Clunk & Mazdaspeed Parts

J

JonnyMiata

Member
I had stopped by the Mazda dealership yesterday to see if I could get them to replace my bushings again since the clunk is coming back ( I know, newf). Anyway I drove their master tech down a local road that I know it will clunk and it did. We then jumped in a brand new MSP with 10 miles on it and drove down the same road.....CLUNK. He said he is going to work on this new MSP and see if he can come up with a fix. I am not holding my breath.

I asked him if he had heard if Mazda was coming out with hop-up parts for the Speed and he said.....NO. He heard that they are not going to be made. I told him that I would like to get an intake to make it breath a bit more free. He said what would really make this car fly is getting the engine port matched. I am not sure what he mean by this. Can anyone clue me in on this?

I also ordered new Energy Suspension sway bar bushing from Summit Racing. They were $14. I thought I would give this a try. If nothing else at least I can bond with my Speed a bit.

That's all I got.
 
JonnyMiata said:
He said what would really make this car fly is getting the engine port matched. I am not sure what he mean by this. Can anyone clue me in on this?
Click to expand...

By port matching he COULD mean a few things...what it usually means is to make the intake runners on the intake manifold the same port size/shape (diameter/shape of the hole) as the intake ports on the head. Same goes with the exhaust ports and the exhaust manifold (turbo manifold).

I'm not sure if anyone knows how different the port sizes are from eachother, but it could help flow things a bit better.

He COULD have also meant a port & polish job on the head, which would open up the intake and exhaust ports on the head to potentially make the head flow better...and then along with that, do the aformentioned port matching. The reason I say "potentially", is because if you open up the ports too much you will lose effeciency and hurt performance...the best way to do this would be to have the head put on a flow bench before the porting is started, and try to improve on the flow from there.

He COULD have also meant to have the turbo exhaust or intake houseing ported out.

Without asking him exactly what he meant, your guess is as good as mine.
 
Wouldn't it be harder to overdo the port opening for a boosted engine? I understand the port velocity issue, but it seems to me that if one does the job intelligently (I know, I know: Tall order there...) then one could open the ports quite a bit and the boost would make up for port speed issues...
 
scapamouche said:
Wouldn't it be harder to overdo the port opening for a boosted engine? I understand the port velocity issue, but it seems to me that if one does the job intelligently (I know, I know: Tall order there...) then one could open the ports quite a bit and the boost would make up for port speed issues...
Click to expand...

That's kinda what I was thinking. I would think the thing to be weary of is grinding into the water jacket when opening the ports and combustion chamber. Or just thinning the material too much around a water jacket. Port matching the exhaust manifold to the head is a great idea, smoothing out any exhaust restrictions so the turbo can spool up quicker. Seems to me motors are comming from the factory pretty well port matched already. It just makes sence if you look at it from an efficiency aspect. And it's not that hard to accomplish with modern production techniques.

But I'm really concerned about the 9.1:1 pistons in this motor. That's a lot of initial CR for a turbo motor, and really limits the amount of total boost we can safely run.
 
BremertonMSP said:
But I'm really concerned about the 9.1:1 pistons in this motor. That's a lot of initial CR for a turbo motor, and really limits the amount of total boost we can safely run.
Click to expand...

I've just got to say, that this is a bunch of :bs:, unless of course you plan to do nothing but turn up the knob on your boost controler and press down on the gas pedal.

True, you can buy lower compression pistons that would be "easier/safer" to raise the boost with, but a properly fueled and timed engine would have no problem running high boost (i.e. 15 - 20 psi...i've seen it done) on 9.1:1 compression pistons. What you should be concerned about is the strength of the rods and the block, and the construction of the piston. The only thing that comes into play with a "higher" compression piston is fuel starvation, and that can be overcome with the proper injectors/ecu programming/timing.
 
JonnyMiata said:
I had stopped by the Mazda dealership yesterday to see if I could get them to replace my bushings again since the clunk is coming back ( I know, newf). Anyway I drove their master tech down a local road that I know it will clunk and it did. We then jumped in a brand new MSP with 10 miles on it and drove down the same road.....CLUNK. He said he is going to work on this new MSP and see if he can come up with a fix. I am not holding my breath.

I asked him if he had heard if Mazda was coming out with hop-up parts for the Speed and he said.....NO. He heard that they are not going to be made. I told him that I would like to get an intake to make it breath a bit more free. He said what would really make this car fly is getting the engine port matched. I am not sure what he mean by this. Can anyone clue me in on this?

I also ordered new Energy Suspension sway bar bushing from Summit Racing. They were $14. I thought I would give this a try. If nothing else at least I can bond with my Speed a bit.

That's all I got.
Click to expand...

What's the status on these Energy Suspension bushings? They were REALLY good for the Maxima, how bout the Speed? :D
 
I get these installed on Friday. The Mazdaspeed rep was out at my dealer this past week and wanted to know how their MSP owners liked their cars. My service manager told him about the Clunk problems. He said that they are aware of the problem and that the fix that they suggested for the MP3's is not working and that they are working on another fix.

It is good to hear that they are aware and are supposedly working on something.
 
Part# is 9.5157G. These do not come with the grease so you will need get some if you don't already.

I bought mine from Summit Racing.
 
I get these installed on Friday......this means that I don't have them installed yet but this Friday (May 9th) I will have them on the car. I will report back and let you know how they feel.

I got this info about the bushing from another member of the forum. I think his name is Pumpkin. His sig says that he is using them and has not had any clunks. I thought for $14.....why not. My dealer is installing them for free and even giving me a loaner while they do it.
 
I was just kicking around the Racing Beat site. They had "suggested" moving the sway bar mounts out to a different location all the way back on the MP3. Take a look at the link attched and see what the proposed.

http://www.racingbeat.com/FRprotege.htm

Now the question is, if we have this part made, will it cure the problem? It seems way to easy for the folks at Mazda to have missed, but I wouldn't be surprised, they are in the Ford family.
 
Guys,

I was checking my endlinks last night and they appear to be warping at the connecting points (i.e. stressing at the connection points more than usual. They appear not to be flushly mounted now)..

Are you guys experiencing this?
 
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