I Think I have cracked my Block Please Help!
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Hi Guys,
It went to -7 Degrees the other week and I started my 1.8 V6. :oops: Thought I had enough Anti-freeze / coolant as could only fit half a bottle in but my Power steering belt fried and snapped and bottom Radiator hose popped within 10 seconds of starting. I switched off and went to check damage. My rad emptied later that day when defrosted but the engine and the rest was a block of Ice. By the time it was starting to thaw it froze again and it took 4 days to fully defrost engine.
I swapped bottom hose and clip but cant bleed the system. I got a steam leak near the top hose so I swapped this and the filler neck and cap but steam coming from inside engine from some metal bit. People say I have probably cracked my block.
My car cooks and fan wont kick in. My guage is wrong as looks normal temp but I suspect that is to do with air in the system but is way, way, way too hot. Tried bleeding in normal way but there is no compression there probably due to the leak and my coolant just empties out the expansion tank breather pipe when hot. Also Revs are going mental when choke dies off and car warms up. Its like very high revs for 3 seconds then very low for 3. Very irratic. I suspect steam in one of the sensors but not sure which. Before I noticed the staem leak I was just gonna wire the fan to a switch and have on all the time.
I got another identical MX3 with a decent engine it was body work letting me down on this one, needed 2 new sills, 4 tyres, new calipers, discs and pads and an ABS sensor for MOT. Was cheaper to buy a new MX3. I kept my old one aswell and has proven its weight in gold for spares so far. I now think I need to swap my engines over. I would rather not if there is any cheap and easy way of fixing but looking glum.
My brother in law and me probably (I hope) could whip the engines out (If I get an engine lift) but I am really scared and never come anywhere near to anything this big before. I think we might have trouble getting new engine back in. Any Ideas or tips? I have read the 1.8 V6 to 2.5 V6 engine swap guides and everybody says its easy. I estimate a lift costing £130 and by the time I have new fluids, belts etc it takes total to £200 approx thats if we do it ourselves. Can't afford to pay some dude for labour. Some bolts are very stiff and I do not know what problems we will run into on the way. By the time I have gone through all this I wish I could swap to the 2.5 litre but can't afford this even if I could find one.
Please help If I can't fix it then my MX3 days are numbered and the missus says I have to get rid of em both leaving me with no car and no cash for a new car. She already said start braking it on Ebay but this will take too long and might not get much back as there are loads of MX3's being broken. :cry:
PLEASE PLEASE HELP!!!
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I forgot to mention, when we was inspecting where the steam was coming from my mate noticed my manifold also has a slight leak. I did notice the odd missfire, very slight performance loss and my fuel consumption seemed to be getting worse. Sometimes would cost the same to do a journey and sometimes the same journey seemed to use loads more fuel. Would this cause these symtoms and does the manifold come out with the engine at the swap stage or would this be extra work for me? Can I swap my used manifold off my other MX3 or should I be looking for a new one?
Cheers Guys. By the way I have had a similar post to this on the US site mx-3.com and no body has replied. I only just managed to sign up to this UK site as I had cookie probs. Hope I get more advice here.
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hi. welcome
if i was you ide make one good mx3 out of the 2. thats what i did with mine. i got a second for £200 and robbed it of parts!
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I would just take the hit and swap the engine. Yea it seems a bit scary, but just label EVERYTHING and follow the guides and I think you will be fine. Besides its a learning experience! You could look for a probe/mx6 engine - 2.5l 164bhp(?). I got my crane for £117, you can always sell it on after.
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i think you can rent the crane from tool rental places.
just as a thought,
a friend of mine changed his lump with just some rope and chain over a roof beam in his garage. the car was a tr7
so go ahead and do it whats the worst can happen :wink:
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I did think about renting a crane but this is about £90 and I can buy new for £130 or as you said £117. Might aswell buy it and If in the future I get a 2.5L engine can always swap that myself if this swap goes well. Like you say I can always flog the crane later. I was once offered a 2.5L MX6 engine for £400 but don't know condition etc.
I have been trying to make 1 good car from 2 not so good. If I was buying a new engine I would rather have more BHP than 164. Whats the jap spec 2.5L that gives around 197 Bhp? I always wanted to clear the 200 Bhp mark so with a filter, exhaust etc I would imagine this would.
We discussed sticking a lable on everything and take photos of each stage aswell as write a log step by step. Im more worried about when bolts start to sheer and round off etc. For instance even taking my battery mount plate out The bolts are rusted on and have sheered. I am naturally very unlucky and can't expect anything else form the swap. I just know Im gonna hit a major hurdle and end up with 2 MX3's just rotting.
Where can I find all the torque wrence settings etc for the refit? What else will I need to replace new aswell as fluids?
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Yea tool rental is a rip off where I live too! Just mentioned the probe/mx6 klde incase you could grab a bargain.
The 197 bhp is the KLZE straight neck. The 197 is at the crank so you lose a fair bit getting it to the wheels. So it's actually quite hard to get 200whp but by no means a slow car.
Yea I've had few bolts shear, it's a pita but bolts aren't dear. Torque settings all in the manual which is available online at mx-3.com. You may want to consider replacing waterpump, timingbelt and pulleys, as it's easy when it's out. Depends what miles are on your good engine I guess!
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I know the manual well. I still can't work how to get the torque settings I will need. The manual tells you how to check things and replace the odd bit but doesn't show the full engine swap (as far as I am aware).
I still fancy the sound of 197Bhp even if it is at the fly wheel. So what do you thing the WHP would equate to roughly? Also how do I go about finding one and what cost would I be looking at? I still wouldn't know how to tell them appart. I didn't know they did a 2.5L Probe. I know there is a 16v and a 24v Probe I only ever liked the 24v as the 3 spokes on the 16v were a right turn off. If I had to go for 164BHP engine is that at the crank too or at the wheel? What sort of price would I be looking at for one of these?
