Lewis7789 2002 Protege5 build thread (tons of pics)

[Lastsummer]

Hey Evan and the rest of the guys...
Going a little bit off topic here if you dont mind.
I know that Evan has done the KL swap into his P5 and some others have gone the turbo route and bare with me when I ask this, but have you heard of anyone swapping in the 2.3L motor out of the Mazda3's? Is this even at all possible?
Please be kind in your responses.

 

[323]

i don't think anyone has attempted to swap a mazda3 motor into a protege because all of the motor mount positions are different.

 

[PrinceValorum]

Hey Evan and the rest of the guys...
I ask this, have you heard of anyone swapping in the 2.3L motor out of the Mazda3's? Is this even at all possible?

The short answer is yes, you can do basically anything with enough money. That's not being smart, either, it's really true. If you wanted to put a Chevy v8 with twin turbos and rwd into a P5, with enough work, you could do it. A perfect example is the Mazda 3 race car with a rotary engine.
Now, where you draw the line as to "worth it" is up to you and will have a big impact on the projects you tackle.

It wouldn't be a basically "bolt-in" affair like the KL swap was, though, if that's what you were asking. And that's not to undermine the amount of work that was swap was, but the KL uses the same mounts and was a relatively straight forward swap. The mounts are just the first thing you'd have to worry about on the MZR. Engine management, axle length, exhaust routing, etc etc, all concerns that you'd likely have to come up with custom solutions for.

Hope this helps.

 

[Lastsummer]

This is exactly what I was wondering... more so out of curiosity. I have a 2006 Mazda3 right now and love the pull and power of the motor. Perfect for what I do. But I recently just got a P5 and Evan's thread here has provided me with a lot of interesting questions for myself.
In the end, thank you for this information. I had a rough idea that the motor mounts were not going to be the same, but wasnt too sure and the net didnt have much to offer.
Again as always, you guys are a great help.

Cheers to that

 

[CheeseHelmet]

This is exactly what I was wondering... more so out of curiosity. I have a 2006 Mazda3 right now and love the pull and power of the motor. Perfect for what I do. But I recently just got a P5 and Evan's thread here has provided me with a lot of interesting questions for myself.
In the end, thank you for this information. I had a rough idea that the motor mounts were not going to be the same, but wasnt too sure and the net didnt have much to offer.
Again as always, you guys are a great help.

Cheers to that

Easy solution: get an msp turbo kit for your P5

 

[PrinceValorum]

I have a 2006 Mazda3 right now and love the pull and power of the motor.

You'll love the KL even more then, as a semi bolted KLDE (lowest output of the KL's) pulls a pretty fully bolted Mazda 3.

 

[Lewis7789]

damn our cars look pretty similar

Wow, yours looks great, mate! MUCH cleaner than mine. Well done.

Hey Evan and the rest of the guys...
Going a little bit off topic here if you dont mind.
I know that Evan has done the KL swap into his P5 and some others have gone the turbo route and bare with me when I ask this, but have you heard of anyone swapping in the 2.3L motor out of the Mazda3's? Is this even at all possible?
Please be kind in your responses.

You'll love the KL even more then, as a semi bolted KLDE (lowest output of the KL's) pulls a pretty fully bolted Mazda 3.

Hey Derek (Lastsummer). Congrats on the P5 purchase once again. I love mine and I'm sure you'll love yours too. I wouldn't bother with the MZR swap, like Wes (Prince Valorum) said. While I love the KL swap, I wouldn't advise it for a daily driver because the OBD ports don't work anymore. If/when something goes wrong you need to trouble shoot it the old fashioned way. Which isn't a huge deal, but it's something to bare in mind when considering a KL vs MSP swap. You said your new P5 has 140k miles on it, right? Have you considered an FS-ZE swap? Personally, and nothing against any of the boosted guys, but I like N/A. Boost is freaking awesome and I love all my friends boosted MSM's and MS3's but I like the simplicity of an all motor car. Anyway, what are your plans for your P5, mate?

In all honesty, I wish I just ran my FS-DE (with more track time) until it popped then swapped the KL in. And spent the money on suspension and seats/belts/harness bar. I would've loved to have a better understanding of how the car performed on the track with the FS and gotten used to a slower car then upgrade to the moar powa. But oh well. It's not like my car is crazy fast now anyway. But the plan for the winter is to have it ready to go for track days at Mid-Ohio and BeaveRun.

 

[Lastsummer]

Hey Evan,
Im really looking forward to the playing with it. By the way it only has 128k. I looked into the things that you mentioned to me before and it appears to be pretty solid. Im not noticing anything just yet and Ive beaten on already to see if it will be able to take it so thats a good sign .
So far my plans are to just attack the suspension, breaks, wheels/tires, weight and then start in on the bolt-ons. Somehow Ive gotta do this without looking to riced out I like a clean look but aggressive in stance. Speaking of which, what tire are you running now? I want to go with the widest tire I can for more contact.

