Kia FE3 Swap in a 91
 

So after my adventures in turbocharging my 1.6 and subsequently blowing it up, I have decided to go ahead and swap in a bigger block.
I have access to all of the tools to get the job done and I have lots of time on my hands currently. Worst case scenario is I swap a 1.6 back in if I run into a lot of issues.

I have been reading up on the FE3 swap for the past couple weeks non-stop and feel as though it is not a very hard swap aside from the oil pan and intake.
I may go get a custom aluminum oil pan made if it becomes a huge problem. As for the intake. GSXR 1000 ITBs. I will explain more on this later.

I prefer to keep everything budgeted, so bare with me for the cost breakdown. Only thing purchased so far is a B2200 bell-housing I bought for $156 shipped and some misc engine parts for $129.
I am also not going to be doing crazy maintenance to the car for now. Just timing belt, water pump, misc gaskets, and cleaning the HLA's.

$156 B2000/B2200 Bellhousing
$500 Kia Sportage 98+ block & MT 8-bolt flywheel (I am using a 98+ block due to known cracking problems with 95-97) ($500 is quite a lot for a Sportage motor, but I am aiming for lowish miles as to not do head gasket, oil pump, etc)
$50 Flywheel Resurfacing (94+ miata clutch should bolt up in this build and I have some 1.8 clutches sitting around)
$129 Gasket set, Timing belt w/tensioner and idler, and throwout bearing. (this is my Rockauto parts list) (fun fact, the Kia Sportage throwout bearing is the same as the miata)
$80 GSXR 1000 ITB (nice thing about these ITBs are that they have vacuum lines and they can also with slight modification fit miata injectors)
$64 M-tuned fuel hose kit. (My fueling solution to the stock GSXR 1000 fuel rail that is on the ITBs) (I'll probably make my own kit based on this for much cheaper)

Unknown Costs / TBD
$ - Exhaust piping
$ - Oil pan
$ - ITB trumpets
$ - Air filter(s)
$ - Clutch slave & clutch fork - Need to figure this out still. I know some people who work at Mazda dealerships, so the clutch fork for a b2000 should be around $20. Clutch slave TBD.
$ - Alternator bracket and crank pulley off of a 1st gen MX-6 turbo. I have found a place with these parts, but don't know how much they'll cost. I am assuming under $40. May also get the injectors off of the car while I am at it.
$ - Alternator & Starter

Other things I plan on doing while swapping the motor.
$260 Energy Suspension Bushings
$58 Techna Fit 65" stainless steel clutch line (probably not needed, but I want it anyway as I hate the stock line)
$32 gear shifter insulator (The rubber one with 4 holes)

Assuming I spend $500 on an engine, I am at $1329 before the unknown costs.
Should be right around $1500 if I am to make a guess by the end of all of this. That is unless I have to go with a custom oil pan. Or I decide to go for a v8 roadsters tubular sub frame. ;)

So far I have bought the transmission adapter and the list of parts off of Rockauto.
I'll be ordering the bushings, clutch line, and gear shift insulator probably this weekend.
Starting Monday, I'll be on the hunt for an engine. We shall see how long that takes.

$156 B2000/B2200 Bellhousing
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...a0ccddb534.jpg

$325 for the best block I could find. Appears to be rebuilt. $160 for a head, spare intake, exhaust, and some other ancilliares.
$80 GSXR 1000 ITB GSXR 600 ITB's $55 and surprisingly a better fit.
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...5bd26fe8fd.jpg

$64 M-tuned fuel hose kit. Went with an aftermarket adjustable Fuel Pressure Regulator I bought for $50. Add some 5/16 Fuel hose and I'll be good to go.
Exhaust piping - Eventually. Open down pipe seems more fun. At least for a few days till I get tired of it.
Oil pan $20 in sheet metal. $10 for a bung. $200 for someone to weld it for me. $230 total. =)
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...2d65315f9a.jpg
I still need to do the oil pickup, but that should be easy. I have a solution for it. I should be able to do it in a day. The oil pan is fully welded, I just don't have a pic atm.

