Complete newbie to mx3's 1.8 V6 se on its way :)
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I got Red in August 2003 for £3,250 and Marvin last May for £250 :D
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bloody hell. you got a car as rare as that for pennys. nice one. :D bought mine for £800. it is fair tidy. bit of rust by the spoiler but nothing in the arches. i was just looking for some alloys on ebay. is the V6 tricky to work on? is it eco? sorry about all the questions. have you got any pics of your cars up? would love to take a ganders
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**Marvin was a non-runner at the time. Couple of rust spots, broken windscreen, slightly gammy-sounding engine… The couple selling him had offers of £400 to break him (the interior and wheels were worth that), but they wanted him to be put back on the road and I was after an SE for a project.
Of course he's slightly more of a non-runner right now - he has no engine or gearbox (or wheels, suspension, exhaust, interior - you get the idea) - but before one rebuilds, one must first dismantle. He's in the stripped down, cleaning up stage right now :D
I have a Famine's Fleet thread, which has some of our other cars. And you may recognise the other red one, which has spent some considerable time in Banbury.
In terms of engine work itself, yes, the V6 is tricky. We did a cambelt change and it was bordering on gynaecology with the engine in place, but with a service manual to hand everything is easy enough in the end.
Economical? Red tends to run about 35mpg on longer journeys, 32mpg on average and high 20s if forced to bimble around town more regularly. It's about the same as an MX-5, only better on longer runs due to the better drag coefficient. We also have a 2.2 4-pot which gets about 32mpg on runs, a 2.3 V6 which runs close to 30mpg and a 2.5 straight six which just about breaks 30mpg, so Red is probably the most economical of the cars we have. Though as they say, your mileage may vary.**
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@92e369c883=Famine:
And you may recognise the other red one, which has spent some considerable time in Banbury.
.Was the car from Banbury or is that where your from?
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**Neither :D
But I visit Banbury on occasion (most recent was mid-August) and we loaned the car to a friend there for a couple of months - he was without a working car and Blue was sitting idle, not getting much use.**
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@aa6cbebc99=Famine:
**Neither :D
But I visit Banbury on occasion (most recent was mid-August) and we loaned the car to a friend there for a couple of months - he was without a working car and Blue was sitting idle, not getting much use.**
cool, there are quite a few 3's around here, was thinking you was one of them.
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There is a couple of mx3's where i live, all completely standard. i have never been a fan of small cars but i fell lin love with this one. i was looking to get an st24 but felt this would be a cheaper, more economical alternative. and if im honest, it feels just as quick. anyone had a go at an st24 in a mx3? (nothing illegal obviously :wink: )
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An ST24 is no match for an MX-3 V6 - a Probe V6 with the same engine is a pound-for-pound match up to about 130mph and the MX-3 will walk all over a Cougar V6. An ST200 does much better and an ST220 is in a completely different league.
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i gotta admit, when i took it for a test drive it got up to a ton pretty damn quick. i cant wait to take on all the little saxo/106 boys. they all think their cars are the best. thats what put me off small cars but the build quality of the mazda is pretty good from what could tell. i can tell that all you guys are passionate about your cars and its nice to talk to people with the same passion as myself. oh one more thing, is the sunroof a common thing to stop working on these as mine is not moving. i hope its just a fuse as not any mx3's in the scrappys round here. i checked out marvin on your page and he looks pretty clean. nice rides :)
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it is a stock engine so hope it will beat an st24. got a friend that has one. according to the book it tops out at 133mph and the st tops out at 137. can anyone veryfy that 133 is the top speed for a stock 1.8 V6? i guess power to weight ratio would make the mazda quicker as mondeo is nearly 2 ton. mazda is 1140kg apparently :D
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**The ST24 weighs just over 1.3 tonnes, while the MX-3 is 1.1 tonnes. On paper, the ST has the edge with power to weight - by a fraction. But it's long-geared (same as the Probe and MX-6) and, though torquier, has a peaky torque curve. It's slower to 60mph, a quarter-mile and 100mph. Anything with bends in favours the MX-3 unless the bends are very shallow and fast, where the Mondeo's longer wheelbase and lower polar moment will help it.
In theory, the MX-3 is aero limited (the air pressure in front of it exceeds the power it generates' ability to overcome it) to 141mph. Crunching the numbers, on the stock 15" wheels it's also gear limited (maximum engine speed in the longest gear) to 141mph. Disregard what the speedometer tells you - speedos are legally allowed up to a 10% overread and are not necessarily accurate at any speed.
Not familiar with sunroofs (or rather moonroofs - sunroof is glass, moonroof is a body panel) failing but a fuse would be the first place to check.**
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oh yeah i just double checked. mx3 will have approx 122hp/per ton. st is 130 something lol. so would it be possible to squeeze a V6 probe engine in or would it need a completeley new loom ecu and all the other gismo's?
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Yes, the V6 Probe engine (commonly referred to as "KL-DE") fits just fine - same engine as the V6 MX-6. The preferred swap for the V6 though is to put in the Japanese MX-6's V6 (commonly referred to as "KL-ZE"). There's many, many threads about this - I think the site admin has just put up a post in the How To section about engine swaps.
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think i would go for the probe as there is a few in the breakers down here. is it possible to get an ecu remap in the mean time though? like i said i know its a baby V6 and dont wanna damage it
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Fair enough, but the Probe V6 is only another 30hp (135ish to 165ish) and for the amount of effort not really worth it. The Japanese MX-6 packs another 30hp on top of that…
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my mums got a mondeo 2.5 v6 duratec and i hate driving it. too heavy, too much roll and the power seems all wrong, plus it doesn't rev as happily as a my 3
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I have driven an ST24 and thought the power was pretty good but at that time i only had a 2.0 zetec to compare it to. the power of the mx seems about the same as the st with better fuel econamy and it does feel alot lighter and alot more "chuckable" into corners. the mx defo feels alot stiffer in the suspension department. even though the st has sports suspension it is longer wheel based which would make it very rolly.
one week to go before i pick it up :D insurance is all sorted, will be driving it strait to the post office to tax it and then to the petrol station, brim it full of petrol then off for a nice long drive with the misses :D
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There is a KLZE for sale on here at the moment for £300 with haggle room and that will give you 200 bhp.
He also has the ecu that you need for the swap.
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I would love to but still trying to scrape enough to pay off the car lol. one day in the near future i will probably be looking for an engine swap. Thanks