[DEFUNCT] The College-Budget P5

Cool story bro (for real)! Lol! I hope you enjoy the p5 as much you enjoyed the zook. I also hope that you have fewer problems with it.
As far as the tear thing...

https://youtu.be/pAyKJAtDNCw

Thanks for taking the time to read my little story! I really do miss that little car some days...so many firsts, you know? Thankfully, the P5 was a more-than-suitable replacement, and continuously provides me a sense of satisfaction and fun. I'm much more knowledgeable of cars and mechanics, so this car will last me as long as I care about it.

And that song was perfect, lol! Some people get hung up over their first break-up...I get hung up over selling ym first car :^)
 
Inconsequential Messing Around

Tomorrow, I will head over to the junkyard with a pal to rip out a spare intake manifold. I'll be removing the VTCS and I'll be cleaning/painting the IM's exterior. It'll be a practice in engine dress-up and metal restoration and cleaning! Shoutout to user MazdaSpeeder for cutting a deal with me on his FS9N MP3 ECU. Cannot wait to put that in my car and go to the dyno for some base readings for future testing.

To get a little bit of practice in on restoring metal and painting it, I yanked off the engine hoist loop on the front of the engine. I hosed the thing down with soapy water, wiped it off, rinse and repeat. Then, I took a wire brush (coarse) and shaved the s*** out of it until a lot of the deep rooted dirt and grime came off. With that complete, I proceeded to take out my dremel and dig into it a bit with my finer wire brush attachment. And finally, I got into it with a drum sander until it was all uniformly shiny.

I didn't have any polish, so I just sprayed it with some high-temperature caliper paint. You know, for the massive 20 HP boost :^)

I'm pleased with the results. Here's the little metal guy sitting in my engine bay (forgot to take before pictures):

tSIYpFq.jpg


s1KUHLF.jpg


This gave me a little confidence boost towards cleaning, polishing, and painting my valve cover, intake manifold, and heat shield. Oooh, it'll look nice...
 
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The MP3 "Tune" + Seats

With interest in the VTCS removal modification, I went to the junkyard with a pal to remove a spare IM to play with. What a PITA!!

At one point, I dropped my 12mm socket. No biggie, I thought...until I couldn't find it. I dropped the damn subframe on the car for a better view, and still couldn't find it. Then, I noticed a hole in the transmission, and saw my shiny little socket down inside of it. Damn.

Thank god for pals and friends, since the other guy had his own socket set.

After much pulling and wrenching and swearing, it came out! Now, to figure out how to put it on...


While also there, I managed to snag two 2002 Impreza RS seats to put in my car.

cZfTxy1.jpg


As you can see, they're incredibly dirty, but not ripped up or busted. It was a straight up dastardly steal getting these seats...the junkyard had a sale going on, and I had a gift car to the junkyard, so I ended up paying about 60 dollars for the seats and the IM.

So, I went to test-fit the seats. I tried the passenger side first, since there's no cable to worry about. And, I don't know...the fitment just doesn't seem right. I ground out a bit of the front two mounts to make it fit while also bending them forward, and the seat went in crooked.

Not bad from the side...
MuHzzoi.jpg


Still not too bad...
Cf96iVl.jpg


Obviously crooked from the rear
nLYOHFl.jpg


The seat doesn't budge in an unsafe manner, but it really bothers me. I don't think 2002 RS seats fit in a P5 "with little modification" like I figured they would.

And finally...the holy grail.

I bought an MP3 Ecu from a fellow forum goer, and it just arrived!

BTyXOnZ.jpg


All that remains is to empty the tank, fill it up with 91 octane, and remove the VTCS on my pulled IM.

Can't wait to feel the difference.

EDIT
"OH s***", An Addendum

I looked at my IM again after cleaning it, and made an unfortunate discovery.

The VICS is missing two butterflies! One is only held on by one screw. Oddly enough, its the same story for the VTCS; only two butterflies.

E6VFh5K.jpg


dWv4nV8.jpg


Damn, I bought a dud! Guess I'll have to go return it and fish one out of another car...

EDIT #2:

I removed the Impreza seats. Their positions were awful and would probably give me back problems due to how poorly they supported my body.

I think I'll opt for returning the brackets back to their original position, deep cleaning the seats, and peddling them off to someone on Facebook. I'm honest...I'll let them know what I tried to do.

Whew-wee, quite a lot of setbacks today. Here's for a brighter tomorrow!
 
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Idk how much you’re trying to spend on an IM.. I have about 5 spares sitting in my garage

Sent you a PM, but as an addendum, we'll see what I find tomorrow at the junkyard. Hopefully the other two proteges don't have a completely boogered IM upper-half.
 
