did some work to my daily driver
 

Well, I finally got the mx6 running like I wanted it to and I cleaned it up the other day. Unfortunately I only took pictures of the motor.

But we all know that's the only thing that matters anyway.

Forgive me for only having my camera-phone. It does a good enough job to get the point accross.

Ahh, a clean f2t.

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e3...tures004-1.jpg

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e3...tures006-2.jpg


Accessories? Pffffttt, who needs 'em.

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e3...tures005-2.jpg


And the snail that's running the show.

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e3...tures008-2.jpg

Turbo comparison: new turbo on left, old AiResearch t3 in middle, stock turbo on right

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e3...tures009-2.jpg

Notice also that there is not a fan behind the radiator. The turbo wouldn't clear the stock fan, a slim fan, OR a hacked up slim fan. I ended up running double pusher fans in front of the radiator and so far it seems to be working very well. City traffic + 90* temps = right below the "M" in temp. Other than that, it's always under the halfway mark. Also of note is that the radiator is a one-off that I had built a few years back. It's a custom 3-row built into the stock copper/brass 2-row shell. Overall it's about 1/2" thicker than the stocker, and it works very well.

The turbo? Well, I honestly have no idea what size it is, and I really don't care. hahaha I'm not trying to break any land speed records, and my old turbo was shot, so I just typed in "t3/t4 turbo 3" inlet" on shmeebay one night and ended up with this puppy. Does a great job though. 10psi puts on speed like crazy, and I believe I can run about 16-18 through it on this motor. AFR's are looking good with the wideband, and I got it to idle pretty solid even with the 460 injectors on the stock (albeit chipped) ECU.

Here's a picture of the car, if you're not familiar.

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e3...ah/fds2002.jpg

Next mods are:

1. K-sports are ordered and on the way
2. SS brake lines need to go on + fluid flush and DOT 4 brake fluid.
3. MSD 6a sitting in the trunk
4. maybe make a grounding kit to help these old 80's electronics work a bit more efficiently
5. who knows what else... I'd like to get a set of old 240z fender flares like I've seen on another white mx-6, although I can't recall whose at the moment.

Anyway, just thought I'd share. I'm just happy that it's running well now, and you so rarely see pictures of nice looking mazda f2t motors. I just felt compelled to share mine.

Perhaps you don't know a lot about these cars, but they're fun to work on, pretty reliable, and make gobs of torque for pretty cheap! I only paid $625 for the car, and have been tinkering with it ever since. I would guess it to be in the 200-ish hp/250 tq range at this boost setting, with capabilities of around 270 hp/350 torque as seen by other mx6er's. The current record is 352 whp/ 456 wtq on the stock bottom end. Not to shabby for a 12 valve 2.2!


Thanks all for checking out my car.

Re: did some work to my daily driver
 

The car looks great! I've never seen one of those in such good shape.

Re: did some work to my daily driver
 

I drove one of those once and it was a great car. It was a 4dr so it had the "sleeper" thing going for it too. Nice looking engine and nice snail too

Re: did some work to my daily driver
 

If I could find a 626 GT with a bad motor, I'd so swap all my parts over to it and drive it in a heartbeat. Ultimate sleeper right there. There was an automatic GT 626 in town for a while, but I don't know what became of it. It was also not in the best of shape.

And I'm trying to keep it in good shape. I'm kinda in the process of a "resto-mod" cause it does have some rust, but I'm going to fix and modify at the same time. Chassis-wise, it is still very solid though. These are already rare cars as-is (mine is 1 of 1200 AWS cars sold in the U.S.) but I know in a few more years it will definitely be old school cool!

These cars are similar to the SVX in that they also don't have a big market, but being factory turbo cars, their potential is WAY higher for cheap. It is fun to make everything that is on the car though. I can honestly say that mechanically there isn't anything I myself can't do to the car. I even ported my own head and re-lapped the valves. And in my book that is just good, clean fun. I haven't put together a bottom end yet, but the main reason I like to stray from that is just because I don't have the tools.

Re: did some work to my daily driver
 

AWS= AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I drove a Prelude with that once. I was doing circles around a concrete median. it was fun as heck with the tight turning radius. I even opened the door to watch the tires in the back move as I did it. :lol:

Re: did some work to my daily driver
 

Nevin,
Looks like you're swapping rims/tires between cars (?) ;)
-Bill

Re: did some work to my daily driver
 

Good eye, Bill. :) All 3 of my cars have the same bolt pattern, but the mazda has a wider hole so the slipstreams don't fit it, but I do have 2 sets of rx7 rims with two different sets of tires on them. Gunmetal's with 225's and blackies with 245's. I decided to go with the black rims and wider tires this season on the mx6, and I really like how they look. It looks like it could have been a factory rim, and realy just makes the car look tough with a 245 tire. Factory was 205/55r15 in GT AWS trim. Now sporting 245/45R16's. Much grippier! haha

And yeah, the prelude is the only oher FWD car I can think of to have AWS. Except there's was not as well engineered and did not have a "fail-safe" incase of mechanical failure. I've read a couple stories about guys going sideways down the road at 70 when the AWS went out! :eek:

Re: did some work to my daily driver
 

I have a 90 PGT it had 3 broken manifold studs so I replaced them with OEM parts and Nord-Lock washers. New OEM manifold and a new IHI center section. I'm surprised you don't have a Dutch FSTB
http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r...c/DSCN0286.jpg

Re: did some work to my daily driver
 

FSTB? Psh, I could really care less to have one of those. And besides, if I wanted one, do you honestly think I would BUY it when I could just as easily fabricate one? hahah

I've broken a few studs too in my day. Last time I replaced with stock ones, but this time I decided to do 10mm studs instead. MUCH heftier.

And get rid of that VJ11 and get a REAL turbo. haha That picture is larger than life-size!

Re: did some work to my daily driver
 

nevin....once you get over 15 psi on these mazda motors they will start pushing oil outta the head gaskets......don't ask me how i know this lol......drove a bone stock 89 mx6 all through high school then a 90 gt turbo through college...played with a boost controller a little too much. I envy you're aws car, always wanted to mess with one. All in all I loved driving my mx's they were a riot.

Re: did some work to my daily driver
 

In my experience, I have to disagree. I've been running these motors for about 7 years now, and have never had that problem. They are VERY stout. I even ran a stock turbo at 23 psi for a bit with no problems! Talk about RIGHT NOW torque. hahah

Plus, mine has ARP head studs... :) Turns out they're even cheaper than factory replacement head bolts!