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Hi Guys,

On the K series engine, there are markings on the piston. R and L
Right and Left bank.

The casting on the piston can point in 2 ways.
Either towards the timingbelt / waterpump
or towards the ignition.

The mx3 manual says " front of the engine" ... which is nicely confusing.

"Front" will be the left side, or the side facing the radiator. Unless Mazda went technical, and described the belt-drive as the front, which it should always be.

That's not possible.

Either waterpump or ignition side.

"Front" refers to the water pump side of the engine.

WhiteFinish, the waterpump would be considered "Belt driven".

Front, back, left and right are always a bit confusing with a transverse mounted engine. Thankfully you can always depend on engineers to be consistent. So, engines parallel to the axles for front drive vehicles kept the same front, back, left, right perspective as they had for rear drive cars. It helps if you stand at the transmission end of the motor (rear), front is belts and accessories, left is bank nearest the radiator, right is nearest the firewall.

Thanks

would it be noticeable if you put pistons in the wrong side? all the left in the right bank etc?

I mean, would it run poorly?

Your pistons and rods are weighted for a certain place on the crank. If you change it there will be a unbalance (not that good).

WhiteFinish wrote:Your pistons and rods are weighted for a certain place on the crank. If you change it there will be a unbalance (not that good).

This is a much bigger problem with v6s then other engines due to the vibration.

About the piston location, it was explained to me that left and right are considered as if you are sitting on the transmission. Meaning HOnda, with their goofy wrong sided trans, will have a different left side of the engine then say a B6 or K8, even though they are transverse mounted fun wheel drive cars.

This is quite common, and when referring to "front" always means the pulley side.