Im2bad4ya - '92 RS BP Journal/Suspension Stuff - "Lucky"

[im2bad4ya]

BP SWAP

Just finished my BP swap.......what a journey!!!........I'm gonna throw in my two cents, and lots of thanks to Ryan and Dark_Rider2k3 for much needed info!

I used a combination of Typhoonk's BP swap journal from the 4cyl FAQ, and the "let's band to make a real BP guide" from the 4cyl Technical page. Both are very helpful but I still needed help from those who've already done a swap.

Anyway, I don't have many pics of the whole entire process, but I will share what I did take. Before I do that, let me just run down my setup. I bought a lot of parts and pieces but will only list the ones I used for the swap.


PARTS
1994 Mazda Protege BP engine, 78k miles - $300 (local pick-up)
BP ECU and U-Code MAF (thanks to bogaut from clubprotege.com forums for that) - $50 (combined including S&H)
ECU Connector Pins (thanks to Ryan from mx-3 forums) - $postage stamp
Thermostat Gasket - $2 (Autozone)
5 liters 10W-30 Motor Oil - $18 (Autozone)
1 gallon Antifreeze - $13 (Autozone)
Champion Spark Plug Wire Set [780437] - $13 (Rockauto)
4 NGK Spark Plugs [2756] - $7 (Rockauto)
Throttle Body Gasket - $2 (Rockauto)
Bosch Oil Filter [3300] - $5 (Rockauto)
Dayco AC/PS belt [4PVK1015] - $7 (Rockauto)
Mann Fuel Filter [MF1074] - $9 (Rockauto)
Walker Front Pipe Exhaust [52196] - $104 (Amazon + 1 day shipping)

That was my list specifically for the swap. Only three months ago I had also purchased new motor mounts that from when I did my suspension that I swapped over to the new engine. I had also bought a new O2 sensor recently from when I did my exhaust last month, but I'm going to have to buy a new one because the threads got stripped when I removed it from the old exhaust manifold. Last spring I had put in a new thermostat and temperature sensor, those were also swapped over. I mention this because all these are parts that you should consider buying for an engine swap.


ENGINE/TRANSMISSION
The BP engine was originally an automatic. My MX-3 is a manual with the F-series transmission. I'm ONLY doing the engine swap, not a transmission swap. Would I have gotten a G-series transmission, I would have needed new axles, axle seals, transmission oil, G-series flywheel and G-series clutch. (not claiming this is a complete parts list).

So the things you'll have to swap to a BP automatic engine from a B6 manual engine to work properly with the manual transmission are the throttle body and the flywheel (and of course the clutch).


HARNESS
Just like various threads on here say, I was able to use the original B6 harness (the harness are the wires that connect from the computer to the various electrical plugs on the on the engine and transmission). Most of the connections are "Plug and Play" with a few exceptions (that being the fuel rail harness which I'll address in a minute). Just know that some of the positions of the connectors are not in the same exact postion on the BP engine as they are on the B6 engine. You're going to have to split the electrical tape and casing of the harness to get certain connections to plug in (ie, strand of ground wires from the O2 sensor/temp sensor wires bunch). I used the B6 fuel rail harness because the BP fuel rail harness conector is different. The B6 fuel rail harness has 6 pins on the connector and the BP fuel rail has 8 pins on the connector. (the 2 extra pins are supposed to be for the VICS sensor, more on that in a little bit). So the connectors from the BP/B6 fuel rail harness to the fuel injectors are the same. There is also a pea soup green colored connector that is also the same, although this is another connector where the location is different on the BP engine from the B6 engine, so you'll have to split the electrical tape and extend it to make it connect. There is a single ground wire that connects to the engine block, no problem. Now you have two connectors left on the BP harness that you're going to have to cut and splice, a brown connector and a similar style white connector.
The BROWN connector=Fuel Pressure Regulator sensor
The WHITE connector=VICS sensor
It's easy to forget which connector goes into which sensor because the connectors are exactly the same. But don't worry. The lines where the connectors are supposed to have either a dotted BROWN line or a dotted WHITE line, so just match the connector with the line.
The B6 fuel rail harness will now have only one connector left after you made the other connections. it's a plug which is for the fuel pressure regulator, but the connector is different on the BP engine. So cut off the plug and there are two colored wires, a red/white wire and and a green/orange wire. These will match up with the BROWN connector off the BP fuel rail, so splice it into the B6 fuel rail.

Now for the VICS.

There are many ways to go about connecting the VICS, some people like to remove the harness and add the wire onto the harness. I just ran it from the firewall separate from the harness, there's no right or wrong way to do this, just depends on how clean you want your car to look. I found out how to wire it up on the forums. Here's one link as an example: http://www.mx-3.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=77442


ENGINE REMOVAL
Here is a pic of removing the engine underway. Battery, air intake and radiator out.
















WHOLE ENGINE OUT!















YEAH, we had some beers!








Some Snags
Not gonna go through the steps of engine removal, that info is all over the site. But I did have a few issues that needed addressing after the engine removal. I obviously swapped over the B6 alternator, AC compressor and power steering, but the belts on the BP engine pulleys are different. So I ended up removing the B6 pulleys and putting them on the BP. It's totally plug and play. Also, I have to make this note about the '94 Protege engine.

