Pommyvince's BF 323 KL ZE swap

[michael0008]

nice beemer n73 engine conversion on the plans for it haha?
na not really a friend just a guy off www.amazd.co.nz who i knew was after one ,btw you should join that forum its great its a nz mazda site non rotarys so only bfs and bgs

[Pommyvince]

Rear K sports into a 2 WD BF

Ok so its taken me a year to get round to this between earthquakes and new cars ! The engineer has finally made the tubes I needed to convert 4 WD drive K sports into 2 WD ones. He also made me some hub centric rings for the planned rear disc conversion and machined the top plates on the K sports.

To do the conversion you first have to chop off the bottom of the original shock body just below the brake line bracket. Also cut off the brake line bracket for later use.

I had the tubes made with 75 mm of M52 x 1.5 thread in the top, diameter 48.5mm hole in the bottom and the centre of the tube is counter-bored inside to a diameter of approx 54 mm. Overall length is 255 mm and outside diameter is approx 62 mm.

With the bottom of the old shock cleaned up I drove it into the bottom of the tube leaving a 6 mm gap to the lip on the original lower mount. I then fully welded with a hot root-run and a capping running plus three plug welds at 120 degree intrevals.....no way that suckers coming out of there

I then used the original brake line brackets and welded them to the tube about 45mm above the joining weld. A quick tidy up of the capping weld with a sander and the tubes were made.

The top plates were machined down to the same diameter as the original 2 WD top plates and the relative positions of the 8 mm bolt holes to the strut top nut kept the same. This does mean that one of the 8 mm studs end up very close to the edge of the plate.

A quick trial fit to make sure it all lined up and the new parts got a quick coat of satin black paint.

I have made the tube longer than you really need to so the the adjuster nuts would clear the tyre with my 16 ' wheels as the clearance is very tight ( about 2 mm !!).

My ride height ( top of wheel arch to centre of wheel ) is now 350 mm. This should be ok on our earthquake damaged roads and its a legal requirement to have 100 mm clearance for any structural points under the car.

[Mazda_Powered]

woooow lots of work, but it paid off! glad to see an update!

[Pommyvince]

Thanks for that. Car definitely feels better, if stiffer, with K sports all round. The drop of about 15mm in rear ride height has given me a bit more caster and the steering definitely self centres better. I'm going to get some 8mm rear wheel spacers made as with current 6 mm spacers I am definitely very close to the tyres with the shock body.

[Pommyvince]

V6 Noisey Lifters ( HLA)

The noisey lifters in my car have been getting steadily worse, just three or four of them. I've tried various oils, "lifter free" additive and even STP. STP definitely not recommended as it made them worse !

First job is to get the inlet manifold and cam covers off and the cams out and I'm going to assume that you can do this bit.

I highly recommend that you have a large piece of white coth to pull lifters apart on as there is some very small parts that are easily lost and to work on one lifter at a time. Remember to cover your open inlet ports and not drop anything down them!

Remove the whole bucket with a valve grinding stick.



Turn the whole bucket upside down and will probably look like this...cooked on old oil. Grasp the lifter with a pair of pliers and give it sharp pull to pull it past the retaining clip.





Grasp the two halves of the lifter with pliers and gently twist and pull until it comes apart.



Once apart the pieces are as in the photo. Lifter large body, spring, check valve seat, check valve spring ( shown at the end of the scewdriver and easy to lose) , ball bearing and lifter small body. The wire clip at the top is the retainer for the lifter into the bucket and fits in the groove in the Lifter large body.



I cleaned the cooked on oil off with the finest grade steel wool (#0000 ) i could find and Brake Kleen solvent though carb cleaner would do just as well. Be sure that the small whole in the small lifter body is clear....piece of wire shows location.



Re-assemble the check valve without losing the small spring under the ball bearing and clip the check valve seat into the bottom of the small lifter body.



Ensure the bucket is well cleaned inside and out and that the hole in the side of it is clear. Some of my buckets are quite scuffed.
Having already cleaned the lifter large body and replaced the retaining clip back into its groove you can now assemble the lifter. I lightly oiled the two parts on assembly.



To get the lifter back into the bucket push it as far as it goes easily by hand and then give it a sharp push. I used the end of my pliers and the lifter should now be clipped into the bucket.



Oil the bucket and replace it in the hole it came from. OK One down just another twenty-three to do.

Reassemble the cams into the head, double check your cam timing when setting up the cam belt and remember that it would be a good idea to re-check your ignition timing once its all running again.

Once I had it fully re-assembled I took out all the spark plugs and wound the engine over on the starter for a good 30 seconds to get the oil pressure up and a good supply of oil round the engine.



On start up, the lifters were quite noisey for a few minutes as the engine warmed up. Once the temperature gauge had come up I gave the throttle a couple of quick blips up to about 6000 rpm and this seemed to fill the lifters back up with oil. If I was doing this again I think that I would put the whole lifter/bucket assembly upside down in oil and pre- prime the lifters by working them up and down to draw oil into them rather than wait for the motor to try and prime them. I then ran the motor up and waited for the cooling fans to come on and checked for leaks.

Anyone who thinks I might have missed something or has done this before please feel free to add comments.

[Pommyvince]

Lifters have remained quiet since cleaning which I was pretty relieved about.

I've just removed the rear sway bar to see if that would induce a bit of understeer as my car turns in really quick almost to the pont of oversteer. A quick drive and the car seems to a bit more neutral with maybe a bit of understeer. I'll leave the sway bar off for a week or so and see what it feels like.



I've started cleaning up my BFMP rear discs and hubs and I'll see if I can get them to look respectable....not that the car needs better rear brakes.

[Pommyvince]

The rear BFMP discs all cleaned up and fitted Its a complete "bolt in" job without any real hassle just make sure that you have the handbrake cables and rear flexible brake lines for the calipers. Much to my surprise the brakes actually fee a little better than the original rear drums.

[michael0008]

very nice did you change the proportioning valve on the firewall too when you upgrade from the drums?

[Pommyvince]

Nope, didn't change the proportining valve but the brake balance feels about right and haven't managed to lock up the rear wheels. I might change the master cylinder for something with a bigger bore to give me a heavier pedal as its very light at the moment....brakes are sure good though.

Just changed the steering column for a tilt adjustable version......straight forward "bolt in" job and gone back to a BFMP steering wheel which looks enormous in the photo but makes it easier to hang on to the car when its torque steering down a bumpy road.

[Pommyvince]

Just had the ignition switch spill its guts. Three times in one day it was suddenly almost impossible to turn on.....I suppose a 26 year old switch was going to give up some time. I managed to get a complete aftermarket lockset from Mazline parts for $149 NZD so at least I know they work when I get in the car now!!

As much fun as the roar from the pod filter can be it's starting to get a bit tedious on longer runs and I've noticed on hot days the fuelling starting to get a "fluffy" in traffic.
So, I've just started to make a new air filter box to quieten it down and I should be able to get a cooler intake in the inner wheel well behind the headlight.

Pics are "first fit" to make sure I'd got the dimensions right before I finish all the brackets and line up an intake tube. Air filter is a BMW 540i item as I figure if it can handle a 4.4 V8 it should be big enough for a 2.5 V6

[michael0008]

any more updates ?

[Pommyvince]

Still have to finish the aibox which is still in the boot of the car...just needs some mounting brackets made ! Must really get on to that Car has passed another warrant and I noticed the K sports have developed a small amount of play in the damper rod top bush. Other than that still driving it a few times a week.