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Old 23-08-2005, 08:53 PM   #1
pinger
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Exclamation Mazda Astina 1997 5 door manual V6 2.0- help me make it a beast

Hi guys,

I have just become the proud recipient of a mates car.

It has been very well taken care of White Astina 1997 V6 2.0i, only one owner.

It is totally stock, has has absolutely nothing done to it whatsover.

I basically want to improve the allround package. I would like some performance gains (even thought the V6 pumps out some 107 kw as stock), and some handling gains (to rid the car of the slightly floaty front).

I have seen mention of CAI and ECU. What are people views of this?

I would prefer to keep it looking as stock as possible. Nothing I hate worse that ADHD f_wits in their hotted up cars that have been dressed to look like they have been hotted up.

I want it to ride nice, and perform well with mimimum changes.


cheers
Brent

Last edited by pinger; 23-08-2005 at 08:59 PM.
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Old 23-08-2005, 09:55 PM   #2
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it's already a beast

try making it a monster
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Old 23-08-2005, 09:57 PM   #3
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nothing wrong with a car that looks fast..beside i only brought my astina for its great shape....my opion is that it is not really a performance car anyway.
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Old 23-08-2005, 09:58 PM   #4
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the aus spec v6 puts out 104kw to start with , for power the cheapest easyest option for power is cold air intake with a highflow filter, cat back exhaust(noone makes extractors in aus and its around 800-1000$ to get them from america for the 2.5L v6 outa the mx6 and 1500-2000 for custom extractors), a rising rate fuel pressure regulater i dont have one of there but ppl that had them of v6's say they are werth it but expect a drop in fuel economy, and last is a piggy back ecu a apeci safc or a greedy emange sould to the trick if your feel like spending lots of money u can do a jdm v6 trans plant, the jdm v6 has 125kw std and them u add the things i said u will have a fair bit more power or there all so is the jdm 2.5l v6 outa the jap mx6 with has 200hp at the fly, boostedbatman is doin up one of these atm.

for handleing whiteline have performace springs, swaybars, bushing, strut braces to kkep you happy for a while, for shocks you a farily limited in selection here in australia but i have a set a kyb climb gear shocks coming from japan thay may be up for sale, these are performace shocks that are not avalible in australia and are designed for rough roads with giving the best performance possable. u can get coilovers by Jic but these are fairly expencive unless u can find them cheaply from japan.

hope this helps you a bit

tim
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Old 24-08-2005, 04:20 AM   #5
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Since beginning the my build project I have found that a real killer for the v6 is the fuel supply. Going to an adjustable fuel pressure regulator and converting to a dual feed fuel rail setup will be one of the first things I would do.
With the fuel going in through one rail and heading out through the other an cause slight starvation. If you change the setup so that the fuel line splits with a Y shaped piece before the fuel reaches the rails then collect them after the rails and before the regulator you will have a healthy fuel supply to all cylinders.
As for performance I would head towards
Cold Air Intake (keep the pod out of the engine bay unless you build a custom heat shield and divert the air into the filter area)
Upraded springs whether you wish to lower the car or not is up to you, the lower the weight of the car the less roll that will be apparent, although the lower you go the rougher you will find the ride (Catch 22)
If you have ageing shocks you WILL need to replace them if you do lower the ride height as the change in height will change the wear point on the strut and you may find that they give up the ghost very quickly once you change this point
Rear Swaybar an upgrade here will greatly improve your turn in and stiffen the rear dramatically. Whiteline make a good one as well as AWR and a few others
HD Clutch This will make a good performance upgrade by shortening the dead spot between shifts and enabling you to happily shift gear much higher in the rev range
2 1/4" cat back exhaust This will free up the exhaust gasses exiting the engine and give you a nice little gain. There are a few aftermarket examples for the Hatch but if you own the Hardtop then you will need to get one made up
Extractors/Headers There are a few examples floating around with the best being the Hotshots from USA (>US$500) but the ones by SSAutochrome are a knock off (as are all others) of the Hotshots but better value, there are some cheaper ones out there but they have cheap welds as well (bear in mind that all headers are made to fit the MX6 and Ford Probe so there may be slight modification required to get them to fit the Aus Astina, EGR bung and mounting brackets etc)
Piggyback or Fully Programmable Engine Management System Depends what your plans for the car are and how much you wish to spend
Tyre choice This is a performance upgrade that many people dont consider to be so. This is you direct contact path to the road surface, spending a bit more here will reap the greatest rewards for if you spend a lot of money on suspension upgrades and cut corners here you will find that you are close to being back to square one. My recommendation is a semi-directional tyre suited to both wet and dry weather as full directional will look great but not only make more noise (shifting air as it does water) but you will not get the lifespan of the tyre to last, when most directional tyres get to 60% tread depth they have a tendancy to wear very quickly

