Mazda MX3 KLZE

The story behind changing a stock 1994 Precedia to a full autocross spec race car.

THIS BLOG IS FOR INFORMATIVE PURPOSES ONLY. MODIFICATIONS TO YOUR VEHICLE MAY RENDER IT UNSAFE AND/OR IN CONTRAVENTION WITH THE
LAW.
DO NOT TRY ANY OF THE CONCEPTS DEMONSTRATED HERE, BODILY HARM AND/OR DEATH MIGHT RESULT.
I DO NOT ASSUME ANY LIABILITY FOR THE MISUSE OF THE CONTENTS.

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Do you have problems starting your car when its cold or very humid? Does you acceleration feel rough? If so, the HEI modification with a complementary external ignition
coil modification may very well solve your problem. Before I become selfish and say I though out this whole mod, I'll admit that I heard about it on some forum and found
a nice step-by-step guide that illustrates how to realize the mod. The purpose of this mod is to disable the stock ignition module and stock ignition coil located both in the
distributor and replace them with a GM HEI module and cylindrical spiral wound ignition coil.

As you may have personally experienced or luckily not, the stock ignition distributor on the MX3 and on all K series engines is very very failure prone. In the last 5 years, I
went through 3 ignition distributors that failed mainly because of ignition coil failure caused by humidity and shorting. This problem is caused by very cheap isolation of
the ignition coil. When I opened up one of my distributors, I saw that the ignition coil was sealed from the elements by a very thin dried up cheap silicon gasket maker.
This lets water, humidity and other contaminants creep in and cause arcing and short circuit of the coil. The ignition module is just badly placed because it has to deal
with engine temperatures and vibration being mounted directly inside the distributor.

These are the parts I bought from SummitRacing.com and how much I paid:
MSD Blaster 2 External Ignition Coil #MSD-8203 41.95$US

Pertronix Ignition Module #PNX-D2000 39.88$US

MSD Coil Bracket #MSD-8213 5.95$US

1000 Ohm Resistor (bought from local store) aprox 0.25$CA

Other than the 3 parts mentioned above you'll need basic wiring, electrical tape and misc basic parts. This mod was actually really simple and basic, I did a lot harder
mods than this. Below is my version of the how-to.

Step 1 (Modify Distributor): Before you can start wiring your equipment up, you'll need to modify your OEM ignition distributor you'll need to deactivate the OEM ignition
coil. To deactivate the OEM ignition coil you need to cut the link it has with the distributor cap. Some distributors use a metal strap like the picture shown to the right and
some use a metal tower. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of the metal tower type when I opened up mine so I can't post it here. What I did was use a metal saw to
brutally cut off the post and used some high-temp silicon to seal it. For the strap type just remove it and put silicon to seal it. Some people might want to completely
remove the ignition coil altogether but I felt a little lazy that day. The coil is located at the base of the distributor. Just be sure not to damage anything removing it as
distributors are quite pricey.
 Step 2 (Modify Distributor): The last modification to be done to the distributor is to install the Power Tower to the distributor cap to
connect the MSD Blaster 2 Coil. With the part number #MSD-8203 you will be provided with a power tower, Just be sure to buy this kit or else you may only get the coil
and now have the tower. To install the tower, drill a hole in the cap where the metal strap is and then screw in the Power Tower making sure there is adequate contact
between the tower and the strap. After it is screwed in, add some high-temp silicon to seal the inside of the distributor and prevent arcing. There will be several tens of
thousands of volts running on this circuit and arcing WILL occur if everything is not properly isolated.

Step 3 (Mount Module): In this step you'll have to secure the ignition module to the car's chassis and make it a heatsink. I used the chassis' front left suspension pillar to
mount the module by drilling 2 holes in the pillar. It is VERY IMPORTANT that you mount the module on a flat thick metal surface to allow heat dissipation. The ignition
module will become very hot and it needs something to pass the heat onto. Any sheet metal should do the job as long as it is thick enough. If you look closely at the
module in the picture at the top of this post which is my engine bay, you'll notice that I mounted the module over 2 pieces of thick sheet aluminium.

Step 4 (Mount Coil): Here you will mount the MSD Blaster 2 Coil to the chassis. As you can see from the picture of my engine bay, I mounted mine on my home made
battery tray because it was pretty much the only place where it could be mounted. You can mount yours pretty much anywhere as long as it is secure and receives the
less vibration possible. As you can see from my parts list, I bought the MSD bracket but you can alternatively make one out of sheet steel.

Step 5 (Connect Coil): You now need to connect the MSD Blaster 2 Coil to the Power Tower on your distributor. The silicon connecting boots (grey) come with the kit
part #MSD-8203. You only need to buy some spark plug wire the length you need for your installation and connect it up. I used 10mm high quality wire (red) as it can be
seen on the picture of my engine bay. You can use any size you want but remember that this wire carries enormous amount of voltage and believe it or not, low quality
wires can arc though the isolation of the wire.

Step 6 (Wire Everything Up): This is the last and damn most complicated step. It's not that hard, just make really sure you get it right the first time or you could fry out
your computer, module or tachometer. Follow the diagram shown below, and I can guarantee you that it's right because I followed it to the letter and it worked perfectly.
Just remember that when it tells you to ground a connection, the better the connection, the better your setup will work. Moreover, it is really important to put the 1000ohm
resistor, as the tachometer will burn out from excessive current if you don't. Also, do cut off the orange ECU trigger, there's no possible advantage not to do it.
So with all this written down, you guys should all be ready to do this mod and get this MX3 purring again. I'm not a selfish person, so I'm going to say that I did not think of
this mod and I'm not taking any credit for it. Feel free to visit the original creator of this mod at the address inscribed on the wiring diagram above or the unknown person
that revised the diagram at MX-3.com. This how-to is my version of it and I simplified it for people who don't need all the extensive details Gro Harlem writes in his how-
to.
Posted by Leo Hart at 7:21 AM

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