my lil brother in law just got an MX-3 and its a nice looking car. I'm still not sure i understand the idea behind a 1.8 v-6 but mazda did come up with other crazy motors. well im asking around to see if anyone has any advice on this car, its his first car so its not gonna be a track or track car. just lil things to look out for or people with parts also...thanks

 

The coolest mx-3 i know of around here belongs to a gentleman named Xclusive. you can find him here on tr.

 

The 1.8l is a debored destroked 2.5l. They did that so the mx-3 wouldn't compete sales wise with mx-6. Best bang for the buck is to swap for the 2.5 in either the kl(us spec) or kl-ze(jspec) flavor. You'll need the engine, ecu, vaf . Reuse the intake manifold off the 1.8l (k Bingo! About 30 - 50 more hp and torque. The biggest thing to watch out for is the disty. The igniter module will crap out at some point and the intake tube will crack and cause bad idle.

 

yeah i have an mx3 and an mx6 the mx3 has a klde swap in it still working on it but im interested to see what its going to run. The mx-6 for being the 15 yr old car it is has some balls. U can find the engines for fairly cheap and the motor is a direct drop in.

 

haha, thanks Nate. Anyway there are alot of different things you can do with the mx-3 but you have to decide what your goals are and if you want to go the v6 route or i4 route. No where near a honda aftermarket, but if done right come out pretty bad ass. I personally would do an n/a swap then turbo it like i did, but then everyone wants somethin different. Any questions just ask, Lates.

 

1.8L v6? Those are some little baby pistons, like streetbike ones.

 

I was under the impression that you would need a front clip as a doner to do a v6 to i4 swap or vide versa. Lots of wiring and various other crap. There was a guy that had a supercharger on his klze. I think the kit was "knight" or something along those lines. Also another guy was running a turbo klze. He shattered a couple axles.

 

yeah i have 3 mx3's 2 of the have the 2.5 swap and the one im working on now have the JDM KLZE KL31 swap and in the middle of boosting it (pain in the ass!) but well worth it. Ive done tons of swapps and only deal with the v6 motors so if have any questions just let me know....