Gentlemen, i request your knowledge on the MX6 GT Turbo

1st, i know that they look completely awesome. 2nd, i know that they're turbo and have a very low compression ratio (7.8:1). 3rd, i know they make 145whp/190wtq stock.

What else should i know? Should i be scared of a high mileage well maintained one? How much power is this motor good for in stock form? I'm not looking to build a motor after it pops, i don't want to pop the motor, but i imagine with that compression ratio some fun could be had with a simple boost controller.

I have the opportunity to score a pretty clean example for $1000. Run away? Or snap it up, stat!

I appreciate any help.

I remember driving one along time a go. It was a 91 I think and it was a blast to drive. It did have an ajustable suspenion (3 setting soft, sport, and what ever) great little car. dont know how they hold after time

Here's the dilemma..... i should just throw this all out here so i have a hope of as much info/advice as possible...

It's either this car for $1000 obo (pics at end of post), or a 1992 Protege DX 4door. With a KLZE swap. No, i'm not joking. The Protege is $1500 obo. I'm reasonable sure i can get it for $1200 or less. It has front brake problems, motor runs great, interior is VERY clean, with MX3 seats. Outside is ugly, but solid. I don't consider it a pretty car in the first place. No real rust, has dings, and a dented rear driver's door, no clear coat left.

I'm looking for something that will keep me entertained as a DD. (The EGT is now driven by my lady friend.) It also will be driven over 120miles a day 5 days a week on my daily commute. I don't care in the slightest about gas mileage. I DO care about reliability, which makes this decision hard, as i haven't heard ANYTHING bad about either motor. The Protege has less than 100k miles on motor.

The MX6 has a brand new head from Mazda w/ 7k miles on it, 150k miles on chassis/bottom end, and is ready to go.

Here's the pics:

Based on sound alone, the protege with a KL.

Based on sensible reliability, the MX6. Even though it is a factory turbo car, it probably has better chances or working right every day than a protege with an engine it was never meant to have (even if it does fit).

Nitroracer wrote: Based on sound alone, the protege with a KL. Based on sensible reliability, the MX6. Even though it is a factory turbo car, it probably has better chances or working right every day than a protege with an engine it was never meant to have (even if it does fit).

The sad thing is that the sound of the Protege is the only thing making this decision hard. It's got aftermarket headers, a full exhaust, and an intake. It sounds unholy.

The protege would probably get better gas mileage.

The MX6 has some stuff done to it, but from all descriptions it seems solid. The owner is confident in it that he's letting me beat the hell out of tomorrow on a test drive.

So i think that's what i'll end up with, and i'll miss yet another chance to own a KLZE. Oh well. Haven't had boost in awhile.

I had a 1988 Mazda 626 Turbo for a number of years, and picked it up with about 85,000 miles on it. The car was traded in for something else when it had 185,000 miles on it. Manual trans, analog gauges, normal steering. Here's what went wrong; note that I loved the car. Let me repeat that I loved it.

Aluminum head and some ham-fisted action during previous ownership saw a spark plug exit the head after a long trip. Pulled the head in a driveway, had it machined with a new cam installed and three HLA's replaced at that time. Heli-coils in the plug hole and both bores for the thermostat inlet bolt holes. Never gave any problems after that but I was always wary of that happening again. Oddly enough, the NA cars and the turbo cars use the exact same camshaft part number.

Transmissions are weak. 5th gear syncro's are made of some kind of silly putty. The first died around 110,000 miles. A local shop rebuilt a core trans and swapped them; I didn't have time, I was in college, etc etc. The second time was something like 150,000 miles. At 180,000 it happened again. Knowing what I know now I would have gone to the first shop and flipped out, I guess. The second closed. This left a very bad taste in my mouth about these cars and it's why I won't own one again. This kind of thing is also not uncommon.

Smoked a little on startup at the end. I don't think new valve guides were installed when the head was off. they were all within tolerance at the time. I didn't do the machine work myself, had a shop in town do it, I believe they were right at the time. I never replaced the turbo, it's a water cooled IHI unit and seemed pretty stout.

If it's got the electronic suspension, the shocks are KYB units that cost $150 each from the Mazda parts counter. Doing it over again today, I would get some AGX's or some other units in there and ditch the electronics. The thing also wasn't sitting very level, the rear had sagged a bit, so springs would have been smart.

The sunroof was kind of sticking a bit in all directions of movement but it still worked. The seats were amazing, I loved trips in the thing. The car would pull 35 mpg easily on the highway with a personal best of 40 mpg. The air-con compressor relay failed and locked into an always on condition, I simply pulled the wire and never really missed it. The front speakers are small and in stupid locations. The car could suck up a ton of luggage, especially with the back seat folded down.

