My MSP project

[polaris]

You CAN just remove the VTCS butterflies, but it's not too much work to give it a light porting to make everything smooth. You'll at least need to fill the holes where the rod for the butterflies went through the IM. The attached PDF has all the details.

And if you haven't discovered this thread yet, I think you'll find it quite useful
http://www.mazdas247.com/forum/showthread.php?123715657-How-To-Quick-Links-(sticky-version)

Looks easy enough. What do you know about removing the VICS as well. Ive heard good things about how it improves performance and is much less restrictive before 5200 RPM, but havent heard too much about the downside. Is it a good idea to go ahead and do both, or do you think im opening up a pandora's box of new probs.

I know that the whole engine system is engineered and designed to work "nominally" (i use the term loosely), and sometimes opening up a few more horsies with even the simplest of mods disrupts the balance that most engines (especially this one) need to not run like s***. Im trying to avoid a situation as such...

 

[hornsfan10609]

If you modify the intake, leave the VICS or you will lose power. The ECU in these cars and most others are adaptive and honestly they aren't very finicky or complicated they are relatively basic you just have to make sure everything is working properly first.

 

[polaris]

...so its been a while since I've posted on this thread (since last sept). Although I may have not had the time to post my progress, I have been hard at work on my MSP. Except for a few more installs, I have the motor pretty close to where I want it. I've collected as many pics as I could to show you what I've done in the last 7 months.

 

[polaris]

I decided I want to get the car closer to the ground, but I wanted to stay away from lowering springs. Coilovers would be nice, but they're pretty expensive. I was happy with the way the wheels set in the wheel wells, so I decided to leave them be. So instead I added a front lip to give it a bit of a lower appearance. I got a lip for a 2006 WRX, and with a little trimming, I got it on ok. The lip wasn't a perfect fit. The sides of the lip close to the wheels are probably about an inch too far forward. But its barely noticeable in my opinion...

 

[polaris]

I wanted to tighten up the interior a bit, so I made a list of the things I wanted to change and/or fix. First thing on my list was the oem steering wheel. Like many other MSP wheels, the gray leather was beat to s*** and wasn't exactly gray anymore. I looked around to find a wheel in better condition, but the better the condition, the more expensive it was. I considered just using a p5 wheel (it looks the same, but all black and no gray), but it just wasn't what I was looking for. I even found a near-perfect condition Nardi Miata wheel at the local junkyard. As I was planning to do the install, the Chef at my work gave me an old 13" GT Grant that he used to have on his 300z. It had a carbon fiber look to it (a lot like the trim on the center dash), and it matched well. It was a bit hard to find a 5 hole hub to fit my car. I ended up getting a 3 hole hub and put a 5 hole adapter on it. In the end, I was unhappy with it so I got a NRG short hub and a quick release. I actually had to buy 2 quick releases due to the fact that the hub is 6 holes, and the wheel is 5. I couldn't find a quick release with the 2 different hole patterns so I bought one of each. I then took the 2 quick releases apart and then combined the two and was able to get it to work.

I bought and tried a couple different horn buttons to top everything off. I decided on the one pictured above.

 

[polaris]

Another thing that bothered me was the shift knob. The leather had come off it and it looked and especially felt a bit weird. I thought about what I could wrap around it that wouldn't look cheap, and came up with this...

I went to Home Depot and bought 3 packages of rubber O-rings. I stretched each one individually on until it was all covered up. The rubber also adds a bit of grip to the knob. The rings fit well into the recess and were tight enough to where there was no slack or movement from them. I was pleased with the results.

 

[polaris]

With all the fancy interior accessories that the MSP had (shift knob, pedals, yellow stitched seats and shift boot, I always felt disappointed with the e-brake. I looked for an upgrade for the protg, but came up with nothing. I liked the way an aftermarket mazda 3 carbon fiber e-brake looked, so I got it. To finish it off, I ordered an e-brake boot with yellow stitching for a 2010 mustang. I had to cut all the rubber off the oem lever. But with a bit of careful positioning, I got the handle and the boot on without too much of a problem.

 

[polaris]

Earlier, I purchased a ssafc and planned to put it in after I got a few more things ironed out with the motor. So of course Id need a wideband to accompany the afc. I found a dual gauge a-pillar for a protg at Speedhut. It was a direct fit over the oem a-pillar, so it looked much better than the one I had screwed on before. I plan to do the ssafc and wideband at the same time, so I didn't hook the wideband up, but I got it mounted and wired on the gauge side.

Also while doing the interior, I decided to upgrade the head unit to a Kenwood touch screen. I really like the way it looks in the dash. Installed the parking brake bypass so now i can watch anime while driving. I may install a reverse camera sometime in the future. Not really something i need, but technology has a tendency to act as a guilty pleasure at times.

