College Student First Car Build

Don't worry, I'm with you there on school. sucks the life out of me. But the P5 is a pretty practical car :)
Maybe get a new car after you graduate! When you have a good job and a nice place to live in. No monthly car payments is quite the luxury for us college students who haven't bought a new car yet haha.
Although I've been constantly thinking about buying an ND miata and going full retard with it... ahh adulting.

What coils are you looking at?

The plan was to get a car after graduation, but the Mrs. is talking about going to law school after we graduate, which I'm fine with. Told her to go and if I get a good enough job don't worry about working. I really love the newer Mustangs, and the coyote motors LOVE making power with simple mods. But I also like the Chevy SS (coworker has one and I've driven it a few times and what's not to love about a 400+hp 4 door sedan), also love the old SVT Lightnings, but the adult in me is saying get an auto, 30+mpg daily commuter but the child in me is screaming "you could never afford the car you want. send it!"
I definitely agree with no car payments though, working at a car dealership I've almost leased a few cars but the mileage limits weren't high enough, or insurance would have been too high, and a few other instances like that so I took it as a sign and picked up the P5.

As for coils, leaning toward BC as 323 has a set and took me for a ride a long time ago and they felt fine. I'm gonna have to get a ride from Boston though to check out his setup. Also considering Fortune coils as they are located about 2-3 hours from me and I have an old friend who works there (gears and gasoline has featured him a few times), but I also just remembered K sport made some coils for our car. I'm trying to get them by spring so plenty of time to do research
 
Miatas are nice though! I was tryna find one when I got the P5 but couldn't in my price range. I drove an NC Miata years ago and fell in love instantly. Unfortunately the only Miata I've ever driven
 
I looked through coils last night and BC's seem the way to go for handling.

If that were to be, you can always just get a newer car for the daily commuter aspects, shoot those corolla hatchbacks are quite nice. And find a somewhat older car to play with.
Those new mustangs look so mean I have to admit.. my father went through a few mustangs when I was growing up so those have always been in the back of my mind as well.
Nothing handles quite like a Miata though. I miss the way the car gripped the road on hard turns, you don't need a lot of power to feel like you're going fast. But you can always strap a turbo on it :p

My options are all above $1-1.2k for coils. Shipping to Hawaii blows. I wouldn't mind driving 2-3 hours so I wouldn't have to pay for shipping lol you have the upper hand.
 
i'm starting to feel like a bad influence. the terrible older brother type.

FYI, my spring rates are 8k/6k. Boston's are 6k/4k
 
I looked through coils last night and BC's seem the way to go for handling.

If that were to be, you can always just get a newer car for the daily commuter aspects, shoot those corolla hatchbacks are quite nice. And find a somewhat older car to play with.
Those new Mustangs look so mean I have to admit.. my father went through a few mustangs when I was growing up so those have always been in the back of my mind as well.
Nothing handles quite like a Miata though. I miss the way the car gripped the road on hard turns, you don't need a lot of power to feel like you're going fast. But you can always strap a turbo on it :p

My options are all above $1-1.2k for coils. Shipping to Hawaii blows. I wouldn't mind driving 2-3 hours so I wouldn't have to pay for shipping lol you have the upper hand.

I wonder what looks like the best option for daily driving. Don't want to track the car until I have another engine waiting to go in lol.

I believe BC is offering free shipping, I don't know if that's only on the main continent, but living in Hawaii must be a b**** when it comes to that. You drive 2-3 hours you've looped the island lol.

You definitely don't need the power to feel fast! I just want a high(er) hp car in the future. I've been watching itsjusta6 on Youtube and his Roush is amazing. Had to go to Ford this morning to grab a car for work and got lost in the mustang isles lmao
 
I'm starting to feel like a bad influence. the terrible older brother type.

FYI, my spring rates are 8k/6k. Boston's are 6k/4k

Its stuff I wanted to do but didn't. We talk about it and I start doing research lol No clue what those spring rates mean, I assume you're a little stiffer?

I messaged Boston on facebook so I can set up that ride along.
 
Yeah higher number the stiffer. I started at 6k/4k and it felt too mushy for me performance wise. In the comfort department though it worked damn well.
 
i started with swift 6k/4k. bought a stance brand coilover spring of 8k for the front. moved the swift 6k spring to the rear. in hindsight, i would've skipped the swift springs and saved some monies
 
There was a really sweet thread about springs you could get for our car, but I think the handy spreadsheet on there has since gone missing. If you google "protege spring thread" or something like that, you can find that spreadsheet to check out your options.

