Follow my MAM SS kit install

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99 pro ES Silver heavily modified
Hello, my name is Jonathan, and I am a Protege addict. (much to my wife's chagrin) I own a Highlight Silver Metallic 1999 Mazda Protege ES (1.8L). As far as I know, this is the first 1.8L to get a MAM kit. Slight possibility of first with a turbo. Someone correct me if I am wrong.

Mental Addiction Motorsports is sponsoring me and I have a MAM SS turbo kit on the way as of today. It's been sitting in a box for the last month since I have been gone from Christmas until last week. (I fly C-17s for the Air Force and my schedule is at their mercy; in fact I am only home right now because I can't clear my ears). I am leaving again as soon as my ears clear, so my installation will have to wait until I get back. My wife is deployed to Iraq, so I had to have Beau ship the kit to my neighbor. I will be back around the 24th and will begin the install.

However, feel free to subscribe to get updates on my progress. I am not exactly super experienced, I consider myself an average car guy, at best.

Planned total turbo components:
1. Mental Addiction Motorsports Sleeper kit (w/out MPI Tuner)
2. Haltech E6X
3. Custom exhaust from a local shop (Carolina Muffler & Exhaust)

Reasons for the components:
1. MAM is sponsoring me (I talked to Beau before I ever looked at the HiBoost kit). I was attracted to MAM because of the apparent quality finish of the kit, and for the customer service. Again, I made the decision before I looked at the HiBoost kit, and still haven't looked at it much, so I am making no comparisons, simply stating my reasons. I am sure there are plenty of others who can vouch for the HiBoost kit.
2. The E6X fits my needs quite well. There have been many more posted issues with the MPI Tuner to keep my interest, the F10X doesn't do as much as I would like, the AEM is too expensive. Since I haven't used the MPI Tuner, I can't say exactly what it does and doesn't do, I just have come to the conclusion it's not for me.
3. The MAM outputs to a 2.5" pipe, and there are no off-the-shelf exhaust applications for a 99 Protege at 2.5". I have looked far and wide for an easy solution, but no dice. It turns out the local shop can do a fairly cheap set up. Catback for $200 or so with aluminized steel.

Without further adieu...
 
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Baseline Dyno and more!

I had the car dynoed today to set up a baseline.

It was done at a shop called PowerZone with a dynojet. Temp was about 70 degrees (warm for the season!), with a typical humidity for the area. This should favor comparably with conditions in the future when the install is complete. The image looks a little funny, as the print out was very light, and I had to modify it to get visible dyno lines.

My 1999 Mazda Protege ES 1.8L with ~83K miles on it.

WHP: ~98
Torque: ~102

The attachment is 367k, 1024x768.

Update #1 - 10 Feb 05 - change 1
HALTECH E6X (from HiBoost TS, www.hiboost.com, Juan):
On Beau's recommendation, I am sourcing this with HiBoost. That also makes sense considering how much Juan has supported users on this forum. In the process of determining what I need for the Haltech E6X setup, Juan has been quite helpful in identifying exactly what I need. Apparently a 1.8L does not have the same igniter set up that you younger 2.0L's have. I sent him a pic of my engine bay. That means I need to get an extra igniter. On another note, the crank pulley has the same number of teeth (35) as the 2.0L. I had to pull off the right-front wheel and remove the plastic to be able to count the teeth. I will be getting the boost controller as well.

*CHANGE 1* SEE ATTACHMENT 2- Juan told me today of another option. He suggested it would be better to get the 01-03 protege coils which will serve in place of the igniter kit. These coils burn hotter and longer for a more efficient burn (plus they're newer). My local dealer sells them (I need two) for $30.75 ea. For those of you that are familiar, these bolt directly into the valve cover. Problem is that the 01-03 valve covers have bungs for this. Mine doesn't. Juan already knew about this and suggested the Nology Hotwires ignition kit which relocates the coils, meaning I don't have to worry about it. Luckily I am getting in on the tail end of the group buy on Pro-Tuner.com. I will be ordering the coils and the nology wires tomorrow from SPDRacing.com.

DEFI Link Meter BF White GAUGES (from Ravspec, a vendor here, www.ravspec.com):
-Boost
-EGT
-Oil Pressure
-Link Meter Control Unit II
First let me point out that RavSpec priced out the gauges at a better price than I was able to find online. On some recommendations of people on this board and others, I have decided to go with Defi gauges. I was torn between the extra features of the Link Meter BF gauges and the simple, much cheaper, D-gauge line. My tendency to spend a little more now to avoid more work and problems down the line has led me to the BF Whites. Also, they are the newest line meaning support will be around a bit longer. I was originally planning on the Ambers, but I figure the whites will allow me to customize the color, as I am not a big fan of having a ton of different colors in my lighting. I will be changing the instrument cluster to a blue to match the stereo I have, and will be replacing interior lighting with LEDs as well. This is a pricey, but necessary expense. Now I just how to determine the best way to mount them. These gauges are not the typical 2-1/16" size, but are 2-3/8". Do I go pillar pod? Or find some other way to make it happen? Leadfoot (a user on this board) was selling some great looking and intelligent dash bezels that incorporated a couple of gauge pods, but the manufacturing process is on hold. See this thread .

AEM Wideband Gauge Type UEGO Controller (from Beau at MAM):
On Beau's recommendation I will need a Wideband Air Fuel Ratio meter, and the AEM is apparently the best one on the market. He recommended that as well. I am getting this at his sale price.

Update #2 - 14 Feb 05 - Change 1
I spent the weekend cleaning out my garage to park the car there for a while and make room for the work area. I also picked up a compressor that came with air tools from Home Depot, and a set of gear wrenches. Putting some money down, but those will be usable for the foreseeable future no matter what I'm working on. I drove my car again today and patted it lovingly, as I plan on parking it in the garage tonight and start removing panels either tonight or tomorrow. I probably won't be driving it too much once that starts. I am sure I will be sent out before the install is done. The gauges are supposed to be here today, and the turbo kit should be here today or tomorrow. Juan told me the Haltech and coils should be shipped tomorrow (13th). I still have to figure out what I am going to do with the gauges; though it will be easier once I have them in hand.

NOTE: If you are buying a compressor to use with air tools, it should be at least 26 gallons! Big surprise after I already bought an 11 gallon compressor. That will go back, as my new 32 gallon setup (with air tools) will do me nicely. The compressor/tools kit cost $300 at Home Depot. A 26 gallon with no tools was $250.