Ive been AutoX and road racing now for 5yrs (this year happened to get lucky and co-drive a friends 2006 GT3) and Id really like to try something different. I was more just curious about the MZR swap and if anyone has done it yet. I love my 3 but its my daily and will remain that way which is why I went the P5 route.
Ive got mixed reviews on going turbo or just staying N/A. An N/A more is more predictable on the track and manageable (not to mention slightly more reliable) but the extra power that the turbo creates does make for some fun times. For right now, I think that my goal is to really get to know the car in and out and work on the BIGGER stuff in the future. Count me in for those 2 events next year.

 

[Lastsummer]

You'll love the KL even more then, as a semi bolted KLDE (lowest output of the KL's) pulls a pretty fully bolted Mazda 3.

Yeah thats something Im going for. I want good power in the mid-range (2nd-4th) in order to come out of corners as hard as I can. Mainly I dont wanna fall on my ass in low rpm.

 

[walkingchaos]

LOL thanks man, she may be clean but I wish she went half as well as it sounds like yours does. Some really nice work into yours, keep it up !

 

[thejeans]

You'll love the KL even more then, as a semi bolted KLDE (lowest output of the KL's) pulls a pretty fully bolted Mazda 3.

so pablo's pretty fully bolted 3 = intake, header, full exhaust???

 

[PrinceValorum]

so pablo's pretty fully bolted 3 = intake, header, full exhaust???

VTCS
BSD, F2 Baffle Kit
Advanced Timing
Corksport SRI
BBP exhaust
Flex Innovations Grounding Kit, Red
TRZ rear engine mount w/race bushing
Vibrant Header w/ ProSport black header wrap
Oil Filter Conversion Kit
Hypertech

U mad?

 

[thejeans]

VTCS
BSD, F2 Baffle Kit
Advanced Timing
Corksport SRI
BBP exhaust
Flex Innovations Grounding Kit, Red
TRZ rear engine mount w/race bushing
Vibrant Header w/ ProSport black header wrap
Oil Filter Conversion Kit
Hypertech

U mad?

if he did the "advanced timing mod" im thinking of, it doesnt add power just shifts the powerband more towards top end, bsd may add 1-2hp tops, just frees up the top end as well
oil filter kit isnt going to do s*** for power and and the baffle keeps the oil from sloshing back and forth (although the 3's oil pan is so freaking deep the baffle isnt neccessary)
the grounding kit just helps smooth out the drive by wire (not a power gain)
motor mount doesnt add power just helps get the power you have down to the ground better

so again, only "power" mods were intake, header, exhaust and the Hypertech which i had forget... hardly classifies as a fully bolted mzr motor

sorry but im just trying to clear up crap, saying he had a fully bolted motor to make the kl look more impressive isnt accurate and we dont like false information flying around the forums, there is too much of that s*** already

 

[PrinceValorum]

So he could have had what a bigger TB and a light weight flywheel still without getting into cams and stuff along those lines? I don't know the MZR and the mod path, so you'll have to fill me in. The point was that it wasn't close to stock.

Stock vs stock, the KL puts down more power stock than the MZR, so I'm not sure what "false information" you're talking about. I'd say Pablo had more mods as the Hypertech does tuning, but Evan has a flywheel (doesn't do much in higher gears anyway), so maybe it's a wash. I'm not going to start speculation and a pissing match.

This was for the guy that asked the question about putting the MZR in the P5, anyway. I was pointing out that I don't think there's any reason to go through the work to 1) pay the much higher costs associated with an MZR, and 2) go through all of the custom work when you can put in a KL and get [worst case] just as good results. Plus a sexy sound out the tailpipe.

 

[THE Phen]

Yeah, but you're also comparing a V6 to a 4 cylinder...

 

[thejeans]

my statement was that i/h/e with a piggyback tuner doesnt = fully bolted

could possibly argue 1 or 2 things on the list but to me fully bolted = intake, intake manifold, full exhaust, pulleys, cam gears, cams, flywheel and little things like motor mounts and bsd or things like that where applicable

saying that evans car pulled on a fully bolted 3 is the inaccurate part

i wasnt arguing that the kids money would be better spent swapping something like a KL since its a bit easier/cheaper than swapping something that hasnt been done, i wasnt even arguing that a stock v-6 is going to put down more power than a stock 4banger, hell even comparing the 2 is a bit off but whatever, thats not the point.... although if the kid has an MZR sitting around, go for it... they make pretty good power and jumping 30whp isnt unattainable with with some minor boltons and still pull awesome gas mileage so they arent a bad motor for what they are...


now, back to the topic of Evans Protege

 

[Lewis7789]

I like kittens. And puppies too. Ooooh, and ice cream. I ******* love ice cream.

 

[PrinceValorum]

Yeah, but you're also comparing a V6 to a 4 cylinder...

I guess you've not seen all the threads on mustangforums like "omg how can i get my v8 to beat a 99 Si?"

 

[Lewis7789]

I'm all for debate as long as no one gets hurt.

I would love to boost my P5 just because it would be epic to have a boosted KL wagon. People on the highway would not be expecting that. Haha. Or even a 55 shot of NOS. Then again, my focus will be legal road racing where my driving ability (or lack thereof) and suspension/brakes are key.

 

[CheeseHelmet]

Hey, how's the milly coming along?