Finished FS-ZE swap today in my 01 mp3.

04spoondc5

Member
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2001 mazda protege mp3
I have a few questions that came up during this project. I came across this article on protegefaq because i was trying to figure out where these FS9 cams came from. when i got my FS-ZE i opened the valve cover up to find both intake and exhaust cams were marked FS9. The swap is up and running, engine runs great, idles at 1,000 rpms. what is my cheapest choice for engine management to really get the full potential out of these cams and high compression pistons. the mp3 ecu seems to still run the motor pretty strong, but id like to make as much power as this motor has to offer.

3rd Generations:
If you are talking about aftermarket cams, then no, none are available.
Don't give your hopes up however. If you own a car with a 1.8 or 2.0 liter
engine, you can get a factory intake cam from the JDM FS-ZE engine (which
has a lift of .341 and the duration 210 @.050). A short run of MazdaSpeed
exhaust cams was also recently made available for that engine and has a lift of
.341, and the duration of 210 @.050. The early version of the MazdaSpeed
exhaust cam (FS9P-12-440) supposedly performs better (by about 1-1.5%
@6000rpm) than the revised version. A TSB was issued in Japan concerning
stalling/idling issues under cold engine and/or cold weather situations and thus
the exhaust cam timing had to be reduced slightly in order to decrease over-
lap from 17.5 to 10.5.
Note that the stock intake cam has
lift of .341 and a duration of 198 @.050.
while the stock exhaust cam has
lift of .322 and a duration of 200 @.050.
Part numbers as follows:
FS-ZE intake cam: FSH9-12-420
MazdaSpeed FS-ZE exhaust cam: FS9P-12-440A (discontinued)
Cam gears from Tripoint Racing are also available.
 
subbin. SSAFC is probably your cheapest engine management. I think Ken @ protege garage has an NA map you can start from. You will need to adjust the tune since you have a pretty unique combo!
 
it seems these are the most aggressive cams that ever came in the fs-ze. i did my swap with the knowledge that other ppl had run this swap with an mp3 ecu. so im wondering what a/f #s are going to look like and if i really may have to bite the bullet and invest in engine management to run this properly?
 
it seems these are the most aggressive cams that ever came in the fs-ze. i did my swap with the knowledge that other ppl had run this swap with an mp3 ecu. so im wondering what a/f #s are going to look like and if i really may have to bite the bullet and invest in engine management to run this properly?

While the FS-ZE cams are better than the regular -DE cams, the best cams Mazda put out for this type of engine are found in the Mazdaspeed Familia (very limited number of cars produced).

Its not a bad idea to run the MP3 ecu as this will have a better to tune to run the high compression engine. A buddy of mine has gotten a high compression FS engine running on a 1.8L ecu.

That being said, in the long run you are going to get the most out of your engine by having standalone engine management. Just being able to raise you rev limit to the FS-ZE 7,200 rpm limit will net some decent gains.
 
yea those are the cams that i have. theyre discontinued apparently and i havent found many ppl who are familiar with this swap in a protege. thats what raises my question on the ecu, i have heard of ppl swapping fs-ze's and using an mp3 ecu. however, as these cams seem to be more aggressive than other ze cams im worried itll lean out alot above 4k.

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as far as i know all ze intake cams were exactly the same and there were 2 exhaust cams. the normal ze and the MSF ze. both were similar except for a change in overlap in the revised ones.
 
i have the cams that have apparently been discontinued, they came in the mazdaspeed familia.
 
Save your money and get some "real" cams from Integral.

Is the mp3 ecu okay running that much timing on a now high compression engine?
 
it runs well with the mp3 ecu. its not ideal for the long run, eventually i will have a haltech ecu for it.
 
it runs well with the mp3 ecu. its not ideal for the long run, eventually i will have a haltech ecu for it.

Oh joy; a possible solution to my motoring woes...


