Cody's Blazing Yellow MSP

e30addict

Member
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2003.5 Mazdaspeed Protege
Hi everyone. I'm Cody. I've wanted an MSP for as long as I can remember. I needed a new daily while I repaint my BMW e30 so I figured it was time to finally get one. Even though these cars are affordable, they certainly are not easy to find in good condition. I live in the Atlanta area and I searched for 2 months to find one. I found a lot of junk and rust buckets. I finally came upon this car on the Tampa, FL craigslist and had to have it. It was a great car for the money. The craigslist ad said it was a one owner car with a freshly swapped in, 60k engine. The car was clean inside and out and had brand new struts and rear springs. It even came with a spare interior and boxes and boxes of spare parts. I talked to the owner on the phone. There was one thing that bothered me- he only had driven the car 25 miles since the engine swap. 25 miles!! And I was going to drive this from Tampa to Atlanta. If you think that was a crazy idea, you are right. I had no idea what was about to happen...

So, I get to Tampa and the car was everything I had hoped for. The owner was really nice and clearly had a passion for this car. I paid for it, loaded up the spare parts in the protege and in my dads car and we set off for Atlanta. The car made it all the way to Macon, GA where it suddenly stopped running. Sadly, I had it towed to the local Mazda dealer. They found some wiring issues and I was back on the road. The fun didn't last long... it died again about an hour later. I finally had it towed home and discovered that the o2 sensor wiring was burning on the exhaust, shorting the wire, and blowing the fuse. After fixing that issue (new extender harness and o2 sensor), it was back on the road.

I've done a lot of maintenance on the car in the past few weeks and have really been enjoying it. I even got a new aluminum SMIC and pipes for it put on today.

On to the pics:





















 
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Is that right, 234k miles? It looks like it has 50k on it, incredibly clean. You will forget all about that 318 once you start modding the MSP, the E30 simply won't compare to the handling or the power of the MSP with a few bolt ons and a little more boost.
 
That's really clean

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Thanks!

Is that right, 234k miles? It looks like it has 50k on it, incredibly clean. You will forget all about that 318 once you start modding the MSP, the E30 simply won't compare to the handling or the power of the MSP with a few bolt ons and a little more boost.

Hahaha, I hope I don't forget about the e30. Its definitely not fast but I love the way it looks and the handling is good too. All of my friends keep asking me what my plans are for the Protege and I keep saying I'm going to leave it alone. We'll see...

I still can't believe this car has 234k miles. If I look at the paint closely, I see lots of rock chips. But overall the original owner took extremely good care of it.
 
Damn that's a nice MSP. Doesn't look like it has as many miles as it's showing on the odometer. Great find!
 
The previous owner definitely cared for that car, and you will definitely end up modding it lol. These cars are way too much fun to leave stock. An FMIC setup, exhaust, AFC, engine mounts and a boost controller are all you need to start a nice build.
 
Well, I've done a few things to the car. I got some corksport bronze oil shifter bushings. No more sloppy shifter. As you can see the old ones look really bad.

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Also, got an adjustable intermittent wiper stalk from a Mazda 6 and one from a Ford Escape for my dad's protege5. The only difference is that it also has the controls for the rear wiper. It's so cool that these are a direct swap.
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Oh yeah, and I guess I inspired my dad to get a Protege lol. He found a protege5 on craigslist. It had a blown engine but is loaded with upgrades. It has lowering springs, tokico struts, ladder bars, full stereo with Nav and sub, alarm system, Mazdaspeed brakes, HID projector retrofit, and so much more. He got it for a steal.

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Damn that's a nice P5, the MSP lip, jdm tails, cdm grille and msm mirror are somewhat rare parts
 
Updates!

Not much has happened with the speed lately. I am getting ready to install a sub and amp.

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Crappy night time phone pic..

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Dad bought an fsze for his car and has already pulled the old engine out.

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Head pulled

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He bought a JDM fsze. He pulled the valve cover off and found lots of sludge! Not a great thing but not the end of the world either. We pulled the head and soaked it in kerosene and brushed out most of the sludge. The good news is, besides that, the engine looks like its in pretty good shape. Nothing looks worn and you can still see the cross hatch marks on the cylinder walls.

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Well, I got my sub installed, went to a local car meet, and dad got his p5 running.

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Ask your dad if he wants to sell that grille to me. For real. I'd buy it. Are either of you guys in need of a set of coilovers? Partial trade maybe? LMK
 
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I happen to like E36s lol, but I wouldn't want to work on anything German. Especially after these Mazdas that go together like legos.
 
I happen to like E36s lol, but I wouldn't want to work on anything German. Especially after these Mazdas that go together like legos.

The Mazdas are definitely easy to work on!

I actually don't hate e36s. But, of all the 3 series made, most would argue that they were made much more cheaply than other generations. I'd totally rock an e36 m3 though, especially if it was technoviolet.
 
The grill looks like a Mintblue, which is worth about as much as the JDM tails. Rarer though.
Nice MSP. Looks just like mine! Bone stock since 04 here. (rockon)
MSPs make great daily drivers, and they're rare enough that there's a cool factor with em. Kinda like having a 323GTX back in the day. Congrats on the new ride!

That said, my friend had an '89 M3 back when they were new. The MSP is fun, but it cant touch a well sorted 1st gen M3. Let's get off Mazda's leg and be honest here.
 
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A close friend has an 02 330ci and a VERY nice carbon black 06 competition package M3 with a few mods and I cannot wait to race him once my forged motor is in. I don't expect to lose
 
The grill looks like a Mintblue, which is worth about as much as the JDM tails. Rarer though.
Nice MSP. Looks just like mine! Bone stock since 04 here. (rockon)
MSPs make great daily drivers, and they're rare enough that there's a cool factor with em. Kinda like having a 323GTX back in the day. Congrats on the new ride!

That said, my friend had an '89 M3 back when they were new. The MSP is fun, but it cant touch a well sorted 1st gen M3. Let's get off Mazda's leg and be honest here.

Thanks! Wow, I'm surprised someone on here actually has a stock MSP.

E30 M3s are badass but so expensive!

A close friend has an 02 330ci and a VERY nice carbon black 06 competition package M3 with a few mods and I cannot wait to race him once my forged motor is in. I don't expect to lose

How much power are you planning to get out of the forged motor?
 
Previous owner made about 240wheel on only 8psi, would like to be around 300 crank at 14-15psi
 
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