Hey guys.
Just thought I'd show you my beast.
This is my 9th ba. 8th v6.
This one will be in my will.
The engine blew after one month of owning it. So i thought it was an ideal opportunity to try a 2.5l lump. I sourced one from an mx6. Much agony later, it was in and purring like a Manx cat. Since then I've put 10mm race leads on, iridium plugs, direct cold air induction, lowered on eibach springs, dimpled and grooved discs all round and a straight through pipe up to two cherrybombs.
Many more things coming......

Some more pics....

I love that rear bumper and exhaust sticking out both sides, I bet she's less than quiet lol can I ask what wheel spacers you're using for the rx8 wheels

Hello mate.
25mm spacers on the back, nothing on the front. 225/40/18 tyres all round. No rubs.
And yes... it's very loud. At 50 in 5th it sounds like a squadron of spitfires. At full chaff it sounds like the opening scene in the cannonball run!
It's marmite for the locals.....

Some more.....

Nice car and nice work dude.

What front splitter do you have on there?

i know what you mean about the 50 mark, I've got the ze in mine and sounds lovely except 50-60 in 5th. its like the whole car starts resonating the sound lol lovely deep purr on tick over and lovely when it screams but 50-60 is just a droning sound

Thanks mate.
It's a JDL tuning front lip.
Side skirts are ready to go on.
It had them originally but one decided to fly off while doing a little over 65 on the m40......so bought a new pair. I salvaged original side skirts and mud guards for the time being.

Bloody nice though. Especially when wall to wall in built up areas.
A lot of people say it's the loudest car in the area.....haha
When i put my foot down the rumble literally explodes out the back....!

yeah my neighbors love me when i'm out tinkering lol i'd love to floor it through a tunnel, its actually on my bucket list lol

My neighbours just call the police......pfft....

I've done the tunnel thing....!! Dartford tunnel is awesome for it!!!

Brucey, are they still doing the tunnel run through the tyne tunnel, took the old chavalier through there one night, had a cherrybomb on the old gal.....smiling now while reminiscing lol

Nice.....
I have the chrome downpipes ready to fit too......
Can't wait!

Where are you based buddy? Car is looking sweet, by the way, some great work going on

Thanks mate.....
Might put the skirts on this weekend. Annnnd. Just been watching 323f vids on youtube.....! Gonna do one tomorrow. The one i watched first was off here. Forgot what the standard one sounds like as I'm used to my cherrybombs.....which i didn't like at first....but...haha
I'm north oxford.....

You may notice the paintwork on the front and rear bumpers is a little wobbly. The guy i bought it off said he'd hust spent 1800 quid fitting the kit and respraying it. However first time i washed it the paint on the bumpers started slipping and warping..... not adhesive primer used. And it was a poor job all round really. And being as the engine blew after 4 weeks, I've been concentrating on the engine and running gear.....which was also very ropey. Just anti rollbar bushes and tie rod ends and everything will be new. Incidentally I've changed the bloody droplinks and ball joints on every one I've had .....haha. but there's nothing quite like the feeling of driving a car you properly know.....

Repairing the bumper and proper view of the satnav.

Smurf, I dont know if they do the tt run anymore,I did happen to get there just as it was re-opening from a break down removal when i had a straight 6 Bmw with twin dtm pipes and it sounded awesome but the ze sounds better without the tunnel so i really need to go through it. I'm liking the double din, I wasnt sure if they would look right in these cars when I was looking for a DAB but it looks gr8. I just wasnt sure with our radio spaces being so low down compared to newer cars

Works really well. Doesn't suffer too much from bright weather and it's a bit stealthy down lower too....
There was a bit of modification needed behind where the shelf was and the surround that came with the cage was 12mm too small to properly fill the space so take heed of the measurements before you buy....

Just a quick question....
When accelerating i really feel the power bands as the valves open. One at 4k and another at 5k. And it does this in 5th too!! I'm just wondering if I'm lacking power up to 4k until the first valve opens. Anyone else with a 2.5 conversion get the same thing? I had issues rerouting the vacuum pipes and it took a while to tune.
Or am i just being fernickerty?

