10 Pounds of Something

(Written on 3/23/2022)

A reader commented. "Would like to see a pic of that 2.5L". This is exciting because it means we actually have a reader. Well, here it is.

Right side of the 2002 Mazda KLG4 2.5L V6 engine, which will be the back of the engine if it ends up in the Spitfire.

 

Left side of the engine, which with luck will be the front.

As I said previously, I discovered the Mazda KLG4 2.5L V6 on a Miata forum. The engine has an aluminum block and cylinder heads to reduce weight. My understanding is that this is physically the smallest V6 engine manufactured. But as noted on the Miata forum it is neither small nor light with all of the "stuff" around those fundamental parts.

So what one does is scrap all that stuff. The stuff is mostly intake and fuel injection parts. This will be replaced with aftermarket components if I move forward with this engine. Switching from the restrictive factory intake to the free breathing setup the Miata folks use increases the horsepower of the engine from ~170hp to ~200hp.

Since the engine was designed to be mounted in a transverse configuration (see "What does Penny want to be when she grows up?"), the intake components were run over the rear cylinder head, which was made lower than the front cylinder head. This means that in the Spitfire the left cylinder head will be lower than the right. This bothers me for some unknown, anally retentive, type A reason. Perhaps I fear the other cars will pick on Penny for her asymmetry. I gave some thought on how to address this perceived issue, and then had a drink and moved on. 

Here are some pictures of the stripped down engine. I thought the plastic timing belt covers were lame, so I removed them as well.

OK, so it doesn't look like much yet, but we're only at the "will it even fit" stage. If it fits, I'll make it purdy.

More on fitting the engine in future posts. BTW, my grandson gave a thumbs up to riding shotgun.

Here he is imagining tooling down a back road with Pops. After checking out the Spitfire, I asked him his thoughts about how other sports cars compare, and this was his response.