Mazda sport20 fs-ze ecu problems

[chrisrob]

I have a Mazda Sport20 FS-ZE that I bought from a friend a couple of years ago. Nice car but there seems to be a severe lack of power. Car was brought to the dyno and the numbers were 115hp. The stock Sport20 is 170hp. Something defintely wrong. A friend said that he thinks because the car was turboed before that the ECU might still have to boost map in it. Still not sure.

I am unsure about which ECU is for the Sport20. I am not sure the ECU in my car is the right one. I checked and found the ECU model number: FS2W 18 881c in the car. I have been researching all over the net and I am more confused because on Protegefaq they say the FS-ZE ecu's are fs6w 18-881d (automatic) and FS7B 18-881A (manual). More confusion. I went to a used car dealer and he says he has an ECU from an automatic sport20 marked FS3A 18-881C. Considering to buy but not sure what to do.

Can any one tell me which of these ECU's are for the JDM sport20 - fs-ze engine?

 

[rit14623]

I have a Mazda Sport20 FS-ZE that I bought from a friend a couple of years ago. Nice car but there seems to be a severe lack of power. Car was brought to the dyno and the numbers were 115hp. The stock Sport20 is 170hp. Something defintely wrong. A friend said that he thinks because the car was turboed before that the ECU might still have to boost map in it. Still not sure.

I am unsure about which ECU is for the Sport20. I am not sure the ECU in my car is the right one. I checked and found the ECU model number: FS2W 18 881c in the car. I have been researching all over the net and I am more confused because on Protegefaq they say the FS-ZE ecu's are fs6w 18-881d (automatic) and FS7B 18-881A (manual). More confusion. I went to a used car dealer and he says he has an ECU from an automatic sport20 marked FS3A 18-881C. Considering to buy but not sure what to do.

Can any one tell me which of these ECU's are for the JDM sport20 - fs-ze engine?

What do you mean by "was turboed"? Has the turbo been removed?
If you remove a turbo from a turbo-charged engine, then the power is going to go down. The non-turboed FS engines had 130 HP so 115 HP is pretty close.

 

[tweety2300]

What do you mean by "was turboed"? Has the turbo been removed?
If you remove a turbo from a turbo-charged engine, then the power is going to go down. The non-turboed FS engines had 130 HP so 115 HP is pretty close.

Fsde had 130 at the crank, he has the ze which has 170.

If you got it on a dyno you will be no where near 170 due to power train loss. Since it was turbod there's 2 issues I see that you could have. 1 high compression forced induction motor that is not very strong to begin with could have a cracked piston or other damage. 2. The motor or pistons were swapped to the lower compression fsde. If the second one is the case 115 whp is perfectly normal

 

[chrisrob]

Actually the pistons in there are the fs-ze's high compression 10.4:1 ones. The gearbox got damaged year before last and while trying to source a 4WD gearbox I came across an fs-ze engine from the capella with a 2WD box so I just did a complete swap. The fs-ze capella engine is the same sport20 high compression engine with the same aggressive cams.
So whether the sport20 or the capella fs-ze engine is in there, I am getting the same performance.

The turbo setup was removed because of various issues. The internals were not upgraded so the car was running on low boost.

 

[chrisrob]

Fsde had 130 at the crank, he has the ze which has 170.

If you got it on a dyno you will be no where near 170 due to power train loss. Since it was turbod there's 2 issues I see that you could have. 1 high compression forced induction motor that is not very strong to begin with could have a cracked piston or other damage. 2. The motor or pistons were swapped to the lower compression fsde. If the second one is the case 115 whp is perfectly normal

Actually the pistons in there are the fs-ze's high compression 10.4:1 ones. The gearbox got damaged year before last and while trying to source a 4WD gearbox I came across an fs-ze engine from the capella with a 2WD box so I just did a complete swap. The fs-ze capella engine is the same sport20 high compression engine with the same aggressive cams.
So whether the sport20 or the capella fs-ze engine is in there, I am getting the same performance.

The turbo setup was removed because of various issues. The internals were not upgraded so the car was running on low boost.

 

[chrisrob]

Fsde had 130 at the crank, he has the ze which has 170.

If you got it on a dyno you will be no where near 170 due to power train loss. Since it was turbod there's 2 issues I see that you could have. 1 high compression forced induction motor that is not very strong to begin with could have a cracked piston or other damage. 2. The motor or pistons were swapped to the lower compression fsde. If the second one is the case 115 whp is perfectly normal

I agree that with lower compression pistons (9.0:1) 115hp would be normal. The thing is, the internals were not swapped, so the car was running on low boost. So the high compression pistons were still in there. But since the car was restored to basically factory setup I would expect the power would be anywhere between 150 - 170hp, considering the fact that a CAI is installed along with 2 1/2 stainless steel exhaust system.

Planning to go to a big boost setup in the next couple of months but, would love sort out the power loss untill then.

 

[Hammo]

Try looking on astina gt.com mate, there has been a few FS-ZE conversions in Aus, only 1 is running the FS-ZE ECU, rest are all using SP20/Pro5 FS-DE ECU's and 1 is using a 1.8L FP ECU

 

[tweety2300]

Well if you plan on going with a big boost setup you will have to swap out internals for forged and get it tuned so no point in wasting money tracking down problems that will be fixed when you build it anyway

Could also be the dyno giving low numbers as well

 

[chrisrob]

Well if you plan on going with a big boost setup you will have to swap out internals for forged and get it tuned so no point in wasting money tracking down problems that will be fixed when you build it anyway

Could also be the dyno giving low numbers as well

Just to add some info here... The other fsze engine that I took out, and have lying around, that's the engine I'm eventually going to boost. My friend and I have already scoped out all that we need to build a 400+ hp setup, but with the the economy the money is a wait and see thing. So it's going to take at least 4-5 months. what I want to do is get this n/a setup to its maximum potential as much as possible. So basically until I can complete the boost setup complete on the other engine, I would still love to see what the n/a fsze can really do. Its a fun car to drive but its waay under performing now.

