NA Power Stage 1: Basic Modifications

NA Power Stage 1
(designed, primarily for the Mz3, but can be adapted to your ride)

This is the first stage of modifications for owners who want to start modding, or just give their 3 a peppier response, smoother acceleration, better electrical efficiency, and a small increase in gas mileage. Anyone interested in these primary modifications can easily access the instructions as Ive linked to them. No need for searching and coming up empty. These modifications are very basic, very easily reversible and will not void your warranty.

1. Throttle Body Ground
2. Full Ground Kit - Voltage Stabilizer/Condenser Kit
3. Intake resonator removal
4. Panel filter replacement
5. Short shifter


1. Throttle Body Ground
Install: 5-10min (http://www.msprotege.com/forum/showthread.php?p=2400612)
Info: TB torque spec: 6-8ft/lb
Cost: $3-5
Pros: Smoother acceleration, Smoother shifting
Cons: N/A
This is one of the simplest do-it-yourself modifications you can do. It primarily consists of one heavy gauge wire (8-10ga) connecting from one of the bolts from the throttle body to the negative terminal or the main chassis ground. Users report a more linear acceleration and slightly better throttle response with grounding directly to the negative terminal. This in itself is a drivability mod. It will not show in a dyno as the throttle is at WOT (wide open throttle) the whole time. Dynos dont test for throttle response.


2. Full Ground Kit -- Voltage Stabilizer/Condenser Kit
Install: 10-30min
Info: TB: 6-8ft/lb; Fuel Rail: 14-19ft/lb
Cost: $5-180
Pros: Smoother acceleration, Better mileage, More Power
Cons: N/A
A ground kit consists of several heavy gauge wires connected to a central unit; some are connect to the negative terminal of your battery. Stabilizer kits include a capacitor to regulate voltage.
These capacitors theoretically would reduce headlight dimming of 3s with stock halogens, but the alternator is too weak to help prevent that. They will however increase the electrical efficiency of the car. Steer clear of the $29 stabilizers on ebay. Stick with Buddy Club Condenser (http://buddyclub.us) or Apexi (http://www.apexi-usa.com) for the stabilizers. At the moment, there are much more 3 owners purchasing the BC Condenser due to its cost, look, and its been dyno-proven. If you dont want to spend too much, you can make your own ground kit or purchase a universal kit from ebay. The universal kit's wires are not often very flexible, and the shipping costs too much.

Install is as easy as the throttle body ground, if your kit has a condenser/stabilizer; you just connect the condensers positive wire to the batterys positive, and negative to negative. The ground wires can then be attached from the condenser to the ground points. Ive chosen the left strut tower, the fuel rail and the throttle body.

Skeptics will always debate power gains, but here is my dyno for the Buddy Club Condenser. The graph looks that way because the run was started on 3K. More in this later.

Mods: AEM Intake + RX8 Wheels + Buddy Club Kit (taken at4500ft)
Info: RX8 wheel/tire combos are 45-46lbs total per corner (vs 42lbs for 17, 39lbs for 16)





3. Intake Resonator Removal
Install: 30-1hr (http://www.msprotege.com/forum/showthread.php?t=60565)
Cost: $0
Pro: Less intake restriction, CAI preparation
Cons: N/A
You can remove your stock intake's resonator to produce a stronger growl. This does not exactly make any power, but it prepares you for the stage 2 modifications. If you plan to just replace your stock air panel filter, then I advise you to do this step as well. You dont need the intake resonator for a dealer to do engine work/diagnosis.


4. Replace Stock Air Filter
Install: 5-10min (remove 4 clips on the air box, lift up, remove stock filter, replace with new)
Cost: $40-60
Pros: Better mileage and engine efficiency
Cons: N/A
Replacing the stock paper air filter with a K&N panel filter will let the engine ingest more air than the stock filter due to the less restriction provided by the K&N (http://knfilters.com) . If you would like to go with an aftermarket later on, it would be advisable to skip this step of your modification process.

Part Numbers:
2.0L/2.3L : 33-2293
1.6L: 33-2874


5. Short Throw Shifter
Install: 30-60min (http://www.twmperformance.com/manuals/Mazda 3 Manual.pdf)
Cost: $150-200
Pros: Shorter throw, Positive shift feel
Cons: Notchy shift feel
A short shifter shortens the throw by 20-40% depending on the brand. A suggestion is to purchase the kits that have a bend towards the driver, for aesthetics. Notchiness will be felt shifting with the stock knob. This will be alleviated with a weighted knob. The best and more expensive knobs come from TWM. This modification will not reduce the life of your transmission.

Shifters Kits (throw reduction):
TWM : http://twmperformance.com (40% / 2.5 height reduction)
ARK: http://www.arkspeedracing.com (35%)
Mazdaspeed: (20%)



Youve now completed Stage 1. If you wish to continue, Stage 2 is slightly more involved, but it will introduce you to the bread and butter of the bolt-on modifications and better power gains. With more dynos and videos.

an informative and well thought out post... nicely done

Wow, very informative, and it'll be nice for all the new 3 owners to come in. Someone should sticky it

Make sticky.

except for ground, i'm partly into stage2 already then...

speaking of which, where's the thread for that? this one looks decent

A very nicely laid out an informative thread, bravo. I love these forums

Thanks everyone. I'm almost done with stage 2. I'm trying to figure out which should stay and be moved to the 3rd.

great, informative post. this should definitely be sticky

I'm curious about the "improvement" shown on that dyno graph. It's basically less than 1% gain on HP and a little over 1% on torque. Are you sure that this is NOT within the resolution of that particular dyno?

