The "What mods for a daily driven MSP?" Guide Thread

what about the o2 censor will it trip my engine light with a high flow cat also im thinkin about going with a magnaflow cat they have one that is made for high heat
 
as long as you dont get a race only cat it should be fine. I havent got a light yet and its been years.
 
what about the o2 censor will it trip my engine light with a high flow cat also im thinkin about going with a magnaflow cat they have one that is made for high heat

ya I have the Vibrant high flow cat, no lights what so ever so far, and I like the 2 places that vibrant pipe has for O2 sensors already welded in, so no extra welding for the wideband bung

also Terbow, when you run 10psi, (I am about to bump it up to around there once i finish getting my car all set up before I start tuning), and I had it at 8psi before, I now have the Greddy EBC and I heard it spikes a little, and I would like to keep it from going over 10psi.. so would you think it would be "safe" to set it to right around 10psi and if it spikes to like 10.5 or so for a sec if I can't stop it, as long as my tune is good, that would be ok, or think I should set it to around 9.5 if it spikes to 10?... just curious what your tune and afrs are, trying to keep it conservative around 11.5 and prob. going down to lower 11s at 9-10psi and 5.5-6krpm, (or do you think I can wait till 6k rpm to drop it down to low 11 afr)?.. tried getting an opion on the ss afc thread but didn't get much else except for, "its fine just go with it" just figured you would be a good person to get the opion that I am looking for on this, thanks
 
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very helpful thread, thanks everyone. i just bout a 03 msp with 50k miles and is dead stock. i am new to these msp i came from always driving hondas...my plans/questions is that i want to do j pipe to full exhaust, coldair intake, hardpipes, BOV and i am still between a smic and fmic. i really dont want to bump up the boost that much. so my questions are do i need to tune/fuel management with this setup? smic or fmic? and still a little confused w/ bov and bpv?
 
very helpful thread, thanks everyone. i just bout a 03 msp with 50k miles and is dead stock. i am new to these msp i came from always driving hondas...my plans/questions is that i want to do j pipe to full exhaust, coldair intake, hardpipes, BOV and i am still between a smic and fmic. i really dont want to bump up the boost that much. so my questions are do i need to tune/fuel management with this setup? smic or fmic? and still a little confused w/ bov and bpv?

Get the SMIC upgrade with hard pipes - less lag but more than enough to handle the power you want it to

BOV- pretty much anything out there will work as long as you have the right flange

Get a full turbo-back...don't bother skimping out on the Jpipe back. My opinion - get the corksport S-J-Power Series exhaust. 2.4" stainless steel for just under 900 dollars

Get the Split Second AFC and a Wideband gauge/sensor. Tune your car with that.

Intake - any intake will do. as long as the stock plastic is gone, it's all good.

Move your MAF to the cold pipe of the hard pipes and have the bov vent to atmosphere. get rid of your bypass valve.

After all that, get a boost gauge, oil pressure and temperature gauges, get a vacuum block - youll need it, and maybe a new clutch and flywheel. Get a boost controller and a new wastegate actuator as well.
 
Get the SMIC upgrade with hard pipes - less lag but more than enough to handle the power you want it to

BOV- pretty much anything out there will work as long as you have the right flange

Get a full turbo-back...don't bother skimping out on the Jpipe back. My opinion - get the corksport S-J-Power Series exhaust. 2.4" stainless steel for just under 900 dollars

Get the Split Second AFC and a Wideband gauge/sensor. Tune your car with that.

Intake - any intake will do. as long as the stock plastic is gone, it's all good.

Move your MAF to the cold pipe of the hard pipes and have the bov vent to atmosphere. get rid of your bypass valve.

After all that, get a boost gauge, oil pressure and temperature gauges, get a vacuum block - youll need it, and maybe a new clutch and flywheel. Get a boost controller and a new wastegate actuator as well.

sounds good thanks a lot...where do i go about getting tuned?
btw ur msp is mad clean bro!
 
sounds good thanks a lot...where do i go about getting tuned?
btw ur msp is mad clean bro!


THanks man.

You can actually load the software up yourself and do a street tune. The AFC tunes with fuel maps on a laptop. Or just take it to a dyno shop.
 