Clutch slave & clutch fork - So I bought a b2200 Clutch fork when I actually didn't need to. Turns out you can use the Miata transmission front cover, throw out bearing clutch fork, and slave cylinder. Only thing is that you need to cut the opening on the bellhousing further forward. I may need to weld a small piece of steel onto the fork if the clutch slave to fork rod wants to pop out. Only thing you really need is the bell housing and flywheel.

Alternator bracket and crank pulley off of a 1st gen MX-6 turbo. - I payed $60ish for these two things. Pulley needs 4 wholes opened up a bit. Other than that, fits fine. Alternator from an mx6 is needed. Small spacer is needed for the Alternator tensioner bracket where it is bolted to the block.
Alternator & Starter. Alternator is an mx6 one I got for less than $40. Starter, who knows yet. Either miata starter or one off of an mx6.

Energy Suspension Bushings - Did all except the rear hub bushing and the diff bushings.

Motor mounts. Barbaric as can be. Not complete yet. Awe in amazement please. Cardboard is the best template ever.
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...03bf9d1336.jpg
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...8e63759db1.jpg


The reward for all of my hard work:
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...c80b9c856c.jpg
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...32591dd610.jpg
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...4dcdf0725d.jpg

well, its in. Nice job so faar.

yea looking good. I'll be watching with interest.

FWIW, I have spent some time with FE3 miatas and I know you have started doing so... but start with making the oil pickup as tight as you can to the block, then fit your oil pan based on that and then have that on the engine for engine mounts. use poly engine mount inserts, your going to need it to be pretty solid if you don't want to see it out of the hood.


In the one I was part of, the oil pan was extremely low profile (as low as you can get with the oil pickup internal to the pan, oe style) and with rigid mounts holding the pan 3/32" off the subframe we still needed to trim the hood for the cam gear/timing belt even with the cover removed.

good on you for doing it though!

If you're brave, you can even do something like this to gain another inch of clearance.

http://www.absurdflow.com/miata/klde/sumppickup5.jpg

Bravo
 

Very good, go ahead. I am on a phase if my head is above radiator level, and should rotate the thermostat like on the picture
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...9945a58417.jpg

I was actually thinking of doing exactly this. lol

The pan is already done, so I am sticking with it even if it means not running a hood for the time being. :)
Picture doesn't show how shallow it is in the front portion. It is less than 2 inches.
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...a981112738.jpg

How the tubing is set up. I started brazing. Going to braze it and then lay some JB weld over it or some other epoxy to be 100% sure it is sealed. Then I'll coat it with something. No idea what that something is yet.
This was made with the miata pickup tube and the kia fe3 pickup tube.
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...f117bc20f7.jpg
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...5bc422aad9.jpg

Will post more pictures in the following days. I test fit the pan tonight and I have a very slight clearance issue. May be able to fix it with a hammer, but we'll see.
Other than that, all is going well. My list of things is changing all the time. This is what I have left as of now. I might be forgetting some things.

- Expand pulley bolt holes
- Pickup tube brazing, cleaning, etc.
- Buy a plug for the oil drain bung
- Measure, cut, and weld motor mounts.
- Bleed clutch line and test to see if the rod flies out or not. ( I should take a picture of the setup to show you all. )
- Test fit the miata starter. Possibly buy an mx-6 or b2000 starter.
- Grind the Intake manifold runners for couplers to ITBs
- Hook up fuel pressure regulator
- Coolant hoses.
- Wire in coil on plugs. Possibly go back to 1.6 distributor.
- Wiring TPS, coolant sensors, and cam position sensor
- Find an alternator belt
- Tuning

A lot of this stuff is fairly straight forward. It just takes time...

IMO a 2" depth at the front of the oil pan won't be enough to clear the hood with the stock subframe clearance. ~1-½ deep is just off the bearing support plate (windage tray).

Measure the depth of your sump and then do this to build your pickup:
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...42c4cc324d.jpg

I would NOT use epoxy on your pickup tube. If it's brazed right, it's sealed. Put a latex glove over the pickup end and zip tie it. Fill it with water, and then put some pressure on it to leak test. Make sure you've got a brace on that end too. Now is also your chance to enclose your sump, or you'll see oil pressure drop whenever you brake hard.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...p-5664c8f1.jpg

GSXR1000 ITBs on a JDM FE3, the long way around to 144whp :P

Nothing beats that sound though.