In other words, are you certain that if you dyno your car twice in a row without any intentional changes, it will always return values that are within 1% of each other?

I ask because I'm yet to see such an accurate dyno.

P.S. I'm not necessarily trying to say that your claim is wrong. I'm just saying that unless the dyno has an unusual accuracy, one cannot draw any conclusion from that graph.

hm so grounding wires acutally add minimal hp and tq? i was in the proccess of making my own but that sorta got ditched for suspension work

anyone know where i can get 4 gauge red audio ground wire from? like online for cheap?

It's definitely good info if you choose these mods but it's kind of subjective and up to personal preference, so I'm not going to sticky it.

Generally, nobody seems to read sticky posts, anyway.

i think it should be stickyed because it is better than 85% of all threads made. it is well written and it has good info.
oh well. i'll just subscribe now, i think im gonna do the ground TB mod.

It's definitely well written. I'll just copy the original post to the How-To forum. That should keep it relatively fresh.

Would this engine, l3-ve fit a protege????I am thinking adout a swap...And the fund is comming!!!

SpinZero said:

I'm curious about the "improvement" shown on that dyno graph. It's basically less than 1% gain on HP and a little over 1% on torque. Are you sure that this is NOT within the resolution of that particular dyno?

In other words, are you certain that if you dyno your car twice in a row without any intentional changes, it will always return values that are within 1% of each other?

I ask because I'm yet to see such an accurate dyno.

P.S. I'm not necessarily trying to say that your claim is wrong. I'm just saying that unless the dyno has an unusual accuracy, one cannot draw any conclusion from that graph.

Click to expand...

From your question, it looks like you were just looking at peak power. From the car on your profile, i think it's safe to assume you haven't seen too many 3 dynos? a lot of the dynos that start at 3K have that "gap" or sudden surge which could be caused by a voltage drop just when or before the VVT engages- not sure exactly. The condenser eliminates that gap, and smoothens the powerband. So downshifting from 4th to 3rd and WOT-ing for example, will yield a smoother acceleration.

if you are expecting 5hp+ peak gains from a ground/condenser kit, you're expecting way too much as it does not directly manipulate any part of your intake, exhaust, ecu, a/f ratio, etc. All it does is provide a more efficient electrical system. Any benefits gained is just a bonus. A manufacturer finds the car with the biggest bonus, and uses that for their marketting. See how that works?

I know for a fact that no one really wants to dyno a ground/condenser kit, unless they work for a tuning manufacturer. It justs costs too much for the end-user, because for them, its "just a ground kit". I just dyno'd it to get a "baseline" of just the RX8 wheels, intake, and the BC condenser.

Based on my dynos on the Condenser, members on the other forum i go to started purchasing the BC kit and report noticable difference in idle and acceleration and started suggesting to other members to purchase them as well.

Bottomline, the 3 gains back some power lost, or smoothens the power curves, improves acceleration, throttle response and idle. It might work very well on other cars too, it might not. But if you want to try it out, i'm working on a group buy for interested members

Here is my dyno split so you can easily see where the gains are, and a dyno from another member before he installed a turbo kit. Apparently G-Techs also show that "gap" like the first dyno.

Here's the dyno without the condenser, see the gap?

Here's WITH the condenser (the gap gets smoothed out)

Here's another member's dyno (user has Draxas exhaust + high flow cat + Injen CAI [could be with stock wheels?]) see the gap?

groupbuy? sold (2thumbs)

i'd be in for the bc gb

Hi,
I think you forgot one basic mod, the Timing

invert said:

Hi,
I think you forgot one basic mod, the Timing

Click to expand...

i'm saving the ignition timing for stage 2 or 3 (probably 2). I wouldn't want to suggest anything that has to do with the word "timing" to people who are starting out- no matter how easy it is.

EDIT: I forgot to mention-- the owner who did that 3rd dyno had the Apexi Stabilizer kit the time of the dyno when I talked to him about it. Something to think about.

As for the GB, I'm still waiting for call backs from the stores. Hopefully, i can get it down to 100-110 shipped. The cheapest place is 135 shipped at: http://www.streetrays.com/catalog/product_info.php/products_id/9286

where i got it from. Hopefully i can make a deal with them.

Bean Soldier, thanks for the great explanation. (headbang)

You're right, I haven't looked at the 3 dyno graphs much at all, and I missed that drop around 5K. That is very interesting.

So basically what you're saying is, first something in the electrical system demands peak current at around 5K RPM, which somehow puts impulse load on the engine.

Then that load shows up as the sharp gap in the power band, which you can smooth out by basically introducing a capacitor to the system, right?

It makes sense, especially with those graphs to back it up.

What I don't get is how the peak current can have such a sharp, real-time impact on the engine output. I mean, it's the battery that supplies the current in the first place, and as long as this peak current doesn't drain out the battery completely, I would've thought that the recharging would be a lot smoother. (confused)

I do know that the engine really starts to sing at just around 5K RPM. But then I thought the VVT was continuous? (confused) (confused)