[Cdn17Sport6MT]

You make a good point. Mazda's are highly serviceable with only "modern-day-vehicle-servicing-grief", not German Engineering grief!

 

[Cdn17Sport6MT]

Couple/three things:

i) timing chain life expectancy is really affected by oil change frequency in a direct-injected engine. Micro carbon crystals / soot in the oil, due to combustion, tear-up chain and sprockets... or at least chain rollers;

ii) conventional thinking that I've been exposed to is that sprockets (which become "hooked" as they wear) should always be replaced along with the chain (as worn sprockets will soon wear out a new chain); and

iii) I believe there's a software-way of determining how "late" the camshaft timing starts to become, relative to the crankshaft, as the chain stretches. Chain-stretch I suppose can be physically measured... but the use of software along with crank- and cam timing sensors I believe is the new way of chain stretch / wear determination.

 

[Cdn17Sport6MT]

Thanks for the response back man! I have done a timing belt but just didn’t know if it was even possible to remove the cover since it’s so close to the frame rail on the side. I’ve seen that video on YouTube and it was really good but I was worried since the motor was out of the vehicle in their training video that it might have to be a job where the engine comes out of the car. Hopefully it can be done with the motor still installed though. Like I said in my original post, cork sport did it in the vehicle so I think it’s certainly achievable.

One key item is applying the form-in-place-gasket elastomer- and maneuvering the cover into place in a really careful/deliberate manner so that the fipg doesn't get smeared along the way. Then one clean axial move of the cover into place for a good, leak-free seal.