capella re
12-01-2010, 11:50 AM
due to running short on all forms of old skool rotors and rediculous prices on those available, we're forced to start looking for other mazdas to throw a rotor into. one mazda which is still quite cheap light weight and with the general mods that can be a weapon is the little mazda 323. this is by no means uncharted territory as when i started high school a guy who lived near me in belair (jared) had a yellow 323 with a 12a in it and used to give me a lift home from the train station after school.
heres a step by step list of things you need.
1. rx3 x member
2. engine
3. gearbox
4. bigger brakes
5. extractors
6. diff & drive shaft
7. fuel setup
8. clutch setup
9. cooling
10.wiring
1. the rx3 x member bolts up under the sway bar, and u leave the origanal 323 engine member where it is but u need to grind the piston mounts off it! (this is the member the engine sits on/over) its best to use s4 rubber mounts with your rx3 x member to make the engine sit at the right position.
2. most people doing this conversion use a 12a as its easier to mount! the 13b sits 2cm forwards...(or you can mount it same as a 12a and move the gearbox member back and shorten the drive shaft)
3. a s1 gearbox will bolt up sweet with no mods to the tunnel! however they tend to die if you give them a hard time, a s3 box would be ideal but sits 10cm back so there is some tunnel cutting involved just where the gearstick comes up through the tunnel. for the gearbox member u can just take a 6mm flat peice of retangle shaped steel and drill 4 holes in it - easy!
4. s1 struts and brakes will do the job nicely but u will need to get some camber plates, also they lower your ride by 2 1/2 inchs! use the origanal 323 master cyclinder and booster as the s1 cyclinder faces the wrong way for the 323's brake lines..
if you do alot of heavy braking you can get a booster stopper which bolts to the strut tower and holds your booster firmly in place! -
5. exhaust system - s1 extractors do not fit(well... they do but they rub on your steering box), - u can either mod the extractors or heat and bash them in a bit. - any extractors ive seen with the two pipes sitting next to each other dont fit very well. one pipe need to go either below or above the other. also make sure your exhaust is on the opposite side to your fuel lines or has at least 100mm clearance! normally twin pipes from the extractors with a coby on each then joining into 3" by the diff and into a muffler at the back works nicely.
6. diff setup - if your gonna be doing skids you will want to change your diff as the 323 one will die quickly... go for a rx3 diff or larger, the rx3 diffs might not have disc brakes but they bolt straight into the 323 wagons, are strong and can fit a s2 lsd head in them! (these diffs are 24 spline) Drive Shaft - after you change your diff you will probably find that your drive shaft wont fit! yes, it needs to be shortened (should be 1220mm from memory if your using a s1 box and rx3 diff in a wagon but might pay to double check the measurements yourself)
7. rotarys use electric fuel pumps and have 2 fuel lines! u can use the origanal 323 fuel line as a return, but will need to install a 3/8 fuel pipe for the primary! i would recommend a carter 4070 fuel pump as they run the perfect pressure so u dont need a regulator! the fuel pump is usualy mounted at the back of the car under the boot!
8. for the hydrualic clutch setup you should use the 323 pedal box and a s1 pedal, u will need to keep the long s1 bolt that holds the brake and clutch pedal in. grind off the 323 clutch pedal support and take out the brake pedal bolt, then bolt the s1 clutch pedal inline with ur 323 brake pedal using the longer s1 bolt. you may wish to heat and bend your clutch pedal a lil cus the s1 is more bent then the 323 ones. also use the s1 master and slave clutch cyclinders! the s1 master has bolts in it that you need to take/drill out so it can slot onto the 323 firewall where the clutch cable used to bolt upto.
9. to keep your engine running nice and cool you are going need an rx radiator and an oil cooler! there may be some cutting of metal involved on mounting these though... or your can try mounting it under where the bonnet hinges go or do what others do and get a 3 core s1 radiator, mount i on the engine side but cut a lil bit of metal away on the sides that cover the radiator core. mount it as high as possible so the water pump is below the top pipe on your radiator or you will get air bubbles. also this leaves a nice space for you to mount ur oil cooler. you can make sum brackets up and weld them to the front bar on ur 323 then bolt ur oil cooler to that.
