good deal on a 3?

[jhew84]

alright, i didn't get the year, or the mileage lol, but it is a red mx-3, mtx, and it has a lil front lip thingy on it, the headlights are pretty faded so i'm assuming it is an older car, the timing belt tensioner busted so the timing went bazerk and it needs the tensioner, belt, and new cam gears, is it worth 1500 bucks? the body is REALLY straight, not ANY dents that i noticed, interior is pretty clean, cloth, and he said that it ran EXTREMELY well before the "incident" with the timing...

[mitmaks]

i say go for it, even if ull have to replace engine in future

[jhew84]

weeell lol, the only reason i was looking into buying the car in the 1st place is because it has been sitting in front of a friend of a friends shop for like 5 months now, and i was told originally that it had a blown engine, so i was thinking "hey, i have a spare kl-03 chillin in my garage, why not do the KL swap into the mx-3 and have a quick lil project car", but on further inspection after calling this guy it is actually a really nice running vehicle lol, so now i'm thinking i should pick it up, drive it til i do blow the engine, THEN do the swap lol... i just wasn't sure how much the thing was actually worth, and wanted 2nd opinions from the ppl who would obviously know best :p

[Meep]

Having just gone to the shop... I could tell you the prices for a fixing that stuff... well at least for a 1992 1.8L V-6 MTX .. my car's the same way... my tensioner's ready to kill itself... anywho.. I quote verbatim my estimate as of last Wednesday...

According to the Mazda dealership here...
Timing belt = 65.25$
Drive belt= 32.70$
Drive belt= 13.75$
T-belt tensioner= 106.30$
--------------------------
218.00$
w/tax 233.26$
labor 360.00$
--------------------------
593.26$

Then again, that is the dealership and things typically run more expensive there than some other place. If that spare engine you've got will work, then hey go for it... but your engine's gonna have a knocking noise (if its anything like mine) on it up until that tensioner or the t-belt break

[jhew84]

ya, the TBT already broke, the vehicle as it sits doesn't run because of that, it skipped a couple teeth and i guess it messed up the cam gears as well, i just did the TBT and timing belt on my PGT less than a year ago and spent less than 100 bucks on it, so i wasn't to worried about those prices, thanks for the exact quotes tho...

and ya, the spare engine i have is out of my probe, its the 2.5L V6, i don't know how easy/difficult the swap is, otherwise i'd have already bought the mx-3 and done it, but if this mx3 is in good running shape, i'd almost prefer to just buy it and drive it as a daily and then SOMEDAY get around to turning it into a project... but ya, if i can get my bronco sold i will have WAY more than enough money to put into this and get it reliable, so i think i may just go that route...


but ya, giving this guy the benefit of the doubt, saying this is a 92 mx3, with a decent amount of miles, with the work that needs to be done, is it worth the 1500?? cus if it is i'm gonna call him tomorow and work out a deal...

[jhew84]

wait, if it helps, the center vents on the dash are the circles, NOT squares, i dunno if that would help differentiate between years, but ya, it has those...

[lakersfan1]

Just buy it and do the KLDE swap right away. It's all a direct swap in. Especially if you already did the timing belt crap within the last year on that engine.

The only other thing that sounds wrong are the headlights are hazed. All that needs is a couple hours of wetsanding, and they'll look good as new.

[papa roached]

yea, KL03 swap is real easy, drop in a go, throw in a KL03 ECU and you are cookin with gas

[jhew84]

seriously? like all the engine/tranny mounts bolt right up and ****? hmmmm... i think i may just have to look into this, i'm gettin a high compression forged internals rebuild kit sooner or later, that would make a nice addition to that light-*** mx3...

could someone link me to a writeup, or FAQ on the swap, i'd REALLY like to read up on it..

[papa roached]

no harder than a ZE into a MX

[mx3TT]

I would say go for it man especially since you have an engine for it already. Buy the car and drop the good engine in.

[lakersfan1]

Originally posted by jhew84:
seriously? like all the engine/tranny mounts bolt right up and ****? hmmmm... i think i may just have to look into this, i'm gettin a high compression forged internals rebuild kit sooner or later, that would make a nice addition to that light-*** mx3...

could someone link me to a writeup, or FAQ on the swap, i'd REALLY like to read up on it..

http://www.mx-3.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=23;t=000001

[jhew84]

thanks, i was expecting a book but wow, i never realized how EASY this swap was lol, this is really suprising to me that everyone on PT is still putting ZE's in probes when they could have a much more potent mx3 just as easily lol...

thanks for all the info/help guys, i will definitly be looking over my financial standings and see if i can afford this, i plan on sticking around these forums anyway just because i can already tell its a really nice enviroment

thanks,
james