MX-3.com

this is what i started out with except the alloys



then i added the spoiler, exhaust etc



i have then not used the car for around a year maybe more. the idea of getting rid of her has crossed my mind numerous times. Living in england it has been very expensive getting the parts i wanted for this car and in honesty it would cost me about the same or less to modify a supra but my money has already been put into this car. i have an engine transplant to do, plus lots of body work. this is going to be a journey showing you what i have done and how i have done it.

there are 2 sides to my project the first is my engine transplant. i managed to get myself a new unfitted k8 engine from a guy who worked at mazda.

however the engine needs to be completely setup. the k8 is going to be more than suitable as i have alot planned for the exterior of the car.
i have started to prep the car to take out the current engine:


the second part is the body i had imported an evo style front, drift sides, pak rear, carbon invader hood, flared arches and 18" chrome rims:

i've started on the engine transplant. the first thing i needed to do was get an engine hoist:



i took off the hood and made a note of all the wires and connectors. i prepped the engine and removed it from the car:




as i'm doing the engine swap on my own it's taking a long time and alot of effort. i'm going to get my dad to help me set up the new engine.

as i have no previous mechanical experience this is a real learning curve like the nut and bolt monster. i believe in the nut and bolt monster as i have no other explanation for my missing nuts and bolts.
i made detailed notes and spilt oil on them lol

Man I dont think thats the best idea putting your nice rim under your car!! But Ya looks cool!!! Its easy to pull the engine out of are cars!!

good to see its all started!

Whne its all finished would be good to see you and garfy go against each otherdown the pod!

the rims are my winter beater rims

it's only gonna be another 1.8, i'm buying another one to drop in the ze lump.

Looking good mate, glad you decided to bite the bullet and rebuild the mx-3.
I would have loved to do my engine swap myself but i chickened out !!, atleast when youve finished the 1.8 rebuild your find it easy to whip in the 2.5 into a mx-3.
Dont think ive ever seen so many uk mx-3 projects. Maybe the uk mx-3 scene is on the up.

the last couple of days i've been a little bit stuck with my project as the weather is really unpredictable, and my bro's car is in our garage. However, i have been polishing the front valve cover, manifold, water inlet, throttle body, (going to do fuel rail).

I have also prepared the engine mounting brackets, radiator shroud and a few other engines pieces for painting

painted a few of the engine parts today :

mod's list so far:

evo 5 style front,
drift sides,
pak rear,
pak rear spoiler,
fender flares,
carbon inverted hood,
lambo doors,
18" chromes,
twin exit zaust,
altezza rear lights,
tinted rear oem lights,
polished valve cover / mani + other parts,
polished headers,
srd products,
s/s clutch line,
drilled & grooved front and rear rotors,
s/s brake lines,
blue silicone hoses,

You know that little piece on the bottom of the pic you don't need to put back on right? That's the piece on the alternator? I took mine off. Just got in the way, and serves no purpose as far as I can see.

grrrrr
had a bit of a bad day today... the bodyshop want double the amount they made me think they were going to charge. Ah well going to take it to the origional garage i was going to take it to... only problem he wants it for around 2 months

getting a bit carried away with this ripping the car apart



you can probably just about make out that i've been painting inside the engine bay. I'm shotblasting out all of the rust that's built up over the years then i'm painting it with rust treatment and painting the interior of the engine bay black.

Further parts i took off today for cleaning and an example of the rust build up we get in the uk. Don't know if you guy's stateside get this 2?


i'll post further pictures when the parts are cleaned up. This project just keeps snowballing.

here's a little bit cleaned up and painted

I've got all the parts from srd and boy what a pain in the a$$ to fit lol. Drilling out the old bushings and stuff was actually quite hard work should have the parts installed tomorrow and i'll take some pics of the bushings and short shifter fitted

i also got the patch welded that i needed sorting and now i've painted the whole area looks almost like part of the car. I was going to put a new sill on the passenger side, however, mazda don't make sills they have the front 1/4 and rear 1/4 lol. All in they wanted nearly £500 and all i wanted was a sill i'll save the cash and sort it myself.

going to be buying the civic projectors i think for this project as a i need turn signals in the front and the whole subaru headlight thing isn't going to work i don't think