Someone convince me to put money into my car!

Hey there

So the question is whether or not I should put money into my 03 Mazda Protege5 and make it fast or buy a better base car to upgrade. I love my car and how it drives but I really don't know how fast it can be with mods. Money isn't to big of a deal as I can get parts online and can do installs myself but I just don't know if it's worth it. I would love to hear about how turbos effect the speed and exhaust and anything else you guys/girls have experience with.

Thanks,
Josh

My personal opinion is get a better/newer car to upgrade. If money is no big deal.

Why not have two cars ??
Keep your P5 as your daily driver so you've got something to get you around while search for then rebuild another car. Your P5 is probably only worth about $2,000 or $3,000 and that doesn't go too far towards a newer car but it will go a long way towards getting you around while you search and build.
Maybe sell it after you've got your newer car where you want it to be.

I don't necessarily want a super car or a drifter. The main question is if I put a turbo and all that jazz in my P5 could I beat most of the cars on the street?

Boost that fucker! You can make a protege go fast. Take a look at some of the build threads here, they have a lot of nice setups. And spanking someone with a wagon is always a fun experience.

Thats the motivation I'm looking for thanks bud! Haha

Yes but with boost comes breaking stuff. You will need ALOT of money to make the protege fast. Of course i consider 250-300whp minimum to be fast. My 323 with 200whp is peppy but not fast although it will outrun a 04 mustang gt with exhaust and intake but those are slow

Fast is a matter of opinion though what some consider fast others consider slow. I wouldnt waste money building my protege though its not worth it unless you go all out. It may get pistons and cams when it gets rebuilt but thats just so its drivable and not so under powered

Hmmm lots to think about. I don't want a new car if I get a new car to build on what would be a good one? I was thinking a supra or an Rx7 or something. the trouble is finding one not driven to s*** or all modded and expensive already.

jjharv said:

Hmmm lots to think about. I don't want a new car if I get a new car to build on what would be a good one? I was thinking a supra or an Rx7 or something. the trouble is finding one not driven to s*** or all modded and expensive already.

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unless your willing to spend between $16,000-$30,000 for those cars (unmolested) then i suggest looking for something more affordable, almost everyone s**** on a honda, for the fact that it brings out the "ricer" in most but a 93-00 civic with a d16 or b16 with a turbo kit (and vitara pistons) will probably be the best bang for the buck, question is how deep are your pockets, what is your budget, your in canada what other vehicles do you have access to (way more jdm's then here in the states).....some have invested thousands on the p's and p5's, and if they chime in they are the ones to listen too, but if your like everyone else here who just loves their car then give yourself a goal, apparently you want to go turbo then look into someone selling a full turbo kit on this site and you will see how much it will run you, do lots of research if you go the turbo way you will be limited to i believe 8-10psi on a stock fsde before you need to strengthen your internals and a proper tune is very important... $.02

Thanks man very helpful insights! I do love my car and I am beginning to think I should just boost what I have but do it properly and then slowly strengthen everything else. So you think I should look for a full turbo kit and not piece together parts I can find on my own?

jjharv said:

Thanks man very helpful insights! I do love my car and I am beginning to think I should just boost what I have but do it properly and then slowly strengthen everything else. So you think I should look for a full turbo kit and not piece together parts I can find on my own?

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honestly it all comes down to shipping if your gonna get something it will mostly likely not be from canada, and shipping their isn't cheap considering everything would be shipped as international, start be checking your local parts/junk yards, you may be lucky in finding a smashed up Mazdaspeed protege and see how much to pull the parts or swap the entire engine over.
There even some guys selling parts for a turbo build, just check the for sale sections often

this guy is selling a kit;
http://www.mazdas247.com/forum/showthread.php?123828321-Full-MSP-Turbo-Setup-350-Plus-Actual-Shipping-Misc-Motor-Parts-OEM-Oil-Coolers

The msp turbo kits come up for sale alot, one in the for sale section now that needs the turbo rebuilt for $350 plus shipping. Its $600 rebuild or get an ebay t25 for $200 either way youll be on your way to boosting it for under a grand, but itl run 5-8k to properly build the motor and then youre limited to 300-350 whp before you break the trans and its more to buikd it than the motor

Im agreeing with building a civic, my brother had one with ebay turbo kit runing 16 psi on stock internals except for 10:1 pistons.made 230whp and 190 something wtq and ran 8.1 1/8 mile with10 psi launches on slicks. That was all on chrome tune the neptune he got and tuned was a whole different ball game and felt way faster especially on top end. Some people do rice them out especially now with the whole hella flush scene and super camber crap. Def dont do that everybody likes a honda with decent rims a lip and lowered a bit, even muscle and german lovers

You wont find a 3rd gen rx7 or supra for under $15k however the older ones you can pick up decent ,ones for 3-5k. Although either one you will want to swap out the motor 13b is awesome if you know how to care for and work on them, if not lots of swap options from 2jz,rb25,ls1 all of which you can get kits for because theyre done alot, as for the supra, its kind of just 2jz or dont bother imo

Old saying: fast,cheap,reliable. Pick two.

From experience, modding cars can spiral out of control really easily.

jjharv said:

Hey there

So the question is whether or not I should put money into my 03 Mazda Protege5 and make it fast or buy a better base car to upgrade. I love my car and how it drives but I really don't know how fast it can be with mods. Money isn't to big of a deal as I can get parts online and can do installs myself but I just don't know if it's worth it. I would love to hear about how turbos effect the speed and exhaust and anything else you guys/girls have experience with.

