K8 Ordered, KF on Arrival..Now a K8 to KF-ZE swap WTF-TJDM

[JeremyP]

hey guys, iv decided to move into the world of V6 MX-3's as my 4cyl BP is slowly dieing. so i bought a 94 GS for 300 bucks. got the car running at sellers house and it ran very nice for 15 min (front springs were gibbed, one went through tire) backed it out very very slowly and as we were trying to trailer it the car began to smoke like a 5-alarm. at this point papers were signed over already. he was a douche about it and wouldn't give us our money back. head gasket's i'm assuming, as it also drips from passenger side. for the record he said it would pass e-test no problem...hahahaha. i guess he didn't plan on the car running for 35 min with fuel light on..

So, today i drove to TJDM..in Toronto, 2 1/2 hour drive from my place. iv been emailing the guy all week and he said yes he had JDM K8 with 60 to 80k on it for 280 taxes in. upon arrival, NO K8, so he gave me a JDM KF-ZE for the same price. now my questions i was trying to find on the forum, but didn't have the best of luck. this guy said, if we change the intake manifold, or just throttle body then it will bolt up, tranny from my K8 will work, and it will run off the K8 ECU. i found this hard to believe, but i'm very new to the v6 game. was he telling the truth? what am i getting myself into? has anyone done a K8 - KF swap? i read somewhere that there were no production cars in North America with KF motors making parts very hard to find. Please help. I will be doing a write up when i get into it and be sure to document everything.

Thanks A lot
JeremyP

[solo_ryder]

KF swap is the same as KLZE swap, your disty and alty and all that jazz will work

Your issue is that you dont have the ecu probably and its kinda hard to find. In the meantime you can run your k8 intake manifold/tb/injectors and the k8 ecu and the car should run OK for the most part. I would start looking for a kfze ecu right away..

Is it a curve neck KF or a straight neck one? The KF motor was used in asia for the most part, nothing here in this region though.. You can proly source a ECU from ebay or make a WTB post

[JeremyP]

fairly certain its a straight neck, i will post pics after the weekend. thanks., this will get the ball rolling on the swap, and as far as you know, i wont have to butcher any wire harnesses? it will plug and play after i switch everything over.

[solo_ryder]

Yea should be plug and play but that intake mani is gonna be a tight ft you may have to end up modding your car abit to make the IM fit or you can run the k8 one

[JeremyP]

thanks again!, the tranny was my biggest worry. as long as that bolts up, i can figure the rest out, i will deff. start looking for a KF ecu, im sure tjdm has them.

[Nd4SpdSe]

many of the earlier guys have tried the KF and failed. I fear it may not run properly and may not pass emissions without the proper ECU/VAF combo.

[solo_ryder]

Tranny bolts up no problem, motor is almost identical to k8

[WhiteFinish]

Indeed it is very hard to get a KF running good in a mx3.

Try to find the ecu and vaf that come with it. That is probably your best chance.

[Daninski]

Man these guys sell engines???? http://tjdm.org/

Anyway, by tjdm did you mean Tiger Japanese in Toronto?

[JeremyP]

i got it from Toronto JDM or Total Jdm..whichever you want to say..go to www.torontojdm.com
whole list of motors. i got a bp-ze from them last year that will soon be for sale. man this sucks..i just wanted a nice k8 to throw back into it and get er going. now i gotta make the KF work on the 1.8 everything else :S

[JeremyP]

p.s. just checked your link...LMAO!! arise and shine....its time to do a KF swap!!

[Daninski]

Ok so why not call them and get the engine you originally paid for?