Engine Swap Information

This is a small Bio on the engine swap.
Note: I will not go into great detail in to this subject
since there are many great step-by-step swap pages out there!

New 2.5L Engine


This is the 2.5L V6 out of a 1996 Mazda MX-6 with only 9,000 km’s. I stumbled over this car here in Winnipeg at a local wrecker called Team Auto Parts. The car had been smashed on the passenger side a total loss. I inspected the engine bay of the car worrying that maybe the engine had taken some of the blow. I checked it over it all looked good, I asked the guy to start it up and he said okay I would have to boost it! Since the engine bay was smashed in a bit the frame was very close to touching the frame so I cut the belt. I did this in case anything that could rub or even worse get jammed in to the belt and cause damage. I fired it up let it ran for a short time everything sounded good so I bought it! Team Auto Parts said they would have the engine dissembled from the car in a few days! So off I went to a local Performance shop here in the city called Jackson Auto Sport (Specialize in Mazda Cars) to tell them what I wanted to do! I spoke to one of the owners named John I told him that I owned a 1993 Mazda MX-3 GS and that I wanted the to swap the 2.5L V6 into my Car. He said that they would be able to do the swap with out a problem. He actually said that they always wanted to do this swap as they had looked into at one time.


Old 1.8L Engine

Old 1.8L Engine

New 2.5L Engine

New 2.5L V6


I told him that I purchased the engine from Team Auto Parts and that it should be delivered in a few days. He said he would call me when they received it. So the swap took place last year in the winter. My car was dropped off and the new 2.5L V6 was going to find a new home in my car.

As you can see in the pictures below some of the parts were being dismantled for inspection of the timing belt and also I wanted to paint the timing belt covers. Parts were then cleaned and degreased.



I had the Intake manifold and valve covers polished since I was planning to put on Phenolic thermo spacers anyway so thought I should get the polishing done now. Also had the flywheel shaved and balanced to 13 Lbs, the 1.8L exhaust manifolds were machined down I could not use the 2.5L’s because of different measurements in the length. Jackson Auto Sport where going to use the 2.5L’s distributor but there were one to many prongs on the wiring plug and this would send off the “check engine light”. So the 1.8 L’s distributor was used Note: After having the new 2.5L in the car for only 2 weeks my igniter module and coil went, this is a known problem for this car including MX-6, 626, Ford Probe GT. Dishing out more then $850.00 CND for the parts!

Here is a picture below of the 2.5L V6 all cleaned and the polished valve covers and Intake manifold installed. Note the blue distributor in the picture was the 2.5L, which was removed and replaced as per above.


Pic of 2.5L on trolley


Here are a few pictures of my car on the hoist and the old 1.8L V6 coming out of the car.



Here bellow is a picture of two water outlets on is from the 2.5L and the other from the 1.8L V6. They look similar except one is OBDII and the other OBDI. Can you tell the difference??? Actually the one on the left is from the OBDII 2.5L V6 if you look close it has another sensor on it compared to the 1.8L’s. So since the preferred method would be to use the OBDI from the 1.8L it was installed. Note: The ECU was installed in the car from a 1993 Mazda 626 Pre-OBDII also Jackson had problems with the EGR valve since the EGR was not connected but welded shut the “Check Engine” light kept coming on when the loop was completed from the ECU. This was fixed by fooling the ECU to thinking that the pin was moving on the EGR. Also added was a Dual Center force Clutch and custom short shifter.

My next project to take place will be a complete engine management system installed the engine will not have a distributor. The same idea as the turbo MX3 owned by Dave L. It will have a similar computer and tune ability. Then will come the supercharger project!!  Stay tuned more to come of this soon!!!