Something fun followed me home (323GTX content)

Maybe it's specific to the BP05, then? I just know that i looked into running Familia GTX BPT rods in the Escort back when i was going to boost it, and was told that the BPT out of the Familia GTX was no stronger than my stock motor, and that if i was going to get BPT parts, i needed to get parts from a Familiar GTR, which is an entirely different beast of a motor.

Came down to me from Corksport. They could be wrong, though.

All i know is that i see plenty of people hitting around 300whp on a BP05 + turbo, or the GTX BPT, but i haven't seen many doing that on the B6T. (Of course, i haven't looked at the B6T much.)

I've always wanted one of these.

pres589 wrote: Isn't this another unfortunate situation of a great Mazda marred by a somewhat weak transmission? I think I'd be more worried about that than comparing rods in the B6T vs BP.

I was actually thinking about that this weekend for whatever reasons. As time goes by the more i think the motor in my MX6 is in the wrong home. This thread stuck in my head and i had a brief daydream about an F2T powered 323 GTX.

Then i realized that the drivetrain might last long enough to get out of the driveway, but probably not long enough to get to the gas station.

Regardless, I don't intend to push any limits on this. Just fix the rust eventually and keep it to drive.

Basically i need to find some craps of vacuum line so I can hook up the boost controller the builder of the car incorporated into the lower dash gauge cluster... turn up the boost since it is supported by the ECU tune... and then enjoy. Assuming I can sell/trade my wheels and find some tires. I should be able to bring this to the Challenge in the 1k class.

I think it would do pretty well in that class... figure 180awhp and fully setup autox suspension.

The GTR motor is a different beast, yes. I've seen the list of what's different about it, but I forget all the special details. The cool thing about these cars is that they're really homologation specials, not marketing specials. So you really can crank one up and have it pretty happy. They've got that long-travel suspension feel to them that rally cars have. And they have the worst bumpsteer I think I've ever seen

It's pretty funny, though - just about every BPT motor for sale seems to be from a GTR. And the guy who sold me my first GTX was very proud of his JDM instrument cluster. Given the English and French markings as well as both miles and kilometers, I suspect it hadn't come from quite that far away...

splitime wrote: I should be able to bring this to the Challenge in the 1k class. I think it would do pretty well in that class... figure 180awhp and fully setup autox suspension.

Very nice. I would love to see this at the challenge, and more $1K cars is always a good thing.

I know I can go read the rules... and double check stuff... But does anyone know off the top of their head what maintenance stuff I can do with the car and not spend money that would need to be counted in the 2010 Challenge budget?

IE: freebies.

I'm looking to do all fluids on it. Maybe alignment? And well... thats it beyond begging on street corners near autoxs for free tires.

I know fluids don't count.

unevolved wrote: I know fluids don't count.

Yah, I was fairly certain on that one, well... hoping. Then I know what is in the car and how new it really is.

Alignment would be nice, its probably still close to autox alignment... but you never know.

Hopefully I don't have to do anything to the car beyond those things. And hopefully I can figure out how to take the time to drive down and compete :)

You are a lucky man! I have always wanted a 323GTX!

I used to rally one, and am rallying an updated version of the same car. This has forced me to learn rather more about these cars than I ever planned...Yes, the trans is made of glass, the wheelbearings are off a skateboard, but yes they are a laugh riot and the engine is bombproof. The gearbox can be made to live, there are a few tips and tricks, and all you need to worry about on the engine is "when it's at idle does the crank pulley wobble?" If it doesn't, don't worry about it. If you got that thing for under a grand you really scored.

Oh yeah..."All i know is that i see plenty of people hitting around 300whp on a BP05 + turbo, or the GTX BPT, but i haven't seen many doing that on the B6T. (Of course, i haven't looked at the B6T much.)" This has more to do with being a 1.6 instead of a 1.8, and having as stock a turbo that runs outta air at 15psi. B6T will support way more power than the induction system can provide. As for that GTR engine, I really do have one of those in my daily driver, and its' internals are all stock and has yet to blow up with 23psi pushing on it...rods are very similar to b6t. The Mazdog BP series are truly great little engines.

Jay_W wrote: I used to rally one, and am rallying an updated version of the same car. This has forced me to learn rather more about these cars than I ever planned...Yes, the trans is made of glass, the wheelbearings are off a skateboard, but yes they are a laugh riot and the engine is bombproof. The gearbox can be made to live, there are a few tips and tricks, and all you need to worry about on the engine is "when it's at idle does the crank pulley wobble?" If it doesn't, don't worry about it. If you got that thing for under a grand you really scored. Oh yeah..."All i know is that i see plenty of people hitting around 300whp on a BP05 + turbo, or the GTX BPT, but i haven't seen many doing that on the B6T. (Of course, i haven't looked at the B6T much.)" This has more to do with being a 1.6 instead of a 1.8, and having as stock a turbo that runs outta air at 15psi. B6T will support way more power than the induction system can provide. As for that GTR engine, I really do have one of those in my daily driver, and its' internals are all stock and has yet to blow up with 23psi pushing on it...rods are very similar to b6t. The Mazdog BP series are truly great little engines.

Please do share the details on trans life. I really hope to keep this car around a LONG time and just drive it.

I have a lead on a supposedly good running (when parked close to 5yrs ago?) 323 for parts or maybe revive into a running parts car :p. I figure having parts for a rare car is wise.

There was a great yahoogroup of GTX guys back when I had mine. Good place to trade parts, etc. Might want to search and see if they are still there.

