1997 Mazda MX6 2.5 V6 manual - resto & turbo conversion

Very interested in this. I was just looking at one of these super clean and very cheap. Yours looks spot on with the drop and wheels.

It has removed the standard "gawkiness".

Those Rx7 wheels have never looked so good! Looks great like that, and I imagine with a turbo it’ll be kinda wild.

Do these KZLE v6’s take to boost well? I know some of the other Nazda engines of the era respond really well to a bit of turbo action.

I shall follow with interest

So after I bought the car I started gradually replacing the bad bits, here a bit of a summary of some of the work done that I took pictures of...

When I first drove it I thought it sounded great, upon closer inspection though it turned out that the backbox had several holes in it and center pipe was rusted too so I bought and fitted a new ebay OEM spec cat-back system.


The '6 had a old and broken Cobra 8501 alarm system so I pulled that out.



The heater fan only worked on full so I replaced the resistor with a used one off a 626, wasn't quite the same part but it fitted the holes and works well.


The AC didn't work and had bits missing so I deleted that.



The front number plate holder was damaged, I decided to remove it and fit a more JDM style square plate.


Some missing trim replaced including this interior fusebox cover.


The offside CV boots were blown so I slipped a new driveshaft in, I've got one for the other side waiting patiently to be fitted too.



There was some rusty ground connections and damaged wiring so I went through that.

Yeah I grown to really like these KL-DE V6's, great motor for sure. I really like the Xedos 6 V6 too, it's a really rare car these days!

I've done quite a bit of work on the engine to refresh it and get things in good order for boost. I've given it a full service - belts, waterpump, oil, plugs, fuel filter, etc.





I replaced some crusty old sensors, knackered distributor, noisy tensioner pulley bearing and asorted curse word.




I cleaned up the top of the motor as it was a grubby affair, replaced the leaking valve cover gaskets that were making a mess of things and blew some new go-faster paint on the covers.

So to the turbo build. Basically I'm planning a low budget, low boost setup, at least initially.

The heart of the system is the exhaust manifold and downpipe arrangement, I did consider having a go at fabricating the necessary pipework but for me that would be quite a lot of work, it would be a bit of a project in it's own right. There are off-the-shelf ebay/China type stainless steel turbo exhausts that are supposedly decent enough and have been used by others without issue so this seemed like a cheap and effective way to go. Unfortunately there are none for sale here in the UK, so I've actually bought a set of used pipes from a chap in Canada, which have taken a couple of months to come over on the boat. They are apparently on English soil now according to the tracking info.


These pipes have T3 flanges and mount the turbo high at the side of the engine in the battery location (I will be relocating the battery to the boot). They also have a 38mm external wastegate flange. As for the turbo, I looked at used Garretts but it was cheaper to get a new ebay/China T3/T4 hybrid.


For fueling I really need bigger injectors. The only direct fit upgrade is the red top types from Mazda Xedos 9 2.3 miller cycle superchaged. I couldn't find any in Europe but managed to get a cheap used set from the US (The US market car was called a Millenia S), waiting on those to arrive still. The standard MX6 injectors are around 220cc, the Millenia S ones are circa 310cc.


I bought a 3 hole din plate to mount the 52mm gauges, I've bonded this into the instrument bezel. I had to make some brackets to mount up the AFR gauge, I've a boost and oil pressure gauge to slot in too. I wanted it to look fairly discrete and OEM so I bought these black faced gauges, they have selectable backlight colours so I can run them green to match the dash instruments.



Found a secondhand but unused 38mm screamer pipe for the wastegate on ebay the other day, have that now. I'm going to run an ebay Tial type 38mm external wastegate.

The bigger Millenia S injectors have actually turned up this afternoon


This is how the blue top standard MX6 injectors look...


...I now need to swap my new ones into these fuel rails. I'm thinking I'm might send them off to be properly checked and cleaned, as I'm just a bit concerned about running a cylinder lean under boost if one of these is clogged and doesn't flow correctly.

Looking good, it's pretty much the spit of my old one I had 10 years ago! A laguna front splitter fits the front bumper nicely and balances them out a bit

Here's the lip I have still to fit.


I offered it up to check the fitment, I'll just have to trim so that they finish in line with the edge of the bumper.

Yeah it seems to fit surprising well, looking forward to getting it on. I think the MX6 is a good all-rounder and quite under-rated, I really like mine but just feel like it could do with a bit more shove, hence boost...

So my turbo exhaust pipes finally turned up today, after taking over a month to arrive on the boat from Canada. Quite excited to have them now, looking forward to getting them nailed on soon.



There's a few more bits and pieces I still need to buy for the turbo build. I recently bought an ebay 38mm external wastegate and a boost gauge. Parts I still need: intercooler, 2.5" intercooler piping, blow-off valve, catch-can, uprated fuel pump, 12:1 FMU, VAF-to-MAF converter.