And never leave out a good alignment this is crucial for handling and cheap to do
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Old 24-08-2005, 07:40 PM   #6
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The first thing is to make a plan. That way each mod will be an improvement on the last and you will save some money.
The first suspension mods would be rear swaybar and a good front strut brace. It's amazing the improvement in just those. Next would be springs and shocks (do them together to save money). Follow every suspension mod with a wheel alighnment.
Rolling stock. The V6 has some good all 'round rims, unless it's a cosmetic thing then keep 'em. Follow the bat guys advice on the tyres.
Now go out and do a defensive driving course (the car doesn't make the driver).
As for the go department. First mod would be CAI (plenty of threads with good advice) next is exhaust. 2 1/4" is more than enough for the 2.0 if you're planing a major power upgrade then you may need to do a whole plan thing. The catalytic converter should at least match the outlet of your extractors (buy the extractors before changing the cat).
Do some reading on clutches and brake pads now so when it comes time you are well informed.
Where are you? Your local authorities may restrict some mods, you need to be aware of the potential problems with plod.
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Old 25-08-2005, 08:07 AM   #7
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i had a CAI and upgraded Rising-Rate Fuel Pressure regulator on mine and noticed a great improvement with just that.

Give it a few shots with Subaru upper engine cleaner too to clean out the gunk that builds up in the engine.
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Old 25-08-2005, 10:27 AM   #8
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Hi Guys thanks for your responses.

Firstly, I am based in Perth. Does anyone know any good performance shops in Perth that could walk me through some options?

Secondly, I am looking to spend probably about $4k additional on the car.

I would prefer mods that do not reduce the likelihood of resale of the car.

The car already has top of the range rubber on it, the only more expensive tyres are the tyres that are apparently rated to 300 kmh

To me the most logical upgarde would be CAI/fuel feed and suspension sway bars.

Does the CAI unit give the engine some low down pull? What is the approx cost of installation?

Does the fuel feed system increase the fuel consumption? Any idea how much ie 5%, 10%, 20% extra etc

I have read the whiteline sway bar stuff on the other thread. The ride on the current car is ok, feels however like the underside of the car is not as noise and shock tight as I would like. I don't know if this requires more soundproofing work or undercar work like shocks? The front engine bay has a stiffener or bar over the top of the engine bay, is this the front stiffener referred to?

The car currently does sit nice and high through the wheel arch so losing an inch or two in height would be easily achievable and give probably some improvements in handling and ride.

Cosmo I have done both Defensive Driving and Offensive Driving (Executive Protection) Driving Courses. Regardless, I don't drive my cars hard, I like to enjoy them.

All input appreciated, throw enough **** at a wall and some of it will stick.
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Old 25-08-2005, 06:46 PM   #9
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Mazda alloy V6 engine family consists of the following,
K8 - 1.8 litre (Eunos 30X)
KF - 2.0 litre (Astina, Eunos 500)
KJ - 2.3 litre Miller cycle (Eunos 800M)
KL - 2.5 litre (626, Mx-6, Eunos 800, Mazda Millenia)

The Japanese versions of these engines had higher compression, more assertive cams and advanced ignition timing. The Japanese Eunos 500 had viscous LSD in the transmission.

They are almost all interchangeable while still using the standard ECU (not the KJ). It is conceivable to put the 2.5 in place of the 2.0 for more power and torque.
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Old 26-08-2005, 01:18 AM   #10
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one of my mates bought a stunning dark pearl blue Eunos with miller cycle engine....um...can anyone tell me why it is called miller cycle? anything special about the engine.
I saw his engine bay....looks f***ing sweet!!!!!!!




The only thing I know is that it is supercharged and has some soft of variable valve timing!!

