http://milwaukee.craigslist.org/cto/2553941194.html
Looking at this as my weird $400 winter beater of the year. Seems like it could be an easy fix. What is the rundown on the Mazda F2T engine, and this platform in general? Any weak points or stuff to look out for? It's down to this or a 5-speed/4AG Geo Prizm GSi...
Pretty durable engine, decent power, easy to upgrade the turbo for more power, okay gas mileage. Downside is parts are getting harder to find, especially Probe specific parts.
The 89 GT I had got 25 mpg no matter what I did, highway, backroads, spirited driving. Never did much city driving so no mpg for that. It was a fun car to drive, even with the worn out shocks it had.
I'm watching this thread... these cars always intrigued me, but especially since I spied a Probe GT in my neighborhood that sits in a driveway under a car cover and hasn't moved in the two years I've lived here. The owners of the house are clearly in their 70s, if not 80s, and every once in a while when the car cover wears through or tears, they buy a brand new one... they've put 3 or 4 on in the last couple years. Why, I can't even begin to guess.
good engine loads of torque. I have one in an MX-3 and its quite quick!
I have one in an MX-3 and its quite quick!
Link to pictures please! 
My input is this: I like the mx6 with the same motor a LOT more. Or the 626 for that matter 
Vigo wrote: Link to pictures please!
How about a for sale thread? 
http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/200x-classifieds/feeler-fsft-92-mx-3-with-f...
I'm sure once Mr. Celicahalftrac finds this he will have a few pages of info to share.
I had an '88 626 Turbo with that engine and a five speed manual trans. Here is my rundown;
The engine is fantastic. I pulled mid-30 mpg numbers on the highway, city was more like low-20's. Dampers are expensive if you want to keep the adjustables, I wouldn't. Mechanical parts are cheap. Transmissions are weak, notably 5th gear in my case. I would not own another one but I'm kind of bitter about the trans thing.
Honestly, if Mazda had just bought Toyota transmissions or something similar and beefy, I might still be driving the dumb thing. Aside from motorized seat belts I don't know of many better small sedans.
$400 with good compression and it's not a rust bucket?
Just buy it. Figure out details later.
Foolproof way to fix the issue is to just slap an MSD setup on there forget it.
This would also be great challenge fodder. Assuming the motor is healthy as he says, you could fairly easily get that thing in the 11s on a challenge budget.
Like Vigo said, though, i like the MX6 better. It's lighter. The Probe has a few tricks up it's sleeve that the MX6 doesn't, though. Flip up lights (AWESOME), bigger sway bars, and better instrumentation.
There's a few of us around with these motors.... Dan above, Me, and MNDSM recently bought an MX6 GT as well. 
The motor is damn near unbreakable. I have 185k miles on mine, and it's swallowed all the boost i've cared to run on my MUCH larger than stock turbo without a single complaint. I do NOT baby this car. EVER. And it's fast. And still gets high 20s mpg combined.
Sadly... it's faster than my turbo miata, and i've got about 7x more money in the Miata. 
Oh, and the transmissions and clutches last LONGER with bigger turbos. 
