FYI, my parents have a 626, no turbo, but i'm positive that its the same engine as the turbocharged one he wants to drop in are teh same, 2.2L 4cyl.Originally posted by nhl39:
He is looking to put a mazda 626 turbo engine in it. Would that fit.....is it compatable.
As easy as i'm sure it would sound to swap in one 4cyl for another, they are actually different engines.
-The 2.2L engine is from the early 626's/Mx6's and Ford Probes are Mazda's F-series engines, with optional turbocharger
-The 1.6L that the Mx-3 RS package has is part of their B-series
-Both 1.8L found in the Mx-3 GS package and 2.5L v6's from the Newer Probes/626's/Mx-6's and Millenias are from Mazda's K-series
A Mazda Mx-3 was not designed to accept an F-series engine. Now anything is possible with time and money, but the work, and all custom work just to get even the engine IN there, never mind transmission, electrical and stuff, is required, making it more expensive than a bolt-in swap.
Now, yes, the Mx-3 was designed to accept both B-series 4cyl and K-series V6's, but thats where the similarities end. Although there is no custom work involved, it will, however, require you to replace everything under the hood. It will be expensive due to the ammount of parts that will need to be replaced. The KLZE that atlantamx3 mentioned is the name for the Japanese 2.5l v6 engine that puts out 200hp, the North American verion of that engine, KLDE, puts out 170hp. Those engines are found in Mazda 626's/Mx-6's, Millenia's and Ford Probes. The Mx-3's 1.8l v6 is known as the K8DE, and put out 130hp. The 2.5L engines are popular engine swap amongst v6 mx-3'ers due to the fact that all you need to do it replace the engine and computer and your (basically, but i wont get into that) done. Bam, instant 200hp.
The easiest swaps are done by getting a bigger engine in the same series, which is why they suggested the B6 and BP engines for yor friend s 4cyl Mx-3. Almost all of the time you will need to change the computer when changing to a different engine, your computer needs to know how to talk to a specific engine, and the computers aren't created universally. There are some combinations that will work with the stock computer, some may work stock, some require some modifications, reprogramming, some will work as a temporary solution, some won't work at all, but you'll need to do some research and find out what works with what.