A friend and I are looking to build something mid or rear engined, probably a Midlana or something Atomesque. We're looking at possible donors and someone over on PistonHeads has suggested the Mazda 3 MPS which has the 2.3L DISI Turbo (L3-VDT)

Has anyone here experience of using the MPS as a donor?

Don't know of anyone who has used one in a kit car but I would expect you will need to use all of the OEM wiring and ECU as it is a Direct Injection engine and therefore the usual aftermarket ECU options (emerald/omex/MS etc.) are not compatible, IIRC the Life ecu is but this is expensive. This is also the case for the new ford Ecoboost engines which are closely related to this engine.

May be easier to turbo a 2.0/2.3/2.5 duratec engine.

If you are after that sort of power the midlana can be built so that a Scooby turbo engine (flat 4 turbo) will fit (there is a build blog on one if you search) with a relatively simple fix to convert the box into a 2wd transaxle. The SDR Storm WR3 atomalike uses this set up.

if you are looking at this type of car the Sylva J15 is worth investigating.

[Edited on 13/7/16 by Ugg10]

[Edited on 13/7/16 by Ugg10]

Thanks for the info.

Scooby engines aren't really my thing, I'd prefer a higer reving 4 cylinder to a warbling flat 4.

ECUs are something I've yet to look into. I believe that here in Aus we have to use the OEM ECU for emissions purposes!

The Mazda engine produces max power at 5500rpm so not a screamer by a long shot -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mazda_L_engine

The later Scooby engines are higher than that !

If you want screamers then the Honda K20 from the Civic type R is probably the one to have. 220hp at 8k. The Midlana was originally designed around the K24 engine IIRC.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honda_K_engine

Obviously the main issue with using the OEM kit is making sure that the Anti theft immobiliser and the alarm either still work or can be removed from the system without affecting the engine electrical system.

Stick a 1000cc fireblade in it. No gearbox to worry about and should be fast and reliable

Sadly we cant fit bike engines into cars here in Australia and the Civic Type R was never available so there are no suitable donors! There are some (very rare) Integra Type R write-offs that come up occasionally.

K24 is interesting, thanks for the link. The Honda Odyssey is cheap as chips here (mostly because it looks horrendous!) and apparently has the 200hp version.

Luckily, imobilisers arent mandatory here so many cars dont have them fitted.

I was looking at using an emerald ECU to keep the electrics nice and simple.

[Edited on 14/7/16 by Goochie]