Turbo, RTV, Block off plates, and advice...

[vex]

Originally Posted by classicauto

The RTV should seal fine if its applied properly and the surfaces aren't warped.

Hmmm... The RTV was working fine up until the time I left for my trip. It was running a little less than well when I came back, all it did was sit and the temperature changed.

Hard to say what that issue is...

As far as rebuilding before strapping the turbo on - ABSOLUTELY. And unless your engine has been rebuilt fairly recently, you'll probably need more items then a soft seal kit as there will likely be 3 piece apex seals in it. Make sure to spec out all the hard parts....but a coolant o-ring, plus all dowel oring kits from mazdatrix are only a couple hundred dollars. But oil control rings/seals, all springs etc should be measured and replaced if necessary. But in my experience, unless its been fairly recently built or freshened - you'll be in for more then you think.

The engine was rebuilt about 55,000 miles ago (about half of that from my driving). It's still pretty recent all things considered and it's previous numbers reflect that. I'm going to be driving it back to my parking lot today and will be able to run some more tests. I'm just putting off doing it because it's balls cold outside