Finally, un-messed the MX-3 Intake

My latest combinations of intake fixes finally got the MX-3 running well again.  There is now 99.8% less J.B. weld around the intake tract.

The first problem was with the throttle body.  While I had ground it until it appeared to fit, I was still off a few thousandths of an inch and I believe that was causing a bit of a leak.  In my frustration and aggression I may have been a little over zealous with the angle grinder.  Over zealous enough to actually make a hole into the IAC valve's air passages.  This has led to retaining .2% of the JB Weld.  The pictures of this fix didn't come through with my phone's camera.

I've also learned quite a bit about the Mazda KL series V6  in the last couple of weeks.  Our car originally came equipped with a KL-K8.  This is the 1.8L V6 that Mazda was insane enough to build.  According to any record I found this is the smalled V6 ever put into a production car.  It could have had a super-high-RPM, awesome headed, crazy wonderful S2000 appeal to it.  But instead of being made by Honda or Nissan, who would've done such a thing, it was built by Mazda and they sorta skimped a little in the corners.  This ensured the car would feel "peppy" for people who'd never driven a car that was actually "peppy."  The computer and various accessory electronics are still all powered by the K8.

Recognizing this fault, the previous owner swapped in a KL-ZE engine.  This was the V6 put in various Japanese Mazda's into the late-90's.  This V6 has 2.5 liters of displacement, good cams, higher compression, and usually comes equipped with a good intake and  throttle body combination. We didn't get that whole good-intake-throttle body business.  Instead we got the intake with giant blue boogers.

The throttle body we fitted to our new intake is from a KL-47 (Millenia).  The intake itself is from a KL-G4 (Late 2000's 626).  I came to discover that the castings for the KL-ZE has ports for EGR built into the heads.  On the KL-47, the old intake with Cookie Monster's mucus, this port is blocked.  No problem! On the new intake, the one without the sticky-blue, there is plumbing for this hole.  This created a giant vacuum leak and the car would barely idle.  I plugged it with a frost plug from the local parts store.  The car now runs and drives as well as it ever did before and we mitigated the risk of instant and unexpected engine death from JB-Weld failure.

Winning? Seriously, Mazda, less creativity please.