Goodluck with the swap!

Dean

Hows your build coming along?

Sneak peak of what is to come.

Here is the cylinder head so far. I have been using this picture to tease people. ;)
Here is what is just done so far to the head.
KAinjection Billet FE3 to s14/s15 SR20DET intake manifold adapter
s15 intake manifold
Radium Auto s14/s15 fuel rail with fitting. Including one to allow for use of the Miata fpr.
Deatschwerks ev14 420cc Injectors with adapter clips (Just temporary for now. Eventually I'll get some big boy injectors)
Valve jobs and new seals.
Comp Cams Honda/Acura B18 Outer valve springs
fastivab6tg25mr made Kia FE3 camshaft to Miata CAS adapter


https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...9d2c54cb12.jpg

Going to post a big update here in a few weeks.

You have my attention with the KAinjection Billet FE3 adapter plate. I checked their website with no luck. Was this a special order item? How do I get one!!!

I bet you could ask them if they could make you one. 3 were made and sold as a bit of a test piece through a post on facebook. I got one of those 3.

It works and the porting is close. A bit of port work is required, but nothing much.

How much was the flange?

Haven't been doing much work on this car for quite some time as I have another miata I have been working on. x) soon to be boosted 90 that was sitting in a field for 10ish years.
So a big update related more to the car, not the fe3 swap. The whole thing has gotten stripped down to bare metal except for the windshield currently. (but that will be out soon as well.)

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...b49d83c949.jpg
Tucked away in the corner of the garage. 3 harbor freight dollies.

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...9cbd45a85d.jpg



As for the motor, the head was put on the block. ARP head studs were used. Oil pan is all on and some extra rtv grey on the outside of the pan for good measure. Block is pretty much ready to drop in when the car is done. But that may be a while. x)

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...7b8cc7fcfa.jpg
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...e36037d782.jpg

Wow, this gives me flashbacks to my first Miata-project! .. i Built on a 90' NA-miata after an engine failure. Bellhousing-swap worked like a charm, at first i ran a hybrid intake with the intake flange from the FE3 (Mazda FE3 i sourced) but then the hood couldn't close (it was my first real project so learned ALOT).. also my engine mounts became a little to high.. when i did my DIY gsxr-itb-setup only the valve cover hit the bonnet so i made a bonnet scoop to fit everything. With a plenum over the ITB's the sound became a little more moderate and i could even run it with a MAF. Some of the challenges i had was that the vakuum lines kept falling off and giving a very uneaven idle. I do remember though that looking at the cam shaft gears you could flip the intake gear (i think it was?) so that the overlap and intervall became much more like the miata 1.6 which also gave it the same characteristics (powerband up high) instead of the tractor style the 626 had with power dying off over 5' rpm.. how long did it take you to build this swap?

Finding a way to make the stock hood fit while having the oil pan not be below the subframe is the biggest challenge. Especially since if the oil pan becomes shorter, I have less oil to pickup which can present problems. I do plan on an accusump to solve that if necessary.
as for the camshafts, I am using the kia engine with its tractor like camshafts for now. I reckon a company like comp cams can easily make me a set of custom cams for the fe3 if I need something bigger.

The swap isn't truly complete yet, as the car has no body or interior at the moment and I don't plan on putting the car together to a driving state until spring this year at the earliest. It has been sitting for over a year so far. That should change relatively soon.(hopefully)

Yes, i remember that also.. i had some nasty fitment issues and blew the first fe3 engine i swapped in, but then identified oil-pan leaking at the block and other factors which made the second engine work out much better.. the cams themselves have enough lift and duration if you adjust the timing somewhat and i found that half a tooth would give something like 4.5degrees adjustment so by flipping the intake cam gear i could accomplish half a tooth shift it gave another overlap and a completely different torque span.. i hope you get yours running / driveable this spring.. it is alot of fun driving with this engine setup.. here is a really old clip on mine