Sleeper6's Gold 92GS Updated paint pics!

[AaronTietje]

A 30 hp increase is never a bad thing.

[MrMazda92]

You squirt it and go coilpack? Or go HEI?

Swaps are fun, just plan it all out ahead of time.

[MrMazda92]

I forgot to ask man, how much did your wiring upgrade cost you roughly? Good luck with the coming swap btw!

[Sleeper6]

I forgot to ask man, how much did your wiring upgrade cost you roughly? Good luck with the coming swap btw!

Depending on what you buy I'ld set $60-$100 aside. It doesnt seem like it but all that lil stuff adds up, You'll want 4 decent relays ($4-$15 a pop) the fuse holders (usually $3 a piece) Plenty of larger wire and the various bits like insulating tape and what not. I spent about $50 myself however I work in a parts house on the weekend so its a decent break on price for me.

Ty for the good luck on the swap, If all goes well Ill have aarons probe motor in by sat.

[MrMazda92]

Awesome, that sounds good to me! Reasonable cost for such an improvement, definitely. Did you find the 100w bulbs to be sufficient, or do you think you will dare the 140w ones?

Awesome! Don't forget to keep your MX-3 flywheel, unless you have a lighter one waiting

[Sleeper6]

So new 2.5l is bolted in and all thats left is to stretch the harness connections at the rear o2 and tps and then figure out the snakes nest of vacuum lines... Now if only it wasnt a holiday week and some people would stay at work long enough for me to take some time off and work on it...

[Sleeper6]

Its ALIVE!!

After numerous late nights going over everything the swap is complete! Ild have pics but currently photobucket hates me, lol! The first few nights of having the motor in were quite discouraging as It was put in kind of rushed being as I only had a shop bay for one day to do everything (took a saturday from 5:30am to 11pm to have it all swapped over, new timing belt, harness set in place, new clutch, resurface flywheel, tranfer sensors and bolt it all back together!) Allthough borrowing a techs lift in a dealership has its perks! (Full lift, chain hoist and Air tools! )

Although Big props to aaron on the heads up about switching the knock sensor over from the drivers side as I never would have thought of it till the engine was in, although I did fail to connect the vacuum lines up the first go around with it out so that has to be redone properly as they are all just tee'ld into one and not quite acting as they should (thnk no vris activation) So soon as I can get some proper vacuum lines the intake will be off and lines redone.

My favorite part of this whole thing though is by far driving it from the city on thanksgiving with open headers all the way to the parents house and back. Finally show'ld the neighbors and there subies what a real car sounds like

One question tho is that anyone that did this swap did you have issues with the car dying out with the DE vaf? I think I may have a faulty one as when it was hooked up the car couldnt hold an idle but soon as I swapped in the k8 one it would stay running with the KLo1 ecu, and no longer smelled pig rich. Here I always thought they ran best with the DE ecu and Vaf

[ethand]

Congrats!!
I've not done the swap, but do recall reading that others ran it with the K8 ECU & VAF... One guy in particular who I remember did this was a mechanic on the other side of Australia who's had significant amounts of experience with Mazdas & plays with them in his spare time. I think he'd done the swap 3-4 times (his DD, race car, and then at least one other mates 30x), pretty sure all of them ran the K8 ECU & VAF... (But please do correct me if I'm wrong/misguided here!!)

[Nd4SpdSe]

Congrats!!
I've not done the swap, but do recall reading that others ran it with the K8 ECU & VAF... One guy in particular who I remember did this was a mechanic on the other side of Australia who's had significant amounts of experience with Mazdas & plays with them in his spare time. I think he'd done the swap 3-4 times (his DD, race car, and then at least one other mates 30x), pretty sure all of them ran the K8 ECU & VAF... (But please do correct me if I'm wrong/misguided here!!)

K8 ECU and VAF is the worst combination for a KL, you've got a combination for a ECU that think's it's a K8, but it's not. You've replaced nothing to go with the fact that there's a totally different motor in there.

[Ryan]

I ran K8 ecu and JE50 for about 200 km. Ran like a dream.

O2's were confused though. But its not as bad as you think, you're running KL injectors, and with the rich stock maps, its totally safe...

K8 combo has 180cc's on a 1.8.

KL has 220cc on a 2.5....

[Sleeper6]

*fingers are crossed*

But its alive for sure, well so far. I researched a few odds and ends here and there and decided that after swapping regulators around that the only real variable I had that would affect the car that much would be the VAF so I swapped in the KL one I still had that previously wouldnt run in the car at all, and she ran! And holds a decent 800rpm idle. *whew*

Going to run it till the weekend then dump out the old petrol infused oil and am going back to castrol syntec and oem filters, no more mobil for me on this motor. Then I will probably relearn the ecu once more as well. I hope she continues to run as well as she is atm as I got into it a little bit on the expressway coming home and its a whole new beast again.

I love straight exhaust with no restrictions, I may not have that stock sound any more but this new tone is growing on me.

[ethand]

K8 ECU and VAF is the worst combination for a KL, you've got a combination for a ECU that think's it's a K8, but it's not. You've replaced nothing to go with the fact that there's a totally different motor in there.

Oops, my bad! I must've read it wrong, then... I'll go back & check what it was that he was running from the K8 on the KL, though I was sure it was that VAF & ECU haha... geez my memory's great
Ah well, glad you got it sorted, Sleeper6, and enjoy the new beast

[Nd4SpdSe]

I ran K8 ecu and JE50 for about 200 km. Ran like a dream.

O2's were confused though. But its not as bad as you think, you're running KL injectors, and with the rich stock maps, its totally safe...

K8 combo has 180cc's on a 1.8.

KL has 220cc on a 2.5....

Back in the day, some people didn't know better and didn't change their ECU or VAF, couldn't pass emission test and their fuel mileage sucked. Myself included for the week I drove it before my KL36 came in, my god my fuel economy was atrocious! What worked was the KL31/36 and the Je50, it was even the sought after combo for Mx-6/Probe drivers with the KLZE swap until they got their Probinator. I feel like I keep repeating myself like an old man, but those days we were in the 30mpg easy, passing e-test without even using the hot rod status, 14sec 1/4 mile, some even getting into 13's with slicks. One buddy was 13.511@98 with bolt ons to a straight neck in his MX-6 (12's with n20). The DE ECU/VAF combo seemed to do the trick for others, but the K8 ECU/DE VAF was back then just a temporary/cheap solution. Remember, we were paying $250+ for a KL31/36 ECU back then.
viewtopic.php?f=22&t=34647
(ignore my times, I think that's gotta be my first or second time ever on the strip with my new ZE, lol)
(FYI: bonestockkid was a plain DE with bolt ons)

Now people say that KL31/36 ECU's run rich and K8 ECU/JE50 runs a KLZE just fine....I don't get it.

[IMACHU2]

My straight neck KLZE with the JE50 and MX-3 ecu ran pig rich. In my mind (with stock parts) you can't beat the JE50 KL31/36 combo. It is the way Ma-Mazda intended it to be. The VRIS points are all correct too, well at least for the straight neck. The price of the KL31/36 has come way down, usually under $150.00. Seems to be an endless supply of them in Australia. I got mine from e-bay, and since Mazda ecu's appear to be indestructible you can buy a 18ish year old ecu from a foreign land off ebay with confidence

[ethand]

Haha I figured out what it was that this mechanic kept from the K8... it was the manifold! Ha ha... close to an ECU and VAF...
@IMACHU2 Serious? There's an endless supply of anything in Australia?!?! ha ha... the only thing we seem to have lots of is space... and a fair bit of that isn't exactly useable space, really! HAhaha