-Change 1-
HeHe, the gauges just arrived! I like UPS! Check out attachment #3.

Update #3 - 16 Feb 05

In the last couple days I have been working on removing my bumper. I have also removed my coil pack and plugs, all the plastic under body parts (including the wheel wells) and started on removing the heat shield. I also put some time into setting up the garage with my new compressor, air tools, lighting, music, and workspace. Definitely gotta have my music!

Issues/Lessons Learned:
- Don't try to leave the wheels on. Just jack it up to begin with and remove them. It makes it MUCH easier to remove the plastic parts that you have to remove to take the bumper off.
- Go slowly and take your time. Those little plastic pop-rivets are a pain and the ass and can be easily broken. I learned this the hard way long ago when I was removing my door panels.
-The pop-rivets with a philips screwdriver spot on em twist and pop out, but you have to hold the outer ring while you twist the screwdriver with VERY light pressure on the inner disc. This will allow the inner disc to pop out, you can then use your fingers to pull them out. There are two on each side that are not pop rivets but screw all the way out. They are on the rear bottom edge of the wheel well covers.
-Scan all the way around the edge of the bumper to see what you need to remove to take it out. You also need to take out your blinker lights (with the 99 at least). There is one more pop-rivet that has a screwdriver slot, but is NOT a twist-out; this is in the center under the main bulge of the bumper. You have to use something to force it out, and it is rather difficult. You also need to be careful, as this is a painted part (on mine at least when some damage was fixed at a shop.

I received the first of the three boxes from MAM today. This is the intercooler and I believe the majority of the piping. It also has the wastegate, some bolts, hoses, silicone couplings, air filter, and BOV. I may be leaving some stuff out. This is nice! Since i have my bumper off, here comes the intercooler! Whee!

Oh yeah, there were a LOT of pink packing peanuts! Too much pink! Be careful unpacking as there are some small items that could easily get missed. I was digging in there with my hands and never saw them until I started using a dustpan to scoop out the peanuts. Small amounts of peanuts at a time once I found the first small item. Now to clean all the "peanut-dust" off the parts.

Update #4 - 17 Feb 05
Hosting pictures off-site now for easier management.
A few pics:
-Contents of the first box from MAM.
-Autometer Boost Gauge (forgot to put in contents pic)
-First box of the Haltech. Main unit and harness built by Juan. I received this today. The dude shipped it from Colombia and it got here the next day. He rocks.
-Old parts. You'll notice the broken gasket on my cat, and the sheared bolt. The nut had rusted to it enough that the air ratchet sheared off the bolt. That nut is still stuck in my socket. Can't get it out. Not the first time something like this has happened on my car. My exhaust manifold was showing the same level of rust, and was showing what looked like fracture lines.
-The Holethat is my engine bay, now.
-My bare front bumper .

Last night before I called it quits, I was able to remove the exhaust manifold and the primary cat. I used a vacuum to remove all the debris and rust that came off of the manifold. I also cleaned up where the coils drop in, and put them back in to keep debris out of the engine.

I spent the day (when not working) researching as much as I could about stuff I will have to worry about. I also ordered some more stuff online:
- Timing belt, tensioner, idler from www.mazdaformance.com (beat my dealer's price big time). Might as well change them out while I have everything torn open.
- New valve cover gasket from local dealer
- New engine side mounts also from mazdaformance (mine are shot, they saved me big money on this compared to my dealer. Like half price)
- AWR Engine Side Mount polyurethane inserts (I have the AWR front/rear mounts already)
- Kartboy short shifter bushings to go with my soon to be incoming Megan shortshifter
- Kartboy exhaust hangers in preparation for my custom exhaust
- More sockets (I found I didn't have a few that I need) from Lowe's

I also plan on installing an Optima battery, due to a couple of odd starts I have had over the last couple weeks. Not to mention it's higher resistance to vibration, as my mounts will all be the AWR versions. I have most of the exhaust removed, I just have to get the bolts off the rear end of the mid-pipe. That's where I found I needed some different sockets. In fact, you can see my secondary cat on the ground underneath the bumper shot. You can probably also tell that my garage is quite cramped.

Back to work!

Update #5 - 19 Feb 05 - Change 1
The other two turbo kit boxes have not yet arrived. C'mon FedEx! In the meantime, I am working on some other mods that I have been planning for a long time.

- I picked up all the parts necessary for the electrical mods on www.zapwizard.com (ZapWizard is a member of this community, you may have seen his how-to's).
- I started modifying my gauge cluster to make it all blue. Here's a post on that with pictures of what I have done so far. I decided against the two-tone. I broke my fuel gauge pin, so I ordered a replacement gauge using www.car-part.com
- In pulling out my gauge cluster, I removed a few of the panels under the steering well since I had to trace the security light path to the alarm box. I unplugged the red and blue sockets, and pulled the wire out (there's about 10 feet of it!) so I could get the LED out of my gauge cluster. I would love to change that to blue also, but I'm afraid I'll mess up my alarm if I do that. Still not entirely out of the question. More research to do.
- I pulled out every light in my car except the headlights, as I am changing them all to LEDs. I have the Osram Silverstars coming in from www.powerbulbs.co.uk for the headlights. (Maps, Dome, trunk, all tail-lights, window brake light, blinkers). I will be ordering what LEDs I can from www.lsdiodes.com, any I can't get from there will be from www.superbrightleds.com
- I pulled apart the environmental control panel to change the LEDs to blue and to disable the auto AC function of the defrost. It appears that 99's are simpler to disable this function. There is a switch in there that just needs to remove the power socket. I haven't yet ops-checked it yet.
- I have the entire center dash console pulled apart to help me decide where to mount the gauges and it's controller. The controller will likely end up in the cd-pocket circuit city put in place of my tape deck when I got a new CD-player.
- I have the red-top Optima battery. I got it from Autozone for $118. It was $130 across the street at Advance.
- While there, I also bought Denso Iridium spark plugs for $12.99 each. According to some threads I have read here, the iridiums will help with the turbo.
- I have been planning on doing some more silencing to my car. I have already pasted Tsunami material all over the front doors and rear deck to help the stereo system. Apparently Tsunami has gone up in price at Circuit City to $5 per sq ft. Hell no! I orderd some edead from www.elementaldesigns.com for $1.50 per sq ft. I will also use that in the XTerra. A thread I read a while back on www.clubprotege.com led me to check out the local carpet store for some undercarpet padding. I picked up a 12' x 6' roll for $20. This will help silence road noise. I got enough for my car floors and doors, and for my wife's XTerra (vibration from her stereo is killing my drive, I can't believe she doesn't notice!)

