Learn me Mazda CX-7

A customer of mine asked me if I would be interested in buying his 2007 CX-7 with 101,000 miles and a spun rod bearing. His asking price of 2k seemed reasonable enough, so I went ahead, pulled the trigger and towed it to my shop. The crank is at the machine shop and and it is salvageable. The PO had started to make an in-chassis fix, but gave up once he realized that the crank would need to come out. He had installed a balance shaft eliminator and the cam adjustor and chain have been recently replaced. he did not say anything about it, but the turbo is spotlessly clean and appears to be newer than the remainder of the engine.
I bought the car intending to replace the engine, so I have extra money in my budget to put back into the CX-7. I know the Mazda speed 3/6 share a lot with the CX-7, so what are the most cost effective upgrades that I can make to add a little more Zoom to my latest project? Thanks!

If you bought it to flip, dont be surprised if the retail is lower than you might expect and could take longer to sell than you might think.

My research from last year: https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/learn-me-mazda-cx-7-and-quality-concers/77675/page1/

I've sold them in the past, but I've taken the precaution to address the timing chain issues as a preventative measure. So far all customers are still happy with their cars. I'm considering this one to keep at least till spring since all of my personal cars are less than ideal in snow (Miata, G35 and RWD Celica) I'd like to make this a fun winter car that will put a smile on the face of whoever is behind the wheel.

I've always thought a homemade "Mazdaspeed" CX7 would be pretty cool. You could have a little off road ability with the awd, but also be pretty darn quick with some mods. That being said, I know nothing about them specifically, other than the timing chain issues and the turbo seals go and turn them into mosquito foggers.

A 3" catted downpipe and a CAI will make some noticeable improvements in power. If any of that is available for the CX7

sethmeister4 wrote: I've always thought a homemade "Mazdaspeed" CX7 would be pretty cool. You could have a little off road ability with the awd, but also be pretty darn quick with some mods. That being said, I know nothing about them specifically, other than the timing chain issues and the turbo seals go and turn them into mosquito foggers.

Well most publications, that care about such things, put their reliability rating at a zero. So it's got that going for them. They have the same 2.3L as the MS3 and most of the parts and weakpoints of the motor are the same. Only things that really don't fit are the exhaust pieces however the turbo manifolds will fit from one car to another if you want to put a bigger turbo on them and I believe they can still be tuned from the Cobb Accessport.

There's actually a whole subgroup of people that build them like high horsepower MS3 and it's pretty entertaining to read.

Run, don't walk away from the turbo models. Generally regarded as the least reliable vehicle Mazda has made since... ever? The NA versions aren't half bad, however. We've got 80K on ours and it's run like a top. Not as space-efficient as some mini SUVs, but good handling, comfortable, reasonably quiet, etc.