TNERT's 1.6l Protege build/modding to his car thread

[TNERT]

This has been something I've been wanting to do for quite some time now, and have been debating whether I should or shouldn't. I decided I should.
Like most, I started bog stock, but before i get into that, This Mazda is actually my second car, my first being a 1996 Ford Telstar (which I drove into the ground), and if I remember correctly used the same 2.0l as the 626. Just drawing comparisons to the two cars since along the lines they're a bit similar, but anyway. When I got my car it was just to be my daily for school and work. I pulled what was left of the sound system from the Telstar and installed it, which sadly enough took 3 people (including myself) and entire day to connect a headunit and sub.. After maybe 8 months of having the protege is when some issues that I couldnt ignore stated pestering me. First the clutch was slipping, no suprise, the car was 11 years old at this point. Then the struts were cracked and leaking, replaced all of those. Around this point was when my mate suggested lowering my car, since he'd just lowered his the week before, and that it would help reduce some body roll. So my first mod was Lowering the Protege, and this was when i realized how much I actually love this car. From that point I started looking up other parts that would make the Protege just that bit better.

I don't have any stock high photos (sorry...) But this was straight after we lowered it




My Protege and my sisters Civic


Bought the car from a car yard, had about 19X,XXXkm's on it, and needed a good service to get it running up to standard again. Replaced the factory leads and coil packs since it was miss firing terribly.

Mod List

Engine
-Flat black rocker cover
-Hurricane 4-1 header
-2.25" custom exhaust with Magnaflow high flow cat, resonator and 4" cannon muffler
-Mishimoto radiator
-OBX Racing silicone radiator hoses
-custom intake with K&N pod filter
-Sickspeed single tone horn


Brakes, wheels and Suspension
-RDA drilled and slotted (dimpled) front rotors
-16" alloy wheels
-205/55/16R Kumoh tyres
-Pedders low springs
-Monroe struts
-Corksport front strut bar

Audio/Interior
-Kenwood headunit
-Kenwood rear 6x9 speakers
-Cadence front 6x5 speakers
-Sony Xplod 1000w 12" sub
-Kenwood 1000w amp
-SAAS volt gauge
-Drift carbon fibre gear knob
-Custom rear parcel shelf

 

[TNERT]

Started to watch a lot of Might Car Mods as well, some of their tips and tutorials were really helpful. So I painted my rocker cover a flat black



the interior





Bought 16" rims (law over here is only 2" bigger than stock otherwise I would've maybe gone with 17") they'e no brand rims, but got them with tyres for $350 so i wasnt complaining



Painted them matte black

 

[TNERT]

Decided to upgrade front rotors since the mechanic I went to told me they had worn down a lot on one side, and that I needed new calipers




Bought rebuilt calipers and painted them a 'ford green'




Didn't like the ford green too much, so i went with a green more similar to the colour of the body





Got some centre caps and valve caps for my wheels, so the look I was going for is complete



Will update with more soon

 

[JDM323J48]

Welcome to mazdas247, for the brakes you could have got the lot from a bj2 which would give you 4 wheel discs with larger diameter over your stock bj1 brakes.

 

[TNERT]

hey thanks for that. Yeah I'd been wanting to do 4 disc brakes to rid of the rear drums but I'm not even sure on what parts I would need

 

[TNERT]

Wanted to 'pretty up my rear parcel shelf. Went to Bunnings and bought some marine grade carpet
Before

After


Repainted Rims as well, Gloss black with Silver on the dish





After my radiator broke, and by broke i mean the top plastic started to melt away with coolant slowly leaking out of it, I thought it was a good idea to just upgrade. I had been looking at the Corksport radiator, but I ended up getting a Mishimoto radiator a bit cheaper. I also got some OBX Racing silicone radiator hoses.




Around this time was when the Protege reached a milestone. 300,000km and still going strong

 

[speedracr79]

Welcome glad to see theres still some BJ1's getting some attention. Cars looking good man I had a dream last night that mine was up and running then I woke up...haha so whats the next mod or plans for the build.

 

[JDM323J48]

hey thanks for that. Yeah I'd been wanting to do 4 disc brakes to rid of the rear drums but I'm not even sure on what parts I would need

complete rear stubs, handbrake cables, master cylinder and I think only calipers with brackets and rotors for the front or early mazda6/nb8b mx5 sport front rotor combo
as in here http://www.astina gt.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19832 .

 

[TNERT]

Welcome glad to see theres still some BJ1's getting some attention. Cars looking good man I had a dream last night that mine was up and running then I woke up...haha so whats the next mod or plans for the build.