Issue:
- There may be a problem mounting the Intercooler. Apparently a 99's bumper is different from a 01-03 bumper. On the 01's there is a bit of frame that sticks out to mount the IC to. Mine doesn't have this. The only thing I have available is the actual plastic bumper underneath the body bumper. I discussed this with my neighbor, and I will likely have to drill through the plastic and secure it that way. Since I question the stability (over time with vibration cycles and stress) of the plastic, I will likely have to add some metal straps (much like hose clamps); and a bushing to where the bolts go through the plastic to hold the IC. This is still in the works.

Stuff left on my to-buy list:
- LEDs
- gauge pods (still waiting for Leadfoot's)
- Stainless Steel bolts to replace the rusted ones that hold on my hood.
- Order billet aluminum door-lock bezel from MAM to go with...
- a new door lock switch for the passenger side. My wife always wants to lock the doors...

That's all for now, but plenty to fill my time until the rest of the turbo kit comes in.

Oh yeah, forgot to mention that I ordered the replacement under engine plastic parts ($20 each from www.mazdaformance.com) as well as new glass runs for the front and rear windows. Since my exhaust manifold gasket was looking pretty bad, I am replacing that too ($10)
 

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Update #6 - 22 Feb 05

I called Beau and got him while he was driving. It turns out that boxes 2 and 3 did not show because FedEx said the labels didn't correctly match the size of the box (they were off by an inch or so). He went on duty (reserves) the day after the boxes shipped, so they came back while he was gone. He is going to ship one tomorrow, and the other on Thursday. Why? Apparently mine is the third kit to have a 2.5" downpipe (as opposed to 2.25"). The 2.5" pipe is much easier to put attach to the wastegate with a couple people working on it. I have no such luxury, so Beau recommended that I ship mine back to him and they will put it together for me. I would normally, except I have no idea how long I will be in town. I am not allowed to fly because I still can't clear my ears (go sinus congestion, go!). I asked him to put the new one together and ship it to me, and I will ship this one back to him. I had only pulled it out of the box once, and put it right back. So I closed up the box and will ship it tomorrow. Another example of Beau's willingness to work for the customer. Good guy!

Gauge Customization kit:
I have not been idle this weekend, though. I was messing with my gauge faceplate when I scratched up one of the icons (CRUISE symbol) pretty bad. I came up with an idea on how to fix it, realized I could make my own icons, and further realized others might want it to. I have set up a thread to gauge interest in a cusomization kit (nice pun, eh?).

Lighting:
I ordered complete LED replacements for the entire car. I am planning on a blue/purple theme to my interior lighting. I have ordered replacements for: Maps, Dome, gauges, idiot lights, stereo, environmental panel (A/C), blinkers front and rear, brake, window brake, brake side lights, reverse, lower tail, and trunk. The headlights, as mentioned above, will get Osram Silverstars. I ordered the bulb replacements from www.superbrightleds.com, and the straight up LEDs from www.lsdiodes.com. I do have an issue, though. Apparently purple LEDs are hard to find. They are all UV, and rather dim. Haven't fixed this issue yet. If you have a good source for purple LEDs, please let me know.

General Maintenance:
I asked the www.mazdaformance.com folks to ship my exhaust gasket now so it is here when the turbo stuff gets here. That is crucial to my install of the exhaust manifold, which is pretty much the next step.

Electrical Mods:
I completed all but one of the www.zapwizard.com mods, and a couple others. I was able to get everything I needed from Radio Shack (two of em).
ZapWizard:
-Locked-out Prevention Circuit
-Moonroof always on
-One touch moonroof
-Power Window re-wire (no LED in mine, so no change)

As soon as the new door lock comes in I will also do: Passenger-side Door Lock Switch so my wife can lock the doors. too [growl].

Others:
-Disabling the door chime
-Power windows always on

Mounting the Intercooler:
I mentioned before the problem I have of mounting the intercooler in a bumper with nothing but plastic. When I talked to Beau I went over my plan with him, and he said it sounded good. Not only is the bumper plastic, but it a cross section is C-shaped, with the opening of the C towards the radiator. Issues I have to contend with (some self-induced):
- IC should be as close as possible to the radiator (or the metal bar that mounts the hood locking mechanism) but still have a little bit of room
- I have to mount the IC to the plastic bumper in such a way as to mitigate the effects of long-term vibration on the soft plastic
- The bumper appears to have no way for stuff to get inside it. I don't want to let stuff get inside it.
- I have to account for a spot where the bumper cover attaches to the bumper, which is exactly where the IC needs to mount. I haven't exactly resolved this one yet. We'll see what happens when it comes time to attach the bumper cover again. I may have to modify the cover.
- If I drill all the way to the top of the bumper I will deal with the flexing of the plastic under the load of the IC, and keep mounting parts out of the way of the bumper cover.

Big breath, and... What I came up with was to drill through the plastic into the space in the middle (where the opening of the C is), and screw it down there. That way it does not go all the way through to the top of the bumper. It also minimizes exposure to the elements. Parts I bought at the hardware store:
- 2 - 3/8" x 3.5" stainless steel (SS) bolts (too long, have to get 3" tomorrow)
- 2 - 3/8" SS nuts (I may get lock nuts if available)
- 4 - SS washers (to maximize the surface area around the holes in the plastic)
- 4 - rubber washers (to create a seal)
- 3 - bronze flange bearings (they didn't have 4)
- 2 - nylon spacers (in place of the flange bearing)

Here is a pic of the assembled parts (in order). I super-glued the rubber seal to the nylon spacer to create a replacement for the bronze flange bearing. A pic of that.

I drilled two holes in the mounting bracket of the IC. I drilled two holes in the bumper, being very careful to keep things aligned for the mounting, and to make sure I drilled in the right spot in the pocket of the bumper. You can see in this pic that I just barely made it with one of the holes. Here's a shot to give you an idea of what the pocket looks like from above. You can see the IC on the ground underneath. I can't believe my camera focused in here. Once I get the new 3" bolts and lock-nuts, I will be ready to mount the durn thing. I will connect the IC piping when I get all the hose clamps in one of the next boxes. My current engine bay with new Optima batter, and plugs in the exhaust so nothing gets in there. I use brake cleaner to clean up the area around the exhaust ports, as there was some rust and corrosion. I just started, will have to continue tomorrow.

