92 MX3 rebirth

You know you want to...

I had friends that were big 2nd gen Probe fans years ago. One did the ZE swap on his probe, and it really woke it up. Never considered putting one in the MX3, but it sounds even better. Is it a straightforward swap?

Yup. Bolts right up to the 5-speed tranny. There's a Centreforce Stage II clutch and lighter flywheel. Had to source the proper computer as well. I did replace the stock valve springs and retainers with Interpreps - since the KLZE was known for broken retainers and dropped valves.

I've got the "straight neck" manifold that's supposed to optimize airflow, but it won't fit without some rearranging of the engine bay - moving the battery and the brake cylinder. So right now it has the curved neck (which a lot of people think indicates that it's not a true KLZE, but that's not true – they aren't as common, but they do exist).

Sifting through the information on KLZE engines is frustrating and confusing. Only two are considered true KLZE, both are JDM and put out 200hp. One has a straight neck, the other is curved. Both have 165 lb. feet, but the straight neck's peak torque is at 5500, and the curved is 4800 rpm. Both have the coveted, higher-compression flat-top pistons, however, the curved neck came with a different set of cams (hence the lower peak torque?). Both have either KL-31-101 heads, or KL-31-1A1 (which may or may not have superior porting).

Adding to the confusion is the variety of KLDE engines - which are almost identical but are only 165-170hp.

Apparently, the curved neck KLZE is about as rare as a full set of teeth at a Westboro Baptist protest, and Mazda forum folks thought it highly improbably that my $700 ebay purchase could be actually be one – and was more likely a KLDE passed off by an unscrupulous, or uneducated seller.

Course, I had no idea there was so much conflicting info out there, and had the engine installed – not having time, nor garage access back then to work on it myself. Frigging thing must have been dropped on the boat over, since it developed a knock within the first 100 km. Found another set of KLZE cams on a Mazda forum, with the correct KL-31 stamping, and had them installed.

I've since had the nagging feeling that maybe I actually did get duped into buying a KLDE, which now has the higher lift cams. Anyway, digging around in the engine bay last night, I decided to have a close look with a flashlight. This was like finding gold :-) "KL-31-1A1".

KLZE by Leadfoot Lesley, on Flickr

Spec comparisons between the engines.

http://www.oocities.org/viv95pgt/klze.html

Been a really busy few months, but we've managed to eke out a little time to spend on the MX-3. A lot of bead-blasting, a lot of painting.

10623632_10153965914146308_1954725712300723184_o by Leadfoot Lesley, on Flickr

12976955_10154053464516308_4151532019972146395_o by Leadfoot Lesley, on Flickr

12973224_10154053464501308_8262043193414330351_o by Leadfoot Lesley, on Flickr

12968000_10154053464666308_2296076951270154176_o by Leadfoot Lesley, on Flickr

subframe by Leadfoot Lesley, on Flickr

12957635_10154053465066308_4678173214991718581_o by Leadfoot Lesley, on Flickr

12968177_10154053465071308_2071456082934998015_o by Leadfoot Lesley, on Flickr

Awesome thread and project.

Plates and brackets after being cadmium plated. They're not as pretty as the nuts and bolts were, which came back looking like gold nuggets, but they're a lot nicer than they were.

BRACKETS by Leadfoot Lesley, on Flickr

Nifty little hand-held bead-blaster. Great for body rust.

BLASTER by Leadfoot Lesley, on Flickr

Spot blasting some wheel well rust. There are different nozzles for getting into seams and crevices.

BLASTER2 by Leadfoot Lesley, on Flickr

Brake callipers before

BRAKES1 by Leadfoot Lesley, on Flickr

And after

BRAKES2 by Leadfoot Lesley, on Flickr

BRAKES4 by Leadfoot Lesley, on Flickr

Cad-plated brackets are beautiful, holy crap. I cannot wait to see them in context on the car.

It's probably a good thing I don't have the ability to do that because I would be constantly taking things off the car to send off and just end up with a Rubbermaid bin full of painfully gorgeous fasteners that I don't remember the origins of.

"Welp can't finish this strut replacement, there's like ten fasteners I'm waiting on."

I know, I couldn't believe it when the hardware came back. They went from being black, rusty blobs, to this, it was like a pot of gold.

IMG_5062 by Leadfoot Lesley, on Flickr

Love the attention to detail!

Great project! Can't wait to see more.

Thanks, it's pretty rewarding :-)

this is how to do something right and take a great, often overlooked chassis, and make it great. I love a great project that is taken far beyond the typical back yard engine swap.

Nice work!

You have no idea how Much I love this!

Could you provide a ballpark figure for what cad-plating a batch of parts like that costs?