Astina Daily Driver or V6 sleeper ??

[Pommyvince]

Thanks Dee. I do have the option of ...ahem..another car to drive if I have to but the 323 is way too much fun. Think I'm just going to keep this as the DD for now and collect bits as they come up....boringly sensible...but the bank balance will appreciate it lol

[DeeAOne]

EXACTLY. i wish i could even say i had a balance. im struggling at the moment. lol

quick offtopic: does the KL have forged internals from the factory?? im surfing wikipedia and thats what is claimed.

"The K-series also feature a highly-rigid, all-aluminum split-crankcase engine block design with 4 & 6 bolts for each main journal, internally balanced forged crankshaft with long, lightweight forged carbon steel connecting rods."

[Pommyvince]

I'd always taken the Wikipedia info to be correct and when I had the motor apart it certainly looked that way. Be nice if someone else can confirm this. Maybe MX6.com.

[DeeAOne]

hmm interesting..then again they have been wrong before (not considered a credible source in school, etc..). they even have the B6 sohc rated at 103hp but actually made 82hp. you will only see this error if you look up the mazda familia, not the mazda B engine itself.

[Pommyvince]

Bought some goodies

Now that the car is warranted and registered I'll be using it as a daily driver for a while but couldn't help myself buying a few bits and pieces to stock pile.

I'm now the proud owner of a set of MazdaSpeed ( Rays Engineering) 16 x 7 five stud alloy wheels. I also pulled the Type R struts and subframes out of a Lantis,along with the pedal set,column, gearchange, brake and clutch cylinders and a host of other bits and pieces...thought I'd take the MazdaSpeed exhaust while I was about it.

Looks like the front subframe might ??? be a direct replacement just by having a quick look at the mounts. The rear subframe however looks completly different..might have to buy an MX3 one. At least I have working calipers and 5 stud hubs for the rear. I just have to find some Lantis V6 front hubs and discs as these had already gone.

As it was all a relative bargain at $320 US for the lot.

[Evilist]

ahh dude I'm jealous lol I want those struts

[Mazda_Powered]

oh sick!!! thats quite the score!!! wish those struts were a bit more affordable lol...

[Dan [Sac]]

EXACTLY. i wish i could even say i had a balance. im struggling at the moment. lol

quick offtopic: does the KL have forged internals from the factory?? im surfing wikipedia and thats what is claimed.

"The K-series also feature a highly-rigid, all-aluminum split-crankcase engine block design with 4 & 6 bolts for each main journal, internally balanced forged crankshaft with long, lightweight forged carbon steel connecting rods."

The special thing about the KL is the split crankcase design, and the bolt spacing. Also the crankshaft itself is good for heaps of power (the old Aussie twin turbo KL was making over 1,000 hp on the stock crank).

The rods, however...not so much. 350-400ish whp on good tunes is the most you can squeeze out of them, and not always reliably. Bent rods and broken conrod bolts are the primary source of catastrophic failure in the KL (if you don't count spun main bearings due to lubrication failure).

Pistons are ok, but still only cast aluminum, so obviously when you upgrade the rods you do the pistons & rings too.

[Pommyvince]

Thanks for that Dan. Good to know what the weak points are but 170ish whp will do for now I came across this website which seems to have some credible info on the KL engines http://www.xtremethings.com/EngineeringRefs.htm and click on the KL Engineering SAE 920677 Data Sheet. Confirms the forged crank amongst other things.