Another BAD Ford/Mazda 2.3L MZR Engine. A Propensity For Failure, Why?

Here's weekly dose of your catastrophic engine forensics! Every week you can find a new teardown of some abused, misused and/or poorly designed engine. Here are some of my favorites:
Today's teardown is a 2.3L "Duratec:" or "MZR" Mazda/Ford engine that can be found in most of the mid-late 2000's Mazda and Ford Lineup. This includes the mazda 3, Mazda 5, Ford Escape, Mazda Tribute, Mercury Mariner, Ford Fusion, Mazda 6, Mercy Milan, Ford Focus, Mazda CX-7, etc.
There are many different variants of this engine, some turbocharged and direct injected, most of them naturally aspirated.
This particular engine is out of a 2005 Mazda Tribute that my brother bought to fix and sell. I sourced him a used engine to replace the bad one, and this core sat in his garage for a while. This engine has 158K Miles on it and its pretty clear what happened here. Many of these 2.3L's meet their demise in the same way and its still apparent there is demand for them because they are still relatively expensive engines.

Why am I doing this? My name is Eric and I own and run a full service auto salvage business called Importapart. Part of our model includes dismantling blown and bad engines to salvage the good parts to resell. We do not rebuild engines, merely supply parts to those who do.

I really hope you enjoyed this teardown, as always I love all of the comments, feedback and even the criticism. Catch you on the next one!

-Eric

[MazKid]

Yeah, I have quite the track record of not draining oil from engines and transmissions I remove from vehicles. Whether that oil ends up dripping down your leg from a RX-8 transmission or creating an EPA-alerting spill on my driveway out of my 3 rotor, I deserve that bus you threw me under. - the brother

[brighamshamrell]

That Tribute lays down a pretty sick beat.

[johngassmann]

You're spoiling us with this two-videos-a-week schedule.

[bisenbart]

As a master tech of 35 years, I've watched a lot of your videos about the engines that you tear down. It seems to me that the biggest common denominator is that people simply just don't check there oil level frequently enough or don't have there oil changed every 5k miles. We run a fleet of cars of various makes and models and some will use almost 5 qts of oil in 5k miles, some don't. That is the reason we dont do extended oil change intervals in our fleet. We have not ever had one blow up due to low oil level but close.

[dil]

10:15 - Cranks without a keyway are complete madness. It's negligible added cost and manufacturing time, while negating the need for a special tool to do a very basic service. Even if you aren't messing with the engine's timing, harmonic balancers do fail and need replacement on occasion. A keyway would make that job very easy.

[josephchewning]

Been following this channel since there were maybe 10 teardowns uploaded, and the fact that there’s a midweek video most weeks now is freakin awesome!

[Strykenine]

That engine was trying out for the band.

[_BAD_MERC_]

Between the Safety Tote, the cram craps, and the piston nuggets it's always a good time with Eric!

[stevenfoster]

"Now it's time to pull the bearing basket" Bearing basket!!! 🤣🤣🤣🤣

[BIGBLUEk]

Ive seen alot of these 2.3's blown up so i cant deny their tendancys but I have a daily driver cx7 with the turbo 2.3. It has 200, 000 miles and is still running strong. I drive it an hour everyday on the highway to work, but I also check the oil every 3 is days and change it every 5k miles. Fingers crossed it's lasts many miles yet. Awesome teardown video as always man!

[capt.graybeard]

Okay maybe I looked away and missed it but I didn't see the test! The ever popular test of the piston rod connection system. I don't know, I don't know...

[PeeterPuncher]

I put 300k on two of these engines and was pretty trouble free....but I maintain my stuff.

[lrrnoin]

First, thank you to Ryan for the engine donation. Second, thanks to Eric for making yet another quality, informative, and educational video to expand our knowledge. I am sure this takes volumes of time and money to plan, secure resources, and produce each video. That said, thank you and I look forward to the next one.

[GreggeSB]

I was waiting for the "Uncle Rodney" reference as soon as I clicked, but the subtle Rodney Dangerfield reference was perfect.

[SinfulGamer]

You forgot Safety Tote with the chop saw, we almost lost you!

[DDE_ADDICT]

I just looked back, and it appears I have been viewing since summer 2020 and have loved every moment. Eric, please go to Harbor Freight and by a cheap small band saw for cutting stuff up. I am a cabinetmaker and have cutoff tips off 2 fingers, and I don't want to see you get hurt. Chop saws are not your friend.

[sjsnopek]

I have a 2008 Ford Ranger with a 2.3 L engine which I believe is a Mazda L engine. It has 380, 000 km and is still in good shape, not burning any oil.

[hkguitar]

Fantastic Lighting for the "Bearing Sauce" and the Wear/Damage of the Oil Pump, also very much appreciate the close-ups of the damage.
Great Content, Thank You.

[thereve]

It’d* be a real pita to film but it would be cool to see two or more competitors’ engines torn down side by side, like a 3.6 pentastar vs a 3.6 gm, and compare things 1 to 1.

[svenforfifr]

I've got a 2.3L 09 Ranger. My biggest gripe with these in the trucks is they only hold 4 quarts of oil. Mines doesn't burn too much, maybe a quart over 1500-2000 miles. But that's still a lot of the capacity. Oil temp is probably on the moon too, even full. I like the simple little turd, but I did also use to own a built MZR in a speed6. As you said, I might be a bit of a glutton.