95 mx-3 rs build

[95_MX3_RS]

Alright, about time I do one of these. Here's the deal.

I've had this car since I was 15 (2007). My dad and I have always done all of the work on it. We actually got the car from a family friend.
The original owner of the car. My parents got it for my first car, and got a deal on it due to the situation the original owner was in. She drove truck and was gone for most of the year traveling. She had put ~125,000 on the car and no longer ran it due to her job and her newer car. So the car sat for probably 2 years. When she moved she went to move the car, and of course it wouldn't start. She then deemed it to be not worth the hassle to fix it, and essentially left it there until further notice.

Luckily my dad was longtime friends with her boyfriend, and had discussed how he was looking to get me a first car. They then struck up a deal. If dad would go pick it up on his flatbed (about 2.5 hours away) and bring it home before the landlord had it impounded; we could have it.

When he got it home, he had another friend give it a quick detail, and determined that it needed brakes, battery, alternator , and a windshield (cracked).

I got it for Christmas that year, fixed with him over the winter and drove it throughout the rest of highschool. And it served me well, a couple of fixes here and there, tires, brakes, etc... but it was a perfect first car.

2nd year of college (end of 2010) she really started burning oil, and running crappy. So we retired her, and I got a 2008 saturn astra. My parents put my mazda up for sale. But thank god nobody bought it! Dad to this day regrets selling his first car, and held on to it for me. We ran it around here and there, but it hasn't been on the road since summer 2011.

About the same time that I got my good job. Now that I'm not a poor college student, I can finally afford to restore the car right, and do what I always wanted to do to it.

So here we are...

[95_MX3_RS]

Long story short. Here is where it stood in March:



And here is where it sits now:



I focused the the engine first. Next is body work/ rust repair, handling, tires. And I plan on running it this summer!

Album with all of the progress photos: http://s1186.photobucket.com/user/Benja ... t=2&page=1


Planned actions:

After inspection and a good pressure check, we decided to rebuild the stock motor.

↙ = complete

Replace / or rebuild motor -Head professionally ported - polished and rebuilt ↙
Pressure wash and scrub↙
Cold air intake↙
bored throttle body
SS exhaust header (stainless steel) -Corksport ↙
Heat wrap hot parts ↙
Full ss exhaust
Cat delete (no emissions test! still legal) ↙
Engine bay tuck- somewhat not crazy. ↙
Port and polish heads ↙
Cams
Perform required services and replace easy to fail components (water pump, oil pump, spark plugs,filters, gaskets, etc) ↙
A/C removal ( Blows warm, and I never use it. Much rather use the sun roof!) -Must remove for new header too. ↙
Replace cracked hoses and other worn out parts. ↙
Battery / fuse box relocation
Paint head ↙
Gaskets ↙
Upgrade valve train ↙
Replace broken coolant hose ↙
Replace broken vacuum solenoid ↙
Replace timing belt covers and splash shields.
Replace timing belt tensioner pulley. ↙
New Piston rings↙
Replace Rod bearings↙
Full gasket set↙
Re grind valve seats↙
Replace Water pump↙
New oil pan and plug↙

Suspension & Handling:
Fix / upgrade brakes ↙
Bigger rims / tires
Lowering springs / coilovers
Front and rear sway bars (front acquired)

Interior:
REMOVE PLASTIC PEDAL COVERS (what was I thinking?) ↙
Clean out spiders and mice etc.. ↙
MOMO steering wheel (stock is mack truck sized!)
Fix passenger side door gasket
Replace water damaged speakers
Short shifter
Tint windows
Remove excess weight / spare tire etc....


Exterior:
Replace missing lip ↙
Fix / or replace Rear bumper
Remove all stickers ↙
Buff for paint.
Paint entire car
Clear marker lights (with LEDS)
Fix locks
Fix gas tank door
HIDS
Fix horn
New splash guards under the car

(if anyone has these parts I am looking for PM me!!!)

[95_MX3_RS]

Total cost so far:

Rear lip - $28.00
Compression tester - $28.00
Valve cover gasket- $43.00 -return ...
Gasket Set - $45.00
Coolant bypass pipe - $10.00
Corksport header - $282.00
Head port,polish, and rebuild - 470.00$
Three way vacuum valve- 80$ RIPOFF
Intake Gaskets- 10$
Decals / Injectors - 5$
High temp Black paint -
Shorter accessory belt -
Bolts - 1$
Silicone sealant -7.49$
O ring seal kits- 17$
Thermostat - 8$
Radiator hose & clamp -
Oil & filter-
Coolant -
Battery-
Brake rotors pads drums and shoes- 90$
Spark Plugs- 24.36$
Idler pulley’s - 29.45$
Piston ring’s - 42.89$
Connecting rod bearings- 16.73$
oil drain plug- 1.33$
Engine gasket set - 60.00$
Crankshaft main bearings- 25.00$
Crankshaft main bearing gaskets - 16.80$
Oil Pan - 50.00$
Beck and Arnley clutch kit- 134.00$
Bypass coolant pipe - new this time 50.00$
Block work- 650.00$
water pump-
Flying Miata ninja tool- 19.70$
Brake drum pistons: 21.98$
Brake fluid- 6.97$
Scotch Brite/ Brake Cleaner/ lithium grease- 17.18$
Oil pressure switch’s- 11.52$
Clutch master cylinder- 28.99$
Fuel injector o ring kit- 8.31$
RTV-7.50$

Total cost: $2,347.20

[mazda915]

Great work man . Love the story behind your mx . I lost my first mx in a car accident but soon after I got an other one and now have two mx3's . Good job on the engine work love the clean set up keep up the good work and pictures.