 

[polaris]

So now it was back to the motor. When I originally bought the car, it was missing the strut brace. I looked into getting the oem replacement, but it was more than $300. Also, I think the stock one is pretty ugly, so I began looking for an aftermarket one. I found a few websites that still had a few listed. But when trying to order them, I was told they were discontinued and no one had them in stock. I tried getting the GT Spec, but they stopped making ones for the protgs years ago. I then looked into getting a Cusco (it was the most expensive, but the best quality product of the ones I had to choose from. Again I was brick walled and came up empty-handed. I did, however, get one place to contact Cusco in Japan and special order the brace. At first, they agreed and said I would have it in about 8 weeks. About 6 weeks in they contacted me and said I,d need to order at least 10 for them to do a small run and ship it. In a last ditch effort, I somehow found this little business in china that had a few old Familia goodies laying around. I ordered the part and it came to me in a timely manner, especially shipping overseas. I've since ordered a few other things from them, including a Familia badge.

 

[polaris]

Thinking more about the turbo setup, I like the quick spool up response I get with the smic. As with any forced induction system, the shorter the charge piping, the quicker the response. But the stock smic pretty much sucks in any ambient temp greater than 80F. Theres a few upgrades out there, but theres only so much you can do with the limited room you have to work with in a side mount setup. And then finding an aluminum radiator to go with the side mount setup will leave you with very few options. And when you did find an upgraded radiator and smic, it would cost around $1000 all said and done. So moving to a fmic seemed the logical thing to do in this dying protg platform. I ordered a csx fmic and a diy 2.5" (up from the 2.25" I previously installed) aluminum piping kit. For cooling, I got a mishimoto radiator and fan shroud. The total for everything came out to about $700. Still not cheap, but better than $1000.

In most MSP fmic setups, the hot pipe runs off to the passenger side to link up with the intercooler, and comes back up on the drivers side to the TB. Although this is a proven technique, I always felt like trying to squeeze a pipe through all the ac compressor and coolant hose mess looked like a huge pain in the ass. I did some measurements and a bit of research, and decided id run the hot pipe and cold pipe on the same side with a same side intercooler. Finding one that was small enough to fit proved to be a bit challenging, as you all know there isn't a lot of room up there to work with. I ended up having to cut down the bumper brace to get the ic up high enough to clear the bottom of the bumper. There was definitely not enough room to get two 2.5" pipes through there. Most people use the hole that's there already to run the charge piping through. However, I installed a velocity stack in the drivers side fog light hole, and planned to run a 90 pipe up through that hole to bring in more fresh air and keep my intake air temp as low as it can go. So I needed to find another route. After cutting a bunch of metal out of that area, I was able to get it all in there. I wanted to get my cold pipe as far away from the motor as possible, so I relocated the battery to the back to give me some extra room. In an attempt to eliminate compressor surge, I moved my BOV to the hot pipe. Didn't kill the surge, but I think it looks pretty cool where it is.

 

[polaris]

After getting everything snug and secure with the charge piping and intercooler, I went to put the bumper back on. The intercooler was just a bit too big and I couldn't get the bumper to fit properly. I really wanted to avoid removing and/or cutting the grill if at all possible. I did have to shave a bit off the back off the grill, but it wasn't noticeable in the front, so no harm done. Also while I had the bumper off, I installed some new lights I had laying around (originally got for my wife's p5, but they were wrong ones for that car and would require modification to the wiring harnesses) Little did I know Id end up with my own protg later, and would benefit from that mistake. They're the same as oem, but have black interiors instead of gray. I do have a silver and black exterior theme goin on, so they ended up fitting in quite nicely. I had to really pull and stretch to get the bumper back on, but got it on eventually. This is how it all turned out:

 

[polaris]

The effect of the new setup on performance was definitely noticeable. The response time was a bit slower, and it took a bit longer to spool than before. But once it did spool up, the increased pipe size really made a difference. Even while driving around casually, everything seemed to be a bit smoother than before. In my old setup, my BOV was on the cold pipe about 6" from the maf. I didn't have too many problems with it, but when venting between gears, you could definitely tell it was giving the maf trouble (if the air is vented through the BOV too close to the maf, the air has a moment of latency and its noticeable). I still get a lil hesitation between gears in WOT, but its certainly improved with the BOV relocation. Once I get the ssafc in, I'm hoping it'll smooth off those edges.

Another thing I noticed was happening is the engine bay would eventually get heat soaked, the car would start losing performance. When opening the hood to investigate, I noticed its getting a lot hotter than it was before. I realized that now with the all aluminum radiator, it was dissipating heat way better than the oem plastic one. But that extra heat is soaking into my charge piping and killing performance. Also with that big intercooler in the front, its taking away some of air that usually flows through and cools the radiator. I figure the solution to the problem is more air into the engine bay. Radiator air diversion plates help a bit, but after thorough searching for one, I came up with nothing. I got some pics of a few and I feel I can prolly get a flat piece of aluminum and fabricate one myself. Seems a pair of tin snips and a few bends is all it would take. In the meantime, Im still hoping to run into one for sale.

The only other practical way to get more air into the engine bay is a hood scoop. As far as hoods go for MSP, there still seems to be a few to choose from, especially carbon fiber ones. There was one I saw by DG that had a working ram air inlet. It was pretty expensive ($1200), but I really like the way it looks...