New parts arrived today from www.HiBoost.com (the Haltech sensors, box: 2-bar MAP, grey: water temp, black: coolant temp) and from Kartboy (shifter bushings for shifter from this GB, and exhaust hangers for new custom exhaust, and... an... atomic...fireball... candy?). Now as soon as Juan emails me the wiring diagram, [evil Star Wars Emperor voice] my Haltech components will be complete. Now, to bed, have a stupid bunch of crap at work to do. Nowhere near as fun.

Update #7 - 23 Feb 05
I have the IC mounted! I picked up 3" bolts today (the perfect size) as well as a couple more nylon spacers. While I was thinking about it today, I realized that the reason I bought the flange bearings in the first place was to fill the hole completely in the bumper to minimize movement during vibration. Well, in drilling through to the top layer, the holes on the bottom got bigger. Call it crappy technique, or soft plastic, or both, I wanted to fix it. So I got some nylon spacers to fit around the flange bearing. They didn't exactly fit, so I filed them down a touch, got them to fit, and then found the spacer was exactly the same outer diamter was the flange on the bearing. In other words the flange bearing could now slip right through the hole. My solution, while inelegant, worked. I glued the big nylon spacers around my ghetto nylong flange bearing from last night, and repeated the process to get these. I also picked up some smaller nylon spacers to fit between my new "flange bearings" and the mounting bracket on the IC. The reason for this you can see in the pics of the underside of the bumper. That raised section of the bumper was in the way, and I needed to either file it down, or compensate for it. I chose to compensate. I then went to install the IC to find I couldn't: despite my care in making the bottom holes larger to fit the spacing, I spread the center axis apart, meaning I had to re-drill one of the IC bracket holes to match. Not ideal, but it's now installed.

Pics:
- "flange bearings" in the bumper pre-install
- mount assembly
- different angle - you can just see the raised portion of the bumper between and behind the bolts
- Installed close
- Installed not so close
- Installed far away

You can see one of the bolts when in a little crooked, and I think I just realized why. Remember in the last update that one of the flanges just barely fit in the pocket? I couldn't fit a washer on it. I am thinking the washer I was able to get on the other one fit fine at first, but as I tightened it down it came in contact with the curved wall of the pocket. I also think that is causing the list in the IC while it's hanging. It's either that or the fact that the car is jacked up higher on one side than the other. Checking... Sure enough! The washer has pushed the installation sideways. Removing it now. That is more solid. Also, I put a lock nut on both of those. I figured that would be a little more secure than a simple nut. That's all I can do with the IC without the hose clamps. Once I have those I can continue the piping. I will work on the vacuum source now. That is the small chrome rectangular item in the parts pic up above.

Update #8 - 5 Mar 05
Been a while, but I was working on my new gauge setup. You can see the latest pics in my gauge kit thread.

cleaning house
I have been working since I got home on Friday, removing the front seats and center console to make it easier for me to install the Haltech. Besides, I am going to be installing some silencing materials (eDead and under-carpet matting) under the flooring. I received a wiring installation document from Juan and went to work. Right away I found that his install was based on a 01 model or later, and that my 99 was different. There were several wire color differences. They were all in the same places, and the same numbered wires on the ECU harness. Still, I pulled out my handy-dandy notebook... erm, Service Manual and Wiring Diagram books; the service manual I paid $130 from the dealership, probably got ripped off, and i got the wiring diagram on ebay a year or two ago; these have been invaluable in all the work i've done. Nothing like having the factory removal/installation procedures on hand.

good thing I am doing this...
I pulled up the flooring and found that the matting underneath is wet! Quite damp, really, so it's a good thing I am doing this. That will be the theme of this update, as you'll see... Thanks to the moisture, the big metal plate covering the ECU (which is where the passenger's feet rest under the dash) is rusted, and so is one of the nuts. I removed it all, and took a picture. The cordless drill, and having the right sockets and extensions has been a great help. Time and frustration savers.

being smart
I then spent a couple hours just verifying the instructions against the service manual and wiring diagram. I took this rather seriously, as cutting wires into the ECU just has an element of you-could-really-screw-something-up-edness. So I took small address labels and tagged all the wires so I wouldn't have to keep checking numbers. You'll see them in the wiring pics. I also put a couple phone calls into Juan checking a couple things out. He had redesigned the harness for a couple nice features. There are now a couple in-line fuses: one on the power cord to the haltech, and one on the power cord that is connected to the backup power wires to the ECU. His instructions didn't reflect that, and I only realized it when I had most of the stuff wired (luckily not this part yet) and found there were these in-line fuse wires with no mention in the instructions. A quick call to him found him answering the phone at 830am this morning, which was nice. We discussed it until I was satisfied I was doing things properly. He's a great help, gotta say! He is currently re-writing the instructions for posting on his website. I plan on sending him the 1999 revisions so the wire colors are correct.

good stuff
One tip, I used a bunch of disconnects to make sure I could perform and easy removal of the haltech, if needed, later. I just like to plan ahead. Plus, using taps and disconnects is a hell of a lot easier than soldering everything. It's a little more expensive, too, but not much. I bought things in bulk, as I figured I would be needing more connectors as time goes by, not to mention mistakes that need to be corrected.

Box #2!
While I was working this out, FedEx showed up with Box #2. The Turbo, downpipe, and the thing that joins them together, and tubular manifold. Isn't it pretty? If anyone wants more pics of the individual pieces, let me know. I took several of multiple angles. (not the turbo yet, I left it wrapped up in the box)
 
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Update * continued...

I'm wired!
Now everything is as wired as it can be. It's a bit of a spiderweb under the dash now. But it is all labeled, and likely with solid connections. I'm happy with the job I did. I will find out for sure when I test everything. In doing this, I have also come up with a plan for installing the haltech in a place where I can have easy access to the serial port for my laptop, and the boost control knob. The ash tray is unused, so I am planning on creating a flip open panel where the ash-tray is, with the serial port and knob mounted behind it. It will look exactly like the ash-tray, as I will use the faceplate from it. That should be an easy mod. This way I can mount the haltech behind it and out of sight, and not use up the storage area in front of the cupholders (which are largely useless, this I also plan to fix). I had to push the harness through the firewall. I used the grommet where the ECU bundle went through the firewall. I used a x-acto knife to cut a hold large enough for the socket for the various in-engine items. To get access to the engine side, I decided it would be a hell of a lot easier if the intake manifold was out of the way, which I already wanted to inspect, clean, and paint. This turned out to be more of a major project than I expected...

