What kinds of bolt on and add ons can you get for the 94' RS

TrickMX-3 · Post by **TrickMX-3** » March 16th, 2005, 12:21 am

Anyone know what things you can get to add on to the 94' RS MX-3 engine to upgrade performance like manifolds and stuff like that let me know alright im extememly interested.
Thanks

92rsmx-3 · Post by **92rsmx-3** » March 16th, 2005, 8:27 am

theres cold air intakes on ebay. theres a header on corksport.com its kinda pricey $245(for the gains any way).

freyguy_412 · Post by **freyguy_412** » March 16th, 2005, 9:11 am

There isn't much aftermarket for the mx-3, as I am finding out more and more. Anyone here will tell you that the mx wasn't the most popular race car in it's day and finding parts is hard if not imposible.

The thing best to do is start tearing these forums apart. There is unlimited potential to what you can do to these motors, but you will feel like dr. frankenstine, and your car will be your monster. If you don't want to do a motor swap, you might want to start researching miata parts. (if someone wants to correct something i post here, go for it.... i would hate to give bad information.) Your 94 rs is a B6-DE, a low performance brother of the B6-ZE, the 90-93 miata motor, and a very distant cousin from the B6T, the 88-89 American 323 Turbo. Parts from these motors will work in yours with little or no modification. Some examples are the cams from the miata will work as long as you swap the ex cam for the in cam and in cam for the ex cam. A turbo manifold from the 323 will bolt on, just run oil lines and other basics. Miata injectors will work. The miata head may or may not work, I've seen conflicting reports on this. But a B6 block is a B6 block; same oil cooled pistons with different compression ratios across the board (7.8-1 for 323... awesome for boost). I didn't mean for this to be so long, but start hittin that search button. If you have an idea, chances are someone on here has done it and knows if it will work or not. (DISCLAIMER: I am a loyal fan of this site. I haven't done any of this work yet, just researched it so far with info from this forum. My motor is still damn near bone stock, so I do not claim these are guarenteed to work. I am just reposting what I have researched. Please don't kill me.

)

matt_fulghum · Post by **matt_fulghum** » March 16th, 2005, 5:44 pm

swap in a 90-94 protege engine... way more power and torque than stock, and incredibly easy to find parts for.

krishna · Post by **krishna** » March 16th, 2005, 10:26 pm

They make a bolt on Turbo for the 1.6 RS motor... dont know the link, but if you search it, you will find it.
the cost is roughly 2,000.

freyguy_412 · Post by **freyguy_412** » March 17th, 2005, 12:05 am

OUCH! Two grand for a kit, and you still probably gotta buy a piggy back or stand alone f/c.... I'm gonna have to stick with my 323/miata frankenstine project.

matt_fulghum · Post by **matt_fulghum** » March 17th, 2005, 6:33 am

don't bother with a turbo for the 1.6, or ANY performance mods for that matter... the BP swap is really cheap and everything for it is less expensive. Not to mention that racingmazda turbo kit doesn't really add much power at all.

osargeant · Post by **osargeant** » March 17th, 2005, 7:40 am

I have to disagree with the person who said not to turbo the 1.6dohc, infact that is the only way you will only make decent power besides a motor swap. Other mods like intake, exhaust etc will provide marginal gains at best.

Dont discount a turbo 1.6 dohc, I am making well near 200hp, Jarid is over 200hp and I am sure there are others out there with similar results.

These turbo 1.6 DOHCs run anywhere from high 13s to high 14s in the 1/4mile based on setup.

neutral · Post by **neutral** » March 17th, 2005, 9:49 am

TrickMX-3 wrote:Anyone know what things you can get to add on to the 94' RS MX-3 engine to upgrade performance like manifolds and stuff...

If you really want to keep the current motor, assuming it's in good shape, but ya want to punch it up a bit, check out Eugene's cardomain site for ideas. His is a 94 RS and he's done some good stuff with the 1.6DOHC engine. http://www.cardomain.com/memberpage/552384/6 You can also:

Install a lightweight Fidenza or Indigo flywheel and stronger clutch like Exedy or ACT when the time comes.

Install a lightweight underdrive crank pully. I'm getting ready to put mine in when the weather breaks.

Go with a cold air intake or at least drop in an aftermarket filter like K&N or Mazdaspeed foam type for the stock airbox (corksport has em). I have a custom foam filter in the stock airbox and was pleasantly surprised at the increased throttle response.

You can go up to 2" dia. on an aftermarket exhaust. I recently bought a 2" SS axleback set up that's really configured for the V6 (none exist for the 94/95 RS ANYWHERE). Anyway, a local shop will fabricate my midpipe for a catback setup and any work forward of the cat, like flow-thru cat or header will be considered then since mine's a 95 with original cat and downpipe.

Check out the Miata boards. Early models have the 1.6DOHC and better performance internals like camshafts which are reverse-swappable with the MX-3.

Josh · Post by **Josh** » March 17th, 2005, 11:15 am

freyguy_412 wrote:There isn't much aftermarket for the mx-3, as I am finding out more and more. Anyone here will tell you that the mx wasn't the most popular race car in it's day and finding parts is hard if not imposible.

