OLD Stuff:
It's been a long time in the making...
Engine Mod/rebuild/spec list:
-KLZE 2.5 v6 24 valve
-KL01 cams KL31 cams
-Millenia Curved neck, polished Straight Neck inlet, polished, knife edged / back to curved neck!
-kl67 throttle body kl31 TB, hourglassed
-Cosmo Racing AFPR
-Interprep performance valve springs (7800rpm redline)
-KL03 retainers and keepers
-Ported heads (lightly done - ZE heads already have 3 angle valve job and high flow)
-Polished at exhaust heads
-Knife-edged intake on heads
-Knife-edged intake manifold
-Valves relapped
-New valve seals, oil seals, head gaskets, head bolts, main seals
-New timing belt kit, pulleys, waterpump etc
-Outlaw thermoblok intake manifold insulators
-Spec StageIII clutch - feels good, not too heavy, bit OTT but might turbo this in time to come
-Fidanza 9lb flywheel
-Polyurethane/windscreen adhesive filled engine mounts AWR engine mounts
-amazing-A whole lot of cleaning
-Taipan carbon fiber closed filter, running direct hose to foglight hole
Interior:
Special Edition Part leather part light suede buckets
CarPC with 8"touchscreen molded to dash
AEM wideband with custom molded to OEM guage pod
Door speaker volcanoes with alpines (nice but cheap enough)
12" mutant sub wedge 150w RMS
Suspension & Wheels:
KYB rears
-40mm jamex?
Mazdaspeed front strut bar
Rota Boost 17 x 7.5"
Toyo Proxes T1Rs 215/40/17
Exterior:
EU spec bumpers and side
Full length OEM sides
Super/supra style spoiler (wings west) with LED bar
Invader CF bonnet
I bought TommyD's klze last year, we both had a nightmare trying to get a courier to ship it over (all because of a gravel driveway
) So Tom got it moved (he's been a top guy throughout the whole process). In the months it took to get the engine out, palleted, moved, picked up and delivered I went on the hunt for a black mx3, with minimal rust, reasonable mileage and good bodywork. Finally got one, though travelled literally land sea and air in one day to get it back from Newcastle to dirty Northern Ireland 
My first big task was clearing my dad's immense amount of crap out of the garage!
Before Christmas I started to pulled out the k8 engine from the black car
I sanded away all the rust and resprayed most of the engine bay, may as well whilst waiting for the ze!
Whilst it was all stripped away I cut a cold air hose hole, always thinking ahead
I don't care much for fog lights anyway!
I bought some 80a duro windscreen sealant to fill mounts, as a 5% cost alternative to mazdaspeed/corksport/awr engine mounts. They seemed to have really helped firm up the engine mounting.
Finally at Easter the ZE came, after months of hassle from dumb couriers, and Tom having to move the engine somewhere easy for them! I was damn excited! Then I cranked it over using a breaker bar... and rusty water gushed out
was totally pissed! By that night I had the engine in bits...
On the upside the heads were very nice and clean, Tom's approximation of low 40s was spot on, if anything could be younger. On the downside kl01 cams - less aggressive high end, but more grunt down low, I tried to get kl31s from mx-3.com sellers but wasn't to be.
I got the heads off and was in for a rusty shock! Thankfully it was nearly all surface rust and just wiped away
But I did notice some damage to one intake valve (got a new one from mazda for £14)
This is a cut out of the ZE straight neck intake on top of the curved neck runner. You can see the straight neck is a small amount wider, but my cutout was slightly to big. I'd say there's really under 1mm difference. So I went for the curved neck, for aesthetics and to for the nice curve intake, which I think will flow better.
Damaged valve, boohoo, with nice new one in background:
Halfway through removing cast lines and knife edging intake for optimum airflow:
On the way to a light polish, tedious work doing 12 ports. Only exhaust was polished this helps get air out faster with less turbulence, polishing intake would of course detract from the desired swirling of fuel/air mix.
All done
I sexyed up some parts whilst getting my heads skimmed (took no chances there). I imported some crazy purple annodising VHT paint from USA. I wanted something different from usual blue and red, some will slag, but I think it's damn sexy!
) along with ferodo pads and SSlines on the way. My brakes are mega dull atm, ABS is complaining too, replaced one dead sensor and it's still not happy 
Hopefully a good bleed, new discs, pads and SS lines will tighten it up.
As for the letters, you can tape them off the cut out with a blade, or while its still wet, wipe the letters off. If you wait till it dries, you risk chipping off more than what you want too.
) it may be a while before I get where I want to be with my car.