Intakes R us...
The way the intake is bolted in with the dynamic chamber underneath it, and the EGR pipe (which is a real b**** to get off, i didn't get it off until AFTER I removed the dynamic chamber. A little creative orientation of the dynamic chamber...) is quite tricky, but I was able to get everything off . I now know quite a bit about what all those mysterious componenets are! I would never have done this without the service manual. Also, it's a good thing I did this, as I found the gasket between the intake and the block to be cracked as well. The dynamic chamber gasket was in good shape. The throttle body was sealed with silicone, so I had to scrape that off. When I pulled these all apart, I found a lot of carbon build up, especially in the throttle body. I sprayed degreaser all over them to clean them up, rinsed them, and used my air gun with my compressor to dry them off. Good thing I have issued ear protection. I use brake parts cleaner on the throttle body and have it almost as good as new. It could use a little more but it was getting late. There was a lot of build up all along the intake airways, and I need to put more time into cleaning those up tomorrow. I am ordering new gaskets from mazdaformance.com once again, if they can get them here quickly. I don't want to wait too long. I may pony up some extra cash at the dealership if they have them in stock just to get them home a little faster.

an old valve cover
I also removed the valve cover (and covered the valves with two layers of foil). I degreased that as well, and have started on cleaning it up for painting as well. I have 5.5 years of grime to get through, though... Once again I'm glad I have my power tools. Though the batteries die pretty quickly, and I've been thinking of getting a new drill anyway....

time for the timing belt
Since I have things this taken apart, I was planning on replacing the timing belt as well. I already have the belt, idler, and tensioner in a box from mazdaformance. Plus I am replacing the engine mounts. Once again, good thing I'm doing this. Here's another angle. You can see that the rubber has just about separated from the mount all together. I was hoping to have the AWR inserts by now, but they are on backorder, and tony hasn't been able to give me an ETA. I'll just install these now. They are simple enough. When I took this off, one of the studs also came out! You can see it in this picture.. Not only did it come out, but the reason it came out is the nut is stuck to it. I'm not sure if I can just buy a replacement part for this. I may have to see about getting the nut off the stud somehow. You can also see that I got as far as removing the water pump pulley before I realized I had no way to hold the crank pulley in place while I removed it. Last minute trip to local auto parts stores reveals they have nothing to help me. I went online and ordered this sprocket holder from snap-on with 2day delivery (only $5 more). I know it says camshaft sprocket, but it should work for me as well. Besides, its the only thing I can find. If anyone has a better option, please let me know. Turns out I had a recorded "Two Guys Garage" that covers this topic, which is how I figured out I need to not follow the service manual procedure, which loosens the drive belt before the water pump pulley is removed. The show said to leave the belt tight to loosen the pulley. That was a big help, actually. So I degreased the pulley, too...

and to all a good night!
That's about it so far. Tomorrow is finishing the prep work and getting started on painting the valve cover, intake manifold, and dynamic chamber (nobody will see that, but why not? I'll know about it). Besides, I have to wait until I have replacement gaskets. I will also install the new exhaust manifold gasket with the tubular manifold, downpipe, and turbo. I would like to get the intercooler piping done, but I don't have the hose clamps, which I guess are in box #3. I may just go and pick some up, if any stores are open tomorrow. All in all, a good couple days.

Update #9 - 9 Mar 05
The last box I received had the last parts they were going to ship, except they forgot the hose clamps. Beau is making sure there is nothing else missing, and I'll get what I need to finish up. I had shipped my wastegate to him in place of the proposed new wastegate he was going to receive; however, that shipment was delayed, so they shipped me everything for me to assemble since I am in a bit of a time crunch. As this was not communicated to me, I no longer have a wastegate on hand... we are resolving this now. Gotta say it's a pain waiting for this to be resolved. Beau has been nothing but helpful. He was gone doing training then taking leave to be with family, so things have not been up to his usual service standards. Just bad timing for me.

painting complete!
In the meantime, I have painted the valve cover, intake manifold, and dynamic chamber. I ran into an issue when I masked off the area around the letters for sanding and painting. The freaking tape left glue on the paint. I had to use goo gone to get it off which mucked up the paint, which means I had to find a way to mask the letters without leaving glue, and do another couple coats on the cover. I remember from high school art class this stuff called "frisket". I picked some up at Michael's today, and it worked like a charm. It is a low-tack stick paper just for airbrush masking. However, it still took a very small amount of the paint off. It all looks good though, see for yourself:

Before 1 | Before 2 | Before 3 | Cover 1 | Cover 2 | Cover Close up 1 | Cover Close up 2 | Cover Close up 3 | Dynamic Chamber | Intake 1 | Intake 2

next
Tomorrow I should be able to pick up all the replacement gaskets and the drive and accessory belts (replacing those too) from the dealer. They were fairly cheap, and they could have them by Thursday, otherwise I would have gone with mazdaformance once again. I did receive my glass runs from mazdaformance, and I realized I didn't order the replacement seals that mount on the door around the windows. I have ordered those too. Also, the tool that I bought from Snap-On for the pulley removal came in today, but I ordered the wrong tool. They apparently don't have what I need, so it's going back. I ordered a universal pulley holder to be shipped overnight from toolwarehouse.com. That will be here on Friday for the weekend work. I will reinstall all of the manifolds, change the belts, start work on the turbo, exhaust manifold, downpipe, and all the fittings. Bonus is to wire the gauges, and install the silencing materials.

other
My wife likes the Sirius channel Octane. Feb was the month for her bday and our anniversary. What she doesn't know is that I bought a new head unit and sirius tuner (all kenwood) that I want to install quickly. The last piece came in today. For one, it has a built in aux input in the back so I can quit using the crappy FM transmitter for my iPod while I'm driving the Xterra (her car). I hate interference! I also will install silencing in that thing too, boy is there vibration and road noise...

Update #10 - 10 Mar 05
I installed the intake stuff again, and here are the pics. I had an issue where I wasn't sure which two vacuum lines went where, but I had taken pictures before I took them apart, and that helped me figure it out. Unfortunately the service manual didn't make it clear, either. In fact, it just said the hose went to a vacuum chamber, didn't specify which port on the dynamic chamber.
Looks a hell of a lot better:
install 1 | install 2 | install 3

This is my rusted EGR pipe that I have to replace. It's too rusted I think to install properly. We'll see who can get it faster, dealer or mazdaformance...
EGR pipe

I started looking at the fit of the turbo pieces, and I think I am missing some gaskets in addition to the hose clamps.