The thing best to do is start tearing these forums apart. There is unlimited potential to what you can do to these motors, but you will feel like dr. frankenstine, and your car will be your monster. If you don't want to do a motor swap, you might want to start researching miata parts. (if someone wants to correct something i post here, go for it.... i would hate to give bad information.) Your 94 rs is a B6-DE, a low performance brother of the B6-ZE, the 90-93 miata motor, and a very distant cousin from the B6T, the 88-89 American 323 Turbo. Parts from these motors will work in yours with little or no modification. Some examples are the cams from the miata will work as long as you swap the ex cam for the in cam and in cam for the ex cam. A turbo manifold from the 323 will bolt on, just run oil lines and other basics. Miata injectors will work. The miata head may or may not work, I've seen conflicting reports on this. But a B6 block is a B6 block; same oil cooled pistons with different compression ratios across the board (7.8-1 for 323... awesome for boost). I didn't mean for this to be so long, but start hittin that search button. If you have an idea, chances are someone on here has done it and knows if it will work or not. (DISCLAIMER: I am a loyal fan of this site. I haven't done any of this work yet, just researched it so far with info from this forum. My motor is still damn near bone stock, so I do not claim these are guarenteed to work. I am just reposting what I have researched. Please don't kill me. )

Only really one thing to disagree with. You don’t want to swap a 323 turbo head on because intake and exhaust ports are way smaller than the MX head, by about 1/2". The MX head is allot bigger giving you allot better flow. You could however swap in the turbo cams from the 323 into the MX, and it would probably do quite nicely.

Also our b6de blocks are different form the Miata B6ze. We have an extra oil passage on the exhaust side of the block that the Miata doesn’t have. I had a miata gasket on my new motor when I got it, BUT when I got the motor in and started, oil everywhere. The miata head gasket wasent made with anything to cover the port so it only covered it about half way. So half of the port was exposed, the gasket covers one port but not the other. Why the machine shop didn’t catch this who the heck knows. But I haven’t looked into it too extensively; I think their might be two different styles, but like I said I haven’t looked into to it really. But I have looked into either swapping the DE into the Miata and it can be done with some minor Mods, same goes with the ZE in the MX. Because the blocks are very close. It might just be since they discontinued the 1.6 Miata in 93, and the MX dohc is 94-95, they could have very well changed a few things. So a Miata head on an older 323 dohc might work.

But a B6 is very good with power providing you have to Frankenstein some or allot of parts unless you have enough money to have some one else do it all for you. The BP is allotting easer platform to start off of. Way more bolt ons, and like what was said it’s cheaper for the power too. easily could be put up to 145 to 150, with bolt ons.

matt_fulghum · Post by **matt_fulghum** » March 17th, 2005, 5:46 pm

osargent: my bad... I was thinking the SOHC when I read about the turbo kit for 2k dollars. http://racingmazda.com/mx3-turbo.htm

the 1.6 DOHC supposedly has just as much performance headroom as any other similar sized 1.6L japanese engine. It'd be harder to find parts for but probably worth it. Overall though for the price of that Stage 1 it'd be cheaper to get an engine swap.

osargeant · Post by **osargeant** » March 17th, 2005, 6:17 pm

Hi Matt,

I agree with you 100% on the point about buying a turbo kit for the SOHC 1.6 MX3. Makes much more sense to do either a BP or BPT swap if you are going to shell out that kind of money.

The main problem with the SOHC MX3 is really that you are starting out with only 88hp which is pitiful really for a sports car.

freyguy_412 · Post by **freyguy_412** » March 18th, 2005, 12:49 am

Thanks josh... i was trying to remember a lot of the research i had done and really was trying not to give bad info.

I want to back up the arguement for the turbo stock B6 DOHC. Yeah, parts might be a little less easy to find, but for the people who only have this one method of transportation, hoppin up your stock motor is your only choice. A motor swap has a lot of possible complications: OBD issues, wiring issues to any and all components, ecu problems, and of course the lovely task of vaccum routing. I am heavily torn on the B6T motor swap myself, but really want to stick to taking this motor and basically converting it to a B6T. When I already have basically the same block and need only a couple of internals and some bolt ons to convert it, it just makes more sense to me. I would rather buy the go fast goodies a few at a time and know I built this motor from scratch, mean while having a car to drive during the week.

Sorry to TrickMX-3.... started the post looking for a few bolt on goodies and suddenly got dragged into the motor swap debate. I've been emailing a guy on here with an all motor 1.6 DOHC and says the motor can be quick as shizzle even with out the turbo. In my experience, the MX-3 stock is the equivilent of Honda's D15A1 (Raced a few civics with this motor, and barely won.) From what I have seen,with proper tuning and headwork, i think our 1.6 has the potential of competing with the B16Z1, every honda tuners favorite VTEC motor. I definatly think the 1.6 is an awesome power plant, just very tuned down for a grocery gettermobile. I think you will do pretty well off with an intake, complete exhaust from header back, and a decent head job with cams to boot (found out HKS, FERREA and ARP make pretty much everything needed for a complete head job...even metal head gasket). But it's all up to you.

matt_fulghum · Post by **matt_fulghum** » March 18th, 2005, 6:30 am

ohhh trust me I know all about the potential problems in engine swapping.... my car's laid dormant in my driveway under a foot of snow for the last month as I've tried to hunt down parts and problems

Really close though, got new gaskets for my intake manifold (which has a vacuum leak) and hoping that'll fix the leak. Maybe even get on the road this weekend? maybe? (doubtful

)

monty73741 · Post by **monty73741** » March 18th, 2005, 12:18 pm

Engine swaps are kool but this is what i think

most bpt & kb6t swaps are done on 1.6l sohc , which from my understanding is a direct bolt in (ie the ecu plugs into the factory harness)

the dohc on the other had can use miata internals & the turbo from a b6t, or a custom manifold, the ECU for the dohc for the b6t & BPT swap are not a direct bolt in so you have to run a haltek.

I like the custom turbo kit because it seems easier than a full engine swap & if you want to just get more hp & not worried about racing or anything that seems the best way to go

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What kinds of bolt on and add ons can you get for the 94' RS

What kinds of bolt on and add ons can you get for the 94' RS

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Re: What kinds of bolt on and add ons can you get for the 94