FE3 Myths, Content For Website, Please! :-)

[Fred]

Hello FE-DOHC enthusiasts! It's long overdue, but the time has come to formally bust all of the many myths about this engine!

JayB, dishonest ripoff artist that he was, is responsible for many of these things, with various people, unfortunately, propogating the rumours far and wide. His old site content would be a great place to start, pretty much all of it was wrong or misleading.

I've got a few things in mind, but there are SO many more. Please share what you can. I'll make a start in the next post and update it as you add more. Then we can movce them all to the dedicated site when we are ready.

http://myths.fe-dohc.org - there is no content, yet. At least, nothing obvious

Fred.

[Fred]

Rods being forged - it's true! But it's not a big deal, almost ALL jap rods are forged, this was propogated freely due to forged rods not being overly common in low quality yank tank engines of old.

Crank being forged - it's true! But about 1 in 50 has this. Schwine was the only member to EVER post pics of one. The engine came with a windage tray that bolted to the main bearing caps too.

Engine coming turbo standard, no, total myth.

Full floating piston pins, I don't believe this is true, they have circlips and require a hammer to bash them out of the piston.

170hp fe-ze - myth! The engines came in many specs, but none had that much power. 140, 145, 148, 150, 165ps variants are available. The highest of those is about 160bhp.

10:1 compression means high output, untrue

knock sensor means high output, untrue

fe3 engines came in many variants, but the listed differences are between leaded and unleaded eu/nz market engines. Jap engines vary even more.

Alloy sumps also do not mean high output. most jap fe3 engines have alloy sumps, of which there are 3+ different varieties.

all fe-dohc engines have a gold top cover - myth! most do, but later variants from GV wagons do NOT. They are plain alloy just like the f8 dohc.

main bearing braces are present on eu/nz new leaded engines, and does not indicate much at all.

they came 4wd, true! but it's the same piss weak box that the bf and bg 4wd hatches use.

400cc injectors stock, myth! the range speced by mazda is : injection volume: 66-91cc (4.03-5.55 cu/in)/15sec which equates to : 264 - 364cc / min which on average is : 314cc. truthfully, i doubt they are at the top or middle of that range. but what is certain is that at most they are only 364, and i wouldnt bet my pistons on them being any more than 264.

fe3 is bored and stroked bp = myth

there are only two types of cams - myth, nz/eu cars got fe3n/fe3n for unleaded and fe5a/fe5a for leaded. jap autos got feap/fe3n pairs. f8 dohc got f8k1/fe3n pairs.

fs bell housing is the same, myth, but they do bolt up, some bots are missing.

We need to dig up and host all the pictures for supporting evidence for all of thse items too.

[Born_Disturbed]

there are only two types of cams - myth, nz/eu cars got fe3n/fe3n for unleaded and fe5a/fe5a for leaded. jap autos got feap/fe3n pairs. f8 dohc got f8k1/fe3n pairs.


i call bullshit

Found many FE3's at Pap with F8k1/Fe3n and my spare engine has that set up too with low comp pistons not F8 ones

My unleaded stock 626 GT has Fe5a/Fe5a

and ive seen multiple autos with Fe3n/Fe3n + my set of Fe5a spares came from a jap auto

[STW]

I've never had any problems sliding out piston pins with ease, perhaps they just bend at 35psi

One of the more peculiar claims I've seen is that FE3 and FE DOHC are different engines, and the former is "the true JDM form" and the latter is detuned export version. Make no mistake, FE3N is a (part of a) part code, the engine code is FE DOHC, possibly harmonized in the final production years with FS/BP designators, but never FE3-something. The new question is; the FE-DE and FE-ZE codes seen sometimes attributed to later GV wagon engines, are they official or not?

[Fred]

That's curious about the pins, the ones that I had to knock out the first time had never seen boost. you could clearly see clean allow in the hole in the piston where complete contact had been statically occurring, and of course, zero wear marks. The ones that I pulled out of my latest dead fe3 were also stiff, but not as stiff as the first ones, it didn't take a lot of tapping, but they certainly would not be turning in the piston by themselves, and, they all use circlips on top of that. With the small end bearing perfectly fluid, it wouldnt take much friction to prevent them moving at all, and there is certainly more than enough for that.

I wonder what the definition of "full floating" actually is.

Fred.

[d0zxmustang]

Injectors are 315cc/min. Mine were flow tested by witchhunter.com