ok well a buddy mine who is starting a buissness and also has a Mazda MX-6 turbo. Anyways question is will an fe3 engine fit into a protege or will it require some MAJOR modifications?

thanks
Chuck

 

short answer.. no it won't fit without custom fabrication

I'm still trying to find out if the RF diesel engine that came with the overseas proteges have the same engine mount locations as the FE3... if it is, then using the RF mounts will make things easy

 

I doubt that the RF uses the same mounts as the FE3. The FE3 is longer than the FP/FS used in the Protege because Mazda shortened the newer FP/FS engines' block to make it easier to mount it sideways in the engine bay of smaller FWD vehicles such as the Protege. The older "long" F-series motors are a little over an inch longer, which doesn't seem like much until you realize that an inch of additional length will cram the crank pulley into the Protege's passenger side framerail. You will need to SERIOUSLY modify the Protege's frame to fit the longer engine.

FWIW, have you ever wondered why your friend's MX-6 Turbo has such blocky, upright front end styling and the MX-6's twin, the 88-92 Ford Probe, had a little bulge at each side of the hood? The reason is that Mazda had to shove the strut towers upwards and sideways to make the longer engine fit. The engines were shortened to solve this problem.

 

maybe... but one thing I am able to guess so far is that the RF is dimensionally similar to the FE because both engines share the same head gaskets

 

ok well in all honesty i didnt see very much before he left, his eclipse blew the tranny(very literaly) so he needed a car to move to arkansas with so he bought the mx-6 for like $2800 its a 90 or a 91well he just bought another engine, only the engine is the Japanese version, never seen in america so he wanted to play and maybe through it in before carlisle. oh well guess that wont happen