Its not a lack of power as such its just changing power curves, 1st stage gives more power lower down than if any of the valves were open but higher up the band it would lose power so it changes the length of the intake by opening the valves at diferent points to give us 3 power curves and maximizing power over a larger rev range. I think this was porsche's influence on our cars because i've seen a similar system on them

Indeed. Do you feel them quite strongly? When i hit the first power band it's as if I've gone from half acceleration to foot to the floor.....
Not complaining but just thinking something needs adjusting as higher end power is so much more ferocious.
By the way.....it's such a torquey engine as i found with the 2.0l that i can potter about in 5th at 1000 revs.....

I found the tps sensor adjustment smoothes it out, mine was slightly out before and it was like a 2 stage turbo when I hit the vris points. Not that I didn't like it but did make some roundabouts and corners a bit more lively than necessary lol

Ah yes....I'll have a play with that. I think it may be a combination of needing the timing fine tuned....the tps...and the air/fuel ratio....
At the moment my air is turned right down......the screw is about 3/4 of the way down, the lowest I've had one set. However this is with a cold air feed, iridium plugs, 10mm leads, and the straight through pipes..!!
It is also my first F with a 2.5 in it.....

Incidentally would you happen know the differences between the ze and de variants? I read the thread mentioning the oval and square inlet manifold ports but the one off my original engine plus my donor have oval...and i believe i read that they are from the de engine. Do you or anyone else reading know any more? I'm actually just curious about the horse power. It feels like it's running at around 220ish bhp at the mo, going on othe cars I've had.....

Done a little digging and found this....
http://www.oocities.org/viv95pgt/klze.html

So upon checking, i have the klde variant which started at 165bhp.....

yeah looking at your pics its the oval intake. The squared ports and long neck on the intake, slightly higher compression pistons are the main differences between the DE and ZE. Though for some strange reason the DE has better valve springs and retainers to cope better with high revs. Running on the BA ecu you shouldn't even get full power, unless thats just the ZE. I find it hard to believe that the zxi could produce 147 bhp from 2.0 then when you add an extra 500cc it would struggle to add 20 odd hp. mathematically it should be around 180 but these are engines not maths questions and each engine is slightly different. I'm looking at a way to run mine on the xedos ecu but the wiring looks like a right pain in rear to sort out. its the only original mazda KL ecu thats capable of measuring boost without going aftermarket and runs a less restrictive maf and separate intake temp sensor, also runs the knock sensor

....i was under the impression they downtuned the engines for the European markets...? I had a new engine put in my first v6 ba back in 2003. It was a jdm one (apparently) from nippon spares. It was notably quicker and i then found it was supposed to be already a 165bhp unit. A 2 litre....
I may be wrong....it's just what i was told. Actually i sold that car to a guy called marc who posted it on here after he put a body kit on it (obviously i didn't like it..haha) then i think he wrote it off. I'd replaced pretty much every suspension component. ....i was gutted.

I'll keep an eye out for your ecu escapades. Can the standard ecu not be reprogrammed? Forgive me as I'm sure this has been answered somewhere on this site. However, you're saying boost....i assume you're referring to applying a turbo?

yeah the jdm one will have been the kf-ze. 10.1-1 compression instead of 9.5-1 ,squared intake, knock sensor and no egr system. The cams are higher lift also and different ecu. They were known as the lantis type r and i Think they were around 180 bhp. I have the type r ecu but finding where the knock sensor plugs in, is mission impossible and I'd have to bypass the immobilizer, easy enough to do but leaves the car more vulnerable to a passing toe rag. I'm not saying you aren't running 200+ with the DE engine in but I would be surprised if you were only getting the spec 165, especially with the mods you've done. I did read one of the guys on here dyno'd his ZE running on BA ecu with a cat back system on and got around the 200 mark but without running the knock sensor and still running the restricted air flow meter the max ze power wasnt there. I think it'd be interesting to see what the KL-de output in a BA set up really puts out on a dyno, personally I wouldn't be surprised if it was more than 180. And lets not forget it has a lot more torque than the 2.0, which is the force that pushes you into your seat and stretches the grin muscles

Chrome headers are on!!!!
What a pig of a job!