I'm currently in the process of making a ZM/B6 head swap kit and i'm having one hell of a time finding the dimensions of stuff like intake and exhaust mani flanges (port size and spacing etc). Does anyone have models or drawings of these by chance?
I truly believe the ZM is significantly better than people think it is and has the potential to put a mean beating on just about every other mazda engine in existence. It is so painfully close to having the aftermarket support it needs to actually become a fast platform.
And just for fun if anyone is looking for a reason to go peel apart their grandmothers protege or wants to be propoganda'd into loving the ZM here is the rundown on that engine.
Throughout the 80's and 90's mazda offered the holy motherload of aftermarket parts for the B6 engine as it was briefly being used for rally and largely being used for every type of track event you could imagine. And this was all fine and dandy except for the fact they also sold the 1.8 BP which was basically of the same design they just fixed all the short comings of the 1.6 like the head flowing like trash and the fact it sounds like it ate a bucket of rocks because of the hydraulic lifters. So even if you did buy the smorgasbord of aftermarket parts it would still be at somewhat of a disadvantage to the BP
Then for some unknown reason mazda decided they were going to quietly fix their beloved B6 and sell it in your grandmothers protege. They hogged the ports out, gave us a nice combustion chamber, and fixed the damn cas that liked to sh** the bed. Perfect racecar material
then nobody bought it and the motor is extinct (excluding aussie and new zealand market thats a whole different story)
but, for the people who have time to waste looking for a spec of protege nobody on planet earth wanted to own, its a good platform for a poor mans hot rod. Its got 29 years of race pedigree and all the wrong parts
Edit: should specify the head swap is for the ZM to go on a Miata B6 since doing it the other way around is already easy
I truly believe the ZM is significantly better than people think it is and has the potential to put a mean beating on just about every other mazda engine in existence. It is so painfully close to having the aftermarket support it needs to actually become a fast platform.
And just for fun if anyone is looking for a reason to go peel apart their grandmothers protege or wants to be propoganda'd into loving the ZM here is the rundown on that engine.
Throughout the 80's and 90's mazda offered the holy motherload of aftermarket parts for the B6 engine as it was briefly being used for rally and largely being used for every type of track event you could imagine. And this was all fine and dandy except for the fact they also sold the 1.8 BP which was basically of the same design they just fixed all the short comings of the 1.6 like the head flowing like trash and the fact it sounds like it ate a bucket of rocks because of the hydraulic lifters. So even if you did buy the smorgasbord of aftermarket parts it would still be at somewhat of a disadvantage to the BP
Then for some unknown reason mazda decided they were going to quietly fix their beloved B6 and sell it in your grandmothers protege. They hogged the ports out, gave us a nice combustion chamber, and fixed the damn cas that liked to sh** the bed. Perfect racecar material
then nobody bought it and the motor is extinct (excluding aussie and new zealand market thats a whole different story)
but, for the people who have time to waste looking for a spec of protege nobody on planet earth wanted to own, its a good platform for a poor mans hot rod. Its got 29 years of race pedigree and all the wrong parts
Edit: should specify the head swap is for the ZM to go on a Miata B6 since doing it the other way around is already easy
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