Brothers old MX3 Project came to me this weekend.

[the wraith]

Well a bit of back story first i suppose.

My brother who im sure was a member here, owed this 92 GS. He had the 1.8 to 2.5 Swap done. He lost interest in the project and discontinued the project and it became a fixture in the field out back of the house.

Now years later (almost 8 to be exact), Myself, a Probe/MX6 Fanatic who has had both DE and ZE engines in both the Probe GT and my MX6 LS, has decided to pick up where he left off.

The car when i picked it up this past weekend looked better than i though. Paint is as i imagined. Gone. lol.
Engine, besides the rats nest i had to clean out, wasn't to bad.

After further inspection, and cleaning everything out i ran across a few things.

1 - The harness isn't as bad as we thought. Only chewed up the temp sensor wires. Though if i want to remove the alarm system which i do, it would be good to replace the harness. But replacing the whole thing would be a pain in the a--.



2 - Guessing the Disty Cap wires were cut for the MSD Ignition.







3 - All of the 8.5mm Plug wires were chewed though. Will just replace those along with the MSD coil wire to the PRD Disty Cap.



4 - Battery was relocated to the Hatch. Though getting lower voltage causing the fuel pump to not work. Im guessing a bad ground. Though i am keeping it in the back, im running new ground to the Frame, and not to the Seat bracket he had it grounded to. Also going to run a ground from the engine to the frame to ensure a proper ground. Thinking of ordering a whole new grounding kit, like we used to have for the probes when they had bulk buys going on years ago.

5 - I need to get a better intake for this set up. I need to find a aluminum TB Boot, and find a TB Boot to VAF that will go where the battery was located. His boot is the old rubber stock one that's ripped all to hell.

6 - Other than above things, i think i just need to find someone to do the electrical work, and get someone to do other engine work if any is needed and i think it will crank and run.

Pictures located here: http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y46/coltongrundy/MX3/
Things done to the MX3 thus far:
2.5L DE Block, Heads, and Intake Manifold
ZE Pistons
Colt Cams
MSD Ignition
Hot Shot Headers
PRM Intake
2.5" Exhaust running into a Magnaflow Muffler
Tokico Illuminas
H&R Springs
ACT Stage I Clutch
B&M Short Shifter

Car looks rough from sitting for 8 years, but im sure it wont take much to get it back up and running strong. If anyone has any input or comments let me know. Nothing is set in stone yet, but im ready to get going on the project.

[mitmaks]

looks like cool project, keep us posted

[MrMazda92]

Was it a freebie?? If so, lucky!

Either way, welcome to the forums =) I think you'll find it to be very pleasant here! Sometimes replies are slow in coming, but we have a much smaller user base than ProbeTalk; Despite that, people are willing to go to great lengths to help. I would like to stress ahead of time the importance of using the search feature, and I'd like to let you know that sometimes it requires some fine tuning.

A good alternative to the search feature here(way better, I think) is to go to google and type the following: "MX-3.com" <insert search query here>

You probably already know how that works, but it's a good point that it works better than the in forum search by far.

Welcome to the forums, and I hope you get the car running smoothly soon!

If you need anything that you feel I could assist with, feel free to shoot me a PM.

[Mooneggs]

wow looks like a good project. I like how that muffler looks!

[Josh]

What a great car to start with... Has all the right parts hopefully the interior looks good, and is not gone from sitting. You should start a Work Log

[the wraith]

Interior is perfect even after sitting. No signs of interior flaws what so ever. No cracks in dash, no bubbling, seats are cloth and just a tiny bit faded, but they werent ever Black. More like a dark greyish color. Just have to replace the tint thats all.

[the wraith]

Been a few weeks of ordering parts now from here and there.

Needed:

*New Plug Wires:
Went with MSD 8.5mm wires, order was cancelled. Discontinued.
Ordered Magnacor Wires from Rafi. Out of Stock and Refunded.
Found some 10.2mm wires made by Vision Motorworks ? Never heard of them, but seem affordable so im giving them a shot. Got them In today and installed. Pics will be down below.

* Needed alot of rewiring and splicing and wrapping. Spent the better part of Yesterday finishing that up. Want to remove the rats nest of wires that the home installed alarm system. Was installed by previous owners before my brother. MSD Box, and blaster coil needed to be cleaned up with all of there wires as well.

* Intake was dry rotted and just nasty. Though old school PRM was the shiz back 8 years ago for the MX3 Scene. Ordered a PGT CAI Kit from ebay, had to cut to fit, but came out nicer than expected. Still will have to redo it eventually.

* Engine bay was covered in a literal rats nest as it was sitting in our field out back of the house for nearly 8 years. Mice/Rats ate wires, insulation, and had nests everywhere in the engine bay. I hosed out, scrubbed and cleaned the hell out of that engine bay. VCs and IM still looked cruddy so i temp painted them till my Curve neck IM and other VCs come in.

* The short shifter in the car was threaded but my brother had his set screw knob on there, i ordered my own tasteful knob, but his set screws killed the threading. I hacked the first three sets of threads off and voila my knob fits.

* Interior looks shiny and pristine just as it was when he drove it daily years ago. No signs of Vermin on the interior of the car. Just alot of debris from traffic in and out of the car. Had to do alot of wiring on the interior for the gauges and working on the voltage issue still.

* Started the sand the clear off the exterior, as we will be trying out some paint choices before we go for a paint job.

* Will need new brakes and rotors unless the rotors come back to life with the surface rust being ground off.

Anyways on to the pics for now as what i have gotten done thus far.

Wiring:

Before:


After:



IM/VCs:




Plug Wires:



Knob:





Intake:


Before:


After:



Randoms:

[mazda915]

sweet man looks great . and good awesome freaken job on getting it all cleaned up . these cars are great cars when taken care of and at times may be hard but never give up on the mx !!

[WhiteFinish]

Nice project !

Why did you ditch the PRM intake ? Can't you just replace the filter ?

[the wraith]

the PRM was really just the filter. It was really dirty and crodie. The rubber on it was gnawed up by mice/rats, and it just doesnt look good to me.

Right now the thing thats left for me to do is remove the alarm on it and splice wires back together and fix the fuel pump as im getting no gas when trying to trun the engine over.

[AaronTietje]

Hey, great car. It really doesn't look bad for sitting 8 yrs.

[the wraith]

Got the Alarm ripped out, alot of the wiring cleaned up and only have 2 things left to do.

1. Figuring out where the door lock wiring goes - as these were tapped into the alarm. Want to return it back to stock.



2. Fuel pump - Getting no fuel to turn the engine over. Has gas in the tank, has spark, but no gas pumping.


Anyways update on some more pictures:

See how far the rear spark plug wires stick up from the Manifold?