Last edited by DrSilver; 26-08-2005 at 12:10 PM.
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Old 26-08-2005, 04:42 AM   #11
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Its named after the founder
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miller_cycle
And yes it looks f***ing sweet

I never 'actually' noticed an increase in my fuel consumption with the RRFPR as it doesnt make the injectors use more fuel it just allows a higher pressured amount "available" to them so that they will flow more precisely. Sure they will flow more fuel as a result but as I said its minimal. I would get the injectors serviced before fitment of the regulator so that your not wasting the mod with a poor spray pattern
The engine bay stiffener is called a font strut brace
The fitment of the CAI will allow the engine to breathe so you will gain a bit of low end response with the v6 but also at the top end as the stock airbox is attempting to gain air from a small opening behind the passenger headlight
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Old 27-08-2005, 03:02 PM   #12
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The Eunos 800M with the Millercycle engine is the car I own, its given me grief but I love the car, its so nice to drive and smooth. Make sure your mate starts savings his cash when it smokes on startup. The superchargers are faulty. Its a design fault that mazda acknowledges but won't fix. Good engine, good engineering, **** supercharger...

A normal engine uses an otto cycle but the timing is different on a millercycle as it uses the pressure from the supercharger on the compression stroke to make the car 15% more effecient, this design is usually used on large ships as its a 15% saving on fuel. I would like to see the supercharger on a ship to do that though.

Some cool pics



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Old 27-08-2005, 06:03 PM   #13
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Don’t forget the Diesel or Wankel cycle engines (also Mazda favourites). Otto cycle is so common but relatively unknown to most people.
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Old 28-08-2005, 04:34 AM   #14
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Tony is that a CAS in the first pic next to the cam gear on the left head (engines LHS).
I am looking to install some form of this when I get my Ignition/coil pack setup so I can totally remove the distrubutor. Do you know how it attaches to the camshaft?? Would you happen to have a pic of the intake cam on the LHS?
I am also jealous that you have 2 exhaust cam gears as on the KL/KF we have one on the LH exhaust cam and one on the RH intake cam so adjustable gears are out of the question (stupid mazda)
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Old 28-08-2005, 08:12 AM   #15
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Not too sure, I should have taken some pics when it was all apart on mine. Doin't be jealous, this engine is completely run by a computer so put adjustable cam gears would most likely have a negative effect, most people think you can whack a smaller pully on these engines but its all controlled by an eletronic valve so more boost is not really a possibility without some real electronic techy knowledge... Thr truth for performance a modded KLZE would be a much better package but the KJ engine was built to be strong, smooth and have a nice bit of power for its time which it does.
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Old 12-09-2005, 12:18 PM   #16
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Extractors in aus

Dude you can so get extractors in australia.. i was looking at getting them put on when i was having my exhaust put on (which i had re-done 4 times, and unfortunatly ended up losing some back pressure help anyone :P)
Yeh anyway according to the guy fitting my exhaust there is a V6 proton that has the identical set-up for extractors and say they fit perfectly on the V6 astina's but its a bit costly as they are hard to install on these models. Bout $800 fitted and he said the extra performance that i'd gain wouldn't be worth $800.

So hope that helps dude.
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Old 12-09-2005, 06:44 PM   #17
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pinger if you are in Perth PM MrMX6 he will be able to help you out he has an MX6 with KL-ZE, a Ford Laser with KL-ZE engine, and he has a few contacts over there. If you want you can find him more often on mx6.com in the Aus forums.
Monzie what are the chances you may be able to talk those guys with the headers into letting you take a few ics of them with some measurements of the ports lenght of primaries, diameter of pipes etc. You can tell them you are willing to promote through the website and they may let you in hte chance of increased sales
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Old 13-09-2005, 10:31 AM   #18
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dun think my chances are that good , he didn't say he has any at the shop, he'd have to get them ordered in so i dun think he would be able to get em in just for measurements.

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Old 13-09-2005, 03:22 PM   #19
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I might have to do a search on the v6 proton to check the similarities out. Personally I wouldn't just take his word for it, they (mechanics) at times will spin you a bit of garb and I am sure if the headers would be a direct fit then they would be well known to the Astina, mx6, ford probe, 626 and eunos 500 forums.
But you never know
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Old 14-09-2005, 08:39 AM   #20
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Just did a bit of quick research myself....

Looks like the V6 Proton Perdana is the car Monzie was talking about.
This is a copy of the Mitsubishi Eterna mechanicals and chassis with protons body and styling.
The engine used is the Mitsubishi 6A12 2.0 V6.

Now we just have to find if there are any extractors available, and if they can be modified to fit the Astina.
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