shane02pro5
25ish_psi
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- New Caney TX
Hang in there dude...it's a fun car even at low boost although I don't hold on to those memories much anymore!
What was Mazda/Callaway thinking with internals and EMS????? ::First impressions::
- Thread starter 03MSP86
- Start date
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- 92 & 16 Meyatas
dude, we're doing a meet on the 28th down the cape, you should come, great cars, better people! go to the nepoc section for the details...
Okay 03MSP85, we're in the same boat! (or should i say car? (eyeballs)) Tomorrow will be the one week anniversary since I've had my car (yes, I purchased it Friday the 13th). So you wanna know my first impressions???
Look here
http://www.mazdas247.com/forum/show...Check-Engine-Light-YAY!-(2-codes-P0900-P0171)
AND here
http://www.mazdas247.com/forum/showthread.php?123814143-Oh-and-one-other-thing...
(hand)
Seriously though, I'm a fanboy of Mazda since 2005, here's my previous ride: http://www.mx-3.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=78176
So after she died (blown motor) I needed another car, so I thought, "Why not get the Protege? Sure it's not a 2-door like the MX, but it's a Mazda damnit!" (So long as I'm not in a Honduh or modern Toyota, it's all good, nuff respect to those in VDubs, Nissan's, Mitsubishi's, Subaru's, Suzuki's, 1.8 Corolla's, AE86's and Coronas!) Well, the car handles like my MX, with the tight cornering and in turns. It's actually more comfortable than the MX (shocks must still be in great shape on this MSP) but it could use a good 1" drop, but only for looks, handling is awesome. The brakes stop on a dime. The exhaust is good for what it is, but maybe a nice performance muffler is in order later on. I'm diggin the color, it's pretty clean in and out and other than an Injen CAI, it's stock. Still learning how to "drive" it though cause the ECU is pretty crappy. Immediate expenditures are going to an oil change and fresh spark plugs tomorrow, already got an Autogauge boost/vacuum gauge which I will install tomorrow, and if someone can confirm that my motor mount is broken I'll have to order that too (along with the front, and possibly the tranny mount if the consensus is to do those 3 at once). Future upgrades include installing the FMIC I got with the car and doing whatever I can to help engine management. (gonna take a few more weeks to familiarize myself with the car, browse the threads, get a better idea of what I need).
But to your point, your absolutely right
Totally slapped a turbo onto the stock engine and released it to the world....that's all....I mean, C'MON! REALLY!?
and the 323 Turbo is sick, it's a common mod to take that engine and throw it onto the MX-3. There's even a guy I know doing an AWD MX-3 conversion (shocked) That should be pretty crazy. And BTW, Mazda DID get it right with the 323 Turbo, which used the same engine as the Protege with upgraded internals.
It sucks that they dropped the BP for the FS-DE for this generation, it sucks even more that a BP engine isn't a direct bolt on to this car, cause if it was I'd be doing a BP swap this weekend (lol2). BP=130 HP, BP-T=200 HP, FS-DE turbo=170 HP...WHAT?!...oh, and the 6.5K redline, when the BP and BP-T went to 7K SMH.......at least you can throw on a KLZE (headbang)....or if that's hard to source, pick up a KLDE, which would basically be a naturally aspirated version of the FS-DE turbo
One thing is for certain, I wouldn't recommend this car to someone who has never picked up a wrench. But I can tell you that I'm still a fanboy of Mazda. The only reason I spent so much time fixing the MX-3 wasn't because it was crappy, it's because it was a 20 year old car. There was nothing I fixed or changed or upgraded on that car (save for the engine, that was my fault) that went bad after replacing. Whether it was OEM or performance parts, that car was reliable. So I'm hoping with the MSP, I can keep it like that just as well.
Or the short version of my first impression: I like everything but the drivetrain. I'm gonna upgrade what I can, not necessarily to get the best performance, but definitely to get the most reliability. (If I can get the best of both worlds, that's fine by me)
BTW, I personally would ditch that Mazdaspeed graphic going across your car, but otherwise it looks great (thumb)
Look here
http://www.mazdas247.com/forum/show...Check-Engine-Light-YAY!-(2-codes-P0900-P0171)
AND here
http://www.mazdas247.com/forum/showthread.php?123814143-Oh-and-one-other-thing...