Update #11 - 14 Mar 05
Beau called me and left a message, now that the Dyno Wars are over, and I have reviewed over the weekend my entire kit. I am missing some stuff in the confusion of the past couple weeks, and Beau is putting his attention to it now. He will also be catching up on 300 emails, 100 pms, and full voice mail on his phone... I tell you, the guy is burning the candle at both ends. Today his shop is supposed to be closed, but he called me and is working with me to finalize this kit. To turn from the Dyno Wars right into working on his off day is impressive. He has a great work ethic and is quite focused on the end customer. Just ask all the folks at the dyno day. Now to the other love of my life...

for the wife
Again, I wasn't dormant this weekend. I put some time into upgrading the stereo in my wife's XTerra. Apparently all the colors in car stereos and recent cars all line up. Makes the wiring easy. Though I had to make a trip to Best buy and circuit city to make sure there wasn't a harness in easy reach. I have been getting quite tired of the FM interference on my ipod transmitter, and it was recently her birthday, our anniversary, and valentine's day... all of which she missed due to her temporary living location. We have Sirius Satellite radio through Dish Network, and XM in my car, and we find that she much prefers Sirius' Octane channel compared to XM's rock stations. So I installed a Kenwood KDC-MP628 that I got for $200 at www.hookedontronics.com, and $100 for a sirius antenna and tuner, all kenwood. I did my own install, and find the new stereo much to my liking. It has a built in aux input hanging out the back, and the sirius plugged right in, and was activated in about 1 minute. So now I have some decent music to listen to with good quality (no interference!). She won't know until she gets back. She watches the accounts, but with all the charges for the car lately, she'll never know! Until she gets home, that is. Now on to the other love of my life, MY car!

gauge pods
This took a little time, but not much imagination. Just keep making the hole bigger until the gauge fits. But keep checking it often so the hole doesn't get too big to hold the gauge securely. I modified the gauge pods I received to fit the 60mm gauges I have. Both pods were designed for 52mm gauges. I used my dremel and x-acto to make the holes big enough. I bought a dual gauge a-pillar autometer pod from an ebay seller since CarDomain didn't have them in stock (so I cancelled my order with them). I also bought a steering wheel pod off a user on the forum. Both can be seen in these pictures: Pods1 Pods2.

gauge wiring
This was very simple. The instructions are quite clear, and the process is simple, for the most part. I pushed the wiring through the firewall in the same place as the haltech wires. I installed the turbo gauge sensor to the firewall on a threaded stud that was already there, and I had a nut that fit it perfectly in that junk shoebox (that everybody has in some form with a collection of random hardware from various projects). You can see that I run the wire through an available slot in a wire run on the firewall. From there it goes almost straight into the grommet and through the firewall. Turbo1 Turbo2. I bypassed the vacuum source provided by MAM and tapped the vacuum line from the fuel regulator to the VICS solenoid according to the instructions; which actually say to tap between the vacuum chamber and the fuel regulator, but in this car the VICS solenoid is in the way. The instructions also say to keep the tube from the tap to the sensor as short as possible. Mine is about 6". That's pretty short, I believe. I may rethink the part about bypassing the MAM vaccum source, as I will need to plug the third hole in the billet piece provided; but for now we'll see what happens. I will confer with Beau about this. The exhaust temp requires that I drill into the exhaust manifold, but I will definitely get a good answer from Beau before I do that. The oil pressure is ready to go, except I need another fitting to either change the current fitting to a 4-way, or add another 3-way fitting. Either way, that's a lot of fittings, and I'm not sure what's best for that either.

(continued...)
 
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continued...

I strongly suggest installing the oil feed line and oil pressure sensor while the intake manifold is removed (if you do that) as I found that had I done this part before I put it all back together, it would have save a bit of effort. It's still relatively easy to access, but my oil filter was a pain to remove. I must have tightened it too much when I installed it. So, the gauge wires are all run through the firewall, and now I just have to run the interior wire to the controller.

gauge controller
This is as simple as can be. I mounted the Defi Link-Meter II controller in my DIN space filler/CD holder with some double sided tape. I again used my Dremel to cut out the upper CD holder tabs, and the back panel for the wiring. This should work pretty well. Though in the picture it looks a little uneven. I'll have to check this out. I also had to order a another 2m "meter" wire to run from the boost gauge (mounted in the steering wheel pod) to the a-pillar pod, as the little 8" deals included with each gauge is clearly not enough. There was 1 2m wire in there already, but that will be enough to get to the turbo gauge, only. I also discovered, much to my annoyance at my lack of attention to detail, that the gauges are in international units, not the PSI imperial units we are used to. So I am thinking through a way to deal with that. It could be as simple as getting used to it. Apparently the 2000k PA (pascals) equates to ~30psi of boost. I know I won't ever get that high...

IC piping
I bought some different size hose clamps, since they are pretty cheap, so I could install the piping. I have gotten as far as the piping from the throttle body to the FMIC. The clamps aren't tightened down yet, I want to check out the movement, and see if I should install some rubber padding or something where I expect the piping will rub against the car.
FMIC to left side | Left Side | Big Pipe | Throttle Body

grounding kit
I got my grounding kit from 1sty today! I sent him the orange cable, he built it in a day or so, and here it is a week or so after I bought the cable. That's a fast turn around. 1sty is a stand up guy and makes a great product. Here's the pic: Grounding Kit. This is the full kit he offers with both battery terminals, which solves the problem of providing high quality terminals for the eventual stereo system. This will wait until I have everything else done before I install it.

glass runs
As part of my car maintenance program I am replacing all the rubber seals around the windows to include the beltline moulding at the base of the windows. I installed the first of 4 glass runs Sunday night because it was a simple and easy process, and I already had the rear door trim off so I could check out a possible rear door speaker install. The service manual was again a big help in this. It went fairly quickly. I haven't done more tonight because I was up til 2 am working issues for this exercise we are having at the base this week, and I am my squadron's point man for it... fun stuff.

That's it for this weekend. Sunday things got interrupted by the exercise before I could get all the way done with the wife's car. I wanted to install eDead vibration damping material and some under carpet padding stuff I have. The Xterra is sheet metal, door paneling, and you. In fact, when I installed the 6x9's in the back, I slightly creased the rear fender from the inside, because there is nothing between the speaker mount and the fender. More coming soon!

