Engine reassembly questions

[Meepersly]

Hope not either sounds like a really cool car.

[TWFodor]

Well this weekend we figured out what the issue was. I switched out the VAF with the one from my 90 and the car runs great. And I put the one from the 91 onto my 90 and it ran like garbage and acted the same say. I looked at the part numbers and they are different. So I assume the VAF on the 91 was either bad or the wrong one.

Thanks for the help. I'll update if anything else comes up.

[1990new]

So it would appear that the VAF was not detecting the increased air flow to the throttle body as the throttle was opened and so it was not sending a signal to the ECM to increase the injector opening thus starving the engine of fuel as the throttle opened wider.
I'm surprised that the engine didn't not also die at idle once the engine heated up.
Or do I have this backwards??
Happy to hear that you resolved the problem!

[TWFodor]

Well I'm currently driving my new Festiva now, but I had to remove the tps, because I had to floor it to get up to 50 and stay at 50. Runs fine without it, other than a very slight surging at idle. Apparently the previous owner had to rig up some strange bracket for the tps. Doesn't seem to work. So I'll be driving without the tps until I figure out what to do. I've even tried several different sensors.

I may try to put the throttle body from my 90 on it, to see if its the bracket that is causing the issue. If that doesn't work, I'm not sure what to do next.

[TWFodor]

Well the tb from my 90 Festy did not fit. The bottom right stud is slightly offset on the tb on my new Festiva. Very strange. The tb on the car I'm driving now has a Mitsubishi sign on it, which I assume is why the shop the previous owner took it to had to conjure up a custom bracket for the 3 pin tps.

I've never seen this intake manifold before. Its on page two, does anyone know what its from? I tried looking for serial numbers but couldn't find much.

I believe I'm going to get the intake manifold from a mx3 this weekend if I have time so I know it's the correct one.

[sketchman]

I think you're in deep in uncharted water here.

What do the intake ports look like? Oval or round? If oval I'd say the MX-3 mani would work, but you'll have to move your VAF wire over to the driver side. Not a big deal, but then you also have to route the intake where the battery is, so a bigger deal.

Like this.

[Flyin4stroke]

Did you get the temp figured out? If the green temp sensor goes bad in the motor it will make the car run funny also.

[TWFodor]

Did you get the temp figured out? If the green temp sensor goes bad in the motor it will make the car run funny also.

I haven't figured out that yet. However, the car doesn't overheat; my gauge just reads cold all the time. I think I need a new temp gauge sender.

I think you're in deep in uncharted water here.

What do the intake ports look like? Oval or round? If oval I'd say the MX-3 mani would work, but you'll have to move your VAF wire over to the driver side. Not a big deal, but then you also have to route the intake where the battery is, so a bigger deal.

Like this.

The battery is relocated to the trunk, so relocating the intake doesn't concern me much. I have the exact same filter as yours. How would I go about re-routing the throttle cable though?

I believe the ports are oval in shape.

[sketchman]

I went straightish off the firewall then under/behind the intake and around the back to point it toward the TB. I think I may have had to pull the metal 45? out away from the firewall to make the cable flex enough to not hit the TPS body.

[TWFodor]

I haven't made much progress these last few weeks, but I'm hoping to get a few things done this weekend. I'm hoping to get an ecu and a VAF from the Mx3, but I've read on here that a B8ME ecu will work well, too. Sketch, which ecu do you run with your B6ME swap? Right now I'm running the B3 ecu and VAF and its running really rich.

[sketchman]

Swap the injectors too. That will fix it. That's my setup. Stock everything except the engine and manifolds.

[TWFodor]

Swap the injectors too. That will fix it. That's my setup. Stock everything except the engine and manifolds.

Little confused, sorry. You run the B3 VAF and ecu or the Mx3 B6me components?

I'll be sure to grab the injectors though.

[sketchman]

I have only the ME engine and manifolds. The ECU, injectors, and VAF are all stock Festiva.

[TWFodor]

Awesome, thanks.

However, now I'm second guessing things.

I found this a moment ago: http://www.athousakis.gr/en/cylinder...A%CE%B9mazdab3
This looks exactly like my head based on the 31R casting number they have listed, however, I don't understand why the stock Festiva distributor didn't work, if this in indeed a 121 B3 16V head. I had to use the Mx3 distributor. Everything but this recent finding points to it being a Mx3 head. GAH! I thought I had this all figured out already.

I'm running a B6 head, based on the head gasket I bought that fit and the block casting number. How would a B3 16V head work on a B6 block? Is this even possible? It seems to run alright, other than the tps issue and the running rich, and it hasn't blown the gasket yet (far as I know). And if the head is a B3 16V then the injectors should be B3 injectors so it shouldn't run rich. Maybe the tps is causing it? This being said, I'm still not sure what to do to fix the tps issue. My only concern is the intake manifold. But apparently this is the manifold that came with the head, according the the previous owner. This is so confusing.

Conclusion: My car is a pieced together mess with an unrecognizable intake manifold with tps issues. Hooray!

[TWFodor]

Well I finally deciphered where my intake manifold came from.

BEHOLD!: http://www.ebay.com/itm/JDM-B5-16-va...FUVP71&vxp=mtr

http://www.ebay.com/itm/JDM-MAZDA-323-FAMILIA-323-B5-SOHC-16-VALVE-ENGINE-MOTOR-ONLY-CARB-BJ-/131354645281?hash=item1e9558d321:g:XtAAAOSwD0lUbQWQ&vxp=mtr

So I DO have a B3ME. Bummer! Still doesn't make sense to me because I bought the 92 323 1.6L head gasket and it fit.