10.
*black wire with red stripe goes to starter motor ignition
*black with white stripe goes to coils
*white with red stripe goes to alternator
- yellow with black stripe goes no-where. dont use this one.
depending on the year of your 323 u may need an alternator with an internal reg then the only real difference is that the rotarys use 2 coils! not to hard to wire this up...
to make it look tidy split the engine wiring and lighting wiring into two , left the lights wiring where it normaly runs then ran the engine wires back through the firewall, under the dash and run them out a hole in the firewall right near the starter motor and from there wire everything up. the coils,alternator, starter etc, you need to extend 2 wires. anyone should be able to do this.. - also please make sure u get ur leading/trailing round the correct way.
also for the tacho(autogauge) - it goes on the negative of the trailing coil and is set to 4 not 6 or 8.
3 questions.
1. Are all 323 driveshafts(wagon, hatch) the same length?
not sure about hatchy/wagon shafts being same length?
2. If i put a rx3 crossmember, 12a, s1 box will the standard driveshaft bolt up to the 323 diff??
yes if u put a s1 box, 12a with standy diff then your shaft should fit.
3. What the other options for clutch? Can you put clutch master on and use 323 pedal??
people reckon u could use a 323 pedal but the best way to go is a s1/626 etc pedal. either way u go u have to extend the push rod to the master by about 15mm. not a major though
i would really like to attempt this conversion so if anyone knows of a mint 323 2 door hatch (not wagon) pm me. theres a red 323 i recently saw at mad dat with a 13b brigdy having the wiring for fuel injection done and it looked tuff as.
also if anyone has any extra info to add or knows of someone else who has performed the conversion post up details to help make it easier for any one attempting this. if i end up going through with it, i'll start a build thread.
http://memimage.cardomain.com/ride_images/1/1839/2961/4596480001_large.jpg
http://memimage.cardomain.com/ride_images/2/3409/441/21020220003_large.jpg
heres a step by step list of things you need.
1. rx3 x member
2. engine
3. gearbox
4. bigger brakes
5. extractors
6. diff & drive shaft
7. fuel setup
8. clutch setup
9. cooling
10.wiring
1. the rx3 x member bolts up under the sway bar, and u leave the origanal 323 engine member where it is but u need to grind the piston mounts off it! (this is the member the engine sits on/over) its best to use s4 rubber mounts with your rx3 x member to make the engine sit at the right position.
2. most people doing this conversion use a 12a as its easier to mount! the 13b sits 2cm forwards...(or you can mount it same as a 12a and move the gearbox member back and shorten the drive shaft)
3. a s1 gearbox will bolt up sweet with no mods to the tunnel! however they tend to die if you give them a hard time, a s3 box would be ideal but sits 10cm back so there is some tunnel cutting involved just where the gearstick comes up through the tunnel. for the gearbox member u can just take a 6mm flat peice of retangle shaped steel and drill 4 holes in it - easy!
4. s1 struts and brakes will do the job nicely but u will need to get some camber plates, also they lower your ride by 2 1/2 inchs! use the origanal 323 master cyclinder and booster as the s1 cyclinder faces the wrong way for the 323's brake lines..
if you do alot of heavy braking you can get a booster stopper which bolts to the strut tower and holds your booster firmly in place! -
5. exhaust system - s1 extractors do not fit(well... they do but they rub on your steering box), - u can either mod the extractors or heat and bash them in a bit. - any extractors ive seen with the two pipes sitting next to each other dont fit very well. one pipe need to go either below or above the other. also make sure your exhaust is on the opposite side to your fuel lines or has at least 100mm clearance! normally twin pipes from the extractors with a coby on each then joining into 3" by the diff and into a muffler at the back works nicely.