Update 12 - 26 Mar
I received box 3 from Beau, there were a couple mistakes made with the contents of the other boxes. Beau packed what I needed and overnighted them. box3
Still one thing missing, and that is the oil pan bung. I called him and he overnighted that as well. It will be here Monday. I will have that welded to the oil pan, and have the EGT probe bung welded to the downpipe. Beau said 6" from the turbo, so that's where it's going. Unfortunately, I already mounted the downpipe to the turbo (with the silicone sealant in place of a gasket, not planning ahead) and so I have to separate them. I'd rather not have them connected while the machine shop is welding the bung on there.

valve cover
I'm a little pissed. I tried to install the valve cover, only to shear a bolt before I even got to the torque numbers. So I ordered replacement hardware from the dealership, which was supposed to be next day (that was friday last week). It didn't show until thursday, and it cost me $130!! IWTF, over?! f I had known it would have been that expensive, and taken that long, I would have ordered them from mazdaformance. Not only that: I had the valve cover sitting upside down on some soft materials while I waited for the hardware to come in, and the clear coat got an imprint of the materials! I guess the clear coat still hadn't hardened? I don't know what happened here. You can see it in the pics. Not only that, but it turns out the reason I sheared the bolt in the first place was because I read the service manual wrong. I didn't even need the replacement hardware! But it looks a lot better. I thought I needed 70 lb-ft, nope, it says 70 in-lbft. From now on I will use the newton-meters measurement. It doesn't switch back and forth like the imperial units. Pics of the mounted valve cover: valvecover
| valvecoverclose

turbo oil feed line
I picked up a couple of fittings I needed to be able to install the oil feed line with the oil pressure gauge I have. The kit came with the necessary fittings for the turbo feed line itself, but I needed more for the oil pressure sensor. I tried to put it all together and then install it, but there wasn't enough room. I am now a teflon tape master. I would tape something, have to undo it, and tape it again, quite a few times. I hate that stuff. The braided cover is the oil pressure gauge line, the green wire is the stock oil pressure switch, and the stainless steel line is for the turbo. It wraps around the driver's side of the engine. Here are a couple pics of the assembly before installation, and after. oil1 | oil2

silencing
I matted the entire interior with eDead from www.elementaldesigns.com. I originally used Tsunami from Circuit City when I partially silenced my doors the first time back in '03. Then a box cost $60. Now it costs over $100. eDead is a much cheaper solution. I ordered 40 sq ft the first time, and that was enough for the floor, and 3 doors. Oops. I ordered more, finished the last door, and I have plenty left over for the trunk and the Xterra. I did everything to help offset the extra noise of the vibration caused by the engine mounts, plus general road noise. Pictures of the interior: edead1 | edead2 | edead3 | edead4 | edead5

padding
I read here a long time ago about using an under-carpet material that is good at reducing noise as well. I padded the doors and the floors. I used 3M High Strength Spray adhesive spray . It works quite well when you spray both surfaces being mated like the directions say. I have now replaced the interior floor carpet. In the last pic you can see the back of the tweeter in my new Infinity Reference components. Btw, make sure you have plenty of ventilation. I just about suffocated myself with fumes from the glue spray (smart, eh?) Here are the pics: padback | paddash | paddriver | padleft | padpax | padpaxfoot | padpedals | padright | reardoor | frontdoor

audio
I replaced my front speakers with Infinity Reference series 5x7 components. I also ran wiring for the amp (power, interconnects) and I replaced the front door speakers. I plan on replacing the rear deck wiring as well, but I didn't order enough wire. You can see in the previous pics the blue wiring run on either side of the floor. I used a wire hanger to pull the power cable through the firewall for the amp. I followed the how-to on pulling front door speaker wire. I have a dremel, so it went very quickly after I made sure there weren't any wires in the way. I found that there was one wire, but only on one side of the molex, that was in the way. I pulled that out as it wasn't connected to anything. I used double-sided tape to mount the crossovers on the inside of the door. I used a standard hole-cutting attachment to cut holes in my doors to mount the speakers. It turns out that where I mounted them makes the door trim a little difficult to re-install, but it worked out alright. Originally I had the padding over the back of them, but it was too thick. I am using an Orion Extreme 500.4 50Wx4 amp that I bought for $50 from a guy on here. I have yet to test it though... I am wiring for future plans for a sub, as well, and likely a new amp down the road. Currently only the front speakers are on the amp, as the 6x9s are powerful enough as it is. I have yet to test any of this, as the interior is still completely pulled apart. I plan to have it all back together by the end of tomorrow. Then I can test to make sure my wiring is correct. The amp wiring is only in place, it is not connected yet, so that too will be taken care of. I couldn't find a big enough wire-stripper/crimper at the local Ace, nor at the Advance Auto parts down the street. Biggest is a 10-gauge, with a 4-6 gauge crimper. I'll have to make do. Pics: crossover1 | crossover2 | tweeter | tweeterwires | amp

beltline moulding
As I mentioned before I am doing a lot of other maintenance to the vehicle. I installed the beltline moulding on the exterior today that I received from mazdaformance. This is an easy install, and I had all 4 windows done in about 20 minutes. The first 5-10 minutes was just figuring out the first one. I didn't bother with the service manual. You can see in the pic the difference from a 5.5 year old moulding to a new one. nice! moulding

It doesn't look like I've done much, but the eDead and padding are very time consuming. Prep work included pulling up the interior, cleaning out the old padding (part of which was damp, and causing the ECU cover to rust), thorough cleaning of the floor, measuring and cutting the materials, and sticking in place around all the various protrusions and holes that needed to be cut out. Plus this week has been overloaded with preparations for the base inspection coming up. Here is a final pic of the door trim back on (left side only so far) and the floor carpet back in place. doorsleft
I haven't replaced the door sills yet, as I will be wiring and installing the door sills from pr5owner. door sills thread
 
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Update 14 - 9 Apr

First start attempt!
I got the thing started, but then it appears to have run out of fuel. I'm not sure the reason, but I just wanted to see if it would start after all the stuff I have done to it. I don't know if it just ran on residual fuel for now, or my messing with the haltech map had something to do with it...

