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would it be ok to add these Klze components to a K8, and get good results, rather than destroy my car?
1. intake manifold
2. ECU
3. Thermal spacers

or should I just save up and get the real thing?
Like alot of Mx-3 owners, my budget is tighter than MJ's jeans.

absolutel none of those will dammage your engine.
but they won't make any significant improvements either.
well the spacers are good

dont know if it will run right with the ecu and the manifold will make you loose lost of low end power and well the spacer is only good if you use the manifold

Upgrade ECU=bad idea,
the KLZE is a higher displacement engine= more fuel. Upgrading the ECU will adjust the K8 to throw more fuel into the combustion chamber. Which at first glance you think thats a great idea. But then you'll start to see pennies fly out the door in fuel cost. Automobiles are designed to run at a combination between econmical enviromental and top performance. The best combination of the 3 is what is engineered. If you alter the ECU to throw in more fuel sort of like a super chip, you will notice maginal gains. But by upgrading to an ECU that is desinged to run an engine of almost litre more displacement you will get optimal fuel performance, but then you will also get allot of unburned gases resulting in poor milage.

UPGRADE intake = good
As for the intake manifold, more air cannot hurt your system, you will likely make you engine slightly more thermally efficient.

The combo=bad,
the ECU ugrade is overkill. The millage will be ever-so poor and you will only get minimal gains.

hmmmm no. since the fuel maps on the K8 ecu and ZE ecu are so similar I don't think the above is accurate. In fact I think the K8 ecu is programmed for slightly "more" fuel than the ZE. Lots of people continue to use the K8 ecu on the ZE engine with minor performance loss. If the K8 ecu actually is programmed for less fuel then why do the guys with K8 ecu'd ZE's run rich until they swap a KL VAF to lean it out???? I do know that if you use a regular KL ecu on the k8 engine the performance is quite lagging because the fuel map is actually weaker (terminology I know) than the K8. small high reving engines demand plenty of fuel actually.
If you were to use the ZE ecu there wouldn't be a significant increase in fuel consumption that I can see. I may be wrong on this but it's just plain pointless rather than helpfull.

<small>[ December 21, 2003, 08:38 AM: Message edited by: Darren Hyderman ]</small>