Recently decided to keep my 2002.5 ES (with 140k miles) as a 'project car' when I buy my new vehicle this winter, and wanted to have some fun with it.
Happening this week or next (parts here, just have to find the time):
->New shocks springs (Tokico HPA kit)
->New urethane bump stops
->Corksport front and rear strut tower bars
->21.5 mm rear anti-sway bar (AWR, I think?)
->some maintenance items (EGR, timing belt, etc.)
On order
->Kosei TS1 lightweight 17" with BFG tires
Next month probably going to add a high flow exhaust. But here's where I'm getting to my Forced Induction question:
My thought is that I can't really get any appreciable power gains from this car without turbo-charging it. From what I can tell, with bolt-ons and maybe some head work, I could eek out maybe an extra 30-45 whp, which, frankly for the hassle, isn't worth it to me.
So, I've looked around for a turn-key turbo kit. Done some reading here, and other sites, and it just doesn't look like there's a good, factory-like turbo-kit that doesn't require a ton of sorting out to work properly.
So my next thought was: why not do an engine swap with a MSP -- except, wrecked MSP drivetrains appear difficult to come by (unless someone here can point me in the right direction). So, in the absence of a drivetrain swap, my next thought was: buy all of the necessary hardware and do it as a bolt-on upgrade to my car.
Is this do-able? When it comes to modifications such as this, I'm really not a "theoretical" kinda'. What I'd like to do is find someone who has actually DONE this so they can advise how tough it was, home much it cost, etc.
In reality, what I'd like to do is to do an "upgraded" version of the MSP Protege -- that is, do the conversion using not all stock MSP parts, up-grading the parts that most folks who own MSPs up-grade on their vehicle.
Thoughts? Is there a good thread or tuner shop who can advise in this scenario?
And yes, I've done a quick search or two, but man, there's so much information out there that it's hard to figure out what's relevant and what's not. Any help appreciated.
Thanks for reading.
d
Happening this week or next (parts here, just have to find the time):
->New shocks springs (Tokico HPA kit)
->New urethane bump stops
->Corksport front and rear strut tower bars
->21.5 mm rear anti-sway bar (AWR, I think?)
->some maintenance items (EGR, timing belt, etc.)
On order
->Kosei TS1 lightweight 17" with BFG tires
Next month probably going to add a high flow exhaust. But here's where I'm getting to my Forced Induction question:
My thought is that I can't really get any appreciable power gains from this car without turbo-charging it. From what I can tell, with bolt-ons and maybe some head work, I could eek out maybe an extra 30-45 whp, which, frankly for the hassle, isn't worth it to me.
So, I've looked around for a turn-key turbo kit. Done some reading here, and other sites, and it just doesn't look like there's a good, factory-like turbo-kit that doesn't require a ton of sorting out to work properly.
So my next thought was: why not do an engine swap with a MSP -- except, wrecked MSP drivetrains appear difficult to come by (unless someone here can point me in the right direction). So, in the absence of a drivetrain swap, my next thought was: buy all of the necessary hardware and do it as a bolt-on upgrade to my car.
Is this do-able? When it comes to modifications such as this, I'm really not a "theoretical" kinda'. What I'd like to do is find someone who has actually DONE this so they can advise how tough it was, home much it cost, etc.
In reality, what I'd like to do is to do an "upgraded" version of the MSP Protege -- that is, do the conversion using not all stock MSP parts, up-grading the parts that most folks who own MSPs up-grade on their vehicle.
Thoughts? Is there a good thread or tuner shop who can advise in this scenario?
And yes, I've done a quick search or two, but man, there's so much information out there that it's hard to figure out what's relevant and what's not. Any help appreciated.
Thanks for reading.
d
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