Hello my fellow Mazdaphiles and '88-89 323 GT/GTX or other B6T owners and tuners out there. Everyone feel free to give advice amd lend me your input. 
I have an '88 323 2WD and after some idiot crashed into the front driver side my insurance company replaced the front headlight/turn signal/hood/lft 1/4 panel and radiator at an ICBC "approved" body shop.. After it was "ready" I drive her home (a lil under 10 mins) and by the time I got there the temp was at 2/3+ and she was idling at around 2500 rpm, well, low an behold, the headgaskest is shot on a 130,000 km original engine. The insurance company wouldn't fix it, the body shop wouldn't fix it, so I was SOL. I opened up the engine about 2 yrs later and figured out the problem in short order, the idiots at the body shop forgot to remove the lower radiator dust cap... a tiny lil red plastic cap was all it took, and even when i brought the cap with pictures to the body shop the guy still told me I was SOL, feckers, all of them.
She was my daily driver/autocrosser/fun car and the car I let my brother use, as I had a 2003 Mazdaspeed Protege insured aswell for road trips, dates/weekends/etc. I did basic aftermarket and junkyard mods on her:
-2.5" mandrel bent downpipe into a 3" str8 through (legal and fully functional) cat into 3" regular bent (cause at 3" on a 1.6 and stock turbo the cost of getting a full mandrel bent exhaust is just not gonna be worth the bang for the buck ecspecially on a secondary car) exhaust tubing all the way back to a 3" str8 trhough Borla "muffler". Thank god for turbos, cause there's no way i could get away with that on some of my N/A Si Civics, when my 323 gt was running it had a beautiful throaty sound that doesn't offend and is fully legal. Cost of parts (cat/'muffler'/2.5" DP/3" regular exhaust tubing) and shoptime including help/labour from exhaust shop owner set me back $500 CDN all together.
-'88 626/MX6 GT intercooler with custom tubing was about $50 and an hr of my time.
-Autometer A/F and Boost gauges about $100ish including maybe an hr for wiring/installation.
-disconnecting 11 psi cut-off switch (hence the A/F meter) free
-big ass custom K&N filter built into a DIY forced cold air system (essentially a small 1.5" flexible pipe mated from front spoiler into a hole drilled into the bottom of where the air filter is mounted) with an aluminumm heat shield in between the filter and engine/rad. $60 for the filter, and maybe $20 for the mandrel bent tubing and bits and pieces to make it work.
-MSD blaster coil, MSD 8.5mm spk plug wires and NGK performance plugs, maybe $200-$250ish all together and about an hr to install everthing.
-Apexi turbo timer for a lil extra turbo life, about $100 bucks and an hr of install time.
I am forgetting a few minor mods, and still plan to do some more once the engine is being rebuilt (port/polishing), maybe slightly slightly lower compression, a BOV and replacement remapped CPU to run 16 psi saftely without having to watch my A/F meter all the time.
Before the accident and shoddy repairs blew the head gasket it was running comfortably all summer (in Vancouver, BC) at 13.5 psi, and up to 14.5 psi during the winter with little room to spare. It would lean out at WOT arounf 5000-5500 rpm, so with a little more fuel I should br able to take her to redline safely..
Anyways, I have to move in 2 months and I want to drive her out of the garage and not have to tow her to my new place, plus I just wanna drive and carress her, badly.
I have the top end apart and when i last worked on it with a tech buddy I went to trade school with about a yr ago, and just took out the bottom end by hand, mounted the block to an engine stand and proceeded to take it completely apart for the machine shop so I can have everything cleaned checked and planed (if necessary), along with a valve grind if nessecary. Is it worth it to ligten the Flywheel via machinig?
By the looks of the bottom end she's still in excellent condition, hardly any wear on any of the main or rod bearings/races, no scoring/scratching on the cylinder walls (just a light layer of rust from the deck down about 4-5mm) and no problems getting her apart in any way. The bearings look like they could be reused but I'll probly replace them while it's apart. The clutch only has maybe a 1/4 mm left or roughly 30-50000Km I would guess so I'm swapping it out for a Clutchmasters Stage 2 Clutch kit. The gearbox is find right now so I'll keep it stock until I eventually have problems with 2-3rd gear..
Any ideas/tips of what I should have done at the machine shop would be appreciated, I'd like to get it runniing again then swap out the ecu and do a few more basic mods.
PS. any relatively cheap tricks, parts or tips for increasing the bottom end's performance slightly would be appreciated aswell. keep in mind this is more of a daily driver and fun/balanced car than a power beast that will understeer with a blip of the throttle, I'm more interested in good, reliable power than crazy balls out 1/4 mile power. I know a beefier clutch is going to be harder on the tranny cause anyone with an '88-89 gt/gtx knows the tranny isn't the strongest out there. I don't want to swap the turbo or turbine/impellers until mine starts to wear out, as of now there is no play in any of the bearings..
MOST IMPORTANT, this is an "All go, No show" car. So if it doesn't improve performane/reliability I'm not interested
This is my second '88 323 gt (last one was silver, this one is red), the 1st one I owned was before I was a mechanic and some idiot turned right into me almost head on and wrote off the 1st one, if I knew now what I knew then I woulda kept the car for parts..
