JosueP5's '03 Protege5 Build Thread.

Josue6WGN

Member
:
2004 6 Wagon S
Hello all! Here's another p5 build thread for you guys to check out. (nana) 'Lil backround 1st...

I had a regular cab Chevy Colorado for almost 7 years. Bought it new when they 1st came out in '04, and put over 124K on it. It was the best freaking vehicle I've ever owned! All those miles, and not 1 single major issue!! I even traded it in on the original brakes, never felt any indications that they needed replaced? But alas, with my long time girlfriend and I getting married this past September, 2 Boxers that we are VERY active with, and plans for babies in the near future, a regular cab truck wasn't in the cards anymore.

So we traded the truck in on an '07 4WD Trailblazer LT with all the bells and whistles. I let the wife drive it because I felt safer with her having the 4WD in the winter. I'm a collision tech as well, and I didn't want to crap up our nice new vehicle at work. lol So I've been rocking her rusting, looking like a golf ball from hail damage, '97 Cavalier with 190,000mi since. Thing's a tank and reliable as hell, but I've had it with this "it just gets me from point A to point B" crap...I need something sweet to drive!!!

I want a 4WD truck for the winter, and the wife says it has to be Crew Cab for a family, but we can't afford one right now. So, my next choice was a wagon! Good MPG, fold the seats down and haul some stuff, and just let the dogs jump on in when we go places! GOOD wagons were few and far between in my price range, and the mp5's caught my eye the most, so I settled on them. Joined the forums about 2 weeks ago to research my new obsession! I've seen some awesome rides, learning alot as time goes on, and I've talked to and met some GREAT people already!

After a few weeks of looking at rusted out jalopies for $4000 or more, I finally found mine! Bought dave45090's turbo p5 yesterday. SUPER awesome guy, the car is in great condition, has pretty much ALL of the mods I would've done to a stock one, and 100% RUST FREE, and he even towed the car 3 hours to meet us! The deal is, something's up with the motor, it's got a miss and loud tick to it. I know squat about motorwork and turbo systems though, short of being able to name components, and my main concern is having a reliable DD that I don't have to tinker with every weekend, so I'm going to sell off all the turbo stuff to pay for a new (used) motor.

Here we go!

It was wierd looking at this thing in my mirrors for 6 hours. I kept thinking "who the hell is on my ass!? Oh...wait." hahaha

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I'm ordering a motor tomorrow. Found one of those companies that ships low mileage motors in from overseas, runs all kinds of tests on them, and has a 6mo warranty. BUT....first thing's first, needed to clean the garage out so I can have room to work on this bad boy!! Crap got piled up over the winter, and the floors were a mess from all the road crap. lol

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Damn near the whole body from my Dad's '69 Firebird Convertible that I'm restoring for him. Going in the basement until I get this project done. Then I can bring the shell home and get back on it...

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For reference. haha This is all the farther I got on it before the cold weather hit. He bought it like this, then we had it blasted and I sprayed some PPG DP90 on it to keep it from rusting. It's up at my work right now, I wasn't parking outside all damn winter!

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Before....

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After...

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The car! No fancy photoshoot yet though, just some pics during the cleaning process...

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All the stock parts it came with...(I was trying to bend the lip back into shape)

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Apollo says..."get this thing going dad and take me for a RIDE!!!"

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Like it was MADE for that spot!

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I can't freaking WAIT to get this thing on the road! It'll take a few weeks though. :( Getting all the parts together, and I can't even start on it until next Sunday. I need to install some efans on my brother's Trailblazer SS, and do some other odds and ends for him, so we invited a bunch of other Trailblazer/Envoy friends over and we're going to have a mod meet here this Saturday. I didn't want a bunch of parts everywhere while this was going on, and the car sitting outside with the front end off if it rained.
 
I don't PLAN on getting too crazy with this thing, only because like I said, it's already got most of the mods I would've done anyway. I don't have a complete mod list from Dave yet, but it's mostly the simple stuff and then all the work he put in under the hood, Magnaflow exhaust, short shifter, prosport gauges, lowered, rims, etc. I will however, try to make it "my own", whatever that takes.

