MX-3.com

so anyway, has no EGR, straight intake so i'll have to probably move something under the hood but not a big deal. Then only thing is it looks like it was on fire at one point lol. Also, i pulled the cam cover and it was very golden brown with no sludge at least. Looks like at least 100,000 km with not good oil change intervals. The vacume lines are in mint condition and the plugs look good. The look properly burned.

Question, when i tear it down for the rebuild, do i have to get the head machined as well as the bottom end because its all alluminum??? I have no frikin clue?? I know the head need machining but what about the bottom end????

You can take it to a shop and have them use feelers to see if it needs it. How much of a teardown are you planning on doing? If just head gaskets, then just have the heads re-done. I installed some new head gaskets on my K8 and only had to deck the heads. If you suspect that someone overheated the engine or came close to it, I would do both to be safe.

Thx man. That helps. I'm doing a total teardown for fun and to learn.

Quick question...Why did you go with the K8ZE? As I understand the later models only produced 144hp. I seen them when I was buying my KLZE and they weren't that much cheaper...in some cases more expensive then my motor from different importers.

Pritchett wrote:Quick question...Why did you go with the K8ZE? As I understand the later models only produced 144hp. I seen them when I was buying my KLZE and they weren't that much cheaper...in some cases more expensive then my motor from different importers.

got a problem W/T the k8ze?? lol jk not evey one wants a Klze maybe he wants to be original k8 but just W/T a jspec motor . my K8ze is awesome like the way it performes but having the Klze would be nice but any ways i say you rebuild the whole motor and boost it Bro

mikeetown wrote:Thx man. That helps. I'm doing a total teardown for fun and to learn.

I did the exact same thing. Needless to say I ended up swapping in a DE. The engine I rebuilt did run nicely.

Pritchett wrote:Quick question...Why did you go with the K8ZE? As I understand the later models only produced 144hp. I seen them when I was buying my KLZE and they weren't that much cheaper...in some cases more expensive then my motor from different importers.

The K8 was never rated at anything over 130-135hp: 135hp being the K8ZE. The KFZE was rated at 140 to 170hp

A little exerpt from wiki (I know)

The 1.8 L (1845 cc) K8 is among the smallest production V6 engines ever; and also the first K-series engine to be used in a Mazda car (in the Mazda MX-3). It was a DOHC 4-valve design with VRIS and a 75 mm (3.0 in) bore and 69.6 mm stroke. It produced 130 hp (97 kW) in US trim (sometimes referred to as "K8-DE"), and 135 hp (101 kW) in Japanese trim (the "K8-ZE") on introduction in 1991 and 144 hp (108 kW) and 115 ft·lbf (157 Nm) at its best.

This is where I got the 144hp figure from

Wiki is open to anyone to edit and add to their articles...not everything is right. I saw that in there too after I posted my last responce, I should edit that out.

have fun with the K8ZE, it should be a fun experience

Nd4SpdSe wrote:Wiki is open to anyone to edit and add to their articles...not everything is right. I saw that in there too after I posted my last responce, I should edit that out.

Thats why I put the (I know) in there, because anytime anyone quotes something from wiki you get the response you just gave.

So are you positive the later years didn't produce 144hp? I haven't seen any dyno's/evidence to support or falsify these claims, have you?

Exactly. I knew what you mean, just confirming that I understood that I knew what you meant.

I've never, ever heard or came across anything to say that the K8ZE makes anything over 135hp. Over the last few years, people started to say it made 140hp, now it's upto 144hp. In another 5 years, the K8ZE will be saying that apparently they're making 170hp and the ZE's 240hp

lol..awesome, then im going to wait 5 years to install my ZE so I get 40 extra hp..WOOT!!

Pritchett wrote:lol..awesome, then im going to wait 5 years to install my ZE so I get 40 extra hp..WOOT!!

You also forgot to mention how much more torque you will have


its a night and day difference from a k8ze even a kfze to a k31 cammed ze.

so, i'm working on this biach lol. And, I cant get the crank pully off. I put 2 bolts in the pully to use a crow bar for leverage(there are holes beside the nut holding it on) and one of them broke the steel off (friend is f&(&^n rowdy) and now i need a new way to get the centre nut off.

Question: is the nut thats on there turn to the left or is there a locking tred pattern where i turn the nut off to the right on the engine???????????? to get it off. I hope its to the left cause i've even already impacted it for a bit but stopped to ask some advice on here.

Man, the K8-ze i got is CLEAN so i'm pretty haPPY. Under the cams its a very light golden brown, everything was still coated in oil, i love it. even the timing belts is great but i'm replacing it anyway if i can get the fu&^*n thing off today.