Well at the moment I'm planning out an enclosure for the custom intake I made, and working to hopefully mount the Mishimoto coolant reservoir to that as well since I don't have any other place to mount it.

 

[TNERT]

complete rear stubs, handbrake cables, master cylinder and I think only calipers with brackets and rotors for the front or early mazda6/nb8b mx5 sport front rotor combo
as in here http://www.astina gt.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19832 .

Cheers for that, good write up as well

 

[TNERT]

Got my hands on a volt gauge, just for the sake of it, and the green to match



At first my reason for this was I was having some battery issues. When the sub is pumping hard the lights would dim a little, and one night when I was stopped at the lights, the my headlights turned out completely for about a second, but then came straight back on. I replaced the battery with a better one, and I don't have any dim issue now.

Whilst looking at front bumpers I came across a no name brand front strut bar, then I checked out MPS Garage, they had a corksport front strut bar for $100. I got that after a week long wait (even though they were only in Sydney)



Just to add, the reason for the front bumper, is unfortunately my current front bumper has a big split in it from a little accident a while back, good thing there was no damage to the other car so I got off easy.
Other parts I looked around for on the ebays were a Sickspeed one tone horn, and went through with one of the bigger purchases which I'd had on my watchlist for about year and a half. Hurricane 4-1 header




My plan was to get a custom made 2.25" system with high flow cat and flexi pipe



This was also around the time I came up with the idea for the custom intake, which I've made a write up on: http://www.mazdas247.com/forum/showthread.php?123838513-Protege-1-6L-custom-made-intake
intake

engine bay before

after


The exhaust sounds very clean and has quite a heavy tone to it when you give it some. It idles really quite which is good for my sake, but a 4" cannon sitting at the back isn't really sleeper formate... but an unfortunate turn of events however when I got my exhaust system done, of all things the guys at Glenroy Exhaust tell me that all my engine mounts are stuffed. I had thought to buy aftermarket, but wasn't too sure on what's what and what is good/bad. I just bought factory.

the drivers side, gearbox and front engine mounts weren't really so bad, but they were still bad enough to want to replace them. The holy grail however, of the worst engine mounts goes to the rear engine mount.


I find it a little surprising that I never noticed the feel of the broken mounts until I had replaced them all. The feel of driving has changed so much, it is so much smoother and accelerates better from a stop now.

of the few last things I've done was smoked the tail lights, and plasti dipped the badges



I honestly like the look of the black ( since it's sort of a theme I have going on exterior). At the moment, I have 2 or 3 things I'm in the middle of doing, which are an enclosure for the intake, mounting in a Mishimoto coolant reservoir, and the third is having the car repainted, same colour, but it just needs some love and colour. The amount of neglect and scratches the car had when I bought it, as well as the few extras since then, a fresh clean look I reckon would make it look so much better.

 

[Berto24]

Nice to see more 1.6s over here! Good job man!

 

[TNERT]

Nice to see more 1.6s over here! Good job man!

Thanks for that, appreciate it

 

[TNERT]

Only had a couple things done over the last month and a bit. Been flat out busy with work, but in my spare time I bought some heat wrap for the header. Trying to reduce the heat levels under the hood.

<a href="http://s1304.photobucket.com/user/trent_nairn/media/20140329_094114_zps392987a3.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1304.photobucket.com/albums/s529/trent_nairn/20140329_094114_zps392987a3.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo 20140329_094114_zps392987a3.jpg"/></a>

<a href="http://s1304.photobucket.com/user/trent_nairn/media/20140329_102841_zps794e9ee5.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1304.photobucket.com/albums/s529/trent_nairn/20140329_102841_zps794e9ee5.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo 20140329_102841_zps794e9ee5.jpg"/></a>

Only downside is the I didn't get as much wrap as I thought, so I will need more soon.

 

[TNERT]

thought I should give an update on what has happened with the car in the past year and a half. It's gone. It got to the point where it sprouted a whole new list of problems that were just too much hassle trying to fix (burning oil, clunky gearbox etc.). Gave it some real thought, and made the decision to buy a new car and try to sell the protege. Didn't go to well with trying to sell it, list of things needed to be done to get a roadworthy were going to cost more than the cars worth. So I parted out some of the mods, and ended up scrapping it. All the parts have been sold on to some friends. The new car I bought, it is a 2009 Ford Focus XR5 Turbo, I took one for a test drive and was instantly in love with it. It was honestly a little sad to see my Mazda go, but there comes that time in life where you need to let go of that first experience and move onto something greater.