But realistically, it wont bring enough air in solve the problem. I also saw an EVO style hood. There were 2 different variations I found (both were around $700-$800):

Im not huge on EVO style hoods on a protg, but this style seems it would be the best to accomplish my goal. I like the way the 1st EVO hood looks more than the 2nd, but the 2nd would bring the most air in. I plan to think on it a bit more before I make a definitive decision. If anyone has any suggestions on other ways to get air in there, Im open to them...

 

[dragonballspeed]

You can remove some of the underhood temperatures with just a few simple tricks. 1st remove the rubber moldings on the hood, 2nd remove the hood insulation, and 3rd create simple aluminum side plates and air diversion panel as mentioned to channel the air through the coolers. The attached link will give you and idea of what you are trying to accomplish with the ducting. http://www.awrracing.com/images/dgpr5_images/frt_rmvd.jpg

 

[hornsfan10609]

I've already seen it in person, but nice work man!

 

[polaris]

dragonballspeed


You can remove some of the underhood temperatures with just a few simple tricks. 1st remove the rubber moldings on the hood, 2nd remove the hood insulation, and 3rd create simple aluminum side plates and air diversion panel as mentioned to channel the air through the coolers. The attached link will give you and idea of what you are trying to accomplish with the ducting. http://www.awrracing.com/images/dgpr...s/frt_rmvd.jpg

Thanks for the response. That definitely gives me some ideas to divert more air in. After a bit more research, I decided to go with the 2nd evo style hood. In the meantime, Ill remove the molding and perhaps the insulation (removing insulation can result in damaging the paint on the hood, especially in the exhaust mani/turbo area). And thanks to mica.msp, I got a radiator diverter on the way.

hornsfan10609


I've already seen it in person, but nice work man!

Thanks!!! It's certainly come a long way. Thanks for all your help/advice that's helped to make this possible.

 

[polaris]

So the new hood came in and I got it on with no problems (it was super light...about 20lbs). I needed to drive across town, so I had a chance to see how it ran with the new hood. The cutaways in the hood are directly over the exhaust mani and BOV. There are 2 more inlets closer to the sides of the hood and the one on the drivers side puts it pretty close to my air filter luckily enough. The difference it made was incredible! Even after about 45 mins of in-town driving, the engine bay and charge piping were very noticeably cooler. Also with the BOV right under the vent, it's much louder now (almost too loud). As far as looks, even though I wasn't a big fan of the Evo-style hood (judging from pictures), in person I think it's beautiful. I don't feel the vents and scoops look "out of place" like a lot of aftermarket hoods can look on cars. The lines of the vents match pretty well with the lines on the car in my opinion...

The carbon fiber matches well with the titanium silver paint and gunmetal wheels. I've been scoping out a carbon fiber front lip and side splitters for a while. They're about $300 a piece so I may have to wait a bit on those. The diverter came in about the same time as the hood. Originally the diverter was painted, but the past owner had it sandblasted. I thought to just polish it, but it was rough enough to where it needed to be polished with a machine. I took it to a metal finishing place here in Austin, and they wanted $150 to polish it. I then decided to just paint it. I looked at a few auto parts places and eventually found a gunmetal color that would match my color scheme nicely. I primed and painted it, and its currently awaiting clear coat. Ill post a pic once its finished and installed.

 

[polaris]

So I got 3 coats of clear coat on it for extra protection. The gunmetal matches my rims almost perfectly. I had a Mazdaspeed sticker laying around so I placed it on the diverter for a lil "zaz". Heres the results...

 

[mica.msp]

Wow that looks great. I have to admit, I was really skeptical about the CF hood. I thought it would look terrible, but it looks AWESOME! The ADP looks great too. I really like how it turned out.

 

[polaris]

After everything I did on this car, one problem I was never able to get rid of was the vacuum leak. I changed every gasket and every vacuum line under the hood, and still never got vacuum to read any more than 12Hg. What it ended up being was a leak in one of my valve seals. As Ive modified the charge piping and adjusted boost, the compression leak has gotten worse and worse. Not long ago I noticed that one of the bolts holding the turbo to the manifold had lost the nut, and there was a noticeable exhaust leak. I replaced the nut and tried to re torque it best I could, but the gasket is shot and needs to be replaced. Although the cheap exhaust mani Im currently using was a great alternative to buying a stock callaway replacement for about $1200, it's tubular stainless steel and eventually (prolly sooner than later), its going to crack. I always had my eye on the steedspeed T2 mani, but since it hasn't been produced in a number of years, they're not easy to find. And when you do find one, its usually always used. Either way, those mani's are built like a tank and will most likely have no problem holding up for the life of the car if not longer.

A few weeks ago I was browsing the marketplace, and saw someone had a steedspeed T2 for sale. And believe it or not, it was never used. It has a black ceramic coating already, so no worries about rust for a while. The seller was also including the upper and lower manifold gasket, new studs for the turbo, and a set of ARP mani bolts. Needless to say, I jumped on it.

 

[OThree.5]

Wow.. lots of work man.. makes me feel a little better about my situation.. lol

I love the hot pipe BOV location.. It looks clean and "proper".. I was thinking about this as a mounting location for my setup the other day.. I wasn't sure if it was a good idea or not though. I guess I was on to something.. This is how I will install mine now, for sure.