota's and now 3 Datsun's as well.
Putting together a Mazda/Japanese motor museum. New bigger venue for the museum has been bought, watch this space!

Here's some pics of the bodywork taking shape.

Here's some more pics of the progress on the body:

And here is some of the engine half way put together.

The engine looks immaculate! Nice to see a piston-powered Mazda getting this kind of attention.

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-Cam
1980 Toyota Celica
1984 Porsche 911
1988 Mazda RX7

Here's some more cleaned up parts and some pics of what the body looks like as the moment.

I really struggled to clean some of the parts. The oil and grease are so hard, even if I let it lie in petrol it doesn't get soft. Some grease I have scratch off.

Thats probably what happens after 40 years...

Do anyone maybe have any idea where these might fit? When I took the engine out, it was still hanging on the chain block when I took off the timing cover. I cant remember exactly what i disassembled at the time, but i saw one half of this "washer" lying in the ground underneath the engine. But could not figure out where it came from.

The next day the other half was also lying on the ground. I still cant figure out where it came from. It doesn't fit anywhere in the engine. Anyway nowhere that I can figure out.