YOUWSH

As not many of you know I've been on the sideline with a blown motor for a few months now. If anything it was a blessing in disguise and happens to the best of us. I spent alot of time considering whether to get my 1993 Series 6 rebuilt or whether to buy a complete front clip.

Reasons for buying a front clip and doing an engine swap:

1) Alot of the engine components of my car were getting old and starting to fail so interchanging parts from updated front clip was a better option

2) I experienced alot of electrical problems associated with the S6 and by doing a complete wiring change during the engine swap would almost certaintly get rid of these problems.

3) My car has high milage...140k+ kilometres

4) A few other problems that were fixable with parts included in the front clip

5) Series 7 engine is more updated giving abit more hp as well as a less complicated setup in terms of solenoids and vaccum hoses, etc.

6) Engine has less than half the mileage of my current engine.

7) Last but not least I wanted something original and unmodified.

I can probably think of a few other reasons for doing the swap but all in all I wanted to fix my car properly from top to bottom and I don't think there's a better way than through an engine swap.

I picked this 1997 Front Clip including the rear boot with a mazda speed wing for under $3500 US so I think its quite a fair bargain considering the engine has only 60k kilometres on the speedo as well as all the updated goodies, eg the Efini Y pipe.

I'll have a full write up once I finish as there is alot more to it than simply dropping in the engine, so until then enjoy the pictures.

DaiOni

60k engine is a gamble for that price, IMO, good luck though.

silverTRD

iTrader: (37)

thats a pretty crazy wing, never seen that before...

i dont know that i'd pay that much for a used motor. i hope u checked its compression before u bought it. nice find though.

kirbyt

Its an amputee fd!! I dont know why but looking at that picture of a half a fd seems funny. good luck with your project.

iceman4357

iTrader: (2)

not 60,000 US miles, 60,000 kilometers. So like ~35000 miles.

DaiOni

umm, yeah, I can read, lol. I live in country of kms.

with age as a factor, 100k km isn't the benchmark it used to be. And this comes from a car that has been wrecked - and is too young to have been wrecked due to financial viability - therefore a high liklihood it was smashed. Given the stickers on the back, it doesn't look like the driver was a golfin' grandpa either.

so, let's say he gets 80k out of it before it blows... does that balance up against the price of a good rebuild?

IMO, no. So not the sort of gamble I would take.

But as I said, good luck.

GoRacer

iTrader: (2)

That's a '97? ...didn't things start to change in '96? OK, can see the y-pipe bolts down. Wasn't the intake different to (airbox and smic have seperate tracks)?Wing looks like R-Magic or Shark Wing or something but not '96-'98. You are getting alot more then just a block though. You could allways try to sell what you don't use which will offset the price quite a bit.

DaiOni

I'd agree, it doesn't look like a mazdaspeed type II from the angles shown.

TireSmokin7

I thought it was funny just looking at the title, then the poster's logon.

1997 Series 7 Front Clip Arrived Today!! Lots of Photos
YOUWSH

Zebb

You can get a pretty nice FD for $5000 in Japan.

DaiOni

no you can't (well... you might luck out at the auctions - but the good ones are in the yards, and they tend to start around the one million yen mark).

OneRotor

iTrader: (3)

I'd say that if the seals are in tact the clip was a good buy. He not only got (probably) good housings and irons, he got a low mileage wiring harness, extra turbos, fenders, bumper cover, etc. It may give out on him pretty soon, but in the even that that happens he will have a better chance of having re-usable parts instead of ones that have chrome flaking from high mileage. He said that his other motor had 140k on it, so he needs at least some housings, which are like 8-900 new from mazda, plus the wiring harness which is what, 600-800 depending on who you get it from, plus all the other parts.

congrats on the good buy. I'd say dump an extra 1500 US for a good quality rebuild kit and don't risk loosing the good housings/irons to a thrown seal

White94RX

Looks good to me

jacobcartmill

iTrader: (6)

i'd rebuild that engine before you put it in. just my two cents.

Tenacious

my old japanese teacher moved to japan and bought a working 35kmile 93fd for $2800.00...so that "not true" thing is false ><....

DaiOni

umm... I live in japan, and I'm in my fifth year here now. I also own an FD here, and have for nearly 4 years. I pay attention to the car classifieds, and I also worked part-time for a car dealership when I lived up north - so I've seen a thing or two.

so when I say, you CAN'T buy a *GOOD* FD for US$5k - I'm probably a fairly good source for information.

I could buy a *working* (using that term loosely) FD for under US$1k. In fact, I'm pretty sure I could find one for nothing, if I looked hard enough.

/2c