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go on ebay and look for mx6;s being broken
thats what i did
was lucky enough to find an import one with a KLZE in, cost me 200 quid
really needs new evrything as there is oil in the plug ports, but thats another 200 on top
but evrything will be sorted, cam belt, rocker gaskets, new plugs leads, waterpump etc
so 400 in total for mee
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well that was just so jammy 8)
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I was gonna say, I just checked and all seem £1000+ for car. There is one at £500. So you look at the ones being broken and just buy the engine? How do you get the owner to truthfully tell you if its the KLZE not the DE?
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@61e5a770fe=mafadecay:
How do you get the owner to truthfully tell you if its the KLZE not the DE?
don't tell him what you want it to say, but ask him to tell you the head code. is one way the other is to hold his dog to ransom lol
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How heavy are the engines approx? Im looking at 2 ton and 1 ton engine hoists. I expect the engine to be about half a ton but I don't want it to drop on my head! At very least it will damage my engine. :lol:
If I buy a lift and manage to swap the engines easily enough then I also want to swap a 2.5L LDV van engine before flogging the lift on ebay. Will a 1 ton lift do most jobs? I could do with keeping costs down as much as I can.
I cant afford the MX6 engine yet so am going ahead swapping my 1.8 V6 like for like but if not too bad a job I will be (In my own mind) a qualified engine swapper and will swap to the KLZE at a later date. I will be swapping engines left right and centre. :lol: I already got my mate on standby with his £500+ impact wrenches.
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The block without intake manifold, gearbox or fluids is 136kg. So it's safe to say your 1 tonner will do fine. I'd imagine it'll be fine for the van too.
Impact wrenches are awesome, really cut out alot of grief. Though sometimes you can't beat a breaker bar! Are both cars 95 or under? You may want to check the ECU leads are the same. (ie ones not obdi and the other obdii)
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My spares MX3 is a 91 J plate (Pre Cat) and my semi-working MX3 that I just blew up is a 92 K plate. So my ECU and loom should be the same. If i am sourcing a MX6 2.5L KLZE for future swap so what age MX6 should I look for then? Or doesn't this matter as my MX3 is pre 95?
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impact wrenches are awesome, whenver theres a big job on i ring a mate thats got a battery powered one :shock: a second on a rusty engine mount and its off :lol:
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That is sure good news as I have never used one. Wont they often just sheer the bolt head off though if they are so rusty? My mate is a steel erector (Makes those building frames out of steel gurders). He has a kit to extract broken bolts and another kit to re-tap those threads but I would rather not have to use either. He has some serious tools but no engine lift. Struggling to get one on my budget at the moment. I could really do with my car back and soon before her indoors sells for £30 scrap.
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her indoors needs to lay off you and have some respect for manly projects!
I don't know how rusty your car is, but mine was rather flakey around the bay. I broke one bolt on the removal, unfortunately its the crossmember bolt that was welded in. Was a bitch to cut out and now I'll have to nick an arc welder for a minute. But one bolt wasn't bad going…
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Her in-doors has even started to get her claws into her brother. He was going to be my saving grace in this project. Even he is now having the odd doubt.
My car is mint on the outside, in fact not far from showroom appart from tiny dink on door where roof slate bashed (Never rusted though). The Autoglym paint renovator and super resin gold always did me proud. Underside is a bit flakey and bottom of bay quite bad. They are after all 16 and 17 year old cars. The bar that runs accross the front of the radiator behind the bumper to stop it caving in is very rusty on both cars. I think this is an impact bar so perhaps not best that its rusty.
If I eventually swap to KLZE what league would it fall into? I.e. 197Bhp at the flywheel obviously not Supra, Scooby, Evo, Mitsu GTO etc but I reakon Golf VR6, Vectra 2.5, Audi A6, Civic type R, etc. Am I getting warm?
Are the stock brakes good enough to cope as mine do not seem great as it is. They are ok but Ive felt better on other cars in fact the safest I have ever felt was a golf GTI brakes and handling. Also did I read somewhere that you need new clutch assembly and gearbox to match the engine? I notice on MX-3.com they swear by Brembo rotors this sounds very pricy to me. I have not seen any big brake conversions in the UK especially reasonable priced.
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you should beat non turbo supras, the old skool supras, vectras, a6, a8, most hondas… Your 0-60 should be under 6.5 seconds, some claim 6, I can't speak for myself on that yet.
Youtube has some interesting races with zes. I look at it this way, I'll have spent about 1k on getting my ZE the way I want it. The mx3 project car cost me less again. So for under 2k I'll have a car faster than most new hot hatches and some much more expensive cars. Is it fair to compare 2k mx3 to a 10k+ evo? Not really, but I won't be embarrassed to give one a go when mine is done. I like how the mx3 looks and handles, I think evos and moreso imprezas look like shitty saloon cars modified by a council estate.
Stock brakes do most ppl fine, some SS brakelines, decent pads and rotors should be fine. The klze weighs about 2kg more - so you're not really having to stop anymore mass. But I admit considering the hp hike I'd like more. There is a guide on mx-3.com on how to upgrade to hybrid subaru/323f brakes. Or you can spend 1k with k sport. With a klze you'll want a stronger clutch to handle the power of course. Gearbox bolts up exactly to klze as to k8 as to klde.
Though I have to say with a 13+yo car you will have to deal with rusty things, things that break etc. Much like any older used car. SO be prepared to have to buy new things. I think its great value for money fixing up an mx3 into a 200hp beast, you may dissagree or moreso your lady!
