91 MX6 DX / GT rescued from junk yard.

[Mazda Carnage]

Someone tried to GT a 91 MX6 DX, they installed a GT block, transmission, shifter assembly, trany mounts ands a twisted inter-cooler.

The intake manifold was N/A, also the distributor and harnesses (so I assume the head is as well).

I cut out an intake manifold gasket and swapped the N/A intake and vacuum rail for a 88GT, pulled both engine bay harnesses and installed 88GT harnesses.




Originally this car was to be Robs (shop partner) but I seemed to be doing all the work and the car needed a safety check. I put the car aside and pulled in a Black 88gt the engine caught fire in, it had a good transmission and Robs rotten 90GT needed a transmission so I took the 90's engine and bolted the 88's trany to it, dropped it in the 88 and put the 90's trunk and license plate on the 88GT and Rob had a car to drive.

After this we purchased another red 88GT MX6 and Rob is keeping it, so we decided to finish and sell the white 91 DX, this is the rest of the engine bay work done over the last 2 weeks:

First thing to address was the head, a quick Port and polish of the exhaust side (while on the car):
Before


During


After


Next thing, was to clean the intake manifold, I cut a piece of metal the size of the intake manifold logo and used 3M 2sided tape to hold it in place during cleaning:


These are the tools I used, do not use an 8" wire bench grinder brush on a angle grinder unless you have full protective wear and are ready to pick wire bits out of your skin and clothes:



After cleaning:




Next was to slap a turbo together for it, (with the red 88GT we purchased recently came with a garage full of spare parts, 3 engines, 3 transmissions, a bunch of used turbo's, broken body kit, adjustable cam gear that doesn't fit....), I decided to use one of the turbo's that we got recently, none where good, the guy rebuilt one himself, but it has way to much shaft play, thew rest of the rebuild kit came with the huge pile of parts and the new barrings are still in the kit, I used one of our center cartridges:




The exhaust housing and manifold:



Both cleaned:





Some parts to be powder coated:



Some installed:


Turbo installed and 91 rear housing removed:


Rear housing and disi installed:


Cleaned-up and installed an inter-cooler:



Add the intercooler pipes and an AFM:



Everything had to be found and cleaned before installing them, there was no rad, the left head light was finished and the front bumper skin was gutted if the and the support was mangled, change them and gathered/cleaned the rest of the parts:

Engine bay complete:








Now I am swapping the interior harnesses, the vents and controls are changed to push button.
I have most of the holes patched and welded, I have to change the rear inner bumper, and touch up some scratches and surface rust and it should be all done.
Will update picks soon.

[megalomaniac32x]

im doing the same thing except im going from a 89 MX6 GT into a 91 626 DX

[Keeloh]

Very Nice i had a 89 Mx6 GT and total the whole car so i bought a 91 Lx and changed everthing Good Job!

[magik8]

Nice work. I wonder if the previous owner was a member on this site. These DX -> GT swaps often end up with the car being abandoned/junked do to lack of ability/experience.

[Mazda Carnage]

Originally Posted by magik8

Nice work. I wonder if the previous owner was a member on this site. These DX -> GT swaps often end up with the car being abandoned/junked do to lack of ability/experience.

Don't know if he was (probably not) but he did invest in the car, new front bumper mounts, new gas tank, new factory gas lines, after market sunroof ...
But like you said, definite lack of ability/experience.

I hope he does better with turbo charging the Miata he took the turbo off for.
The kid buying the Mx6 lives in the same end of Ottawa as it's previous owner, it would be cool if the Miata and Mx6 meet up some day, (I have seen his work and if he actually gets it to run and doesn't blow it up, there is no way it will beat the MX6 @15lbs on a roll).

[zlyricist]

nicely done. that engine bay looks good and clean

[TR-mx6]

You clean like a mother[fizzle]! good work!

[kiddmx6]

looks good as always carnage. nice work, awesome patients.

[DarkMx-6]

how do you make sure that all the exhaust ports are closed before you start porting and polishing? And what did you do it with?

[Mazda Carnage]

Originally Posted by DarkMx-6

how do you make sure that all the exhaust ports are closed before you start porting and polishing? And what did you do it with?

You have two choices:
The better way: remove the valve cover, the rocker assembly off, on the exhaust side, put the valve cover back on.
The way I do it: Only one exhaust valve is opened at a time, leave the car in neutral and use a 21mm socket on a ratchet to turn the crank (bolt is in the center of the utility pulley, there is a rubber plug in the passenger wheel well guard you pull out to get to it). Turn the crank until the valve farthest from where you are working is opened, then stick a rag in the opened valves port so no aluminum gets in. If you want to be safe, after fulling out the rag, pull the spark plug out for that cylinder and blast air in the plug hole.

I use a carbide non ferrous metal porting bit, usually I use air powered or electric die grinders but because of the fact I am only doing the exhaust and the valves are still in the head I don't want to take much off so I prefer
a drill and 41" drill extension with 1/4" chuck (like the ones for a dremel but bigger).
If you simply clean away the carbon and take off the porous surface aluminum evenly on each valve port you can keep things pretty even (Don't try to clean all the casting seem away with this tool or you'll cut grooves).
Then I use die grinders and sanding cartridges :
to sand and smooth out the surface, if you are counting the passes and trying to match them that way, then use a fresh cartridge on every port (they will still be good to use on many other jobs), If you where consistent with the metal porting bit then it's easy to keep things even with the sanding cartridges.

To shine it a bit I really slacked and just used a small sand paper flap wheel :


Normally after that I would use a cross buff kit and then felt polishing bobs and wax to put on a mirrored finish (people say it's just for show) but carbon doesn't build up on the mirrored finish like it does normally, just a very thin black film you can wipe off with you finger after 20 000km's of driving.

------------------

If you haven't used a metal porting bit then you might not want to try it on your head, there pretty unforgiving.

Go right to the sand paper cartridge rolls (take more time/less chance for error). then use the flap wheel or :
Cleaning the exhaust ports for dummy's:
Behold the cross buff kit:
These come in different sizes and grits, the coarse ones are agressive enough to port with (if you have enough of them), they will clear the carbon , take away the rough aluminum and open the valve ports up a bit with no chance of nicks and grooves in the aluminum (almost fool proof, almost.)
Remember to lube the buffs up with some type of oil or they will burn out quickly.

[DarkMx-6]

I wish I could go to Canada just to work on cars with you; I bet if I did, I could come back and make a kia sofia beat a evo with the stock motor.
Thanks man your awesome.

[Red2.2]

Is it safe to get the 1G GT turbo and drop it on a stock 2.2L with no other mod? how much will it be?
thx!

[SABBAi]

Looks great. Fantastic work!

[compnut21]

thread is 5 moths old.

[maffatato15]

Originally Posted by Red2.2

Is it safe to get the 1G GT turbo and drop it on a stock 2.2L with no other mod? how much will it be?
thx!

??????? do you know anything about tuning?