(hand)
Seriously though, I'm a fanboy of Mazda since 2005, here's my previous ride: http://www.mx-3.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=78176
So after she died (blown motor) I needed another car, so I thought, "Why not get the Protege? Sure it's not a 2-door like the MX, but it's a Mazda damnit!" (So long as I'm not in a Honduh or modern Toyota, it's all good, nuff respect to those in VDubs, Nissan's, Mitsubishi's, Subaru's, Suzuki's, 1.8 Corolla's, AE86's and Coronas!) Well, the car handles like my MX, with the tight cornering and in turns. It's actually more comfortable than the MX (shocks must still be in great shape on this MSP) but it could use a good 1" drop, but only for looks, handling is awesome. The brakes stop on a dime. The exhaust is good for what it is, but maybe a nice performance muffler is in order later on. I'm diggin the color, it's pretty clean in and out and other than an Injen CAI, it's stock. Still learning how to "drive" it though cause the ECU is pretty crappy. Immediate expenditures are going to an oil change and fresh spark plugs tomorrow, already got an Autogauge boost/vacuum gauge which I will install tomorrow, and if someone can confirm that my motor mount is broken I'll have to order that too (along with the front, and possibly the tranny mount if the consensus is to do those 3 at once). Future upgrades include installing the FMIC I got with the car and doing whatever I can to help engine management. (gonna take a few more weeks to familiarize myself with the car, browse the threads, get a better idea of what I need).
But to your point, your absolutely right
Totally slapped a turbo onto the stock engine and released it to the world....that's all....I mean, C'MON! REALLY!?
and the 323 Turbo is sick, it's a common mod to take that engine and throw it onto the MX-3. There's even a guy I know doing an AWD MX-3 conversion (shocked) That should be pretty crazy. And BTW, Mazda DID get it right with the 323 Turbo, which used the same engine as the Protege with upgraded internals.
It sucks that they dropped the BP for the FS-DE for this generation, it sucks even more that a BP engine isn't a direct bolt on to this car, cause if it was I'd be doing a BP swap this weekend (lol2). BP=130 HP, BP-T=200 HP, FS-DE turbo=170 HP...WHAT?!...oh, and the 6.5K redline, when the BP and BP-T went to 7K SMH.......at least you can throw on a KLZE (headbang)....or if that's hard to source, pick up a KLDE, which would basically be a naturally aspirated version of the FS-DE turbo
One thing is for certain, I wouldn't recommend this car to someone who has never picked up a wrench. But I can tell you that I'm still a fanboy of Mazda. The only reason I spent so much time fixing the MX-3 wasn't because it was crappy, it's because it was a 20 year old car. There was nothing I fixed or changed or upgraded on that car (save for the engine, that was my fault) that went bad after replacing. Whether it was OEM or performance parts, that car was reliable. So I'm hoping with the MSP, I can keep it like that just as well.
Or the short version of my first impression: I like everything but the drivetrain. I'm gonna upgrade what I can, not necessarily to get the best performance, but definitely to get the most reliability. (If I can get the best of both worlds, that's fine by me)
BTW, I personally would ditch that Mazdaspeed graphic going across your car, but otherwise it looks great (thumb)
The stock tune did leave a bit to be desired but it was more of a flat spot than bucking. Mazda did cheap out on the internals and tune but they put so much else into these cars (SRT-4s took the exact opposite approach.) I've always loved the looks, handling, and fit and fininsh of my MSP; the only think it lacked was a little more power. When you get your car's issues sorted out you'll love it but the car is going to fight you all along the way ...... good luck and welcome to the forums!
i dont have an msp but ive been in some and ive never experienced bucking. maybe there is another issue that you havent seen yet. an fmic is also a good call, responds very well with the car. i say, get an fmic, a different turbo manifold, and see where you are. if youre not happy, get your ecu reflashed by a member on here or get an ssafc.
im2bad4ya welcome to the MSP club. And thanks for adding your "First Impressions" as much as I like talking about my car. I mostly wanted to start a thread to review and get some first thoughts, first impressions from NEW users and give them a forum for the new guys to ask some questions, or even just read our experiences without being told to "search" or whatever. lol I gotta say, you dont count tho! YOU OWNED A MAZDA BEFORE! AHAHAH Just kidding man. I came from Honda, so I was slightly disappointed when I floored it, excited for boost, and.... boost kill!! FUEL CUT! BUCKING! Thought I blew my motor, turbo, tranny, lsd. POOPED MYSELF! BBBBBBOOOO!! LMFAO
Its amazing how any other car has potential even without a tune, buy this, OR buy that, OR that, OR that, but with us, it seems like first and most important step is SS-AFC, without that, anything else will practically be useless. exhaust, still crappy ems... intake, crappy ems.... forge wastegate, cant turn up boost cuz CRAPPY EMS..... turbo upgrade, crappy ems. hahahahah We seriously might have the only car people are ripping turbo charged motors out of, in favor of naturally aspirated versions hahahah
I love this thing tho. I actually kinda like the bucking, cuz its in the back of my mind and keeps me from beating on it til I can fix all the corresponding parts before ss-afc. I am not completely dumb to think my USED 10 YR OLD TURBO car is healthy and ready for more boost, and harder driving.... My car is going to maintain PSI where it is until I confirm whether or not, I am Forged. And freshen up some areas. There are definitely some long term members on this forum. So its not all bad. Just takes time, patience and money to redo the things Mazda skipped.
