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The Kia Sportage engine from 95-2001 is a duplicate of the infamous Mazda
FE3 DOHC 2.0 liter I4 engine. Kia bought the tooling rights from Mazda to
produce this motor in their Sportage, lucky for us! The Mazda FE3 is an F
block, just like the Mazda B2000/ B2200 FE 2.0 and F2 B2200. Also the same
as the Ford probe/ mx-6/ 626 F2. The FE3 uses a block that is almost
identical to the 86-87 B2000 FE engine. The difference is the oil return
passages are different, for the DOHC, oil squirters are ulitized, and the
water pump housing is slightly different. This makes putting a Kia head on
a B2000 engine impossible - unfortunately. Nevertheless, the Kia Sportage
engine is the FE3, and can be swapped right into a B2000/B2200. For more
information about the FE3 engine, see any Mazda website like solomiata.com,
mx6.com, probetalk.com, 626.net. They all love the FE3, just as much as we
Mazda truck guys will too.
The Mazda bellhousing bolts up to the Kia block, and the stock Mazda motor
mounts will bolt up to the block as well. Assuming you have a manual, the
Kia flywheel must be used because The Kia uses an 8 bolt pattern on the end
of the crankshaft unlike the mazda 6 bolt. The flywheels, other than the
bolt pattern, are the same, so your mazda starter, clutch and pressure plate
can all be used, including the pilot bearing and throwout bearing. Make
sure to use locktite on the flywheel bolts- not only so they won't back out,
so they won't leak oil onto your clutch!
If your truck is bodydropped like mine is- you will have to watch the
clearance between the head and the firewall pinch weld- it comes close. I
just trimmed mine alittle. Also the heater hoses will hit the head. I am
not running a heater right now- so I just bypassed it. Also with a
bodydropped truck, the stock intake manifold will not clear the hood as it
goes over the valve cover, not sure if it will even clear a non-bodydropped
truck. I used Honda CBR600 f4i throttle bodies on mine- I cut the stock kia
lower intake and reused it- connected the TB's with silicon tube and hose
clamps.
The Ford probe n/a or turbo first gen/ 626/ mx-6 upper intake will bolt onto
the kia sportage stock lower intake with a little wallering out of the bolt
hole flange. It has a nice TB with a tps sensor, IAC valve and intake air
temp sensor. Mine works great except it sticks out of the hood.
The Exhaust- you definately will not want to use the stock kia exhaust
manifold as it sucks- so go get a 1.8 leter mazda miata exhausat manifold
and A-pipe. All you will have to do is redrill some of the bolt holes on
the manifold flange and the ports will line up exactly! Bamm- Instant
header!
Use the stock mazda oil pan- as the kia oil pan will hit your crossmember!
Use the stock Kia windage tray, stock mazda oil pump pickup tube, and change
the dipstick tube to the mazda.
Coolant hoses. I used the stock mazda lower water pump inlet on the driver
side of the engine. It has a nice curve to it that points right to the
lower radiater outlet. This allows you to use the stock mazda lower
radiator hose- which is nice. Use the Kia metal tubes that go around the
block. The mazda ones will not fit around the dohc head. I cut and fit an
upper hose for the radiator, and used the stock radiator. I am running
electric fans, so I didn't use the kia belt fan. The kia fan is driven by a
four groove belt. It will be difficult for you to get the alternator and
fan to work unless you have all the brackets from the kia for the engine
accessories and the kia alternator as well.
I used the stock mazda alternator and bracket. I also used the Kia
crankshaft pulley. The mazda pulley will not fit unless you redrill some
holes. I didn't feel safe doing this because I needed to have absolutely no
wobbling in my crank pulley as I used EDIS ignition with a crank mounted VR
sensor. To use the stock mazda alternator with bracket and the kia
crankpulley, you will have to take the mazda fan pulley brack- cut off the
fan part so it will clear the kia timing covers. This will hold the upper
bracket for the alternator. The mazda alt uses a v-groove pulley, so go get
a 95 hyndai scoupe alt pulley and swap it out with your mazda alt pulley and
you will have a four groove alt pulley which will match the 4 groove pulley
on the kia crank pulley.
The only other engine acc I have is a belt driven air compressor for my
bags, which I made a custom bracket for. Any other mazda engine accessories
like ac and power steering will bolt right up to the kia block, and the kia
pulley has v- grooves on the ac and psteering pulley grooves- so you are
good to go!
Other items of interest. I removed the kia oil cooler and pulled the
threaded oil filter shaft out of the old mazda block and used a normal oil
filter setup. You can use the kia oil cooler, you will just have to fab
some coolant lines to it. I used the stock mazda wiring in regards to the
oil pressure sending unit, the coolant temp sender- on the kia it's in the
front of the engine on the thermostat housing- just extend the mazda wire
and put a female terminal on it. There is also a coolant temp sensor in the
kia thermostat housing for your fuel injection setup. This will have to be
calibrated to work with ms-2. I ended up using an adapter and istaller a GM
coolant temp sensor for ease of programming
I used EDIS 4 igition from a 93 ford escort. I had a local machine shop
make a pulley which presses into the kia crankshaft pulley to mount the 36-1
tooth wheel onto. I made a custom VR sensor mount from scrap metal. I used
the stock Kia coil packs with the edis system. Kia also used a wasted spark
ignition system like ford edis, with multispark as well. So the Kia coil
packs are ready to go!
I used MS2 with ignition control for EDIS. So far it's working out well!