From what I understand the '90-'93 BP engines exhaust manifold will hook up with the B6 down pipe, no problem, straight plug and play. Also on these years engines, the O2 sensor is located on the exhaust manifold.

The '94 BP engine is like the bastard child of his generation engine. The exhaust manifold DOES NOT line up with the B6 down pipe, and also there is no O2 sensor hole on the exhaust manifold. That's why I needed to order the down pipe (specific for this year). The O2 sensor for this year engine is on the down pipe. The '94 Protege had two O2 sensors, pre and post catalytic converter. But since we're using the B6 harness, you'll only need the single wire O2 sensor. If you don't want to order the down pipe, the other option would be to get a '90-'93 BP exhaust manifold.

Also, before dropping in the BP, remove the pulleys, whether you intend to swap them from the B6 or not (if you leave the transmission in the car that is). Otherwise it's impossible to drop the engine in.


BP SWAP



DONE! I'll soon post pics of the complete engine bay, and my suspension.

[AaronTietje]

Nice work on the swap

[im2bad4ya]

THE BEGINNINGS

My MX-3 was originally purchased in December 2004 by one of my friends at a used car dealer for $1200. It was a neat little car, and had custom modifications, which I guess drew him to pick this car amongst the Civics and other imports on the lot. The front springs were cut so it had a MEAN low stance, but God forbid we hit pot holes or road bumps......the car's frame took quite a bit of hits (If we hit it low enough and dragged it long enough, we would create sparks from the tow hooks......THAT LOW!) It had a ridiculous, no name brand fart can for an exhaust, and the power steering didn't work (we weren't sure if this was done on purpose to get more power from the engine) and the automatic seat belts didn't work either (Mazda of Lodi, NJ took care of that for free tho!) Exhaust manifold didn't have the heat shield, the radio sucked and we immediately upgraded that. Also the profile of the tires were smaller in the front and bigger in the back (think of an import version of a hot rod).

You can't compare the back and front tires in this pic, but you can see how low the car stood (HAHA! I think I still have that Jadakiss shirt):



It was also cool that the wipers matched in color to the car.


My friend owned the car for about a year. In that time he got a replacement P/S pump, he eventually put in stock springs, changed the fart can to a regular muffler. Well after a year of having the car, my friend got into a front end fender bender. He didn't have a driveway or place to put the car in the meantime, but I did, so he just decided to give me the car, free of charge, basically just take it off his hands. I jumped on it since as you can barley see in that same picture, I was rolling in a '99 Escort. Yeah, it got me from point A to point B......but it was an Escort......

Here's the aftermath of that fender bender:























I scoured a few junkyards in the area, was able to get a new windshield, bumper and hood, get it all put together and ding out the dents in the fender. Here's the result:








I've had the car ever since (6 yrs and counting) and have since dropped a BP engine, and have done other upgrades and fixes.


Okay, next post WILL be about the suspension, promise! But I don't have any pics of the install itself, I'll probably write about the setup and post a few pics of the parts.

[Josh]

Nice, did you change the color too? It looks good regardless, I like those wheels to, they suit the car well.

[im2bad4ya]

Nah, color is still Tropical Emerald Green, I love this color. Gonna do body work soon and redo the paint, same color, just gotta see if I wanna do a candy paint or pearl or see my options.

As for the wheels.....ICK! I absolutely HATED those rims! I thought they looked really cheesy and just generic looking. They came with the car tho, but I can honestly say I would have prefered steel rims w/o hub caps over those 'Z Racing' wheels.


This is how I'm rolling nowadays,




The pic is slightly dated as I've since gotten green Godspeed lugnuts, I'll try to update soon.

[im2bad4ya]

SUSPENSION

I did my suspension even before I did the BP swap. My shocks were completely shot, and the front of the car was raised higher than the back after I took out the chopped off springs. These prices are from May 2011.


PARTS
4 KYB GR-2 struts [234037, 234038, 234039, 234040] - $184 (kyboutlet.com)
4 H&R springs [52681] - $203 (eBay)
2 Monroe rear strut mounts [901963] - $48 (Rockauto)
2 Monroe front strut mounts [902936] - $44 (Rockauto)
2 Monroe rear strut bellows [63618] - $24 (Rockauto)
2 Monroe front strut bellows [63973] - $27 (Rockauto)
2 Moog front coil spring seats [K8995] - $34 (Roackauto)
2 Moog rear coil spring seats [K80221] - $12 (Rockauto)
1 Front strut bar - $28 (eBay)











Labor
I wish I could've done this myself, but I didn't have the tools to do so. My mechanic put it all in for me for $250, not a bad price at all. Glad I did it too. The bumps aren't harsh at all, the handling is like night and day, and I love the cars stance now.

[Josh]

Well where are the pictures of the final product?

One of my favorite setups, looks like you did it right!