Loving the build man! Just read through it. Can you post a few videos of the exhaust? I'm trying to find a CAI, headers, exhaust combo. I want a 4-2-1 header but cant find one
 
Loving the build man! Just read through it. Can you post a few videos of the exhaust? I'm trying to find a CAI, headers, exhaust combo. I want a 4-2-1 header but cant find one

Thanks! This car is certainly a canvas for learning. I wish I could do more, but at the moment, I'm swamped by school and other responsibilities.

The cat-back RB exhaust does a great job of getting your car a much more aggressive note without making it sound like a bad civic ricebox. I used this video and that video for reference in sound. Those samples are what your car is going to sound like.

I wouldn't know much about a solid CAI to put in the car, but you can't go wrong with what Racing Beat offers on their store page. They tuned and researched the Mazda Protege MP3, after all! I don't really want to put a CAI/SRI into my car, since I'm wary of moving the powerband in funny places and not interested in creating heatsoak in my car (hence why I did the "Goldstar" Grille Intake mod). Perhaps if the tubing was available in a composite material and the cone filter had a protective splash shield around it, I might be inclined to test it, but either way, I own one P5 that won't get its engine hydrolocked!

You can't go wrong with OBX 4-1 headers, but there seems to be a lot of debate as to whether or not the headers truly benefit our cars. Supposedly, they move the powerband up higher towards the redline, which isn't great for our otherwise low-revving cars. The FS-DE is Mazda's "big block" I4, after all. Plus, you're looking for 4-2-1 headers. In that regard, good luck...I have no clue where you can even find those anymore. Mazda themselves had a special 4-2-1 header that you could put on the P5, but all that info has been lost to time. As a matter of fact, all sorts of modifications for this car has been lost to time, lol.

I'd suggest PMing some of the other members here who really dug into their engine and put loads of goodies on them. Who knows, maybe you'll get lucky and find someone who'll sell you a rare 4-2-1 header!

Good luck, I look forward to seeing more of your post!
 
Thanks! This car is certainly a canvas for learning. I wish I could do more, but at the moment, I'm swamped by school and other responsibilities.

The cat-back RB exhaust does a great job of getting your car a much more aggressive note without making it sound like a bad civic ricebox. I used this video and that video for reference in sound. Those samples are what your car is going to sound like.

I wouldn't know much about a solid CAI to put in the car, but you can't go wrong with what Racing Beat offers on their store page. They tuned and researched the Mazda Protege MP3, after all! I don't really want to put a CAI/SRI into my car, since I'm wary of moving the powerband in funny places and not interested in creating heatsoak in my car (hence why I did the "Goldstar" Grille Intake mod). Perhaps if the tubing was available in a composite material and the cone filter had a protective splash shield around it, I might be inclined to test it, but either way, I own one P5 that won't get its engine hydrolocked!

You can't go wrong with OBX 4-1 headers, but there seems to be a lot of debate as to whether or not the headers truly benefit our cars. Supposedly, they move the powerband up higher towards the redline, which isn't great for our otherwise low-revving cars. The FS-DE is Mazda's "big block" I4, after all. Plus, you're looking for 4-2-1 headers. In that regard, good luck...I have no clue where you can even find those anymore. Mazda themselves had a special 4-2-1 header that you could put on the P5, but all that info has been lost to time. As a matter of fact, all sorts of modifications for this car has been lost to time, lol.

I'd suggest PMing some of the other members here who really dug into their engine and put loads of goodies on them. Who knows, maybe you'll get lucky and find someone who'll sell you a rare 4-2-1 header!

Good luck, I look forward to seeing more of your post!

I've been looking into different options the past few nights. Haven't pulled the trigger on anything as I commute on the highway to and from school almost everyday and dont want to have an overly loud/droney exhaust. This seems to be a good compromise though.
I'm thinking going CAI as something up there is broken and the two intake over the grill and the part next to the filter have separated. I want the 4-2-1 headers solely cause my car has 233k miles and I dont take it that high in the rev range. Just dont want to risk anything. I feel you with school and responsibilities, finals time has me swamped and no time for anything.
 
Let us know how the new ecu is with pictures and everything. I'm also waiting for mine to arrive.

I won't be able to put it in until I get a functional IM to yank the VTCS out; the one I grabbed was complete junk and missing VICS butterflies :^(

Installation should be extremely straight-forward, since all you do is yank off the passenger side plastic trim, fold back the carpet, undo four screws, and wallah. The rough part is going to be having the car stutter and run like s*** for a bit (let alone getting another IM that's intact to cut out the VTCS and fill the holes with).

All this talk about the IM actually leads me into an update I need to make...
 
Cel #2

I bought myself a bluetooth OBDII scanner! Now, I didn't have to drive to Autozone or Advance AP for some scanning, and if I wanted to, I could look at some more performance analytics. With the Torque Pro application, I can make several different types of graphs. This is pretty exciting!