And as for the Vinyl.... IT GREW ON ME!! If Mazda jumped on Fast and Furious bandwagon, why cant I?! hahaha When I first saw pics, I got the blow dryer and razor blades ready.... Bbbbbut Gold stitch seats, Gold Sparco knob, Gold Trim. It actually looks pretty sick in person. I am going to embrace it and add Gold calipers, Gold catch can, and a gold 626 Valve cover and mmmmmaybe going to Plasticolor the rims in Gold too.
Its amazing how any other car has potential even without a tune, buy this, OR buy that, OR that, OR that, but with us, it seems like first and most important step is SS-AFC, without that, anything else will practically be useless. exhaust, still crappy ems... intake, crappy ems.... forge wastegate, cant turn up boost cuz CRAPPY EMS..... turbo upgrade, crappy ems. hahahahah We seriously might have the only car people are ripping turbo charged motors out of, in favor of naturally aspirated versions hahahah
I love this thing tho. I actually kinda like the bucking, cuz its in the back of my mind and keeps me from beating on it til I can fix all the corresponding parts before ss-afc. I am not completely dumb to think my USED 10 YR OLD TURBO car is healthy and ready for more boost, and harder driving.... My car is going to maintain PSI where it is until I confirm whether or not, I am Forged. And freshen up some areas. There are definitely some long term members on this forum. So its not all bad. Just takes time, patience and money to redo the things Mazda skipped.
And as for the Vinyl.... IT GREW ON ME!! If Mazda jumped on Fast and Furious bandwagon, why cant I?! hahaha When I first saw pics, I got the blow dryer and razor blades ready.... Bbbbbut Gold stitch seats, Gold Sparco knob, Gold Trim. It actually looks pretty sick in person. I am going to embrace it and add Gold calipers, Gold catch can, and a gold 626 Valve cover and mmmmmaybe going to Plasticolor the rims in Gold too.
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- 1989 RX-7 GXL Blaze Red
I was experiencing bucking with an MBC then i ripped it out and it ran great. When that stopped I fell in love again. 10 year old car that looks miles better than a lot of what they're manufacturing today.
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- 03.5 YLW MSP
I'm afraid to say but you must have massive issues with your MSP. If you were down in jaxs, fl I'd help you get all those straight and show you what a MSP can do without a tune or a SSAFC ect on it.
Here is my setup
Perrin FMIC, relocated MAF, 3" dp, 3" catless midpipe, greddy sp2 catback, awr passenger mount, injen cai(converted to sri), forged wga, tein s-tech springs, stock bpv setup for vta, perrin adjustable shifter, corksport shifter bushings, weighted shift knob(no name brand i think), excedy stage 1 clutch, fidanza flywheel, mfactory diff and runnign aroudn 10psi..... 1st gear is a joke and no point in getting on it as all it does it roast the tires and it even breaks 2nd gear loose if you romp on it every now and then.
To give you a idea the power output. The car did 210ish whp at 9psi with the stock down pipe and midpipe. Now that I've switched those two out its another animal. YES thats with the stock non-flashed ECU and no sort of ems.
Edit: Its also kind of hard to compared these cars to hondas as they normally have stupid high redlines compared to these cars.
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Damn :"(
I LOVE ME SOME STUPID HIGH REDLINES!...though the newer gen Civic Si is REEDICK, something like 9K?? [I've driven an '08, it's just not fair what that car can do STOCK]
It's just anything below 7 Redline is like "EH..."
I figured out actually why you like the vinyl across the car 03MSP86, it harkens you back to the Honda days, when guys would throw stickers on the their doors of manufactures for which no parts were installed on the car, all in a row, AEM, Injen, H&R, Mugen, Skunk2, Eibach, Wilwood...."dude, how much extra HP you get with those?" (cryhard) Nah, I keed.
