As some of you may have read, I bought this car in early May of 2011 for the sum of $800 from a friend that did the swap. He acquired the car with was a base model with an automatic transmission that was toast, and also had a MX-6 GT that ran great but had terminal rust issues.... He started thinking and did some measuring and with a little work figured he could make it work. Here is how I got the car..... .
It had set for about a year and was never officially finished or legally on the road, but it did run!!! First on my list was to correct an issue the ball joints. The car has an '88 MX-6 GT (non 4WS) engine and transmission running MX-6 Axles, Knuckles, Brakes on MX-3 Lower Control Arms. The Balljoints had a small variance in the diameter of the part that goes throught the botton on the Knuckle whick took a while to see, but finally i noticed the problem. Notice, the one on the right is slightly tapered as opposed to the one on the left which is not....
Also the power steering was inoperative when i got the car so that was the next object to fix it. The F2T's adjustment for the power steering belt in on the A/C Compressor which is removed on this car. After some hunting I found that a 335K5 belt is a correct fit to run the P/S to the Crank with no Adjuster. There was a belt that was on there, but it was way to big, and the P/S Line was really just cobbled together. My stepdad made me a high pressure P/S hose as mine had a hose clamp with welding wire under the clamps to hold it together. I'm still not content with the low pressure side, so I'm going to address that soon also.
The Interior was pretty dirty when i got it, but it did already have Tenzo Racing Seats, Ebay Bride Knockoff Steering Wheel, Suede Bride Shift Boot.
Now that the car was able to be driven I figured I'd start making it look more presentable so heres a before engine cleaning shot... and after Here is its first Autocross, note the massive body roll, but you can't hear the rear tires rubbing against the Trailing Arm & Fender ;-( The MX-3 came with 3rd Gen RX-7 Wheels that were 16x8 the fronts were fine, but the rears rubbed even with 1/2" spacers so I sold them and got a set of RX-7 Convertible BBS Wheels. No more clearance issues!
Now I decided to correct the handling & ride hieght. I saw someone mention about having a set of Ksport coilovers for sale in a thread that someone was asking info about MX-6/626/Probes Gt's in. I inquired and purchased them for $250 shipped. Pic from seller (i didn't get the strutbar) Now thats ALOT better!!!!
My Transmission went out 2 weeks ago, so after sourcing another I pulled both the engine and transmission to replace it as its easier to remove them together as one unit. So heres a few pics of that.
Also redid the engine wiring harness with some good quality black tape while i was at it and a good scrubbing of the engine bay.
Currently the engine and transmission are back together, with new belts... getting ready to spray engine bay while i have access to it easily and the engine will be back in this week sometime!
Next will be paint! On a side note...
I also bought an '89 Probe GT that was intended to be parts, but after swapping distributors it freakin runs great and is currently tagged! as an added plus it has a Chipped ECU and a manual boost controller that are gonna both find there way into the MX-3!!!!
I'll be adding updates to keep this current. See ya at the $2012 Challenge!!!