Help Me Understand Engines Imported From Japan

[03protolx]

running 91 octane is no big deal. what is that? an extra $5 for a tank of gas in these cars? fineee with me. I'm not looking to go fast in the proteges. first of all, im sure people get plenty of hard ons with civics. i've seen just as many 1.7 d series engines blow as much as fs engines do. doesn't matter. Civic vs Protege: they both rust out, the autos suck, and guess what: the engines aren't designed to hold a lot of power. Sure, you can swap in a B-series and smoke any protege...but guess what? Ill swap in a kl motor and smoke your civic. Doesn't matter.

20-30 hp makes a big difference when it comes to a front wheel drive 4-banger. big difference. my 97 protege is pushing 92 hp (maybe around 65 now due to age and wear)...considering my FS in my 03 is pushing 130...its like going from a bicycle to a go-kart. If I have an option to convert a protege from a DE to a ZE, using the foreign ecu and using a different header, I don't see how it would be a bad idea.

 

[tweety2300]

If you swap the ze with the mp3 ecu you're looking at maybe a 20 whp gain at most.

I will call bull s*** all day on d series honda motors blowing up as often as an fs. My protege made it to 180k and it wasn't run very hard at all, spun a rod bearing and then threw the rod. I've had 2 civics one had 240k the other had 190k and I ran the s*** out of both of them. Burn outs off the rev limiter long enough to fill the road up with smoke, no lift shifts, throttle stuck on one and it bounced off the re limiter for a good 30 seconds. Both of them went through hell, neither smoked or burned oil or had any issues and got 35 mpg. Protege burned a quart every 600 miles

 

[03protolx]

I've seen hundreds of FS motors (mainly in 626's) last to 240k. at the mazda dealer I work at, protege's, mpv's, 626's, and mx6 constantly come in with in the 200k range. One particular car, a 626 (2001) with an original FS has nearly 255k miles on it. I recently replaced the timing belt and water pump on it. Just because it doesn't hold boost well (just like the d-series honda doesn't), doesn't mean it's a bad motor.

I've ran the s*** out of my fs in my 03 proto and the original owner of my 97 1.5 z5 protege. I refuse to give it up. It burns a half quart of oil between oil changes (every 5k) and I refuse to sell it. I've had my share of cars, including a couple hondas. the 1997 civic I bought for my ex-girlfriend had a d-series in it, and that thing was a turd. it burned a quart of oil between oil changes @ 144k miles. Now, it was definitely fun to drive and reliable, but as always...its a foreign car and has quirks.

I'm not going to argue with you on the internet and will just say whatever to whatever you post, but there's a reason mazda produced the FS for as long as they did.

 

[lostmybook]

Is the JDM 170HP a drop-in replacement for the 2.0 in my P5? I mean, drop in and plug up and go, with no mods to make it pass US emission tests? (Atlanta test emissions yearly, no pass means no re-registration.)

If not, what is necessary to get it to pass?

Hi StevieB. I have an FS ZE being managed by an MP3 ECU with the stock DE manifold, fuel pressure regulator, and throttle body. It passed smog very well in CA. Some vacuum lines have to be "modified" to get the ZE Intake Manifold to work, but the car works. The power is not 170HP as you need another engine management system for this, but is definitely more responsive and a little more powerful than the stock DE.

Someone above said that some who do the ZE swap have pinging. I have a little pinging, but is mostly gone with some tweaking. Keep in mind I am using the stock DE exhaust manifold, which allows less efficient flow than the exhaust manifold that came with the ZE. There was another user on this forum that told me his ZE swap did not ping even with 89 octane, but he had an aftermarket header... nevertheless, if you have 91+ octane where you're at, pinging shouldn't be a problem (given everything is else is working properly). You NEED 91+ octane to run FS ZE.

To summarize, yes you can swap the ZE with little modification to pass emissions per my own personal experience. I passed it with the stock 2 cat system. You MAY have pinging, but I found multiple swaps in the forums that do not ping; BUT, you will NOT have 170hp, unless you wish for it to be a more involved swap.

Feel free to PM if you want more details about the swap.