Thanks for any and all input and thanks for this excellent forum. Sorry about writing such a novel. lol
I have an '88 323 2WD and after some idiot crashed into the front driver side my insurance company replaced the front headlight/turn signal/hood/lft 1/4 panel and radiator at an ICBC "approved" body shop.. After it was "ready" I drive her home (a lil under 10 mins) and by the time I got there the temp was at 2/3+ and she was idling at around 2500 rpm, well, low an behold, the headgaskest is shot on a 130,000 km original engine. The insurance company wouldn't fix it, the body shop wouldn't fix it, so I was SOL. I opened up the engine about 2 yrs later and figured out the problem in short order, the idiots at the body shop forgot to remove the lower radiator dust cap... a tiny lil red plastic cap was all it took, and even when i brought the cap with pictures to the body shop the guy still told me I was SOL, feckers, all of them.
She was my daily driver/autocrosser/fun car and the car I let my brother use, as I had a 2003 Mazdaspeed Protege insured aswell for road trips, dates/weekends/etc. I did basic aftermarket and junkyard mods on her:
-2.5" mandrel bent downpipe into a 3" str8 through (legal and fully functional) cat into 3" regular bent (cause at 3" on a 1.6 and stock turbo the cost of getting a full mandrel bent exhaust is just not gonna be worth the bang for the buck ecspecially on a secondary car) exhaust tubing all the way back to a 3" str8 trhough Borla "muffler". Thank god for turbos, cause there's no way i could get away with that on some of my N/A Si Civics, when my 323 gt was running it had a beautiful throaty sound that doesn't offend and is fully legal. Cost of parts (cat/'muffler'/2.5" DP/3" regular exhaust tubing) and shoptime including help/labour from exhaust shop owner set me back $500 CDN all together.
-'88 626/MX6 GT intercooler with custom tubing was about $50 and an hr of my time.
-Autometer A/F and Boost gauges about $100ish including maybe an hr for wiring/installation.
-disconnecting 11 psi cut-off switch (hence the A/F meter) free
-big ass custom K&N filter built into a DIY forced cold air system (essentially a small 1.5" flexible pipe mated from front spoiler into a hole drilled into the bottom of where the air filter is mounted) with an aluminumm heat shield in between the filter and engine/rad. $60 for the filter, and maybe $20 for the mandrel bent tubing and bits and pieces to make it work.
-MSD blaster coil, MSD 8.5mm spk plug wires and NGK performance plugs, maybe $200-$250ish all together and about an hr to install everthing.
-Apexi turbo timer for a lil extra turbo life, about $100 bucks and an hr of install time.
I am forgetting a few minor mods, and still plan to do some more once the engine is being rebuilt (port/polishing), maybe slightly slightly lower compression, a BOV and replacement remapped CPU to run 16 psi saftely without having to watch my A/F meter all the time.
Before the accident and shoddy repairs blew the head gasket it was running comfortably all summer (in Vancouver, BC) at 13.5 psi, and up to 14.5 psi during the winter with little room to spare. It would lean out at WOT arounf 5000-5500 rpm, so with a little more fuel I should br able to take her to redline safely..
Anyways, I have to move in 2 months and I want to drive her out of the garage and not have to tow her to my new place, plus I just wanna drive and carress her, badly.
I have the top end apart and when i last worked on it with a tech buddy I went to trade school with about a yr ago, and just took out the bottom end by hand, mounted the block to an engine stand and proceeded to take it completely apart for the machine shop so I can have everything cleaned checked and planed (if necessary), along with a valve grind if nessecary. Is it worth it to ligten the Flywheel via machinig?
By the looks of the bottom end she's still in excellent condition, hardly any wear on any of the main or rod bearings/races, no scoring/scratching on the cylinder walls (just a light layer of rust from the deck down about 4-5mm) and no problems getting her apart in any way. The bearings look like they could be reused but I'll probly replace them while it's apart. The clutch only has maybe a 1/4 mm left or roughly 30-50000Km I would guess so I'm swapping it out for a Clutchmasters Stage 2 Clutch kit. The gearbox is find right now so I'll keep it stock until I eventually have problems with 2-3rd gear..
Any ideas/tips of what I should have done at the machine shop would be appreciated, I'd like to get it runniing again then swap out the ecu and do a few more basic mods.
PS. any relatively cheap tricks, parts or tips for increasing the bottom end's performance slightly would be appreciated aswell. keep in mind this is more of a daily driver and fun/balanced car than a power beast that will understeer with a blip of the throttle, I'm more interested in good, reliable power than crazy balls out 1/4 mile power. I know a beefier clutch is going to be harder on the tranny cause anyone with an '88-89 gt/gtx knows the tranny isn't the strongest out there. I don't want to swap the turbo or turbine/impellers until mine starts to wear out, as of now there is no play in any of the bearings..
MOST IMPORTANT, this is an "All go, No show" car. So if it doesn't improve performane/reliability I'm not interested
This is my second '88 323 gt (last one was silver, this one is red), the 1st one I owned was before I was a mechanic and some idiot turned right into me almost head on and wrote off the 1st one, if I knew now what I knew then I woulda kept the car for parts..
Thanks for any and all input and thanks for this excellent forum. Sorry about writing such a novel. lol
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