They're great cars in search of a good transmission. The engine doesn't love revs but it makes awesome torque so it's not such a big deal. Clutches and brakes seem to last, it's a non-interference motor, it's a great car but I'm scared out of them.

Damn, I want a KLZE for my MX3!

What's with the boom hole on the aide of the mx6?

Joey

I'd go with the MX6. Some thing about buying a DD that you need to work dose not sound right. If they would'nt fix the brakes to sell it what else is wrong with it??

I dunno about that protege. Volksroddin is right. Even that MX6 sounds too cheap though. That car would bring closer to 2000 around here.

One of my friends has had a half dozen of those mx6's. He thinks they're awesome. I have strangely never seen one blowed up now that I think about it. Anyway, all I know is with a compressor upgrade and a boost controller it runs a low 14 with a horrendous 60ft.

joey48442 wrote: What's with the boom hole on the aide of the mx6? Joey

yeah I saw that too and reaffirmed my own belief that on dead stock or very slightly modified cars are suitable for daily drivers for me. Especially modifications done by a previous owner.

I know a guy that does alot of work on Honda's that had 2 GT's. He loved them... He took that 12v turbo and stuffed it in a mx3 that he got with a bad engine. I sold him a Corksport ballbearing turbo I was gonna use on my Capri XR2 but it was too big around and wouldn't bolt up to the Manifold. He used it on the MX3 and I've heard that thing is quite a beast. There is one here in a salvage yard if you need parts.

ignorant wrote:

joey48442 wrote: What's with the boom hole on the aide of the mx6? Joey

yeah I saw that too and reaffirmed my own belief that on dead stock or very slightly modified cars are suitable for daily drivers for me. Especially modifications done by a previous owner.

Well.... here's more info.

The current owner bought it 2 years ago, and has done a very slow "restore" of sorts on it. The "boom hole" is the one thing that bothers me about the car, but is easily fixed. What happened was that when he got the car, it was a mess, mechanically. When the new head was put on, it also received a replacement turbo, because the old one had really bad shaft play. It has a Toyota CT26 turbo off of a MKiii Supra, as well as 440cc injectors off the same car. With the adapter necessary to mate the Toyota turbo to the Mazda manifold, it made for some funky angles, and he opted to take the cheap way out and run it out the bumper.

I am slightly worried about the fact that it's running 440cc injectors without tuning, but he says he's still returning in the mid high 20s mpg delivering pizza over the 7k miles that he's driven it, that it idles fine, doesn't blow clouds of smoke, runs great in winter. The only side effect seems to be occasional fireballs out the side of the bumper.

The car is not modified for speed, and i highly doubt i would even do much to it except stereo and take care of the monster truck stance. Every mod i would have ever done is already done on it, keep it simple. FMIC for longevity, better air filter for breathing, some sort of exhaust, and the MBC. It's running 9psi right now, and that Supra CT26 seems to be about a 15% increase in efficiency and flow vs the stock turbo, with a lot more top end.

belteshazzar wrote: I dunno about that protege. Volksroddin is right. Even that MX6 sounds too cheap though. That car would bring closer to 2000 around here. One of my friends has had a half dozen of those mx6's. He thinks they're awesome. I have strangely never seen one blowed up now that I think about it. Anyway, all I know is with a compressor upgrade and a boost controller it runs a low 14 with a horrendous 60ft.

Original asking price on this was $2000. It's in Louisville, and apparently the economy is so bad down there that nobody that actually wants it is able to come up with the money. It was originally put up for sale May 10th and nobody has gone and looked at it, just people all over the forum saying "Man if i had $2k this would be sold already."

Welp, he dropped down to $1000 earlier this week, and i bet i could get it for $800. Either way, i'm driving it hard today to see if anything is scary.

I have seen someone autocross one, and it was farily fast, but had massive body roll. In the old autox magazine test they mentioned that too. The guy doesnt have it anymore becasue it got totaled due to a poorly designed autocross course.

93celicaGT2 wrote: delivering pizza

The rest is now irrelevant, Never buy a pizza delivery car. Thats like buying a used taxi.

they're pretty bulletproof, the 5th gear synchro goes because people drive with their hand on the shifter, and the forks put pressure on them and wears them out.

there aren't a whole lot of them left on the road, of note is that it seems there were a whole lot of 88-89's made, and not so many 90-92's. there are slight styling and wiring differences between the two, such that you have to be careful picking parts in the yard.

they are good handling cars, and won a few stock class national championships back in the day. as in any responsive front driver, be careful of lift throttle oversteer near the limit.

I don't know, I never drove with my hand on 5th, I think I got crappy rebuilds but it shouldn't have happened in the first place. Drop throttle oversteer is one thing, the torque steer is something else again, and I think more bothersome.