Background; I bought an FS-ZE engine, ECU and wire harness from focus. (actually i bought it from the guy who bought it from him and never had a chance to install it before selling it to me) I tried EVERYTHING and I cant get the damn thing to run; it's all wired up, cranks but no 12v on the fuel pump and no spark. all fuses and grounds are OK there has to be a problem with the harness or ECU he sold me.

So... I have an MP3 ECU and a stock protege5 wire harness sitting in the garage. I now have a disabled car with a beautiful FS-ZE in it that ain't going anywhere. The prospect of using the MP3 ECU instead of the FS-ZE which i paid for is not really my best case scenario but it sure is better than walking/biking to work for god knows how long...

Can you PLEASE tell me what you had to do to the FS-ZE to get it to run on the stock MP3 ECU/harness? (i.e. did you need to change the crank pulley, sensors etc. anything you can think of to help me get the car off the lift tonight!!! )

Also what about the VICS; I keep reading posts about the VICS not openning at the right time or not at all; does this apply to us or is it just for cars without vics? we DO have VICS on the MP3 (just no VTCS, which is a good thing...)

Any help would be greatly appreciated as my only ressource, Focus (John) is hard to get in touch with at the moment...
 
The FS-ZE harness is OBD-I and is in NO WAY compatible with the stock Protege MP3 (OBD-II) harness or sensors. You need to swap the ENTIRE harness WITH the engine to have full functionality.

Running the ZE with an MP3 ECU and sensors is pointless, it's basically just a higher compression DE.
 
The FS-ZE harness is OBD-I and is in NO WAY compatible with the stock Protege MP3 (OBD-II) harness or sensors. You need to swap the ENTIRE harness WITH the engine to have full functionality.

Running the ZE with an MP3 ECU and sensors is pointless, it's basically just a higher compression DE.

True the harnesses look nothing alike; I would know that too, having both on hand myself... I would have taken a stock P5 harness, a MP3 ECU and used that to manage the FS-ZE, IF I had to... but I didn't, I got it running (nana)

There may be no point, but tell that to the people buying FS-ZE cams, pistons and intake manifolds for use on their FS-DE's and FS-DET'S running on their stock ECU's respectively... There would no doubt be a performance improvement just not the full functionality, as you say.

In any event, I got it running (always the last place you look...) and it runs $%?&*ing fantastic. (evil)
 
how much stronger are the fs-ze pistons

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say "identical" with a disclaimer; you get FS-ZE pistons for an NA tune, though a ZE CAN be turbocharged (and HAS been turbocharged) they increase compression which requires very careful and exact air/fuel and timing, and very high octane. (thinking a standalone tuned to run E85 would be ideal for such a project) otherwise; kaboom...

In a nutshell, if you are looking for stronger, low compression pistons to build a bomb-proof turbocharged engine; keep looking...
 
as for the cams post crane can make custom grind cams for any car out their. just call em tell them what you want and they can make them.
 
I dont know if you ever sorted out the wiring diagrams but I am Ausorions buddy and I have a Mazdaspeed Familia FS-ZE with the 10.7:1 pistons and crazy cams, my engine was from the first batch of Mazdaspeed Familias made and I actually have a copy of the JDM FS-ZE wiring diagrams so I may be able to help you out!!
 
i have the protege cam and ze cam in my 96 mx6 along with ze .20 over pistons and im wondering if u have had any idle stalling issues? i retarded my exhaust cam per the meme i got form corksport but it seems to have gotten a worse. im thinking about swapping to oem again because the entire i was built back up at once and beside the pistons its the only thing that is aftermarket still and giving me issues. any suggestions?
 
Well im learning about this motor just as well as you since theres such limited information on it, but im very thankful to say my ze w/ fs9 cams started up and idled perfect since day 1 with the mp3 ecu. And gets great gas mileage. Probly cause it runs lean as **** but ill begin tuning it on the ssafc in a month or so. Give me some more details about your swap
 
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