However, owning this scanner also informed me that I have another code I never knew about.

P0660 - Intake Manifold Tuning Valve Control Circuit (Bank 1) Circuit Open

Bugger me lads, looks like my VICS solenoid went out.

Sure enough, I crammed my digital voltmeter/ammeter in there, and got nothing for resistance. I suppose that makes sense, since the car felt a little...I dunno, weak(?) during the previous autocross event. In fact, the guy giving me advice through the practice course asked me seriously "Is that all that car's got?". I'm not sure whether the VICS is stuck open or closed, but what I feel is that I lost some bottom-end.

I guess it's time to dump a s*** load of money into an otherwise minuscule plastic piece! Autozone quoted me at 95 bucks, so I'm searching for a better deal.

However, this doesn't worry me nearly as much as next week's finals. Differential Equations is going to have one monster of a final, and hopefully Prob + Stats won't **** me over.

UPDATE:

55 bucks off of Rockauto: https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=5414883&jsn=580

What do you folks think? Should I just yank one off of another car in the junkyard, or is that a fair price? It sure as hell beats 90+ bucks,,
 
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EBay has them for about $7 US new from Hong Kong.

Just make sure you end up with the right one. There's a few different types on our car. The electrical connectors can be different how they bolt on, and whether they are normally open or normally closed. The people in Hong Kong may have their part numbers and names mixed up.
(Rockauto is great with getting the correct part but eBay is a lot cheaper.)

And you may have to wait a month or more to get it.



If you can get a used one off a junker for $5-$10 you might be doing OK but it's going to be a 15 year old part that may not have much life left in it.
 
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hahaha everyone's vics solenoid is going out. discovered both of mine were dead about 3 weeks ago on my msp and p5. if you get your hands on a used one, you can test if it still works by hooking it up to a 9v battery. it should click if it's still functioning.
 
You can always "retrofit" a solenoid valve.

This is the VICS valve on my parts car...

 
I got lucky, and learned that I pulled both solenoids with the IM a few weeks back

I did not test it, but I cleared the code, drove around (and pushed it hard a few times), and have yet to have the code come back on. Nice, instant-gratification fixes are the best...

But I gotta say, that's one hell of a jury-rig!
 
Keep in mind that it may take a while before the code comes back. (if your replacement happens to bad as well)



Those solenoid valves can fail intermittently.

My PRC valve crapped out and threw a code,... when it hooked it up to 12 V it got it to click twice then it stopped clicking.
 
More Ups and Downs

s*** man, I can't catch a break between exams and the car's maintenance!

My front driver-side wheel began emanating a very familiar mechanical howling/growling that gets louder the faster you go. Dangit, of all things, why did my wheel bearing go out before the upcoming time attack?

Guess it's time to order another shipment from rockauto...

On the brightside, in the next time attack, I'll receiving a free (will probably give him some gas money/lunch money for it, at the very least) Injen cold-air intake. He thought it was neat that I was Autocrossing a car he loved in the past, and told me that ever since it was totaled, various parts just sat around in boxes in his garage.

Finally, I can begin to conduct some dyno tests to see what spoken-about mods here really do! I'll get a baseline:

With P5 ECU
Stock intake + uncut grille + MAF w/screen

Then the intake:
Injen intake + uncut grille + MAF w/screen (what many people should have)

Then the "goldstar" grille mod (due to ram effect, may need some other tests too)
Stock intake + cut grille + MAF w/o screen

Maybe half of the "goldstar" mod (current setup)? Maybe not (removing the MAF screen was an addendum to the OG post):
Stock intake + cut grille + MAF w/screen

With MP3 ECU + removed VTCS

Baseline:
Stock intake + uncut grille + MAF w/screen

Goldstar mod (again, may or may not test screened MAF. Results may be negligible):
Stock intake + cut grille + w/o screen

Aftermarket Intake:
Injen Intake + uncut grille + MAF w/screen

Important results:
If removing the screen in the MAF module indeed provides some sort of tiny increase in performance, I'll remove the MAF screen in the Injen tests.

To clarify...I don't need a cut grille for the intake, hence why I left it out :^)
Maybe, it could help with engine bay cooling when left in, but who knows.

Until next time, where hopefully something worthwhile and interesting happens.
 
... why did my wheel bearing go out before the upcoming time attack?

Guess it's time to order another shipment from rockauto....

Don't get an economy bearing.
I did and it wasn't a "sealed" bearing... It just had a "dust cap" that does little to keep water out.

The SKF bearing at Rockauto specifically says "sealed" and as far as I know it is a quality bearing (although it is the most expensive)

Doing a front bearing is usually a huge job and you'd hate to have to do it again in 6 months because of a crap bearing.
 
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