6. diff setup - if your gonna be doing skids you will want to change your diff as the 323 one will die quickly... go for a rx3 diff or larger, the rx3 diffs might not have disc brakes but they bolt straight into the 323 wagons, are strong and can fit a s2 lsd head in them! (these diffs are 24 spline) Drive Shaft - after you change your diff you will probably find that your drive shaft wont fit! yes, it needs to be shortened (should be 1220mm from memory if your using a s1 box and rx3 diff in a wagon but might pay to double check the measurements yourself)
7. rotarys use electric fuel pumps and have 2 fuel lines! u can use the origanal 323 fuel line as a return, but will need to install a 3/8 fuel pipe for the primary! i would recommend a carter 4070 fuel pump as they run the perfect pressure so u dont need a regulator! the fuel pump is usualy mounted at the back of the car under the boot!
8. for the hydrualic clutch setup you should use the 323 pedal box and a s1 pedal, u will need to keep the long s1 bolt that holds the brake and clutch pedal in. grind off the 323 clutch pedal support and take out the brake pedal bolt, then bolt the s1 clutch pedal inline with ur 323 brake pedal using the longer s1 bolt. you may wish to heat and bend your clutch pedal a lil cus the s1 is more bent then the 323 ones. also use the s1 master and slave clutch cyclinders! the s1 master has bolts in it that you need to take/drill out so it can slot onto the 323 firewall where the clutch cable used to bolt upto.
9. to keep your engine running nice and cool you are going need an rx radiator and an oil cooler! there may be some cutting of metal involved on mounting these though... or your can try mounting it under where the bonnet hinges go or do what others do and get a 3 core s1 radiator, mount i on the engine side but cut a lil bit of metal away on the sides that cover the radiator core. mount it as high as possible so the water pump is below the top pipe on your radiator or you will get air bubbles. also this leaves a nice space for you to mount ur oil cooler. you can make sum brackets up and weld them to the front bar on ur 323 then bolt ur oil cooler to that.
10.
*black wire with red stripe goes to starter motor ignition
*black with white stripe goes to coils
*white with red stripe goes to alternator
- yellow with black stripe goes no-where. dont use this one.
depending on the year of your 323 u may need an alternator with an internal reg then the only real difference is that the rotarys use 2 coils! not to hard to wire this up...
to make it look tidy split the engine wiring and lighting wiring into two , left the lights wiring where it normaly runs then ran the engine wires back through the firewall, under the dash and run them out a hole in the firewall right near the starter motor and from there wire everything up. the coils,alternator, starter etc, you need to extend 2 wires. anyone should be able to do this.. - also please make sure u get ur leading/trailing round the correct way.
also for the tacho(autogauge) - it goes on the negative of the trailing coil and is set to 4 not 6 or 8.
3 questions.
1. Are all 323 driveshafts(wagon, hatch) the same length?
not sure about hatchy/wagon shafts being same length?
2. If i put a rx3 crossmember, 12a, s1 box will the standard driveshaft bolt up to the 323 diff??
yes if u put a s1 box, 12a with standy diff then your shaft should fit.
3. What the other options for clutch? Can you put clutch master on and use 323 pedal??
people reckon u could use a 323 pedal but the best way to go is a s1/626 etc pedal. either way u go u have to extend the push rod to the master by about 15mm. not a major though
i would really like to attempt this conversion so if anyone knows of a mint 323 2 door hatch (not wagon) pm me. theres a red 323 i recently saw at mad dat with a 13b brigdy having the wiring for fuel injection done and it looked tuff as.
also if anyone has any extra info to add or knows of someone else who has performed the conversion post up details to help make it easier for any one attempting this. if i end up going through with it, i'll start a build thread.
http://memimage.cardomain.com/ride_images/1/1839/2961/4596480001_large.jpg
http://memimage.cardomain.com/ride_images/2/3409/441/21020220003_large.jpg