Ready to Mod up the Protege

[R3dRuM]

Hey everyone,

I got my 2001 Protege 5-spd manual back in September '09 for some small change and didn't have high expectations to begin with. I drive a lot for work and figured it wasn't going to last me too long as I bought it with 150 km.

It's now at 186 km and still going strong! I got some spare cash lying around and am starting to consider modding it up before it kicks the bucket - whenever that will be. I used to do all of the mechanical work for the VW I used to own before, and am slowly learning my way around the Protege.

So far I've only replaced the stock radio with a Sony system, but am looking to change up the shift box and fix up the appearance before throwing things in the hood. I put up some recent pics below.

Looking forward to learning from some of the people here...

 

[R3dRuM]

Short Shifter

So today I installed the TWM Performance short shifter for the car. I wanted to change up the interior a little bit after cleaning up the whole car. Also the stock shifter was squeaky past the point of mild annoyance.

New shifter is significantly more comfortable to drive with. It sits a lot lower and has a sporty feel because of the shorter throw. Should make good use of it once I actually throw in the turbo. Very easy to install (aside from removing the rusted screws on my underbody). I bought it from http://www.twmperformance.com/shortshifters/ if anyone's interested. I also attached some pictures of the actual installation process - so if anyone has any questions in the future...

Next step: put in a turbo... any advice on turbos from those of you that really went all-out on your Pro's?

 

[Wagonbacker9]

depends on your definition of "all-out"

if you go with anything larger than a T25, you shold seriously consider forged engine internals (yes, a T28 can be run on stock internals, but the turbo is capable of more than the rods are), but people have gone so far as GT35s, and several variations of T3/T04 turbos.