Mazda MX6 Mafia Poster Child runs correctly for the first time in 2.5 years

Couple "real" pictures.

It looks mean as hell straight on from a small distance, but stupid me, i didn't take any pics like that.

Looks pretty good to me. The car may look even better if you ditched the sunroof and window plastic bits. I say go with it.

I really like this car. And standing back, it has such a nice Box Flare-ey look. And everyone knows that box flares make everything better.

pres589 wrote: Looks pretty good to me. The car may look even better if you ditched the sunroof and window plastic bits. I say go with it.

I added those things!

So yep... this thing made it down to the Challenge. And back.

Not without mishap, unfortunately. I had blown through my clutch the week prior to the Challenge, but figured my pedal just wasn't adjusted correctly. (It wasn't. I fixed it.)

Then the Challenge itself was a comedy of errors. My camber bolts hadn't come in, so handling was... interesting.

And my turbo was falling off, which i didn't notice until late the second day, which made power delivery at the autocross... interesting.

Fun fact: With 1/3" of space between the turbo manifold and the turbo, this car will STILL generate 12psi. The F2T's insane exhaust velocity strikes again!!!

Anyways, 23rd out of 36, and made the trip back and forth without stranding me.

Got 41mpg on the way down to Gainesville.

Clutch is toast, the turbo/manifold gasket is blown out, the turbo is probably blown (consuming LOTS of oil, not leaking much, compression numbers still good), and the driver's door lock has failed, which means i can't get in the car.

SO.

I need a door lock/key set for one of these things. Anyone got one? Ignition optional, i already have one.

Found a clutch. Got a SCREAMING deal on a South Bend TZ/SS hybrid.

Ordered new turbo/manifold gasket.

Will attempt to rebuild turbo myself.

Showing up next year with handling sorted a bit more and 30psi.

Spent yesterday working on a future Challenger and member of MX6 Mafia.

There's a few things about the 88-89s that i'm not really understanding at the moment, but i'll figure them out. Car is choking itself on fuel. Should be quick when i sort it out, though. T3/T4 60trim.

There isn't much i can't fix with a Sawzall these days.

Dan, i could use some help here. Your car ran perfectly, and it's a very similar setup. Chipped ECU, stock fuel and ignition system. (well... MSD Coil.)

Do you have your wastegate pressure solenoid plugged in and just tucked out of the way?

Actually mine isnt hooked up and is laying in a drawer in the garage. It bolts onto the compressor housing of a vj-11. Mines still running a little rich, but i suspect boost leaking out of my pressurized VAF has something to do with that. Any CEL codes?

dansxr2 wrote: Actually mine isnt hooked up and is laying in a drawer in the garage. It bolts onto the compressor housing of a vj-11. Mines still running a little rich, but i suspect boost leaking out of my pressurized VAF has something to do with that. Any CEL codes?

Yep, 16 and 42. 42 is for wastegate pressure solenoid, but i imagine your car is throwing that same code. (Won't cause CEL, but is a stored code.)

16 is EGR, but that only flashes a CEL at idle, and shouldn't affect how the car runs.

I have NOT been able to boost leak test this car yet since my tester is locked in my MX6.

We checked ignition timing and engine is in time perfectly. Damn car was WAY faster with stock setup + boost controller than it is now.

I think we're going to try plugging in the pressure solenoid and see what happens.

Beyond that, all i can think of is a bad injector stuck open. And the fuel pressure solenoid is making some weird noises, so that might be jacking with things.

But this is why i don't understand 88-89s. Mine is missing ALL of this stuff, even the fuel pressure solenoid, and doesn't throw a single code.

Ben, unplug your EGR Vacuum Line.... I had the same exact issue and that was my problem before I left for the challenge. DO IT!!!! HURRY!!

dansxr2 wrote: Ben, unplug your EGR Vacuum Line.... I had the same exact issue and that was my problem before I left for the challenge. DO IT!!!! HURRY!!

Unplug it and leave the solenoid plugged in? (Electrically, that is.) Unplug solenoid, control valve, or both?

EGR is blocked everywhere else i believe. (Not my car, there's some ugly solutions to EGR, but they seem to be functional so far.)

And where is the EGR solenoid on an 88-89? Is it on the firewall or is it one of those ones over by the FPR?

Just text me with the answer, i'm about to leave work to take care of some things and i'll just relay the answer to the owner. Bonus points for texting me a picture of what to unplug. There's 3 EGR "things" on these cars.

Why are there four boxes?

Because i've accumulated 4 of them.

I just need another set of plugs and then to un-bury my old chip burner and i can make all these into ready-to-go PNP FCONs for either 88-89s or 90-92s.

One of them was purchased for substantially cheaper than the rest, and that one will find its way onto my MX6, the rest will probably be sold.

You're the hoarder of little known things that people may never want........

yamaha wrote: You're the hoarder of little known things that people may never want........

You have no idea how many WTB threads i see for this stuff ALL THE TIME... they just don't know how to find it as well as i do.

Maybe one of those FCON's will find its way into my Probe after the MX-3 is up and running on Megasquirt.

dansxr2 wrote: Maybe one of those FCON's will find its way into my Probe after the MX-3 is up and running on Megasquirt.

Maybe!!! I would suggest getting a big turbo ahead of time for it, then.... the FCON isn't real useful on a stock-ish car.

