1.8L Coil conversion
- Thread starter zhy
- Start date
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- -- 03 P5 / 23 CX-5 --
It involves the coilpack itself, set of plug wires, trimming 2 of the boots to fit around the 2.0 coil mounting posts if not using the 626 vc, opening up the harness that the coil wire plugs are in and fishing them out all the way over toward the throttle body so they reach the front mounting point for the 1.8 coils & rewrapping the harness. I actually trimmed the front of my MSP engine cover to allow plug wires under it and trimmed 2 of the boots. I also have the 626 vc and extra set of plug wires if I decide to go without the MSP vc/eng cover setup.
MazdaSpeeder
Member
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- Protege5 (5-spd)
- :
- -- 03 P5 / 23 CX-5 --
Yeah, I was gonna link to that thread but is all over the place and with few pics still working. About the only stuff I skipped in the post above in that thread was about a coupla different mounting locations guys did to get coils from over the top of the turbo exh manifold for heat reasons moving them to either the strut tower by where the cc would be if it was removed and some guy zip stripped them out of the bracket somewhere...his pics are gone. About the only other useful stuff I read was Mazda part numbers for the coils, bracket & wires but not saying I'd buy the actual Mazda parts tho. The other thing was where the price was flexing from 54.00 close to 200.00. They were cheap in the beginning then when people started buying them they were mysteriously 200.00 all of a sudden. I bought 2 sets at the lower end of the spectrum but not the beck arnleys that someone warned about.
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- -- 03 P5 / 23 CX-5 --
The valve cover swap is 2000-2002 626 vc. It does not have coil-on-plug setup so the plug wire boots do not require you to trim them to fit around the mounting posts for the coils on a P5 or MSP vc. Those years are also the only ones without coil-on-plug BUT has the cam sensor on the "front" of the vc towards passenger side of motor like is required on our cars. Other than that, the vc swap is just gasket and gray rtv just like on any of them. There are factory plug wire looms for those years too but they route the wires along the side of the vc right over the exh manifold. People generally don't use them.
that other thread is mine 
the only "Required" parts for the swap are the coils and wires. to make the swap more betterer, i suggest getting the valve cover, as has been mentioned. i could never get the wires to seat correctly on the plugs with the stock valve cover, and would get random misfires.
for my swap, i used the following:
- 99-00 1.8 coils (pick your favorite brand)
- 99-00 1.8 plug wires (NGK are the best for the least money)
- 99-00 1.8 protege or 00+ 626 2.0 valve cover
those are the only parts you NEED.
i also added the coil brackets from the 1.8 set up, but they are not required for the swap. to mount the coils to the front of the engine, like shown in "i12drivemyMP5"s picture, there is a threaded bolt hole on the head. just get a bolt with the correct thread, and mount it up.
the 2.0 coil plugs on the harness will plug right into the 1.8 coils. to get the plugs to the front of the engine, just unwrap the harness tape, reroute the wires, and re-wrap the harness.
for an ever smoother set up, get NGK plugs from the 1.6 protege. they come stock on the 2.0 JDM FS-ZE. they have an extended tip, and provide a better spark location for better fuel ignition.
if you have any specific questions, post them up. i'd be willing to help out as much as i can.
the only "Required" parts for the swap are the coils and wires. to make the swap more betterer, i suggest getting the valve cover, as has been mentioned. i could never get the wires to seat correctly on the plugs with the stock valve cover, and would get random misfires.
for my swap, i used the following:
- 99-00 1.8 coils (pick your favorite brand)
- 99-00 1.8 plug wires (NGK are the best for the least money)
- 99-00 1.8 protege or 00+ 626 2.0 valve cover
those are the only parts you NEED.
i also added the coil brackets from the 1.8 set up, but they are not required for the swap. to mount the coils to the front of the engine, like shown in "i12drivemyMP5"s picture, there is a threaded bolt hole on the head. just get a bolt with the correct thread, and mount it up.
the 2.0 coil plugs on the harness will plug right into the 1.8 coils. to get the plugs to the front of the engine, just unwrap the harness tape, reroute the wires, and re-wrap the harness.
for an ever smoother set up, get NGK plugs from the 1.6 protege. they come stock on the 2.0 JDM FS-ZE. they have an extended tip, and provide a better spark location for better fuel ignition.
if you have any specific questions, post them up. i'd be willing to help out as much as i can.
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i was having random misfires and a failing coil. so, i did the swap because, at the time, the 1.8 conversion actually cost LESS than replacement 2.0 coils.
there is some speculation that the 1.8 coils are more reliable or slightly stronger than the 2.0 coils, but there is no objective proof.
there is some speculation that the 1.8 coils are more reliable or slightly stronger than the 2.0 coils, but there is no objective proof.
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- -- 03 P5 / 23 CX-5 --
The coils and plugs do make a noticeably smoother idling/revving motor. The plugs are ZFR5s instead of the BKR5s. Just plain NGK copper. Nothing does any better and some have had issues using platinums. IIRC, someone posted a dyno a long while back and the whole powerband on the chart was smoother.
that other thread is mine
the only "Required" parts for the swap are the coils and wires. to make the swap more betterer, i suggest getting the valve cover, as has been mentioned. i could never get the wires to seat correctly on the plugs with the stock valve cover, and would get random misfires.
for my swap, i used the following:
- 99-00 1.8 coils (pick your favorite brand)
- 99-00 1.8 plug wires (NGK are the best for the least money)
- 99-00 1.8 protege or 00+ 626 2.0 valve cover
those are the only parts you NEED.
i also added the coil brackets from the 1.8 set up, but they are not required for the swap. to mount the coils to the front of the engine, like shown in "i12drivemyMP5"s picture, there is a threaded bolt hole on the head. just get a bolt with the correct thread, and mount it up.
the 2.0 coil plugs on the harness will plug right into the 1.8 coils. to get the plugs to the front of the engine, just unwrap the harness tape, reroute the wires, and re-wrap the harness.
for an ever smoother set up, get NGK plugs from the 1.6 protege. they come stock on the 2.0 JDM FS-ZE. they have an extended tip, and provide a better spark location for better fuel ignition.
if you have any specific questions, post them up. i'd be willing to help out as much as i can.
thanks for the precious informations
can we have the codes for those sparkplugs? im going to order them asap
and yea im definitively doing this conversion this summer along with other cool stuff
Dragonpark
Member
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- 2003 Mazda Protege5
You ever do this swap zhy? Seems rather straight forward and I'm eying it up as my car has 123k miles on the original coil packs and wires (I have, however, changed the spark plugs recently). From what I can tell, the parts come at a reasonable price now from rockauto. Just no clue on the quality of the various brands.
mazda_sp20
Member
- :
- Mazda 323 SP20 (Australian FS-DE Protege)
See the linked thread a couPle of posts up that is 29 pages long, you will find out your answer their
blackmsp003
Member
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- 2007 Mazdaspeed 3
This is exactly what I needed . Just discovered my valve cover gasket is leaking and need new plugs/wires so perfect excuse to do this swap.
. Just discovered my valve cover gasket is leaking and need new plugs/wires so perfect excuse to do this swap.- :
- 1989 RX-7 GXL Blaze Red
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- 2002 MAZDA 323 ASTINA SP20 BJII
1.8 set up is a waste of time
