1990 Mazda 929 929hc review from Australia and New Zealand

Genuine plug leads easily destroyed due to steam cleaning, a good set of aftermarket leads and new coil, cap and set of iridium ngk plugs totally transformed this engines mid range and top end performance, now a tyre frying animal.

4 new brake rotors, previous owner ran the pads down to metal and chewed out the rotors beyond machining tolerance. these cars have awesome brakes for their age and these rotors should not have needed replacing.

Split heater core caused coolant leaks which caused the thermostat to run the warm up injector until the system purged it self of air bubbles, it absolutely chewed through fuel.

Best $1300 aus I ever spent. Whilst parts are not cheap, they are engineered to last. This 929 is still on its original shock absorbers and all suspension bushings, tie rod end ball joints have at least 500000km total life. I know of several that have done upwards of 750000km on harsh Australian roads without major suspension repairs.

The engine is built to last if correctly maintained and run on quality fuel, I cannot stress this highly enough. The use of good fuel 98 ron no ethanol content is important to the longevity of these engines.

Beautiful ride suburb handling and the potential to be an ultimate sleeper. I've drag raced this car over the 1/8th mile at sunset strip mildura with a 10.6 at 57 mph. remember those figures are for an eighth of a mile. I expect them to drop with a smaller sized tyre. It is capable of eating both carbied and injected 308s 5ltr in commodore ss to many a racers surprise (similar tare weight) remember this engine is a 3ltr.

One area of frustration is the lack of aftermarket cams, a cam change and rechip would see a huge gain in output as these engines were built to last. Mazda did not chase big output from these engines, there is huge potential power gains to be had without cracking open the engine. However mild head work will see huge gains.