Clay wrote: There was a great yahoogroup of GTX guys back when I had mine. Good place to trade parts, etc. Might want to search and see if they are still there.

Thanks for the lead. Looks to be almost 2k members and a post as frequent as a few hours ago. So its alive! Time to revive my old yahoo account and sign up.

http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/323gtx/

The guys on this list really know their stuff and the mods keep the spammers away. Anyone with a GTX should join up for sure. Making the trans live is a matter of common mechanical sympathy, mostly. Mazda decided to just machine pockets into the inside of the case to locate the bearings, they used small diameter shafts, kinda narrow gears, it's almost as if they figured no one was gonna, you know, drive the car hard or hotrod it or anything.... So, no clutchdump launches, shift up and down in a gentlemanly fashion, no speedshifting, that sort of thing. As has been mentioned, leave the centerdiff unlocked unless you're in mud or snow. If the budget allows, install a Fidanza flywheel. Not only will it pull outta slow corners better, the reduced rotating mass out there will reduce the strain on the main cluster shaft on transients. Also, stay away from on/off switch puck clutches, for the same reason. Sprung hub might keep some of the shock away from the gearbox. The manual says to use ATF in it. Pretty much everyone says "screw that" and uses either mobil1 75w90 or redline MTL, and/or a 50-50 mix redline mtl and heavy shockproof. I'm even using Torco GL6 extreme heavyduty goop. If you go with the shockproof, change it out often, like every other oilchange, cuz the calcium particles sorta break down after a while. I change out gearlube every 3rd or 4th oilchange. Make sure when you drain it the first time, to flush it out real good. Who knows how it was maintained before you got it. The centerdiff has its own oil supply, separate fill-n-drains. Be sure and git both dun. While you're under there, grab the rear propshaft right where it comes outta the trans and shake it like a terrier and see if you have any play. If you do, save yourself some trouble and replace the rear carrier bearing. When racing, if you clip a curb or something like that and lift a wheel, get your foot off the gas cuz if that wheel comes back down with power going through it, the diff will grenade just like that. One last thing that might help for any motorsport running longer than autocross, a clever feller'd take his fill and drain plugs and mod em out so as to run plumbing to and from a decent sized Tilton pump and a B&M cooler. This doesn't cost much and was worth about 30-40 degrees on my current rallycar. This should slow down the amount of expansion you'll get in those aluminum bearing pockets.

Dammit I miss my GTX. It was a PITA but I took more outta that car than it took outta me. What an amusing dysfunctional relationship we had...

Ramblings appreciated!

Splitime's getting some serious info here!

Splitime, would you keep us informed of how the car works out for you? I'd love to hear about it. GTX's are a bit like unicorns for me. I hear about them, they sound cool, but I've never known someone to actually live with one.

Xceler8x wrote: Splitime's getting some serious info here! Splitime, would you keep us informed of how the car works out for you? I'd love to hear about it. GTX's are a bit like unicorns for me. I hear about them, they sound cool, but I've never known someone to actually live with one.

I can mainly say that I put 300+ miles on it since Saturday night and have enjoyed driving it. Looking forward to lots more driving of it.

As its already modded, I really won't be mucking with it at all. Intent is to leave it with its suspension setup, 16psi tune and just enjoy.

god, how i have wanted one of these forever! Awesome find!

Everyone says they're all twitchy and shortwheelbase and understeery and all but it doesn't take too much to get rid of the bumpsteer and make 'em handle really well. But if you can find one of the '90-'91 4wd Proteges, it gets even better. The 1.8 BPT GTX stuff bolts right in. You get a vlscd and somewhat stronger trans internals with that swap, along with potential for stupid amounts of grunt in a 20yr old 2600 lb grocerygetter. STI power for the down payment; I'm a 4wd mazda fanboi I guess...

Mine was not understeery at all. It loved to turn. Get it into a sweeper and the back end would step out half a step, and the car would go into Rally Mode. In the snow, it really didn't like to go in a straight line

It's hard to find replacement struts for these. I ended up modifying a set of stock Protege5 units and they worked really well. Of course, not everyone is comfortable welding on a shock body...

Keith wrote: Mine was not understeery at all. It loved to turn. Get it into a sweeper and the back end would step out half a step, and the car would go into Rally Mode. In the snow, it really didn't like to go in a straight line It's hard to find replacement struts for these. I ended up modifying a set of stock Protege5 units and they worked really well. Of course, not everyone is comfortable welding on a shock body...

Thankfully mine already has apparently impossible to find unicorn model Koni's. One of the adjusters up front is stuck though.... so I'll have to sort that out at some point.

Speaking of living with a GTX, I got one in my Sophomore year of college after reading an article in SCC about one. Had to drive 3 hours just to see it. I daily drove it for 5 years and loved it. In those 5 years I only saw 2 other GTX's in the wild. One was being towed by me on the interstate. The other one I heard coming before I ever saw it and it passed me on a street corner. Through the yahoogroup above I did hook up with some other GTX guys at the Susquehanook (sp?) rally in Pa and we actually had 5 in one place. Pretty crazy! I would post a pic, but that was back before I had a digital camera.

It did require work and I learned most of my wrenching because of it, but it was a fun car. At that GTX meet I found out that I wasn't the only GTX owner that kept his entire toolbox in the trunk all the time... just in case!

So in case you 323 guys are still lurking/watching.

If a set of LEDA coilovers popped up locally... would you buy them to hang onto? Sub $500 cost for what I believe are typically 2k+ shocks/springs etc...

you should let me buy them haha. im on 4x4 status right now.