Just reread this thread from start to finish again, all because that white one owner 89 popped up locally on craigs again.

http://ventura.craigslist.org/cto/3536850026.html

DuctTape&Bondo wrote: Just reread this thread from start to finish again, all because that white one owner 89 popped up locally on craigs again. http://ventura.craigslist.org/cto/3536850026.html

I've been bad about this thread.... Haven't really done much more with it, but i'll be experimenting with meth injection in the Spring, hopefully with some dyno charts.

That white one looks pretty nice besides that one dent. I bet you could pop it out from the inside. Trans isn't dead, it's the shift forks. Little time consuming but pretty cheap to do.

Offer him $500.

Swank Force One wrote:

DuctTape&Bondo wrote: Just reread this thread from start to finish again, all because that white one owner 89 popped up locally on craigs again. http://ventura.craigslist.org/cto/3536850026.html

I've been bad about this thread.... Haven't really done much more with it, but i'll be experimenting with meth injection in the Spring, hopefully with some dyno charts. That white one looks pretty nice besides that one dent. I bet you could pop it out from the inside. Trans isn't dead, it's the shift forks. Little time consuming but pretty cheap to do. Offer him $500.

Anxious to see your meth injection setup since I've been debating one for my truck.

Cotton wrote:

Swank Force One wrote:

DuctTape&Bondo wrote: Just reread this thread from start to finish again, all because that white one owner 89 popped up locally on craigs again. http://ventura.craigslist.org/cto/3536850026.html

I've been bad about this thread.... Haven't really done much more with it, but i'll be experimenting with meth injection in the Spring, hopefully with some dyno charts. That white one looks pretty nice besides that one dent. I bet you could pop it out from the inside. Trans isn't dead, it's the shift forks. Little time consuming but pretty cheap to do. Offer him $500.

Anxious to see your meth injection setup since I've been debating one for my truck.

It's just a pretty basic AEM unit that gets set off a MAP reading. I'll probably have it activate anything above say.... 15psi. It's got a progressive controller so i'll just ramp it up so it's damn near maxed at 30psi.

I wasn't running into any pinging or detonation issues even a touch above 20psi before, but that's on a 100% stock motor.

The worked head and a big cam are going on in Spring, and about as conservative as i can get with the timing maps are whatever came stock. The ZombieSS 440 chip i'm running right now has an unknown timing advance, and i imagine that's part of the reason why the car is freakishly fast and somewhat of a legend in this general part of the Midwest community even when compared to other cars with similar size turbos.

I have a few plans/options i've worked out that will let me really stretch this thing while still retaining stock ECU. My end goal is a 130mph 1/4 mile trap.

So this past Saturday and half of Sunday... i owned THREE MX6 GTs.

The red 1990 "Swank Force One."

The 1988 parts car, shown here getting dumped at the junkyard.

And then (and still currently) the owner of the black 88 with the hood-exit exhaust.

The black car is officially named "Home School Prom Queen." This car will be making an appearance at the GRM $2013 Challenge under the ownership of mndsm.

Currently runs like crap, but the price was right, and besides the hood, is a clean car with a healthy motor and a strong aftermarket clutch. Will be receiving a custom Grand National turbo setup with a Tial 38mm EWG. Bumper dumper exhaust just like the 90, all controlled with a PFC FCON setup.

I'll be posting progress of that car in this thread as well.

Picked up the car on Saturday, it's now up at the "Skunkwerks." It made the 25 mile drive just fine. Car as a whole feels quite solid and tight.

It needs a little more elbow grease and general un-hacking than i initially thought, but still feel pretty good about it. Compression testing it this week sometime, then pulling the motor.

Started work on mndsm's black car. It needs a LOT of work, but luckily i'm up to the task.

I compression tested it on Saturday. 120psi even across the board on a cold-ish motor. I'll call that good. Gave me the go-ahead to start tearing it down. Motor will be pulled and every seal/gasket replaced, and my spare fresh rebuilt head will go on.

Pull this off first. This was a huge pain in the ass because someone in the past had replaced the exhaust manifold studs with M10 studs. Which is a GOOD thing, but makes it impossible to get a socket over the inner bottom two nuts. Has to be done with either needle-nose vice grips, or an adjustable wrench.

Once i got the turbo setup off, noticed oil on the valves, and the valves were blatantly not sealing correctly. Yup, this head is berkeleyed. You can also see some of the wiring nightmare i'm tasked with cleaning up.

The car is an 88, but has 90-92 taillights (all red, looks way better, too bad one is cracked), but whomever did the swap also put a 90-92 grill on it. YUCK.

I have most of the parts laying around to do a full 626 front end conversion on one of these cars. This car might be the one to have that happen. Just for E36 M3s and giggles, i test fitted the 626 grill to make sure it would interchange. It does, and looks pretty decent. I think we'll roll with this.

Waiting on my hoist to return. I'll pull the motor this coming weekend, have it re-sealed, fix all the clusterberkeleyery in the engine bay while it's out, slap in the gigantic front sway bar, then dump the motor back in hopefully by the end of March, but more likely the first half of April. Goal is to have this thing running and driving again by end of April and be in the tuning stages.

Man I wish I could find a cheap one of these around me! I've only ever seen a couple on Craigslist, and that was a while ago. Someday...