Lots of pics
These are pics of almost final install. A lot of wires are just where they laid, I have run a lot of them properly to make sure they aren't rubbing, or against something hot. The air temp sensor from the original airbox has been reattached and zip tied to the MAF so it's very close to what the temperature in the airbox would be. If you guys have any questions, feel free to ask, but I will be spending some time on figuring out the software (RTM).
2barMAPsensor.jpg, 2barMAPsensorfar.jpg, airtempsensor.jpg, airtempsensor2.jpg, boostcontrolsolenoid.jpg, bov.jpg, egtprobe.jpg, icpiping.jpg, icpipingfrontleft.jpg, icpipingfrontleft2.jpg, icpipingintake.jpg, icpipingsensor.jpg, MAF.jpg, MAF2.jpg, MAFunder.jpg, MAFunder2.jpg, newcoils.jpg, noexhaust.jpg, o2sensor.jpg, oilreturnbung.jpg, relocatedassy.jpg, rightview.jpg, throttlebody.jpg, topview.jpg, topview2.jpg, turbo.jpg, turbobottom.jpg, turboclose.jpg

Movie of the first start attempt
Doesn't it sound good? Of course, no exhaust past the downpipe...
firststart.avi 8.5mb

Update 15 - 18 Apr
Guess what? I likely have a bent valve, so I have torn everything apart so far. I was right at the end of a tuning session with the haltech, and everything was going Beautifully. Beau told me to take the MAF sensor out of the intake piping as it was causing an extra restriction in the ECU. The way I figure it, the MAF was sensing all the extra air flow and cutting the fuel to counter; which makes sense. I left the MAF connected, but all it is sensing now is ambient air, which will in effect keep the ECU happy at a constant flow (zero airflow). I question whether or not this will be affected once the car is in motion, so I may end up closing it off with a little bit of venting to maintain equal air pressure. I will address this with Beau after I get it all together again.

why the bent valve?
I don't know at this point. When I get the head off I can do an inspection to figure that out. There is a chance that the head was damaged too. To be safe, Beau, nice sponsor that he is, is sending me a spare head for free. I just have to send him the old one. Basically, something got sucked in there. Some form of debris. Normally something that goes in there does the damage instantly. Apparently something must have come loose and gone through there, or when I removed the MAF, something fell inside the filter and then got sucked into the engine when I was at higher rpms. These are just theories, though, as I really don't know. I had enough oil (I put 4 qts in to compensate for a larger oil filter and the extra oil lines to/from the turbo), enough coolant, and I had been very careful to keep the valve section covered when I had the valve cover off. We shall see. What this means though is that I need to strip the engine down and figure out which one it is. You can/should borrow a borescope from someone to identify the problem. For me, it was clear when Beau heard it from another customer who watched this rattle vid I posted in another thread that I thought was similar. Turns out it wasn't a screw from the VICS, but a valve. The sound in mine is much faster and isn't RPM dependent. It also wasn't affected by disconnecting the injectors one at a time to see if it was rod knock. (This is a technique Beau told me to try to see if the rattle went away when any one of the injectors was pulled. No change=no rod knock).

where am I now?
I am currently down to the head itself. I have basically stripped it down to the block. Turbo kit, intake manifold, exhaust manifold, all off. Today I ordered a head gasket so I can replace mine. I might as well while the things is off. When I got down to the cams, I had a little trouble. I followed the service manual to the letter on taking out the cams. There is a specific bolt order to follow, so make sure you don't go into something like this blind. My exhaust cam refused to come out. The #6 (engraved on it) bracket, the one that is right next to the cam pulley, was stuck on. I used some Break Free, and it popped loose. It took me a while to remember that I had the Break Free. I use it for cleaning my gun, but it worked quite well here. Another problem: in taking off my wastegate, one bolt sheared, and the other complete jammed. Wouldn't move either direction. Luckily it was far enough out for me to take my dremel to it and cut off the it. The WG is going to the machine shop tomorrow to get those removed. I need to get a new WG gasket and bolts. Fun, eh? I must have done something wrong there, but I don't know what.

is there a positive side to all this?
Yes. I learned much more about this. When I get the new head (for free!) its going straight to the speed shop for a port and polish, I am getting new ARP head studs (these have 83k miles on them). I almost opted to go for the forged internals, but the wife would DEFINITELY hurt me when she got home, and not in a good way. She's quite unhappy with the expenditures as it is. I was eyeing those Ksports in the GB by AODfan here, but alas, fear of pain kept me in line.

where's the AEM wideband?
The AEM was on backorder for quite a while, and was supposed to be another week. So, I emailed Beau to cancel the order as I ordered a PLX M300 Air/Fuel Ratio meter that can also datalog to the haltech, and it was cheaper. There's an LED readout, but no gauge. Check them out at plxdevices.com. They have some wireless USB connections on some of their models, but I couldn't justify the money at this point. The R500 looks VERY interesting, but I already have EGT, so 1/3 of it would be redundant. I received my M300 in the mail today. I am torn right now between using it as a replacement o2 sensor or adding it to the downpipe. As it is I am going to have to move the o2 sensor fitting, as it is right against the tranny.

summary
This has turned into a bit more pain than I was expecting, especially when I was so close to finishing, but I will have a better engine in the end, and now I know enough to help support other MAM turbo kit customers. Which is rather the point in doing all this myself. Yep, its fun.
 
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glyph said:
I had the car dynoed today to set up a baseline.

It was done at a shop called PowerZone with a dynojet. Temp was about 70 degrees (warm for the season!), with a typical humidity for the area. This should favor comparably with conditions in the future when the install is complete. The image looks a little funny, as the print out was very light, and I had to modify it to get visible dyno lines.

My 1999 Mazda Protege ES 1.8L with ~83K miles on it.

WHP: ~98
Torque: ~102

The attachment is 367k, 1024x768.

Good, that engine is very good. I like it more than 2.0. Stroke is shorter, makes it stronger and more boost friendly.
 
I agree, once forced induction is employed your engine is superior to the 2.0L IMHO

and I'm subscribing so I dont forget about this once you get back and start installing.

good luck with your flights.
 
oh.. I wanna be cool and subscribe too. Damnit.

I want a turbo.. a big monster turbo that sits in my back seat and spools so hard it sucks in little birds....
 
Nutari said:
oh.. I wanna be cool and subscribe too. Damnit.

I want a turbo.. a big monster turbo that sits in my back seat and spools so hard it sucks in little birds....

That would be a jet engine. We have four of those on the C-17. Always bouncing birds off, sometimes into the engines. Expensive little suckers.
 
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