Lomac - 1993 Mazda MX6 V2.0

[Lomac]

1993 Mazda MX6 LS
"The $300 MX6"

-------------------- The Mod List --------------------

Engine & Transmission

• KLZE/DE Hybrid 2.5 V6 (ZE pistons, DE manifold); Aircare-only spec
• KLZE/DE Hybrid 2.5 V6 (ZE pistons, Colt cam grind, ZE manifold); Supercharger-spec
• Colt Cams custom supercharger grind
• Corvette ZR1 Oil Filter
• ATX --> MTX swap
• Centerforce Dual Friction Clutch
• Solid Engine & Transmission Mounts
• Transmission Saver
• B&M Short Throw Shifter
• Custom UHMWP Shifter Bushings

Fuel, Spark & Tuning

• MegaSquirt 'n Spark I v3.0
• Walbro 255LPH Fuel Pump
• Cosmo Racing Fuel Pressure Regulator
• Millenia S Injectors
• Innovate LC1 o2 Wideband
• NGK one-step colder Plugs (Platinum+2)
• Optima Yellow Top

Exhaust & Intake

• Ebay CAI
• OBX Headers
• Vibrant Hi-flo Shorty Cat
• Flowmaster Cat-back

Suspension - On back order

• Canuck Motorsports Springs - Custom spring rating
• Front - Tokico Illumina shocks
• Rear - Tokick Blue shocks

Brakes

• Front Mazdaspeed6 Calipers
• Front Mazdaspeed6 Blank Rotor
• Hawk HPS Pads
• Mazda Protege5 Rear Calipers
• Braided Stainless Lines

Rims and Tires

• Toyo Proxes4

Fluids

• Mobil1 10w30 Full Synthetic
• Royal Purple 75w90

[Raid3n]

i expect the SC is going on while you've got the block out of the car ;D

[- kT]

Good to see the MX6 is...revived

Looking forward to updates!

[bensta]

hmm out in mission eh? thats out in my neck of the woods.. cant recall the neighborhood that those houses are in though. definately newer development probably up top of mission.

good job with klze pickup a friend of mine had a klze mx6 it was tits!

[Lomac]

-------------------- Pictures --------------------


After surfing the local automotive classifieds endlessly for the past two and a half weeks, I found myself a wicked deal. $300 for a red 1993 Mazda MX6 LS with a blown engine. It looks exactly like my old one, save for the fact that it's cloth instead of leather and is an automatic instead of stick. However, for freakin' $300 it was almost impossile to go wrong. The body is in fantastic shape and even comes with virtually brand new tires (the same ones I recently paid $1000 for on my old MX6.

Day one consisted of having the car towed from the Richmond Auto Mall all the way to a buddy's place out in Mission.



While that was going on, we swung by Nagasaki JDM Motors (yeah, yeah... I know) and picked up a replacement engine, a curved neck KLZE. Once the car found its way into Mission, we started everything off with us pulling the cams out of the original KLDE engine and shipping them off to Colt Cams to get 'em reworked.





Day two (today) I started the tear-down of the replacement KLZE and did some basic maintenance. Out goes the original waterpump, timing belt, ZE manifold and various gaskets.





Damn, it looks clean under that valve cover.


The automatic transmission that came with the replacement ZE was torn off ASAP.


Random photo of my GTI and a buddy's Probe while taking a break from engine work:


Hopefully I'll have this car on the road by the end of Sunday night, though I'm having doubts. I just had my alternater rebuilt and some how I managed to lose it. Uh oh...

[godwin]

Do you have some kind of fixation with red probes? Please double check the electricals this time!!

[Crossbone]

how much was the tow?

[originalhypa]

Sweet.
I was waiting for version 2 point Oh! to come out, especially after the last, er, incident.

Always remember, the more the booze flows, the less work will get done. And be sure to double check torque specs. After a couple, guys forget which bolts are still loose.

[Lomac]

May 27, 2008

Okay, so the engine swap has been taking far longer than we expected. I guess that's what happens when your best laid intentions are swept aside as soon as friends start coming over and the beer, rye and vodka starts pouring freely. Ah well. The KLZE and transmission has been installed and the wiring harness was all connected. I'm only waiting on a replacement driver side transaxle before I can finish putting the car back together and taking 'er for a rip.

