Oh look, another noob!

M

MSP1060

Member
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2003 Mazdaspeed Protege Black Mica Production# 1060
Hey everyone, I have heard great things about this forum from all of my Mazda buddies on 502streetscene.com, so here I am. I am from Louisville, KY and just moved across the bridge to Indiana. I'm pumped to hear from all of the Mazda owners on here about what they think of my current and upcoming mods. Nothing like experience!

I drive a 2003 Black Mica Mazdaspeed Protege #1060 with 52k miles. I bought it from the original owner the first of this year, and absolutely love the way the car handles. As far as current mods, so far I have the 2.25' hard pipe kit, AEM Intake system and a Unichip set on 8psi low and 10psi high. I have a nice DD setup now but the car needs more balls. Next week the plan is to order the Vibrant Turbo round muffler (23' w/ 4' tip and 3' inlet) and a FMIC core (please help with the best way to go!). Once I have these I am going to have someone fit custom 3' piping turbo back, and 2.25 polished stainless piping to the FMIC. If anyone knows where I can get a good deal locally or any imput as to what they paid, I'd appreciate it greatly. I have a few quotes but I am still comparing. I was going to step up the injectors, but knowing how rich these run, I have opted to order either the AEM or Snowperformance Methanol Injection kit. The plan is 14-16 psi with a new fuel pump and a new tune on the Unichip. I will have pics of the build process once I decide which FMIC core to go with.

Here are some pics I took a little while ago with my friends mediocre point and shoot. I just bought a new Sony Cybershot 12.1 megapixel today, so you better believe there will be more when the installs begin!

Thanks for any imput you guys may have, espacially the MSP owners out there.

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Car looks great my man! Very clean, looks like the original owner took good care of her appearance. As far as your plans, your mods are fine but I wouldn't recomend going for 14-16 psi unless you build your bottom end as well. These blocks can't take that, the rods will give up after awhile at that level. Unfortunately Mazda used the same rods they offered in the regular protege and protege5 and they aren't capable of recieveing huge amounts of boost and that isn't even huge. With proper mods, tune and fuel fuel fuel I'd say you can run 12 psi for fun. I have been running 10 psi daily for more than 3 years and still have my original rods, but I have put in a new diff, new crank bushings, and rebuilt my transmission. I autocross and don't baby it so I am not mad at Mazda like many people get when something breaks. Just keep that attitude that things are going to break, learn what the car can do and what it wasn't built for. Don't listen to the people that will say negative things about the cars. They handle at the top of thier class and that is what they were designed for. Research everything you want to do with it and think long and hard about the direction you want to go. I do plan on upping my rods here soon since I have a newer DD and I am about to install a 28 and loss the 25. Look into Methanol injection if you are going to run more boost, it'll help keep your temps down. Keep in mind that 16 is pretty much pushing this turbo for all she's worth too, it loses effeciency right about there. I have gotten mine to 19 psi and it was a whole lotta fun, but it was only there for a short period of time til I relized my wga had gone awal. I think I romped on it twice at that level, once to show a friend in his lightly modded SRT that he wasn't s*** anymore. It upset him greatly. Watch out for information that isn't exactly the best or straight out incorrect. Trust the people that seem to have it going on here. Have fun with the car and don't be afraid of what you read, they aren't all bad. There have been plenty of motors pop, but also plenty of well made machines here. These are my suggestions; consider foged rods, the pistons can take the power as long as the fuel and spark are on the dot, I am going to cryotreat mine like I did my tranny rebuild, consider that as well, opening up your trans and treating the gears and welding the housing on the differetial, if you wanna run 16 psi you are going to need a different turbo to be efficient, FMIC you are already planning, better flowing exhaust, and I am a fan of methanol and if you want more info on that jsut let me know I spent a lot of time reading about it before I bought my kit, if you really want to get up there and go then you are going to need head work and look into new manifolds. Currently i am running the 626 IM with spacers and I am on the list for the 505 sheetmetal manifold. I also have the SteedSpeed turbo manifold (the prototype actually). I love my car as well, have fun, good luck, and keep it rubber side down. Go autocrossing... you'll love it.
 
Welcome, car looks good, need to get mine up here eventually
 
Velocifero basically said it all, read as much as you can about these cars before doing anything, I would up the boost the very last thing, I would think that even 10psi on stock IC and exhaust isn't too great but

be prepared to spend a good deal of money on these cars.. if you don't mind the stock power (which you have already stated you don't) than there is the basic bolt on option with 10psi max usually, some people can push it a little more and seem to have oddball motors, but with that psi you are looking for, good have to do a full build, look at a lot of other people's builds there are plenty of threads about it..just really plan out what you want to do, and what kinda power you want, and start collecting and building from there, so you don't waste money on intermediate parts, do it right the first time,

