motor trouble, need help

ya it finally happened my motor is takin a shit on me finally. check this out i was floorin it (70mph country road) the other night after work and my truck has been running strange since i stopped it in front of my house.

ok as of now i have a slight radiator leak which ive been driving on for awhile now. my engine, when i turn it over, starts boggin a little bit when i first turn it over like its gonna die, then it knocks slightly and it feels as if a cylinder is out & or starving for fuel. when i drive it for more than 5 min it starts overheating pretty bad but i have plenty of coolant, and the truck drives like shit. its a knock that sounds like a bent valve or something internal.

i replaced the following: dist. cap & rotor, wires, plugs. that didnt help. i have a new radiator at my house thats waiting on a thermostat i ordered but hasnt come yet. i just wanted to know what possibly could be wrong before i take it into a mechanic and spend hella money. if anyone has any idea thatd be great.

damn all i want is my new front end, wtf

Check the timing. Remove all four spark plugs. Remove the upper timing belt cover and turn the crank manually and check the timing. Front crank pulley mark should line up with zero in lower timing belt cover and camshaft pulley lines up with notch in the aluminum cover behind the cam pulley. It could have jumped a tooth due to a loose belt tensioner.
Another quick way is to do a compression test on all four cylinders to check for bent valves or blown headgasket. Is it smoking white in the tailpipe?

yes yes yes, off timing can make a mazda run super hot, better check that, I broke my timing belt one time and i just trashed the engine after that. Yours might be okay and mine probably was too, but it used tons of oil and had bad blow by. good luck.

by the way, if you here a knocking noise then you probably bent a valve, especially if the timing belt slipped when you were getting on it.

thanks for your help guys i'll get on that tomorrow.

where is this located?

the upper timing belt cover is the plastic cover in front of the motor..you have to pull the fan out to get to the bolts..if you look at your valve cover, look down in front of it and it will be right there


is it smoking at all? white smoke can be condensation or coolant, blue smoke is oil, and black smoke is excess fuel