Thanks. I filed a police report, I think it was my ex girlfriend, haven’t talked to her since when my motor blew the second time and I dropped out of school. So it’s been a year or two. Anyways, I’ve ended up in kinda a stuck spot the past couple months on the Protegé, and I’m finally coming to a solution that I can see an end to. I’ve struggled with overheating, high IATs, and tuning and injectors all summer. Not to mention the turbo setup cracking apart before I could finish it. I keep saying I’m going to update but I still haven’t. I looked back at some old pics of my protege and working on my old friends Subaru and I got a little kick to keep chugging and not sell the car. I’ve put probably 12k into this thing and all I want is for it to have 200hp on a good day.
Since I last had a thorough update to this forum, I blew my motor and couldn’t figure out the knocking. It was the flex plate and the loose bolts caused the teeth to knock on the starter gear. I realized this after I had rebuilt the motor again. I went with wiseco pistons, k1 rods, and I think DNJ water and oil pumps along with DNJ gaskets and bearings. Probably could’ve gone with something better but I didn’t have my head on straight.
Once I finally got the motor back into the car, I tried to start it and the starter could barely turn the motor. It was the torque converter not properly seated into the transmission. I pulled the engine and transmission out again to fix it and my buddy gave me a call. His girlfriend needed a new car because her Subaru legacy was knocking, and he found a manual red P5 near us for $1k. We all decided to go look at it and while we were there, I proposed to his girlfriend that I pay her $400 for the manual transmission and related parts for the car, AND I swap it all over from my car into hers. Her Subaru was still chugging along so she let me do it. I had help from my friend, and we got on it.
I decided to fully jump into wiring the car for a standalone. I spent a good few weeks creating diagrams and circuits for the speeduino, along with a digital dash, a mini PC mounted in the dash for tuning and a canbus hat on an arduino to interact with the ABS module. I ended up redoing the engine wiring harness 4 total times (so far). Not out of necessity but because I wanted something bulletproof, and reliable. Last time I did it, I ended up using 5 pole trailer wire, it’s a very heavy harness
For the red car we had to get a new wiring harness, since I cut up my old automatic one, and I had to swap the cv axles over along with the knuckles and hubs. This is important because the red p5 didn’t have ABS, while my yellow one did. I plan on adding ABS back to my Protegé, but I haven’t cared enough to pay for the knuckles and the axles. We resealed the engine, and put new bearings and rings in, and found out it was a JDM FS-ZE. Anyways it all went pretty well and smoothly, and I decided to keep the 150k mile clutch in while I learn to drive manual. In September, we got both cars fired up, and he daily drove it for 7 months before selling it in February 2025. His girlfriends Subaru kept running, and we never finished his project car, since he stopped talking to me and ended up selling it. Really liked that car. Good friendship too.
Anyways now we’re getting closer to the present, and here’s how things have gone with the Protegé since ~October 2024. I worked at NAPA with my aforementioned buddy, and I got addicted to buying car parts (and things for my awesome new girlfriend) from napa, and I decided to buy a 98 civic radiator to fit into my protege. The idea was when summer came I’d be able to upgrade to a aluminum racing civic radiator for cheaper than a mishimoto protege radiator.
I ran it like this for the winter. And got my GED in December!
My car ran off and on for a while, struggling with tuning, a smoking turbo, and alternators(eventually settling on a 626 alt). I bought an oil accumulator, and after that I decided to go for a water to air intercooler. Since I liked the idea of having shorter intake piping and it would be a unique thing to have.
That ended up working pretty well, and I had ice cold IATs. It was on about 10psi of boost. It was still winter though, so I had no clue what to expect when summer came around.
I ended up getting laid off from NAPA on Feb. 28, and I haven’t had a job since. I ran out of money and with my protege and girlfriend, I was (and still am) pretty screwed. I got my b series manifold back from my friend and I installed it.
I convinced another friend to buy a cheap “head gasket” protege for $500. We ended up buying it and tearing into it and replacing it all just to find out that it had no compression. Felt really stupid. He let me have some aftermarket parts off of it and I gave him some of my stock parts in return and he sold it.
The heat started to come in as April came around, and I noticed it overheating on a warmer than usual day trying to climb a canyon road near my house. It was because of my stock size civic radiator not being able to handle the heat. I upgraded to a Nissan Silvia S14 aluminum racing style radiator, and it kept overheating, from an improperly bled thermostat. I ended up pulling the thermostat out and it fixed it but wouldn’t stay warm. I tried keeping the thermostat in, and it finally bled thoroughly, but it was still running hot. My airfilter ended up punching a hole in that radiator.
I got a new Mishimoto Evo X half size radiator from who I assume to be a porch pirate, since it was so cheap and had the adress torn off. It didn’t help with the overheating, and it was smaller than the old one.
Now we’re at the present, where I’ve swapped my coils for Audi pencil top/r8 coils. I’ve tried a bunch of different thermostat housings to clear my downpipe, and I’ve learned a lot about tuning. I’ve gone through 6 sets of injectors. And still no solution to my overheating. Tried a lot of different things and nothing could tell me why it just won’t shed heat. I still don’t know. I think it’s that half size radiator, and the downpipe almost touching the thermostat.
Last night, I pulled the b series turbo manifold off, since it was cracking and I can’t stand the dumped exhaust, nor can my nostrils or girlfriend. I decided to buy another cheap Chinese turbo (with money I’ve made working on family, friends, and neighbors vehicles), and put the old manifold and downpipe back on. It’s getting here on the 6th. I’m going to use an oil restrictor and hope that it saves it.
I also found someone in my city selling a used mishimoto protege radiator. Just my luck, maybe I’ll end the overheating too while I’m at it. I think a full size radiator and a stock turbo setup should solve my overheating. I’m also going to be keeping the A/C too, which is going to made life harder for the cooling system.
I’ve had a million injector issues too, and I’ve gone through about 6 sets,but all that matters is that they were either too small, too dirty, too sensitive to voltage changes, or fake. I think I have a solution lined up, but I’ll have to see.
Anyways I’m really excited to have this car finally at the finish line, and sorry for typing out such a bulky and probably confusing post. I don’t know what’s interesting to people and I don’t know what people want to know about, so there’s my basic rundown of it. I’m honestly just feeling some good motivation the past day or two and I’ve enrolled in college for electrical engineering too so I’m just in an excited mood. Honestly it’s first time I’ve felt motivated since my motor blew the second time.
Sorry if this post is out of whack, I wanted to update everyone after a long while, and I’ve been out of whack myself for a long while.