Thanks,
Josh

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This is kind of a general question, but if I am hearing you correctly, you have the money to buy parts but you want to do the labor to save money.

Modifying your engine to get more horsepower and torque can only go so far before affecting other components of the car. This applies to any car. Turbo-charging your engine is a good way to get more torque and improving the car's power-to-weight ratio. The thing with turbo-chargers is that you can only pick one type of turbo,. One that is small will spool up quickly and have the least turbo lag. This is good for daily driving. You can have a faster Protege5 without having to beef up other parts of the car.
If you want more power, you need to get a larger turbo. This will result in more turbo lag, but requires more of everything. Higher flowing fuel injectors, higher pumping fuel pump, adjustable fuel regulator, stronger clutch, beefier axles, beefier brakes, larger exhaust piping and higher flowing mufflers, larger intercooler piping and intercoolers, stronger motor mounts, wider and grippier tires, limited slip differential, larger radiator, additional oil cooling, stiffer suspension, lighter piston, larger valves, 3-angle grind job the cylinder head, and a tune among some things. And, it will be less of a comfortable daily driver as the engine will want to be run at a higher RPM. Running at lower RPMs will feel choppy. The difference is that you will be able to beat more cars, but street racing is illegal and dangerous.

If money really is no object, just get a Porsche 911 turbo.

tweety2300 said:

Yes but with boost comes breaking stuff. You will need ALOT of money to make the protege fast. Of course i consider 250-300whp minimum to be fast. My 323 with 200whp is peppy but not fast although it will outrun a 04 mustang gt with exhaust and intake but those are slow

Fast is a matter of opinion though what some consider fast others consider slow. I wouldnt waste money building my protege though its not worth it unless you go all out. It may get pistons and cams when it gets rebuilt but thats just so its drivable and not so under powered

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exactly...just 3 or so months after i bought my P5 new...i knew it was slow, but was very open to the idea of making it significantly 'faster'...

My Dad was a big Porsche guy through the early 80's, i actually still have a 82 928 that he bought brand new a year before i was born...He remained friends with a local seller from which he bought a few different porsche's from (had 4 different porsche's, just never at the same time)...Every couple of years his friend would come up for dinner...and bring a car, usually something that was a pretty big deal...he still has pictures of me sitting in a factory 930 slant nose, one of only 50 or so ever released in the US....there were kits available for any 911...but the factory slants were extremely special.

in 2002 he showed up at my parents with a black 996 911 GT2...456bhp, ~500lb/ft torque iirc, ~3000lbs, rear engine RWD 6 speed manual...and i got to take it around for an hour or so...

at that moment...i knew for me personally...there was absolutely NO reason to bother doing anything drastic to the p5...Running 0-60 in well under 4 seconds, and building speed with wreckless abandon...i just don't see the point in even trying on an FWD...as there is absolutely NO chance of getting anywhere near that kind of car, and no matter what...even if you get the power...you're not putting the power down the correct way...and 11 years later, the GT2 is now considered 'slow' haha...

It did make me realize at the same time though...that the 3rd gen platform is suprisingly excellent in chassis and suspension areas...the GT2 wasn't cornering any more crazy than a slightly modded p5 was...or i should say, the GT2 at the speed i felt comfortable to take it...it was capable of a lot more...but whatever...

so i've remained NA ever since...i'm perfectly fine with a 'slow' car...i'm more interested in how my car compares to what it was the day i bought it...than how it compares to other cars...you can make a protege a s*** ton better than a stock one, and have a lot of fun...but when you start opening up the box of what other cars are capable of...its not the best place to start...there are some truly awesome one of a kind builds of protege's on this board, some of which are so drastic its hard to even call it a protege any more (as in, its just the car's shell)...and they damn well can keep up with some exotics or very highly modified cars...but i've just never been willing to invest so much in a car that was only about $15k brand new...to each their own, i respect nearly any build...but i promise you can have fun no matter what you do for the most part...

i guess my main point is...you can take a protege in any direction modification wise...for about $3,000 you can have a car that will out corner, maintain higher cornering speed, and change direction better than some of the greatest handling cars ever created...or you can spend $3,000 in another direction...and be about as fast as a bone stock 08 Civic Si in a straight line...definitely on the low end of the scale for even sport compacts...to get much quicker than that, might as well find a pot of cash...

The more I think about it the more I just want to be a bit zippier, a bit louder, and a bit faster over all. Plus the fact that customizing my car makes it more my own is a huge plus. So to do this would the best plan of action be bolt ons, exhuast and a small turbo?

T25 is perfect for the p5 wont put out alot of power, not that internals can handle it. You will still need a tune intake and exhaust at minimum

I was just in the same boat you were! I actually thought about the exact same cars to buy. They're still my first purchase goal but I decided that I'm going to save my money for the most part. When I have some extra money lying around I'll put it into my protege. You can find decent 7s and supras for 10 to 15k. I found a decent rx7 for $9200 that had a corvette ls1 engine in it on Craigslist. I'm on a college budget so I think its difficult to do what some of these guys on the forum are doing. But I'm setting small goals, my next one for instance is to get a hold of some eibach pro springs. I say go for the mods, but save some money on the way.

Oh, and if you read any of the tuner magazines, you'll see that some of the featured builds took years to complete. Modifying over time definitely makes the car special in my opinion.

So I have decided I don't need a race car....but i want to make my P5 go as fast as I can without wasting money and without hampering practicality to much. Sooo new topic. What should I use to do this? MSP turbo with low psi, air intake and such, possibly exhaust, plugs? Opinions are appreciated!