Out comes the blown KLDE engine


Whoops, knocked out the torque converter and spilled the remaining transmission fluid onto the garage floor... kitty litter to the rescue!


KLDE hangs freely


Hrm, is that enough room for an LS1?


Staging area... Ooo, pretty KLZE on the stand


Stupid power steering pump wouldn't go on properly... Jon got mad


Our go-juice for the day... multiple cans of Coca Cola and Rockstar



An SRT4 decided to stop by and say "Hi"


EDIT

She runs!!!

So happy. Finally managed to show it her new permanent bed.

Now I've got to pull some tranny error codes to find out why it's stuck in second gear...

[Lomac]

Originally Posted by Crossbone

how much was the tow?

Zilch. Nadda. Zero.

I take full advantage of my BCAA platinum membership.

[aznboi128]

Originally Posted by Lomac

Zilch. Nadda. Zero.

I take full advantage of my BCAA platinum membership.

lucky........

[hk20000]

good thing a good ol Mazda experiment (of fitting V6es into a small coupe) is being rescued!

No MT swap though?

[originalhypa]

Originally Posted by aznboi128

lucky........

no, smart.
Every car guy should invest in a BCAA membership. You never know when you'll blow a tire, and can't fit a jack under your dropped ride.

[Lomac]

Originally Posted by hk20000

good thing a good ol Mazda experiment (of fitting V6es into a small coupe) is being rescued!

No MT swap though?

You'd better believe that a manual transmission is going in. I just kept the automatic in there for the time being because I needed some parts. However, I've got a line on a donor car that comes complete with a five speed that's just waiting for a trailer.

Originally Posted by originalhypa

no, smart.
Every car guy should invest in a BCAA membership. You never know when you'll blow a tire, and can't fit a jack under your dropped ride.

It's so true. My membership has saved my ass so many times that I'm sure they actually lose money on me. I managed to max out my free unlimited distance tows a couple years back.

[Lomac]

Got me some parts.

Rebuilt M45 Supercharger from a CLK230 w/custom overdrive pulley:


Mmmm, twin-screw/Lysholm:


Need a way to cool that air going into the intake, right?


Bloody t-bolt clamps are damn expensive. Need to find a cheaper vendor:


Finally got my A-Pillar gauge pod. Yes, I realize that there are three different styles of gauges in there. The boost indiglo Autometer will find it's way out of that pod soon enough and replaced with another digital Cobalt-series one:

[aznboi128]

Originally Posted by originalhypa

no, smart.
Every car guy should invest in a BCAA membership. You never know when you'll blow a tire, and can't fit a jack under your dropped ride.

lol

i got bcaa too but never really used it =(

[Crossbone]

what brand of intercooler is that?

[Lomac]

Originally Posted by Crossbone

what brand of intercooler is that?

Ebay.

[Lomac]

So remember how I was saying the transmission would only work in second gear? Well, it bugged me so much that I parked the MX6 and drove the GTI instead. While I did this, I searched the classifieds for a donor car for a five speed swap. A couple weeks went by before I came across a wicked deal. Not only did I find a car with the 5 speed stuff all intact (not to mention a freshly rebuilt transmission), it also came with a whole wackload of new OE and aftermarket performance parts.

As usual pictures are worth a thousand words so I'll let the following speak for themselves (with the aid of some occasional captioning).

Getting the donor car prepped for surgery


Brand new headers from the donor car... they have never seen a single particle of engine exhaust


Trunk full of random parts




Saving the cams out of this transplanted j-spec KLZE engine...


Another donor car present... a never used Centerforce Dual clutch


I'd say the car looks pretty well picked over...



Poor Probe... Awaiting the wrecker's tow truck

[Crossbone]

holy shiet..... how much did you get that probe for?? it has so much goodies......never used before....as it seems...

[Lomac]

Originally Posted by Crossbone

holy shiet..... how much did you get that probe for?? it has so much goodies......never used before....as it seems...