 

[chrisrob]

Not the dyno for sure. My friend dynoed right after I did and he has b18c setup in his eg civic with just port n polished head, intake and headers and civic type r cams and he made 192hp. Basic setup so dyno is good.

 

[Ice88]

I agree that with lower compression pistons (9.0:1) 115hp would be normal. The thing is, the internals were not swapped, so the car was running on low boost. So the high compression pistons were still in there. But since the car was restored to basically factory setup I would expect the power would be anywhere between 125 - 160hp, considering the fact that a CAI is installed along with 2 1/2 stainless steel exhaust system.

Planning to go to a big boost setup in the next couple of months but, would love sort out the power loss untill then.

The engine when it was brand new put out about 170hp. Key word new. You'd expect to put out about 125-140whp (depending on year) providing its a Sport20 FS-ZE.

Just to add some info here... The other fsze engine that I took out, and have lying around, that's the engine I'm eventually going to boost. My friend and I have already scoped out all that we need to build a 400+ hp setup, but with the the economy the money is a wait and see thing. So it's going to take at least 4-5 months. what I want to do is get this n/a setup to its maximum potential as much as possible. So basically until I can complete the boost setup complete on the other engine, I would still love to see what the n/a fsze can really do. Its a fun car to drive but its waay under performing now.

The Japanese MPV 99-00 (Premacy) came out with different engine (FS-DE) with different cams (FS1E) which are torque biased. The car was otherwise similiar to the FS-DE in the US 626. (i.e. cast crank IIRC). It produced 125 hp, which lines up with your 115 dyno and makes sense given your previous boosted nature.

 

[chrisrob]

The engine when it was brand new put out about 170hp. Key word new. You'd expect to put out about 125-140whp (depending on year) providing its a Sport20 FS-ZE.



The Japanese MPV 99-00 (Premacy) came out with different engine (FS-DE) with different cams (FS1E) which are torque biased. The car was otherwise similiar to the FS-DE in the US 626. (i.e. cast crank IIRC). It produced 125 hp, which lines up with your 115 dyno and makes sense given your previous boosted nature.

Thanks Ice but It's definitely an fs-ze. I check both the cams and pistons. Fsh9 and fsd7 in both heads, with 10.4:1 pistons in them.
You see down here in Jamaica, we mostly get JDM spec cars. We have a few protg5's down here but, sport20's outnumber them maybe 4 to 1 with cat converter removed (no strick emissions codes here).
I know the fsde engine and the premacy with detuned ecu but the second fsze engine I have was basiclly in perfect condition. If I was making anywhere around 130, 140 then that would be pretty understandable. But with both engines making almost the same numbers (115) kinda got me thinking. So thats why I was wondering if its a common problem like ecu.
When you drive the car the power does not come on aggressively almost like you can tell when a cars timing is extremely retarded, like big ole lazy grandpaw getting up from his bed

 

[Ice88]

Could also have a JDM FS-DE. 00-02 I think came with DEs.

Curious how you can tell it has 10.4:1 Comp. Are there any splices to the wiring? Have you done a compression test?

 

[chrisrob]

Could also have a JDM FS-DE. 00-02 I think came with DEs.

Curious how you can tell it has 10.4:1 Comp. Are there any splices to the wiring? Have you done a compression test?

I dismantled the engine and crossed checked the pistons with a set of brand new 10.4:1 fs-ze pistons part# FPY2-2-SBXB. I try not to make assumptions, even though I spoke to the guy that bought the car brand new from Japan - and he confirmed that everything was all stock internals. I also got the car with stock box intake and stock exhaust. The only thing that was not stock on this Sport20 were the rims that were changed from 14" to 16".
Have not done a compression test yet, though planning to do that this week. Car does not smoke and oil usage is good. As for splices in the wiring; yes there are splices in the loom at the ecu plugs. Thats from when it was running a turbo kit with a piggy back ecu spliced in the loom.

 

[AusOrion]

Assuming you have the original intake manifold, if you take a photo of the top of the engine (including the intake manifold) there is an easy and quick tell on whether it is an fs-ze.

 

[chrisrob]

Assuming you have the original intake manifold, if you take a photo of the top of the engine (including the intake manifold) there is an easy and quick tell on whether it is an fs-ze.

Can't believe I just spent the last week debating on whether or not I have an fs-ze engine in my sport20, when in fact I have 2 of the same engines. I have already confirmed that indeed that I have the original engine that came with the car plus another fs-ze that I got my hands on last year. Checked the cams, checked the pistons.
Just threw out a question regarding the ecu to see if anyone knew anything about sport20 ecu's. Really and truly the car has a severe lack of power.

but I will do as orion asked.

 

[chrisrob]

pics

Assuming you have the original intake manifold, if you take a photo of the top of the engine (including the intake manifold) there is an easy and quick tell on whether it is an fs-ze.

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This is the stock fs-ze exhaust manifold

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[tweety2300]

Well that clearly settles that debate. I wish I could have gotten that header when I had my protege

Is your car an automatic or manual?

 

[AusOrion]

Yup, most definitely an FS-ZE engine.

All Sport20s had automatic transmissions - hence why there are four plug slots on the ecu. JDM manual ecus have three plugs and autos have four - extra one is for the auto trans.

 

[tweety2300]

Well that's why. Autos lose so much power from drivetrain loss.

Op you don't have any issues. With the fsde we have 130 hp. Manuals make right around 100-105 whp autos make 60-70 whp same applies with the ze