Would you eco-mod a Mazda MX-3 ?

[gone-ot]

...it's "Zoom-Zoom" (HP) versus "putt-putt" (FE)!!

[YukonCornelius]

Originally Posted by bhazard

Whats that supposed to mean?

Mazdas are generally mediocre vehicles at best, and because of this he should not be suprised when one falls short of his expectations.

This was in response to him wondering why it wasn't performing as well as he was expecting.

[d0sitmatr]

Originally Posted by SVTwithMPG

Mazdas are generally mediocre vehicles at best, and because of this he should not be suprised when one falls short of his expectations.

This was in response to him wondering why it wasn't performing as well as he was expecting.

I highly disagree with you
my old 93 MX6 LS (with a 2.5L V6)
cost me $1700.0 w/ 120k miles on it, lasted more than 4 yrs and 35,000 miles with 0 engine problems and 0 maintenance in those 4 yrs, not even an oil change.
yet I managed to beat many boosted cars as well as some V8's with it, bone stock, and still averaged 30mpg hwy.
if I dropped the protege 5th gear in the trans (direct swap) I could push that up to 33mpg hwy, with no aero mods at all, and only limited hypermiling.
Im a pretty big Mazda fan, have been ever since the first gen rx7 days, Ive also NEVER been let down by any of the Mazda's Ive owned.
Ive owned/own an '88 323, a '94 mx3, a '91 b2200, 2x '93 mx6 and currently own a '94 protege and 1 of the 93 mx6.

back on topic:
swapping the parts between ford, mercury and mazda are super easy, and instead of going for a full trans swap, think about just doing a gearing swap, as 85% of the internals on the eng/trans are swappable.
as mentioned above, I could have swapped the 5th gear from a protege or 626 (both have the same 5th gear) into my MX6 which would have dropped my hwy RPM by 500-700, bringing it down around 2200/2300 @ 70 mph (local hwy speeds) where previously it would avg about 2800 @ 70.
there is also tons of potential for aeromods.
I think the MX3 with the 3.4 drive could easily net you 40mpg, my old mx3 with the 1.6L 5 spd 34mpg hwy most of the time, and I could net about 28 city (depending on traffic)

[Cd]

If you put in a 3.4 drive you could boost your MPG by 6 MPG ?
I assumed it was more like 10% or less.

[d0sitmatr]

Originally Posted by Cd

If you put in a 3.4 drive you could boost your MPG by 6 MPG ?
I assumed it was more like 10% or less.

the stock MX3 trans has the shortest gears of all that series engine, so yes, if you were to drop a trans with the 3.4 gearing, I could see you easily netting 40mpg hwy.
as mentioned, there are guys running the KLZE (jspec version of the KLDE found in the US mx6) engine in their MX6 that have swapped just the 5th gear from protege tans and are averaging 31-33mpg hwy without hypermiling or aeromodding.
of course, their city mpg drops some, maybe 2-3mpg less. which to them is fine as they arent looking for better mpg but a quicker car.

[morphector]

I had a v6 one that I sold 3 years ago.

I didnt do a lot of highway with it, once i did 30mpg going 70-75mph on a really hilly (that's a mountain only highway) with A/C on cruise control. The engine was reving too high on highway, almost 4000rpm at 70mph. In town I would do around 20-22mpg with a stick-shift.

Beside FE I really miss this car, it had a sooo great handling and crosswinds never really affected this car.

These cars had a massive blind spot, actually a complete motorcycle could fit in the blind spot so you've got to be aware of them when drinving that car.

[jakobnev]

Well temps are up and the numbers are in.

A couple of weeks ago i installed an MPGuino and have been able to see how much fuel is used on different parts of my trips. It's clear to me now, with increased tire pressures that the only thing causing bad mileage is the cold start penalty. (I drive mostly short trips) When the engine is warm it's just fantastically efficient. (on hight load at least) Unfortunately the V6-block is quite massive in relation to how little power is actually needed to move the car around!

More grill block and more engine bay insulation is high on my list now.

I'm also considering a block heater that burns something renewable that is otherwise a waste. (No electricity where i park my car)

[Pauldog]

I have a 1992 1.6L 5-speed MX-3 that I'm likely to sell, because of all the brake repairs it needs. (Leaking brake lines, to start. It's also pretty damn ugly; I avoided washing it because that would remove more paint. Still fun to drive, though, except for the brakes.) I was very disappointed with the mileage (slightly over 30 at best), and thought that maybe it was the computer or something out of adjustment. The check engine light never went on.

I had a 1996 5-speed Protege DX with the 1.5L engine. It always seemed underpowered, but on long trips, even at 75-80 mph with the AC running, it came close to 40 mpg. That engine might be a good candidate for dropping into the MX-3.

The Protege must have had an economical final ratio, too. With the MX-3, on the other hand, I usually shift into 5th before reaching 45 mph.

Another thing might be to have an optimum ratio at a common city speed limit, so that you could stay in 4th gear at 30 or even 25 mph.

[Cd]

To all of you guys with MX-3s I'm sure I'm not the only one here that that would love to see a tuft test on your car !

Even a simple tuft test of the back window would be appreciated. You could just tape a few tufts to the back glass, and have your cell phone take some video from the back seat.

Even better of course would be a full body test - especially at the rear of the car.

This is easily done by having a chase vehicle with someone else taking video or still pictures of your car as they pass you. If you have no one else willing to help out, you can perform a single person test like the one in the video below.

( For those new to the forum and not familiar with tuft testing, it is the 'poor mans wind-tunnel' type of test using strips of short 3" strips of yarn which you tape to your car. As the wind flows around the vehicle. the yarn 'tufts' show what the air is doing in that area of the vehicle . )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3q9ib...eature=related

[Cd]

I'm noticing more and more forum members that have MX-3s.
A lot of you guys think the way i do and see the car as a great car to convert to an EV.

I would still love to see a tuft test of this car, since I wonder where that the problem areas lie regarding it's not-so-great aerodynamics.