First Romanian BT CX-7

[mituc]

My love for the 2.3DISI-T engines is still strong. After being a first in my area with my 3MPS BK (Mazdaspeed3 gen1) project: First Romanian BT MS3 , now I decided to go with another project around the same engine.

After the pistons hit the oil squirters in my 3MPS back in 2016 after only 40k kms/25k miles on a freshly built forged engine, I ended up buying a new block, new OEM crank, and all the bits to put together another fresh engine.
So at the end of the build I had the parts for an almost one more complete short block (I was missing a good crank), so I purchased a lot of other things: a new complete head including the fuel rail and injectors, an used crank within factory specs, including a full set of gaskets, and everything to build one more engine.
Once I had all these parts I started researching on what could I put a 2.3DISi-fTw in... an RX8? A NC Miata?

Well, no matter what path I wanted to go I was about to have the same problem, registering that custom car for street use.
Also, it was going to be one more fast car, while I already have this 450-ish bhp 3MPS (3.91s for 60-100mph) and a 195PS Smart ForFour Brabus (this one is only chipped from 177PS to 195PS, and weights 1090kg/2400lb).

So my wife asked me:
- What else from Mazda comes from the factory with your beloved engine?
- The CX7!
- Well, we could really use such a thing with more ground clearance!
- Done! Incoming WIN!

So here I go: about 90k miles, 6 speed manual (this is how they come here, basically a 6MPS/Mazdaspeed6 with a bigger chariot on top), Shitty/Icy Blue, manufactured in 2008, first sold in 2010 after being a show room car for almost 2 years, with a lot of beans under the carpets (yes, beans!), all chassis elements except for the roof were repainted and they were still scratched when I got the car.
Cylinders 1 to 3 had 170PSI compression and #4 had 180, spark plugs looked fine apart from the 1.2mm/0.048" gap they were worn to. It was pulling strong, there were no noises from the transmission, mechanically seemed well. The interior also had a few elements pretty banged up as well.
Paid about $8500 for it back in February and ended up spending about 12k more until today. Is this a WIN or what?!

So here is the Pig with pedals:


Next day I ordered Versatuner and started making it smoother and more powerful.

After a lot of work, parts, new tires, new wheels, new interior parts, about $200 spent for OEM clips and screws, I got it inspected and they said right away: transfer case and turbo.
I never thought the TC (a common problem with the CX7s) was an issue as it didn't make any noises, and I knew about the turbo which was pushing very well but was spewing a bit of oil and/or coolant into the exhaust occasionally but I wanted to change it next year, not this year.

But what is it that a teenager will not do for his project car?!

So I started:
1. New properly waxed wheels and tires (CX5 2018 OEM rims with Michelin Latitude Sport 3 tires):



2. Took the old StreetUnit TMIC from the Cow (the 3MPS) and fitted it to the Pig. The Cow got a new CP-e TMIC (no difference in flow, only in the looks):


3. New exhaust tips (old versus new):



4. New OEM in-tank fuel filter and Autotech HPFP internals replaced these:


5. ...Man... these beans...


6. Re-leathered steering wheel, new OEM shift knob:


7. Finally, new GTX2867R gen2, with a TIH mocked up from an old CP-e TIH for the GT/GTX30 turbos (4" turbos):



8. New TC at the same time with the GTX:



The ATP kit was for a 3MPS/Speed3, so the supplied oil return line did not fit, we had to bend the OEM line. Also, I made a mistake not purchasing the Kozmic oil feed line for the MS6, the OEM line was a bitch to bend to the right shape. But we got it in the end.


8. Last mod this weekend, TheSpeedLine strut tower brace.



And I'm not done yet.

At this point I have the stock intake and stock exhaust. This turbo struggles a bit to make 22PSI with these factory parts but I'm not going to any track days with the Pig so the stress on the turbo will be only on acceleration reprises just to humiliate Porsche Cayenne/Macan / Audi Q5/Q7 / BMW X5/X6 / Mercedes GLC/GLE dick heads and some of the hot hatch owners around which sometimes think the roads are not meant for chinese shitboxes (of course it's japanese, but what do they know?!).

[Thor Hammer]

Nice work!

[torquemaniac]

Finally the grand master decided to make a built CX-7

Let me know if you want some RMM insert to stiffen the engine a bit (I made a mold of the old Corksport insert, and can cast some in silicone...for free)

[mituc]

Originally Posted by torquemaniac Let me know if you want some RMM insert to stiffen the engine a bit (I made a mold of the old Corksport insert, and can cast some in silicone...for free)

Oh for sure! How can I not?!
These inserts are perfect for such a car as I don't want to go full retard on the rear diff mount and other mounts, exhaust, or anything that could affect the way it sounds (inside) now.