On a serious note though, I only found out about the, let's say 'less than stellar', MSP drivetrain, all after I got the car. Before that I've heard earlier 2nd gen RX-8 were notoriously bad as well (i think the 2008 to about 2010). It saw one at the dealer with about 50,000 miles asking $10K. Though at least with the RX-8's, Mazda took care of those customers, apparently not so with the MSPs. It just made me wonder how the hell did they screw this up? '90's Mazda are AWESOME! Protege's, MX-3's, MX-6's, MPV's and of coures the RX-7's. Then the 2000's came along and they dropped the ball on a few models, the sporty ones no less! (gah)
But on more "first impression" stories, a few things I wanna gripe about. The windshield wipers. When you go to mist (switch all the way up) the wipers work at the normal speed. On my MX, they worked at full speed (the washer fluid switch worked full speed as well). Can't stand the normal speed in Mist or Washer fluid mode, gonna see if I can hack it and re-wire so it goes full speed for both. And also the lack of an adjustable intermittent switch.
Another one that kills me are the locks on the door. Why did they move the lock to the top of the door panel??? I liked the original old school handles with the lock built into the opener:
Easy access to open the door. Though this might be me being confortable with my old car that had an aftermarket alarm system. When you shut the car off, all the doors would unlock automatically. So I won't take away points for that one, but still bad call on moving the position of the lock. Are converting to these styles locks a pain to do or plug and play? I'd do that conversion as well (I still have a spare of chrome handles like these from my MX).
Wow you really just need to stop doggin the car. It can be a great car if you have a positive attitude and put in a little work, but if you're going to dislike everything about it and b**** about it you might as well just get something else. Just my 2 cents.
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- 1989 RX-7 GXL Blaze Red
This! You need to realize the rarity of the car.
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I couldnt agree more with what MP5T said earlier, it wasnt thought out, and it wasnt executed properly.
First and Foremost the real question is, WTF was Mazda thinking with the POS FS-DE? They blow N/A all the time, just ask FS Probe/MX6 guys how long they've been grenading FSs for.
Mazda should have put a BPT in the MSP. The 1st gen BPTs were damn near indestructible, and SO MUCH MORE FUN to drive. It could have been done too, seeing how Mazda had reincarnated the BPT in the 04-05 Mazdaspeed Miata.
First and Foremost the real question is, WTF was Mazda thinking with the POS FS-DE? They blow N/A all the time, just ask FS Probe/MX6 guys how long they've been grenading FSs for.
Mazda should have put a BPT in the MSP. The 1st gen BPTs were damn near indestructible, and SO MUCH MORE FUN to drive. It could have been done too, seeing how Mazda had reincarnated the BPT in the 04-05 Mazdaspeed Miata.
Agreed! BPT's have some amazing potential!
BUT, The FSDE's do as well, the oil pump seems to be the main killer on these.
Ford/Mazda in this year range was scrambling to put out a car to compete with all of the "tuner" cars that were already out on the market. I also own a SVT Focus, it has just as many crappy issues as the MSP does.
BUT, The FSDE's do as well, the oil pump seems to be the main killer on these.
Ford/Mazda in this year range was scrambling to put out a car to compete with all of the "tuner" cars that were already out on the market. I also own a SVT Focus, it has just as many crappy issues as the MSP does.
LOL NOBODIES "DOGGING" IT. Were discussing our first impressions. Obviously it takes time and work but the point is WHAT WAS MAZDA THINKIN, not what can I do to improve..... And actually I don't know if it just needed some consistent runtime but mines running pretty good. I've learned to drive it. A lot of my issue is I shift at 35k right about when turbo spools lol And to keep in kind. Its not a Honda and its basically stock so I shouldn't beat on her hahah
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- 1989 RX-7 GXL Blaze Red
Even on a stock tune with everything stock you can. As soon a you put an MBC an try to up boost you start getting fuel cut. From what I've experienced.
I'm not 'doggin' the car, and even if I was, so what? Now that I own one, I'm more than entitled
I'm merely talking about my 'first impressions' going from one Mazda to another. If you've ever been in an MX-3 and you saw my points, you might agree, but obviously you don't. It's not like I'm gonna get rid of the car over these little quirks, I'll get accustomed to them. so kick rocks!
Rarity ≠ Quality; you know what else was rare? a Dodge Daytona Shelby (I haven't even seen a regular Dodge Daytona on the road since 1999 when my friend owned one)
EGTT91 and Twinmotor are on point: BP's are damn near indestructible, and the BPT?? those engines are awesome. I've been reading many of the weak links of the FSDE (at this point, when you have MANY 'weak links' you just have a weak chain). If the BP/BPT was a direct bolt on, I'd put it in over the weekend.
Before I swapped my BP i had the underpowered stock B6, at one point I hadn't changed the oil on it for 2 years, car still ran like a champ!
B-series Mazda engines > FS-DE
take that to the bank
and just for the record, Mazdaspeed Protege's are FS-DE engines with a turbo on it.
BPT's are NOT BP's with a turbo on it, BPT's actually had forged pistons and other upgraded internals (depending if you had a GTR or GTX).