I don't know Funky if he would need ALL of that stuff, at least to start off on, I personally think that if his clutch and flywheel are good for now, just wait until they go, then make sure you have money saved up to get a better aftermarket one while your at it.. and get the LSD welded

as far as the other stuff, I think relocating the MAF would be more for FMIC setup, I have a BOV on the cold pipe and I kept the stock BPV, running the duel setup, works great, no issues what so ever, if he wants just the BOV than ya, that requires a little more work (if he knows what he is doing and doesn't mind the extra customization and work, then go for it, but I think relocating the MAF with SMIC pipes can be tricky, unless you get customized pipes, because I know for my pipes, there are a number of bends everywhere and would be hard to get it to fit in there...

the exhaust, you can go with Vibrant if your on more of a budget, I love mine, but I also was lucky enough to have a CS s pipe, (also had it before with the just J pipe back and I don't notice a huge difference with the cs s pipe, but I know it is better overall), the full corksport power series exhaust with their j and S pipe are great too, just gotta weld in a bung (or a double bung I guess so that there is more space for the 2nd O2 sensor, pretty sure it's called non fouling setup or whatever, doesn't really matter) but ya anyways, get the wideband and ss afc, it's really fun to be able to tune your own car, and it is good to have over all, the ss afc really makes your car drive better overall

and option on the SMIC, I have one love it, but spent a good deal for it, with the hard pipes and could have gotten an FMIC pretty much, but I didn't want to go through the install of taking the bumper off since this was my first install with the car... .but Altered Customs on here has a good FMIC kit for really cheap and have heard good things from them.. search around and read up on it

ready "kill your turkey" thread, I would post it but I'm really tired right now and should be studying for my final soon lol, I'll post it later if I get the chance, should be able to find it though

over all everything is just my opinion, I would suggest reading as much as you can about this car, this thread was a great help to me, and use the SEARCH option as much as you can, it can help you find tonnns of things that will help you out with this car, I would just read a lot before you do anything, and once you have it all figured out, then go for it, and have fun, these cars are great once you understand them
 
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hey everyone im back and i got the high flow cat on wednesday and i like it so does the turbo spools way faster and no engine light(rockon)
 
We are talking about daily drivers here. Most of those people aren't going to be tunning for water/meth injection.

And by the way welcome.
 
talk about a daily driver, i drive for domino's to support my habbit (car and college) and i really want a really fast hardcore machine, but then reallity hits everytime i walk out the door. i dont need a race car. i need a reliable car. the aluminum intake pipes, a definate plus. with stock plugs, i get less power, but more fuel mileage. once again reality and dreamworld. there really is nowhere to race around here but i will say, i have the best delivery times at the store. i have fu with my daily driver. and in all seriousness, mazda didnt build a race car out of this thing. they built a fun car. its great stock, but faster is always cooler.
 
all that handling might move all the toppings to one side of the pizza :D
 
mods

hey im relatively new here and looking for some help. my 03 black mica msp has 76k miles on it and im looking to make some mods. i bought it used from someone about 8k miles ago and they took off a fmic before selling. it already has an injen cai and a thermal catback. im looking to put on the following: SMIC upgrade, aluminum hardpipes, jpipe with highflow cat (everyday driver has to pass emissions), AFC, wastegate actuator, and i wanna run 8-9 lbs/in2. i need advice with what order so that this can continue to be reliable. i recently had maf problems and was running rich but thats fixed

Honestly i love my car but my friends 04 gli feels faster to drive and i want to fix that. stupid kids my age with 328s and mustang v6s know nothing about cars but i get beat. i wanna put them in their place hahah. sorry for all the text but any advice would really be appreciated!

haha i cant figure out how to put a pic as my avatar either hahahaha
 
well first I would say that if you don't mind doing the work, go with a cheap custom FMIC kit, after spending a lot of money on my hardpipes and smic, I wish I had gone with the FMIC, although the smic/hardpipes and cai were my first mods, I didn't really know enough to install the FMIC comfortably, but now I wish I had, but oh well... if you really don't want a FMIC, then just get the hardpipes and smic first, then I would go with either the jpipe/midpipe section, or the SSAFC next, the SSafc you'll need a wideband o2 sensor with so you can tune it, (and yes you really do want to tune it) don't bother with the wga unless yours is bad, just get a cheap mbc or an ebc if you have the money,

but basically get the intercooler/pipes first, then the exhaust or SSAFC next, doesn't really matter which, I would go with the SSAFC and wideband O2 sensor +boost gauge, you need that too, then the exhaust... the you can go with the boost controller.. but like I said, if you don't mind the work, get a small FMIC kit, the DIY kits are really really cheap now and there are a couple How To:s on here that make it "easy" to install them if you know your way around the car a little, or have the time/tools to learn

also you might and most likely will want motor mounts, I like the Corksport MM inserts, but they are kinda a pain to get in, (not so much the front, but the rear, you can just do the front for now or that can just wait till later) but ya the AWR side motor mounts are really easy to put in for the most part and that would be a good thing to add in there somewhere towards the end of your list, and it's relatively cheap to buy
 

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