I'll PM you right now, thank you!

[Tomas]

Fuck!
Manual DISI CX-7!
So those go for around 8.5$ in gypsyland huh?
Do you know if the manual transmission is identical to the MS6?

By the way I do not believe the rear carrier on the AWD CX-7 is the same as the MS6. IIRC it is an open diff type as opposed to the LSD found on the MS6. Could be a nice upgrade. Especially if you do a lot of snow driving and tow hand reading gypsy women in velvet lined wagons.

Also if you can get a MS6 steering wheel. It's a direct fit on the CX-7 and much nicer.

Oh and sorry bruh but why the fuck would you spend 12k on upgrades and then go and use CX-5 OEM wheels? Not only are they not especially good looking, some may even argue worst looking than the stock CX-7 wheels, but they are probably still a wimpey 7.5" wide. If you want to keep an OEM look use stock CX-9 wheels. The Australian dude used them and they look pretty good. They are just 19" but its not that small of an aspect ratio with stock circumference tires.

[mituc]

Originally Posted by Tomas So those go for around 8.5$ in gypsyland huh?

You can find them between 5500EUR and even 11k EUR, so that is about 6500$ and 13k$.

Originally Posted by Tomas Do you know if the manual transmission is identical to the MS6?

The engine and transmission is identical between the 3 2.3DISI-T powered models (CX7, 3MPS and 6MPS). the CX7 and 6MPS are very similar though, I think the only things that differ are the axles and driveshaft, and it's only the length of them, not even the number of splines.
In the rear they indeed have an open diff just like the CX9.

Originally Posted by Tomas Also if you can get a MS6 steering wheel. It's a direct fit on the CX-7 and much nicer.

There is a guy in Poland who makes some gorgeous steering wheels for the MS6s. I contacted him to make me a CX7 steering wheel but I held back from putting a MS6 in the CX7 because of the cruise control and radio controls which I didn't have the time and technical expertise to determine if are compatible.
Here it is, in case you want one:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Steering-Wh...d=323357356115

Originally Posted by Tomas Oh and sorry bruh but why the fuck would you spend 12k on upgrades and then go and use CX-5 OEM wheels? Not only are they not especially good looking, some may even argue worst looking than the stock CX-7 wheels, but they are probably still a wimpey 7.5" wide. If you want to keep an OEM look use stock CX-9 wheels. The Australian dude used them and they look pretty good. They are just 19" but its not that small of an aspect ratio with stock circumference tires.

One thing is that I wanted the car to look at stock as possible. Also, the registration rules here are pretty dumb. I only have this 235/60/r18 wheels in the car registration papers. Even if if these cars come in trims where they also have 236/55/r19, to get these legal on my car I need to pay a fee and loose a lot of time at endless lines at the local car authority bureau.
The rules are so stupid that you can get your car registration revoked if you put 205/55/r17 or 215/50/r17 wheels on a Mazda 3 2013+ which only has 205/60/r16 and 215/45/r18 listed in the registration/homologation papers.
Yet there's absolutely no problem for them if you change the stock rims with others with a 40mm smaller offset as long as you keep the original tyre and rim sizes.
Also this pig is supposed to serve practical purposes, so the 18" wheels with these fat tires are absolutely perfect. After adding that tower strut brace the car corners just as good if not better than my Smart ForFour Brabus, which is supposed to be a mini-compact hot-hatch build for this specific purpose.

So for me these 18" wheels are perfect, and it happened to be the OEM CX3/CX5 wheels because I found them new for about $600 a set when the wifey likes this polished aluminium + black paint combination in the rims fascia quite a lot.

Right now the car is sitting in a parking lot for about 10 days now because it threw a P0202 error and the power of 3 cylinders is absolutely horrific. But I'll fix that eventually. Looks like the previous owner took the car to some butchers for doing the timing kit and the engine loom sat on the engine. So it's pretty cooked and brittle and I'll have to find there the injector #2 wire is pinched or cut.

[Tomas]

Fuck yeah thanks for confirming the transmission thing.

The steering wheel controls are completely adaptable from the MS6 to the CX7.

[Jeff23spl]

Originally Posted by Tomas By the way I do not believe the rear carrier on the AWD CX-7 is the same as the MS6. IIRC it is an open diff type as opposed to the LSD found on the MS6. Could be a nice upgrade. Especially if you do a lot of snow driving and tow hand reading gypsy women in velvet lined wagons.

Comparing the holding point and diff from my wife 2010 atx cx7 and my ms6, i can confirm it is different. The supporting point seem stronger for the cx7. I have no idea if something changed there in 2010 but it could be easier to replace juste the internals than the whole thing at first sight.