[im2bad4ya]

POWDER COATING MADNESS

Now that I got all my ducks in a row and the mechanicals are no longer an issue (for now, crossing my fingers), I decided to powder coat my valve cover. The cover had black paint flaking off and was just dirty in general, as was the rest of the engine. I could have DIY painted the cover but I didn't want an issue where after a few years or so the paint would start peeling off again. So I went the powder coating route. There's a whole lot more upside to powder coating than traditional paint. I also was lucky enough to get a hold of a repo SRD lower tie bar (thanks BlaznLow!). I forewent an 'only clear coat' treatment for the bar and decided for both powder coating w/clear coat.


VALVE COVER
Here's a before pic of the cover, you can see why I wanted to fix it up:

Before:



You can see the lower right corner of the valve cover has a nice portion of paint that peeled off. Even in the row of spark plugs, it was just really dirty with fuzz, hair and who knows what else. I couldn't tell you how that stuff got there.


Well I initially wanted to powder coat it the same exact color of the car, Tropical Emerald Green. It would have been just a little bit more for that and I didn't have the extra $30 or whatever it was to match the color, so instead I looked at their color chart a picked a Turquoise color that was close to the car color. I actually like the way that it came out and how the cover is a little brighter than the car color itself.


After:










Once it was clear that my valve cover was so nice, that old stock oil cap had to go, got a billet style cap:





I'm diggin' the whole green/blue/turquoise motif going on with those pieces and the air filter. Now I'm thinking I might get performance coating on my exhaust headers, just to get rid of that rusty look. Perhaps if I come into some disposable income I'll consider it. And before people jump on top of me for this, I also have to do an Engine Brite cleaning, there's a lot of oil and stuff caked on the engine.



REAR LOWER TIE BAR

Got my hands on one of these babies! Good thing too because it was one of the last left in BlaznLow's stock. I like the aluminum look, but I've seen a lot of them in worklogs where they start to look really dirty and develop surface rust. So even tho I love the look, and I did get this part for practical over esthetic reasons, I know it won't be a shiny piece of aluminum forever. So that's why I got the powder coat with the clear coat, to have two layers of protection from the elements. I haven't had this bar in my possession for more than 6 hours before I took it to my powder coating guy.

Before:







I was kinda torn on what color to get it in. I wanted something bright that screams when you see it. Since it's going under the car, it usually goes unnoticed. But guys in the community usually tend to take notice when the undercarriage has upgrades. So I went with a neon yellow!


After:









I'll get this installed later in the week and I'll post pics of the tie bar on the car.

[BlaznLow]

i actually really like it in yellow!

[im2bad4ya]

POWDER COATING MADNESS (CONT.)

I got the time today to get the lower tie bar installed. YAY! Thanks in part to Josh on the forums, it's on and I'm ready to give it a whirl. But first, I wanted to take other pics before it goes into place. And since I got it powder coated in neon yellow, I wanted to see what it looked like under a black light.












And even under the sun, the bar shines bright!









And after some trial, tribulation, WD-40 and a blow torch:






This is the final result:









NOW what needs to happen is I need to get the rest of my car lookin like that tie bar, all nice and shiny and new! After looking at the bushings tho, they look rather old and tired. I think I'm gonna go for new bushings after the winter as per the suspension thread http://www.mx-3.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=51806


I also want to get sway bar bushings and any other related suspension bushings. I'll have the next few months to look into it though.


Next up? With a little luck and lots of time, I wanna get started on the body work and eventually a fresh coat of paint. We'll see tho, with all the mechanicals good, it's either interior work or exterior, and I'm leaning towards exterior.


My next post will be about the various goodies, bells and whitles! Stay tuned. Same Bat time, same Bat channel!

[Josh]

NICE!

now all you need is to mount a black light bar above it so it glows at night

[Frost881]

What a baller, inspires me to keep on makin my tropical emrald green mosnter ready!

By the way, you don't happen to still have that stock airbox assembly/fresh air tube do ya?

[im2bad4ya]

now all you need is to mount a black light bar above it so it glows at night

That wouldn't be a bad idea! and it'd probably be street legal too. That'd be something I'd look into in the distant future.

By the way, you don't happen to still have that stock airbox assembly/fresh air tube do ya?

Matter of fact I do, but I'm reluctant to give it up just yet, since going with the CAI, my idle hasn't been as steady as with my stock box. I don't know if this is a function of the CAI or if I just have a bad alternator making my idles unsteady. I'm supposed to be getting a V6 alty soon, I'm gonna swap and see if this fixes my problem, if not, gonna trouble shoot and go back to the stock air box. If I can fix my problem tho, you got first dibs on it.

[Frost881]

Word up man just lemme know

I might end up not needing it as i'm probably aquiring an RX-7 VAF to go with a BP ECU so i dont know if that VAF will match up with that airbox so if i end up not wantin it anymore i'll letcha know

[Nd4SpdSe]

That wouldn't be a bad idea! and it'd probably be street legal too. That'd be something I'd look into in the distant future.

Distant future? That's like a $10 mod and I was thinking it before I got down to real what Josh had mentioned it. That would be trippy forsure and I'll be keeping that in mind for the 8 if there's anything similar I could do on that for her!