-Protegegarage and Crossover Auto are great vendors, in another 2 years probably when I can save up my money again (after my first msp incident) I plan to go with the forged block +Gt28RS, along with the tranny and other needed upgrades, and when that happens I will be really happy to have finished my plans on this build, it's a lot of fun, so enjoy the car and take it for what it is, and learn to understand it's problems and work to fix them (like the richness, wga sometimes, lsd breaking, ect.. the usual strange things that just go wrong with these cars, but in the end if you take care of it, you should be fine)

and welcome
 
Velocifero said:
Car looks great my man! Very clean, looks like the original owner took good care of her appearance. As far as your plans, your mods are fine but I wouldn't recomend going for 14-16 psi unless you build your bottom end as well. These blocks can't take that, the rods will give up after awhile at that level. Unfortunately Mazda used the same rods they offered in the regular protege and protege5 and they aren't capable of recieveing huge amounts of boost and that isn't even huge. With proper mods, tune and fuel fuel fuel I'd say you can run 12 psi for fun. I have been running 10 psi daily for more than 3 years and still have my original rods, but I have put in a new diff, new crank bushings, and rebuilt my transmission. I autocross and don't baby it so I am not mad at Mazda like many people get when something breaks. Just keep that attitude that things are going to break, learn what the car can do and what it wasn't built for. Don't listen to the people that will say negative things about the cars. They handle at the top of thier class and that is what they were designed for. Research everything you want to do with it and think long and hard about the direction you want to go. I do plan on upping my rods here soon since I have a newer DD and I am about to install a 28 and loss the 25. Look into Methanol injection if you are going to run more boost, it'll help keep your temps down. Keep in mind that 16 is pretty much pushing this turbo for all she's worth too, it loses effeciency right about there. I have gotten mine to 19 psi and it was a whole lotta fun, but it was only there for a short period of time til I relized my wga had gone awal. I think I romped on it twice at that level, once to show a friend in his lightly modded SRT that he wasn't s*** anymore. It upset him greatly. Watch out for information that isn't exactly the best or straight out incorrect. Trust the people that seem to have it going on here. Have fun with the car and don't be afraid of what you read, they aren't all bad. There have been plenty of motors pop, but also plenty of well made machines here. These are my suggestions; consider foged rods, the pistons can take the power as long as the fuel and spark are on the dot, I am going to cryotreat mine like I did my tranny rebuild, consider that as well, opening up your trans and treating the gears and welding the housing on the differetial, if you wanna run 16 psi you are going to need a different turbo to be efficient, FMIC you are already planning, better flowing exhaust, and I am a fan of methanol and if you want more info on that jsut let me know I spent a lot of time reading about it before I bought my kit, if you really want to get up there and go then you are going to need head work and look into new manifolds. Currently i am running the 626 IM with spacers and I am on the list for the 505 sheetmetal manifold. I also have the SteedSpeed turbo manifold (the prototype actually). I love my car as well, have fun, good luck, and keep it rubber side down. Go autocrossing... you'll love it.
Click to expand...



longest quote ever.
 
Thank you so much for the welcomes and the advice, especially velocifero and speed adiction. I definitely don't want to jump into anything. I was thinking about getting a before and after dyno so when I send the unichip off to be tuned, I will have a better idea of where to set the boost for safe levels. I know these run super rich, I really need to see what the methanol and new pump will do for me. Thanks again guys.
 
Any suggestions on a good core? FMIC/TBE piping prices and sizes?
 
well if you plan to go big boost later on once you build the engine than I have heard really good things about the Turbolife kit, for cheap/good kit, like I said Altered Customs http://www.alteredcustoms.net/Purchase.html has some cheap good kits, (the owner I think she is, is a member on here) she could help you out with what type of kit you want,

for size piping, go with the 3" turbo back like you said you were planning on doing, you just have to find out where a good shop is that can do that for you, (check the NY section at the bottom of Forum Index, ask around there) that would most likely be the cheapest, trick is finding a person that does a good job.. and of course get the stainless steal obviously....

for FMIC core and sizes, which I just realized is all you might have been asking about , thought TBE might have been turbo back exhaust, not IC piping, but anyways um.. I saw you have the IC piping, that is to the stock SMIC?.. or do you already have a FMIC, if it's the stock SMIC, sell the whole thing and the hardpipes, and get a FMIC, like I will say below, talk to ken about your whole setup and he will really be able to help you out with everything as a package, the stock SMIC blowss... badly, and I really wouldn't run 10psi ever with it, a lot of people will say it might be ok.. but it's pretty risky in my opinion, that thing heatsoaks in like 10min. when I remember driving it

but if you really want to get a good idea about what you should do I really suggest calling or at the least Pming Ken at protege garage, he has a hand usually in many people's builds and plans, especially when it comes to building the engine. just call or pm him about what kind of power you want, and what you plans are so far, and he will help guild to to specific parts and all that junk, as well as pricing

Edit: also just figured I would add this, but if your trying to get a dyno on a stock msp, just assume it is around 150-160whp or so, (just saw that you had a few mods, but i would still say around 170-185whp maybe) but either way I would just wait until you get most or a full build done, and then do a dyno, getting a dyno now will only make you want to buy mods and get more power even faster lol
 
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Ok man, I would not go past 10 psi. I also would ditch the unichip and get a Split second FTC that way you can retard your timing and run more boost (12PSI) but just remember that how long your car last is how good your tune is. there is someone around here who has boosted close to 20psi on the stock turbo in one race and did not blow up their car. so remember you are going to have to have two things to stay out of the zoom zoom boom club. 1. a great tune. 2. alot of luck :D
 
Thanks guys. I was thinking 2.25' FMIC piping, but I guess 2.5' is the way to go. Also I guess the MSP works best with the 22x5.5x2.5 core, or should I go bigger? Any risk of getting laggy? Also Does anyone know which Ken is the Protege Garage guy on here?

Also, Cyclops, do you have a split second FTC? What do you also need with this to be able to tune it yourself? Do you know what I would need to spend? I was searching on URDUSA.com for one and ran into the Splitsecond ESC. Where would my money be better spent?
 
there are several members on here using the SS... all you need is a computer... it's fairly user friendly... theres a thread on tunes for it. let me see if I can fin it right quick.
 
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