My buddy had one for a few years before he got rid of it. They seem like decent cars, the motors run forever if taken care of, but his had all sorts of little problems: sunroof broken, windows falling off the tracks, blower motor broken, intermittent gauge failure, windshield wiper problems, etc etc. But, in the four years he had it, it only overheated once (thermostat) and needed new rear brake lines to pass inspection. Oh, and damn quick for such a cheap car. He had a downpipe and exhaust on his, so that probably helped, but it was fast. Crazy crazy amounts of torque steer.

Update:

I drove it today, and i'm picking it up on Tuesday. I ended up not having a way to get it back today.

The car was ROCK SOLID. Everything worked as it should, the clutch bit like crazy, the transmission felt like new, and the motor was incredibly smooth and strong.

It has a real minor oil leak out the oil return line, easy to fix, will be done this week.

It's uhmmm..... fast. This one was only running 7psi on the Supra CT26 turbo, and it hauled some serious balls. I didn't notice any torque steer, though. Body roll, tons. I can fix that later, if i care. Brakes were good.

I couldn't talk him down from $1000, and i'd feel bad doing it, to be honest, just because it's that solid. He had receipts for over $2000 in recent work.

I think it's going to be a great car. 1st investment will be a wideband to see how rich is actually running, and probably tune it from there.

It's cleaner in real life than it looks in the pics. I only could find 7 door dings, and no others. Has a nickel sized spot of surface rust on the driver's rear quarter.

I'm convinced this car is a steal.

I appreciate everyone's advice, it's helped a lot.

Start sourcing struts, there are a few options out there, I saw your car has the electronic suspension option on board. Does it have the 4 wheel steering? I think it's commonly removed if so, but that's your call, my 626 didn't have it.

pres589 wrote: Start sourcing struts, there are a few options out there, I saw your car has the electronic suspension option on board. Does it have the 4 wheel steering? I think it's commonly removed if so, but that's your call, my 626 didn't have it.

It does have the electronic suspension, and it does work. No 4ws, thankfully. No power steering either, for that matter. He depowered it, but didn't do it right, there's lines still coming off the rack, not capped off or anything. I can worry about that later. I'll probably get another rack and depower it the correct way, because i really don't feel like sourcing all the stuff to revert it back to power.

"tons of body roll" sounds like my my old 626 when the struts were shot. I just don't think the adjustable struts they used were really that hot and if I had it to do over again, I'd get something else under there. I wonder what replacements cost if you did want to use the electronic KYB's from Mazda again. I say they weren't that hot because I just left them in sport, I think it would make more sense to just get a good "sport" valved strut again and do away with the adjustability.

Odd that he depowered the rack, I never had a problem with mine, never even looked at the fluid actually. It just worked. Always thought the steering feel was pretty good and since I wasn't looking for a few stray horsepower in the car it didn't even enter my mind to depower it. I did drive it once with the belt tossed and that sucked, although properly doing it could help a little.

pres589 wrote: "tons of body roll" sounds like my my old 626 when the struts were shot. I just don't think the adjustable struts they used were really that hot and if I had it to do over again, I'd get something else under there. I wonder what replacements cost if you did want to use the electronic KYB's from Mazda again. I say they weren't that hot because I just left them in sport, I think it would make more sense to just get a good "sport" valved strut again and do away with the adjustability. Odd that he depowered the rack, I never had a problem with mine, never even looked at the fluid actually. It just worked. Always thought the steering feel was pretty good and since I wasn't looking for a few stray horsepower in the car it didn't even enter my mind to depower it. I did drive it once with the belt tossed and that sucked, although properly doing it could help a little.

It's just REALLY high up off the ground, too, which is weird to me after driving my Celica for so long.

What strut options are out there? All i could really find is GR2s so far, but i haven't spent a lot of time yet.

I'm not looking for anything crazy, GR2s and a 2" drop would be perfect for me. I'm not going to do anything nuts with the car, just looking for a daily driver that looks decent for a change.

Any spring suggestions? Cut the stockers?

Seems the GR2s are only for cars without the electronic suspension. I really dont' want to shell out the money for the Koni Specials. If you could suggest anything, i would much appreciate it.

When I looked for struts the suggestions were the same for electronic or not; you basically just leave the wiring connections hanging loose. GR2's may be the only straight drop in option on the market, it's not like these cars get tweaked a lot. I haven't looked for springs either, by the end the car needed a trans, a turbo rebuild, springs, struts, and some other action. I was a college student, dad wanted to help and it had to be an Olds Intrigue and now hate the car I've been driving for nearly 8 years. Yay!

Wonder about the bushings holding in the anti-roll bars, that would affect roll and those bushings are probably original. Wonder if there's a cheapie set of poly's out there for it.