It's already got an Alpine CD player w/Ipod, but I don't have an Ipod lol, so I'm going to sell it and get a nice bluetooth/USB radio. I had a Pioneer double din DVD player w/USB in my truck, so all 7gigs of my music is on flashdrives. It also has Polk components, and if anyone remembers, Dave tore the interior out and put B-Quiet down over just about everything. I have my 12" and 900w 4-channel amp leftover from my truck as well, so those will be going in soon enough.

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I'm on the fence about the sub though? I have it already and all, but it's a low profile sub, so it could fit behind the seats in my regular cab. It always had "wierd" bass to it...didn't really hit all the deep notes. Sounded alright for what it was, and would probably sound great in a bigger box/hatchback/sound deadened vehicle, but I'm still contemplating getting a regular sub for it...

And more leftover's from my truck, LED's! The strips on the left are red, and will be wired on an on/off switch so I can turn them on at night. The ones to the right are white, and will be wired into my dome lights to come on with the doors open. And the little white 4" strip is actually a glove box LED strip. Not sure if these cars have glove box lights or not? My truck didn't, and this was a nice touch!

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Other than that, the car needs a good cleaning, and will get done when I rip the interior back out to install my stereo setup. The wife used to work at a detail shop when we met, so I'll put her to work...hehe
 
Oh, and I also hooked up with this tonight. Going back to N/A doesn't have to mean the stock airbox!

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Thanks guys!

Subbin. Looking forward to checking out all your progress!

You're close enough to stop by and check out the progress in person! lol

Evan will be stopping over sometime this week. I need to check out a stock one side by side to figure out what I need to keep and what needs to go. I want to get all the parts I need coming ASAP so once the motor comes, hopefully it would only take 2-3 days to get it all together and on the road! We all know how THAT goes though....ugh. haha

glad to see you got it!

I saved those pics you sent to my phone and showed Dave when we met up. He as all excited because he didn't know those were out there. lol
 
West Akron...between Copely Rd. and White Pond. Not far at all!

I'll pm you once I/we know the specifics.
 
Congrats Josh and I'll be following as well. Best of luck in sourcing an engine *cough*get Evan off his ass and tell him to install the KL*cough*
 
a new ohio member build thread to stalk!
 
I'm ordering a motor tomorrow. Found one of those companies that ships low mileage motors in from overseas, runs all kinds of tests on them, and has a 6mo warranty.

Yea, scratch that. After skimming through the warranty info, I don't get a good vibe from a deal like that. Searching local yards now to try and find one.

What would my options be for using the motor that's in this thing? I would like to know what the problem is, just so there was no more mystery. But again, my logic in wanting a new motor was, even if it was some simple fix or one that only cost a few hundred, the motor's been boosted for over 2 years. From what I've read and heard from everyone, these motors don't like boost, so I have to imagine it's pretty worn out and needing some major TLC.

I just don't know where to start diagnosing?
 
On a boosted FS-DE... I'd check the rings first. Does it burn oil (dumb question, they all do)? What all did you get from the previous owner as far as information goes?
 
I would highly recommend buying Evan's motor after he starts his swap. It's the most solid-running FS that I've seen or experienced, and I've never seen it burn oil, either. Plus it's local, you know what you're getting, etc, and you're keeping it in the family, lol.

Car looks seriously great, too.
 
On a boosted FS-DE... I'd check the rings first. Does it burn oil (dumb question, they all do)? What all did you get from the previous owner as far as information goes?

Not too too much thusfar. What type of info are you looking to know? Maybe I can answer it, or at least try and find out from him. He's very open about me calling him for questions. Nobody knows the car better than him, and he wants to help out as much as he can.

I would highly recommend buying Evan's motor after he starts his swap. It's the most solid-running FS that I've seen or experienced, and I've never seen it burn oil, either. Plus it's local, you know what you're getting, etc, and you're keeping it in the family, lol.

Car looks seriously great, too.

I wasn't looking to put a motor in that had more miles than the body, 100,020, but for the price he shot me, I would jump on his! Too bad his time frame doesn't line up with my ASAP one. lol We'll probably talk about it tomorrow night.

So far I've found one with 123k for $700, one with 120k for $995, and one with 70k for $1350.
 
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