NeverSober said:
Well, I have raced the car at 16psi, I run 12-13 daily, and I know that a few others do too. I have had no problems with the motor at this psi, and I have been running higher boost since 6k miles, I am almost at 21k now. Also, Yashooa has been running 12psi for quite some time. So to say it is not safe to run that high is not true. It all depends on the situation and how you drive the car. I beat the s*** out of my car, I won't lie, But I don't boost high in 4th or 5th gear. And If I can help it I won't boost at all in those 2 gears. Boosting that high in 5th gear puts a biiiig load on the engine.
Chris
Its amazing how many times I have made the statement that nothing about the MSP is ment to handle 12 psi+. Its funny that only when someone pops and engine will anyone listen. Any other tiem I get the typical, "You don't own an MSP" stupidity. Like you said, its about style and time. There are alot of setup factors though. If you notice, he had a reflashed ECU which if I recall leans out the mix and adds some timing back in. Thats not a good thing when running totaly untuned boost. Untuned boost is any that the car is not setup to handle, and since the ECU is not programmed for the added boost, then its unsafe. Hell even when combined with a piggy back it can be unsafe if the tuning is bad and not alot of people get it right.
Additionaly a front mount intercooler will only help fight the intake air heat part of detination, its not much of a safety net if one at all.
Its going to take some nasty detiniation to kill an engine all at once, but even very slight and inaudible detination will claim an engine over time. RPM, Boost, timing, fuel pressure,Injector Duty cycle, spark timing, Fuel octane, Intake air temperature and boost are all MAJOR factors in a proper running engine. Throw one out of wack for too long and your going to be buying a new engine.
Its all about doing things safely. Any car can crank the boost and make some runs, however, take that same car and have it be a daily driver with alor mor veried and constant strains and the impact of a bad setup can become even more obvious.
The reality is that modifing a protege isn't worse or alot harder then another car. The fact is that modifing any vehical to go from 130 to 200 hp is risky. Its made even more so when the only safety factor for the car is luck. Many of the people here that really dig into the protege have never tuned a car before let alone played with boost, fuel and timing maps.
One of the reasons I got the Subaru was that I was coming to realize that alot of the aftermarket perfomance industry is gear to make people believe that tuning and perfomance is a simple task. Its not. Most comapnies will do anything to make it seem like just a few bolt on parts or an adjusted know here or there will make the car something different. It won't and those parts always have side effects. I realized I was in way over my head to take the next step of dealing with a totaly built engine and EM. In looking back on it I am still trying to figure out what the hell made me think that with no experience I could successfully double the power of my daily driver with no problems. There are ALWAYS problems and rather they tell you or not 99% of the people trying it have them.
In automotive perfomance, often the results aren't known until the engine has a 5" by 5" hole in it. This wasn't something I could risk nor was I capable of definitly preventing it. It can be done and be done very well, but no one without alot of experience should be doing it with a brand new $20K car that is their daily driver. Thisgoes for any car. Even though the MAzda is a pain because its still in its adolescence of developement for perfomance, any car will have issues. I know a guy with a 97 civic that have gone threw multiple engines. I have other buddies that have cooked subaru's, DSM, Cameros, and nissan sentras. They all played the same game and losed. If you really need to do this, then get a cheap project car or at very least get a bajesus of gauges of outstanding quality, like widebands, fuel pressure, knock sensors...ect to be sure as sure as possible that you have it right.
just from thinking about this fact. My car stopped accelerating after 40 mins of one of our local fun runs on stock exhaust running 9psi. Then when I got a catless dp, I could go on for hours of same kind of driving and the car would perform the same throughout.
