MX-3.com

Impressive work I'm loving the rims but not 100% sure about them. Can't wait to see the clearance with the car actually sitting on them.

The 18's look kool on there. Plenty of hook for the new and improved no-longer along for the ride rear end With the AWD your going to have to make sure the overall diameters are the same. This is a great site for that. http://www.miata.net/garage/tirecalcold.html

Curious, so you basically just have to massage the MX-3 frame rails and the AWD protege rear sub frame just bolts in place? This gives me a bad idea

Well kinda, I will get better pictures in the on coming weeks and show how I am doing it in more detail. But its more like a deep tissue message to get it in place. If you check club protege there is someone building a tubular rear end that mounts to a toyota rear diff that may be a direct swap, it is anyways for the Escort and should be for our cars. Looks killer though.

Interesting. Ya the Escort/323/Protege and MX-3 are very similar. My 323 is 95% MX-3 V6 at this point. Front and rear cross members, full wiring harness, transmission, brakes drive shafts full suspension etc. I wish there was a manual V6 AWD transmission. I don't mind automatics in high horsepower applications, but an auto and AWD would sap a poor KLZE dry. Is it true the GTX and GTR AWD transmissions are pretty weak? I see the 4cyl FWD guys on CP are doing Toyota MR-2 transmission swaps, what do the GTX, GTR guys swap-in?

Yeah, I have had thoughts of a V6 AWD. It would be tight, I think the best bet would be to go with a Toyota drive train. Knowing what I know now I would use a Toyota drive train in the MX3 if I were to do it again.

I'M NOT WORTHY!!!


lol, any updates?

18s look sweet, though look heavy? Tyres look grippy, trans breaking stuff

Well I had plans on taking some pictures of the progress this weekend but we have a little snow storm right now, so if it all dies down by weekend I will take some.

The 18's are actually lighter than my 17's that I have had on it but the offsets are kind of jacked up for the MX, so chances are I probably will not be using them but they do fill the wells nicely

The progress I have right now is I have filled the rear end mounts with 90 shore polly urethane, and I have cut off my old frame rails that I had welded in place (that was not a fun thing to do) and I have started fabrication on the new frame rails. I am using tubular 1x2" steel tubing.

I do have to re cut out the floor pan in the cargo area as I will have to raise it up about an inch. Still trying to figure out how I am going to run the exhaust up and around the rear end to exit out of the rear... I might have to step it down to 2.75" or 2.5" to get it to clear and I was dead set on a full 3" I will make it work what ever I do with it I still need to get a magnaflow oval for it as well, as I will not be running any kind of Cat or Resonator on the car.

Just an idea but what about side exit at the front of the rear tire?

As for exhaust run the 3inch you had in mind. Something like header-downpipe-few inches of exhaust piping lol- glass pack- another glass pack- side exit- flamesssssss

That's the same setup I ran on it for 2 years. When finishing the car I am doing everything as if it were factory, so I want to insure I do something nice and clean. That and when I get the car to the height I want the pipe will scrape everything. My plan is a duel tip center exit out of the rear bumper. It is going to be nice and clean looking. The tips I am using are factory RX8 tips so they are a good look and nice size. For performance reasons I am sticking with 3" exhaust. I will probably have to build a slight hump in the cargo area.

did you ever decide on what spoiler your using? I may have missed it reading your worklog.

Well I HAD decided on the MS spoiler and lip, but due to very recent developments I am going to use my modified wrap around. Why you may ask, well I am the proud new owner of some JDM full length sides and the wrap around will flow a lot better with the overall look I am after. The MS spoiler and lip are going on the GS as it is already white

Other than that I have not gotten much done on the car since the end of last year. I have been working a lot. I should be finished up with the new frame rails not this weekend but next though. I will get some picture posted then.

if you cant fit the 3" pipe over the axle do you think itd be possibly to install a Y pipe and have 2 smaller pipes fit threw then collect into another Y before hitting the muffler? i dont think that would have much affect on flow if you could make it work.

DRAT! Ive been looking for a ms spoiler and was hoping to nab yours up lol.

It good to hear you not storing it though. I think they accent our cars very well. Keep up the work I enjoy reading worklogs like yours.

mikeinaus wrote:if you cant fit the 3" pipe over the axle do you think itd be possibly to install a Y pipe and have 2 smaller pipes fit threw then collect into another Y before hitting the muffler? i dont think that would have much affect on flow if you could make it work.

I have been contemplating that. I can fit a small pipe above the rear end on either side of the pumpkin and my plan is to run duel tips out the center of the bumper. I have the tips I just need to decided if I want to do the exhaust without a muffler or not.