As an aside, I think the unit for spring rate is kg/s^2, or something like that.
 
There was a really sweet thread about springs you could get for our car, but I think the handy spreadsheet on there has since gone missing. If you google "protege spring thread" or something like that, you can find that spreadsheet to check out your options.

As an aside, I think the unit for spring rate is kg/s^2, or something like that.

That came up with nothing lol Why can't it just be in pounds?!? I didn't mind 323's, but I'm gonna get a ride from Boston before I pull the plug on some springs. I'm really hoping it fixes my clunks
 
Disregard that, I made a mistake. Spring rate is kg*m/s^2; I left out the length unit! In US Imperial units, I believe it's lb*f/s^2 or something like that. Man, I had to get the old Physics notebook out for that one, lol! Personally, I don't think measuring spring rate/damping without SI units would be very nice, because then you have to use bizarre units of measurement such as slugs or slinches.

But FYI, if you're looking at sticking with daily driver-friendly comfort, I'd take a look at progressive springs. They don't have a linear compression-to-force ratio, which means that you won't feel your spine shoot into your skull if you roll over a ladybug. However, when you want to have fun and push it around a corner, they'll act like proper performance springs and stiffen up greatly in response to the car's shifted weight. The one large reservation of this is that progressive springs, being nonlinear, will behave very strangely around a corner as the weight of your vehicle shifts and moves. You may end up understeering into a corner, and suddenly snap-oversteering out of it. It's quite a tradeoff to consider, really. Comfort for daily driving yet semi-inconsistent performance in corners, or rattling your skeleton while daily driving but taking the corners fearlessly.

Personally, I'd still go with linear springs, but not ultra-stiff ones. Hopefully, that ride along with the guy you mentioned will help you decide.
 
Appreciate it Riot and pcb. I will definitely need that in the future.

But I managed to finally touch the wagon today. Pulled the spark plugs and they didn't look any worse or better than the other set I had and the car still won't hold idle. So I looked closer at the manifold and there are cracks all over it. I put my temp fix putty on it and will try to restart it in a few days. Also smelled fuel in the cabin for a second. but that went away. Next steps are to swap the MAF from the sedan to the wagon to test it and see if either that or the crack fix fixes the wagon. I'm going to Atlanta in 2 weeks and they have an MSP in their pick n pull lot, so I'm gonna run down there and try to grab the turbo and manifold and maybe a set of the RacingHarts depending how much the car has been picked through. Hoping the MAF is the main issue, as that means the manifold can hold (hopefully) until I graduate and hopefully have a garage. Also sounds like a huge vacuum leak, but I have a video of that. Car won't idle without blipping the throttle. Missing the car every day and I have a back up of parts ready to be installed: got the slim fan, got the wing wrapped, shift knob from WC Lathe works coming, CF fuel door coming, the list never ends.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIpQSWovRnA
 
Well, I was hoping the exhaust repair would fix my issues. Next step is to swap the MAFs this weekend (weather permitting) and if that doesn't work to a shop it goes cause I'm done looking around blindly
 
Swapped MAFs and have the weirdest situation. MAF from sedan works in wagon and MAF from wagon works in sedan no issues. I ended up starting the car with the MAF and piping not connected and got a 2500-3000 idle and a lot of coolant smoke from the tailpipe. It eventually lowered itself to about 2000-2500. So I tried to hook up the MAF connector and the car immediately died. Checked for vacuum leaks and saw nothing, but I'm gonna check again before I get 323's friend to come to see if he can figure it out. I'll upload the videos in the next post. I just wanna boost around town again :/
 
Replace the PCV valve for $2 so you can write that off as maintenance and attempt to fix the idle issue.
You've already went through spark plugs.. ignition coils? Idle Air Control Valve? EGR Valve?

Hmm.. if you did any big mods like intake etc maybe something small like relearning the ECU via the battery disconnect/reconnect thing.
 
Huh that is indeed a funky idle[emoji848]

Just a little lol have someone coming out this week to check it out and hopefully fix it.

Replace the PCV valve for $2 so you can write that off as maintenance and attempt to fix the idle issue.
You've already went through spark plugs.. ignition coils? Idle Air Control Valve? EGR Valve?

Hmm.. if you did any big mods like intake etc maybe something small like relearning the ECU via the battery disconnect/reconnect thing.

I believe I replaced the PCV before, I can't remember tho. Changed spark plugs, wires, and coils are brand new, IAC I haven't messed with and the EGR was just cleaned. No clue man, everything seems to be looked at. So hopefully 323's friend can figure it out.
 
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