1995 MX-3 RS turbo (BP) 56K BEWARE

[psiturbo]

You keep the left foot forever on the clutch pedal.

Your friend's laugh is creepy.

[mx3optidrive]

i know its a old thread but i just saw you posting and i wonder what going on with you car mx3optidrive, didnt see any update on here and msc for a long time.

I didn't post for a while because my car was running okay for about 100 kms and then I shut it off one night and the next morning, the car would turn over but wouldn't start. I messed around with it for a bit, looking at the ignition components, fuel system, and everything else I could think off.

To make things worse, my father passed away in October and I basically lost all interest in the car. My dad was my best friend and was always there for me no matter what I needed and I took it very hard. I couldn't go back to working on the problem because we worked on all my cars together since I was 13 and I am 36 now. I guess the only bonus is that at least I got to take him for a drive in this car when it was running for that short time before he passed and he said he couldn't believe I managed to pull it off and the whole time he had a big smile on his face. Just one of those things I will always remember and make me smile in turn.

So now we get to the last month. I started trying to troubleshoot the problem and I am having a hard time figuring this one out. So I think I am going to get rid of my 680cc injectors and get a set of GTX injectors and I pulled the harness out of the car in case I missed something when I redid it and I will be replacing it with another untouched harness. I am then, sending my MS to Lex again to get him to check it out again and remove the low impedance injector board and reinstall the injector section of the MS. This way, I can basically plug in the MS to the new harness and use one of his maps that come with his MS's and hopefully it will start up again and I can finally break it in.

After break-in, I am thinking of getting it dynoed and sell it. I really want an old muscle car, not sure which one but I want one again.

As far as the clutch comment, it was the first time driving the car since basically rebuilding everything and all I was concerned with on those drives was just listening for wierd noises and making sure everything was working the way it should. I really babied it for those drives. Now that I know everything was good, I was driving it the correct way up to the time it stopped working and when it starts again, I will drive it the way I should for the break-in period.

I will give updates as soon as I have any though. Thanks for all the comments and advice over the years to everyone that helped out on this project.

Jeff

[mx3optidrive]

Oh Scort, if you are ever bored and want to take a trip somewhere, you could take a run down here and maybe do some troubleshooting with me on my MS. Maybe BBQ and some beers and hopefully some zoom, zoom!!!

[scortadict]

Oh Scort, if you are ever bored and want to take a trip somewhere, you could take a run down here and maybe do some troubleshooting with me on my MS. Maybe BBQ and some beers and hopefully some zoom, zoom!!!

i'm real sorry for your father my sympathies.

electrical problem can be a pain to find. i got lucky my harness and ms worked the first try. i'm in for some troubleshooting, bbq and beer. i want to go for a ride in halifax maybe next month, i will let you know.

[mx3optidrive]

Sounds good. Add me to msn if you have it or email me when you are coming down and I will give you directions.

Jeff

[mx3optidrive]

Well, thanks to Alex again, my car is running and waiting to get a good tune done. I can't believe the difference between my last MS and the new one. Of course, the transaction with Alex went flawlessly and he actually got my MS done before his wedding so I wouldn't have to wait for him to get back from his honeymoon.

A BIG thanks Alex.

I will get some new vids and pics as soon as I get it tuned and better weather.

Jeff

[FE3-323]

Glad yours is working even better then before. gives me potential hope for mine but.........i still need to mail alex my MS

[Mazda_Powered]

nice man!!! congrats :D

[Turpro]

Awesome

[mx3optidrive]

Well guys, it has been a while and I am just giving an update. All the little quirks are now worked out of the car and all leaks are gone. I have also found a place within 3 hrs from me that will tune the car with megasquirt.

I will be going to JD Racing on Friday to get tuned and dyno'd. I will get it tuned to 2 settings...... 14.7psi and ~23psi. Any guesses as to what I end up with for numbers?

I will post up pics, results and vids late Friday or early Saturday.

Pretty excited for this, I have been waiting for a while for this day....lol.

[FE3-323]

im glad you did not sell it!!! please post the numbers when you run it!

[mx3optidrive]

Well, I was running a small 50 trim T3/T4 and we got it to 16psi once before the turbo crapped out. LOL!!! The turbo I had only had 3000 Kms on it so it was new, just like everything else in my build. I didn't really trust it since I bought it 10 years ago, when I started all this crazyness. Around the same time, my friend bought a turbo kit for his civic and it had the same turbo as I had sitting in my garage, but he got his from SSautochrome......yes, ebay. I instantly got really nervous about my purchase.

When I got around to putting the turbo on the car, I thought to myself "the hell with it, I have this here, I may as well use it and if it blows, I will deal with it then.". Looks like I was right to be nervous about it. When I took it apart to investigate what had happened, the nut holding the cold side impeller wheel on, was almost off to start with. When we took the center section apart, the shaft was snapped in 2 and both impellers were screwed. We then inspected the center section housing and it was also cracked in 2, not all the way, but a crack was started.

I guess this is why no one likes those turbos....

Anyway, I did get some tuning done and have some numbers. He didn't send me the graphs yet and as soon as he does, I will post them. I was getting around 14 for my A/F at idle and around 11 on my A/F under boost. From my initial tune that I did at home, it was around 180hp and 190ft/lbs trq. After some tuning and upping the boost to around 16psi on my last run, it netted around 230 hp and 228 ft/lbs but it was still climbing when the turbo crapped out. So I don't really know what the end results would have been.

I am now looking for another turbo, possibly a Comp turbo or a Garrett T3/60-1, stage 3 exhaust turbine upgrade, a GT35 compressor wheel with 72ar hot side and 92 ar cold side. I will see.....lol......

As I said, I will post the charts as soon as I get them.

[mx3optidrive]

Been a while since I updated this build. I ended up getting the Garrett turbo and it is being sent away to get the center section upgraded to have the turbo oil and water cooled. I also started to disassemble the car to start the body work and color change. I will get some pics after the holidays to show my progress.

I am not looking forward to pulling the engine and tranny again, but it will be worth it in the end. Now I can get my 5th gear swap done and a couple other things in the bay done before the re-assemble, like a wire tuck and battery relocation....maybe.

If I don't post again before the weekend, everyone have a good holiday and travel safe.

[Mazda_Powered]

body work and color change eh? ditching the body kit? what color you going with?

[mx3optidrive]

body work and color change eh? ditching the body kit? what color you going with?

Nope, I like the body kit and I like the big mouth front since it lets all the air hit the intercooler. As for color, I am going with another stock Mazda color but I am not going to say which one until I start to spray it. I may end up changing my mind again.....lol.