[SuperK]

great job, glad you went for the full rebuild. Those pistons were pouring oil from the bottom end. The oil control rings seem to like to fail in these engines. Good thing you did it ALL!
Most of the community agree that the OEM body trim is the best looking.
I would recommend the following:
Rear mudguards
OEM side skirts; there are not many readily available options.
the most commonly acquirable sides are the small European version which will run you about 100-150.
they become significantly more rare and expensive.
You have the "mazdaspeed replica" sides, which I haven't seen in a while, but if they do come available, it should be around the 200 dollar range I think.
The only "OEM US" trim was the USDM "full length" sides, which are very rare. They are expensive. For example, I want 800 dollars for my set.
Then you have the JDM "full length" sides, which you would spend big bucks to import, and only show up once every several years. There was one recently that was fairly expensive.

If you consider any front bumper options, the European front bumper has foglights and looks (in my opinion) excellent.
Or you could do a mazdaspeed replica front bumper which also flows very well with the body, and is significantly cheaper than importing a bumper from Europe.

The two best headlight options are going to be the ebay projectors, or German LHD glass headlights. The glass headlights are H4? bulbs or something like that, I'd have to pull mine and look at them again.
Price for either will be similar... glass would be a little pricier/harder to find, however the plastic lenses on the projectors do not hold up well over time and need to be cared for or refinished often.

the gas tank door , if you do not have the cable in the gas door mount, it probably lost the mounting nut and the cable fell behind into the rear quarter panel. you can fish the cable from the interior, just take the interior panel off, then feed the cable back in and add a new nut from your local hardware store. If you need a new gas door... well forget what I said.

the locks you want to use probably lithium grease on the locks, the locking mechanism inside the door, as well as grease up the rails on the sunroof. avoid dry graphite on any locks. It can cake up with moisture and that's no Bueno.

Since you're doing a few performance mods, you can get a quick and easy HP boost with some Miata B6 camshafts. they have a little higher lift/duration. Installation is... backwards, but they're plug and play. I ran some stage 2 integra cams in my B6 and it still idled fine.

I hear good things about the TWM short shifter, a couple mx-3 owners say really good things about it.

when you tint your windows, I would recommend finding a 3M certified dealer. you will get a tint that will not purple over time. I would only go with a 3M product.
I'll be happy to answer any questions you may have. If you are looking for overseas items and don't know where to start, I've done a lot of importing and am able to help there as well.

[95_MX3_RS]

Thanks a lot for the responses, and advice!

I will add more to the thread as my work continues. I expect a lot of progress this spring.

@mazda915, sorry to hear about your first mx-3. Thanks for the the compliments. I'll move more pictures to this thread instead of just photo bucket too.

@SuperK I think you are right on point with the OEM look. I am so happy that the fast and furious phase is over, and more people are improving the oem look while not ruining it. (not hating on anyone that does choose a different route, just my preference)

I'm going to go for the euro side skirts if I can find them, probably the standard rear bumper ( only replacing due to a run in with a lamp post while "drifting" in my young and reckless days) , And I'm not yet sure on the front, but I do like the look of the gs front lip.

@youdirtyfox is a big inspiration in the stance / body work category. And I love his rx7 mirrors....

I'm torn on the headlights, I want the glass for the anti hazing, and I considered the projectors, but I don't want to compromise the look of the car with anything that's too new or non oem. If that makes sense. If I do go with projectors I would do like 6000k or less hids and no frilly leds, halos, etc.... I want function, and non ricey looks.

I am definitely going for the miata b6 cam swap. As far as I know you switch the exhaust and intake and possibly have to modify the cam drive portion for the distributor? And I imagine they are fine with stock valve springs. Integra cams??? How did you make them fit?

Thanks again for the help I will keep you in mind as I am accruing parts!

[SuperK]

integral was the company that did the cam profile regrind, I believe they are long since defunct though.
if you want to go with custom cams, not the stock Miata cams, here's what I would do:
Use your mx-3 cams for the regrind, not Miata ones
http://www.webcaminc.net/ have them regrind the mx-3 cams to their Miata street grind.
That way you have the intake and exhaust cams in the correct orientation, and don't have to do any rejiggering to correct timing and all.

I'll also PM you a picture that may help you decide between headlights (don't want your worklog cluttered with pictures of my car )

[95_MX3_RS]

Well, It looks like it is the end of the road for this old girl...
I got her up on the lift and the under body is too far gone.
And by that I mean it would cost me more to completely rebuild the bottom
and have it painted. than it would to pick up another mx-3. So that's what I did

I just bought "smurf" mx3_ryder's 93 gs.
And I'm in love ! The KLZE get's me sexually excited every time around 6k lol
And he has all the good rare trim on it.

I've still got this car, and have it up for sale. If there are any parts you guys are interested in,
or the whole car. Let me know. I can't seem to post in the for sale section yet.

A couple good items that are definitely for sale are a front strut tie bar and a flying miata cam locker tool.
craigstlist ad: http://burlington.en.craigslist.org/cto/4572364895.html

[Savin]

If you were closer, I'd snatch it up for the engine. Mine's getting tired with over 200k miles on it.