$700

We estimate all the new parts (or swapped in parts) it came with to total over $3000.

I should call this project "The Lowballer MX6." This is going to be the absolute cheapest project I've ever done before. Once the supercharger and FMIC goes in, I'll have spent less than $2000 on both parts and the car (technically two cars ). And for a car that should be pushing 300hp fully tuned, I think that's pretty damn good!

[LoWeR-CaSe-VoWeLS]

hi5 Lomac

also have a red mazda

[Lomac]

Originally Posted by LoWeR-CaSe-VoWeLS

hi5 Lomac

also have a red mazda

But you're only cool if it's a second gen MX6...



Update

She drives under her own power! Woot! Completed the five speed swap yesterday. I got the headers back from the exhaust shop today so they're going to find themselves back in the car tomorrow (hopefully). After that, all that's left to do is bleed the brakes and put her through Aircare. Then once I fail, I'm going to have to buy a new Cat and new o2 sensors.

Ah well. At least it's almost over.

[orange7]

lol.. I never expected to see you with another mx6... haha.. Glad to see you got a cheap deal on that.. $300 from a dealer at richmond automall?

[orange7]

^ How is the mx6 coming along??? any updates?

[Lomac]

Originally Posted by orange7

lol.. I never expected to see you with another mx6... haha.. Glad to see you got a cheap deal on that.. $300 from a dealer at richmond automall?

Nope, private sale. The PO had the car towed to Mazda to troubleshoot why the car wasn't working. The $300 went directly to the diagnostic charges Mazda charged the poor guy.

Originally Posted by orange7

^ How is the mx6 coming along??? any updates?

It's almost ready for the road. I spent the past week bashing my head against the wall trying to troubleshoot why my speedometer wasn't working. I replaced the VSS, sensor plug, fusebox, fuse, and gauge cluster before telling myself "Fuck it" and wired it in directly from the VSS straight into the 12pin going into the gauge cluster, bypassing the entire fusepanel. I'm just wiring in the stereo system and installing all of the A-pillar gauges right now. Hopefully I'll be able to put it through Aircare on Tuesday and it'll pass (though I'm not expecting it to, unfortunately).

[1-AzN-69]

how much did you pay for the motor lomac?

[1-AzN-69]

the KLZE.. i have the exact same car cept i have leather lol.. and i want the KLZE too

[BoostedWagon]

/\ They're usually around 800 ish

Cool job lomac! The old MX6s were very underrated cars. KLZE can be a bolt-on monster too...

[Lomac]

So, just a small update. The first time through Aircare, it failed. Wasn't surprising there. However, what was surprising was that I only failed on NOx. Alatar swung by to help me troubleshoot and we determined that the issue was twofold. The first problem was that I had a busted EGR solenoid valve. Not a problem; I replaced that. Then while trying to figure out why my IAC wasn't working, we realized that I hadn't plugged in one of my harness plugs from the original engine swap. Oh gee. Four of my five CEL codes suddenly disappeared, and I suspect that if the original ATX was still in the car, it would properly work now.

Anyway, took it through Aircare a second time and it passed. Not with flying colours, but it passed. Now I've got two (well, three, if I time it properly) years of tuning before I have to worry about emissions again. Woot!

On with the major modifications.

[Lomac]

Originally Posted by 1-AzN-69

how much did you pay for the motor lomac?

I paid $650 for it. Unfortunately someone else picked it up for me and it turned out to be a curved-neck KLZE, which isn't a true ZE. It has the ZE pistons but the heads and cams are DE-spec.

Originally Posted by 1-AzN-69

the KLZE.. i have the exact same car cept i have leather lol.. and i want the KLZE too

My last one had leather as well. I must admit that I do miss those seats. So comfortable...

Originally Posted by BoostedWagon

/\ They're usually around 800 ish

Cool job lomac! The old MX6s were very underrated cars. KLZE can be a bolt-on monster too...

A buddy of mine is doing an all-engine KLZE buildup right now on his Probe GT. He's done a ton of work on it so far and even with a slipping clutch and no AFPR to compensate for his new Colt Cam grind, it feels a hell of a lot quicker than a stock ZE.