Hey, im new to here, Im planning on buying a mazdaspeed protege in about a week and have been looking up stuff about it, ive done some reading about what I can do to get a little more hp outa the car, after i buy the car i will be broke for the most part, so im looking for saving up and buying the mods and getting them installed in bulk to hopefully save labor costs. My first car i was thinking about buying was the wrx at around 220hp, so i thought i could have some mods to the protege to reach around there.!
-The mods that i have thought about getting are;
custommsp SMIC, WeaponR Hard Pipe kit(couldn't find Turbohoses), Injen Intake, AWR front/rear mounts, split second..controller!
Good Choices if you do it all at once. If you do it out of order thats fine too but you seem to have the bases covered(besides exhaust but thats below). Feel free to add shifter bushings they take the slop out of the stock shifter. they can be found at corksport. If you plan on tuning it yourself then get a wideband 02 gauge.
As far as exhaust I looked at the corksport or thermal catback, not sure which one is a little quieter but has same power.!
If you are looking for a great quiet vs power ratio. Get the corksport exhaust and corksport J pipe. Use your stock axelback(muffler portion). Thats what i use and my car has plenty of pep. If you need the extra hp and dont mind the noise you can always put the CS axelback on.
As far as boost gauges and controllers im not sure to get the electronic controller combo or if it is cheaper to get the manual controller then a gauge,(plan on running around 8psi)!
Thats really preference. If your only running 8 then manual might be the way to go since you wont really need all the other features of a more expensive unit. JoeP makes a really nice unit.
Make sure you have all your other mods before upping the boost. A boost gauge will become an invaluble tool for finding leaks and other issues. I certainly recomend one.
and is a turbotimer something i should get as one of the first things? or even at all. !
No. Theres no need. People will argue this but for OUR car, its a waste of money. Just stay out of boost for 30 secs or so before you turn off the car (very easy). The water cooled turbo will do the rest. The only time this would benefit is if you hit teh track alot and dont feel like waiting it out.
and will a BOV complicate everything?!
It will unless you run a dual setup. To me unless you MUST have the noise its not worth it. Theres no performance benefit. If you really want one, the best way is to run a dual setup (running a BPV and a BOV), but that requires more work and fabrication. You can search DUAL SETUP on here for MSP's
Anyways i know this is a lot but i dont really know to much about cars and mods ect.. my main goal is the have around 200-225hp with the bolt on mods, keeping it on the cheaper side and easy to use so i dont have to worry about my car in everyday driving.
sorry for the wall of text, but any info would be great, btw great thread!
Hope this helps.