What have you done to your P5 today?

[rednecks_r_us]

Today I washed my engine bay in the Prote to get it a little cleaner. You know how dirty it always is. Then washed the rest of the car.


Then took degreaser and sprayed the engine bay and under body of my truck. Its a Dodge

Drips
Oil
Drips
Grease
Everywhere

After degreasing the truck I went ahead and washed it and checked and topped off all the fluids.

 

[rednecks_r_us]

Finally "fanged" my front emblem...after having the back one completed since....decemberish.

BTW. Has anyone painted their grill inserts?

I was thinking of spraying with some semiflat black to eliminate having to use plastic polish on it. Just curious as to whether is something people do, or not...

Both my upper and lower grilles are painted gloss black with blue mica.

Make sure they are totally clean before painting and use several coats of clear to keep it from chipping.

 

[Shasta]

Washed it all up again and the engine bay. Going to polish up the front end after the sun goes down a bit, too hot.

 

[Kansei]

Back from the test and tune. The only pic I took (the weather was miiiserable) was before I left, when I realized that a bird took a crap right on my HKS SSQV. No poo on the grille in my hood, so the bird literally must have stood right on the vent to take a crap on my car. w/e at least the bird was considerate enough not to get it on the paint

So I got 12 runs in, twas quite fun. Fastest time of the day was a 48 in type-aRRRR swapped civic on slicks with coilovers and such (in SM). I got a 51.65.. at least I think that was my best, on a few runs I forgot to look at my time.

 

[Kansei]

But all is not well. My car needs some stuff now that it has so much more power. First, of course, is an LSD.. I need one badly.. either that, just much stickier tires, or preferably both. I don't like needing to feather the throttle so much.

The other thing I need is just a beefier front sway bar. This isn't related to the added power really, just an observation I had today. The car oversteers a lot, dry or wet (my first set of 4 runs was in the dry).

I guess the excessive oversteer could have been a tire issue too. It wasn't until I got back and saw my checklist in the garage that I realized I forgot to check my tire pressure before leaving >_<

front left: 34.. front right: 32

rear left: 31.. rear right: 31.5

Plus the fact that I changed my spring last weekend and need an alignment again.. right now my camber/caster is adjusted differently on both sides in the front (judging by the dots on the strut towers). When I set them to the "stock" position the car drove strangely and the steering wheel was no longer centered..

 

[amsgator]

Back from the test and tune. The only pic I took (the weather was miiiserable) was before I left, when I realized that a bird took a crap right on my HKS SSQV. No poo on the grille in my hood, so the bird literally must have stood right on the vent to take a crap on my car. w/e at least the bird was considerate enough not to get it on the paint

So I got 12 runs in, twas quite fun. Fastest time of the day was a 48 in type-aRRRR swapped civic on slicks with coilovers and such (in SM). I got a 51.65.. at least I think that was my best, on a few runs I forgot to look at my time.

how much power you packin?

 

[Kansei]

how much power you packin?

noooooo clue. There was a Mazdaspeed Protege (sunlight silver w00t w00t) running RDS .. but I didn't ask him what his times were for comparison. I should have had him drive my car to see if it felt any more powerful to him. It should be quite a bit more powerful.. 7 psi vs 5.5, corksport downpipe, FMIC, full exhaust, JDM intake cam, intake, etc.. but I won't know until I get dyno tested (soon.. soon)

 

[amsgator]

whats RDS?(dunno) noob i know

 

[Kansei]

whats RDS?(dunno) noob i know

D-stock class (the class the MSP is in), with Road tires (dot approved tires).

Protege5 is in H-stock, but I'm NSM (Novice Street Mod).

who cares about classing though, so much fun! I had a ton more fun today than I did at the "formal" event I attended last year.. I don't know if it's because there were just 30 people there so it was a whole lot less crowded than the usual 150-200, or if it was because I got so many more runs in, but it was a blast!

edit: I forgot to mention another thing that could be the cause of my grip issues.. it was only 45 degrees outside.

Standing outside in the cold rain for half an hour or so while the next run group got a set of runs in was no fun.

 

[Demoniam]

Thanks Bill.

I was going to do mine in semiflat/satin black, just to keep it from sunfading...Who knows if I'll ever get the time though!

 

[khaosman]

The other thing I need is just a beefier front sway bar. This isn't related to the added power really, just an observation I had today. The car oversteers a lot, dry or wet (my first set of 4 runs was in the dry).

I guess the excessive oversteer could have been a tire issue too. It wasn't until I got back and saw my checklist in the garage that I realized I forgot to check my tire pressure before leaving >_<

I wouldn't mess with a front sway bar yet, it'd be a PITA first off. You can do a lot of other stuff first. More negative camber in the rear will help a ton. It made almost a night and day difference in my car. And like you said, stickier tires and playing with your pressures will help quite a bit.

 

[Kansei]

I just figured that since racing beat says the sway bars complement each other and are meant to only be used in pairs..

It was fine with just the racing beat rear sway.. but adding the axr clunk fix bracket really made a world of difference.

I'm already at -1 in the rear.. WAIT SH!T!! I forgot, the teins raised the rear of my car by probably 3/4" to 1".. so there went that camber haha. It was too soon to get an alignment before this event.. so I'll just suck it up at the autocross tomorrow and get an alignment done before the next event... and hopefully in doing that I'll get my front alignment sorted out. My alignment paperwork shows -1 camber and the same toe (same on both sides.. not same as the camber) on each side, but they didn't list the caster. I know the caster shouldn't be the same on both sides because one dot is pointing toward the front, the other toward the back.. and one points to the inside, one to the outside.. But the alignment does feel fine. It doesn't really look like there's any other user adjustable things on the front suspension, but rotating the top of the strut can't be the only thing they do during an alignment.

Somehow my car got aligned with the strut tops as they are now (not the same on each side).. it confuses me. Oh well, time to drop $175 on an alignment again >_<

 

[whitemp5seattle]

I didn't do anything to my p5 today...but I reached 1500 posts

 

[Kansei]

I didn't do anything to my p5 today...but I reached 1500 posts

n00b (blowup) *





*on-topic because I posted it from inside my Protege5**


** you can't prove that I didn't.. I do have a couple laptops running in the garage and one that is always just sitting in the trunk.

 

[amsgator]

looked at HUs online today. i am stuck btwn the pioneer DEH-P6900UB and the DEH-P5900IB

the comparison on crutchfield shows no difference so I dont know why the 6900 is more.... so I think i am going to end up get the 5900 when i get the money...hopefully in a month or two

 

[amsgator]

i hit the header up w/ some steel wool and it made it shiny again but it still needs more. i need to get some 01 steel wool, all i have now is 00 because they didnt have 01 at lowes. so hopefully soon i'll get some 01 to attack it again

post 1000= n00b!!!!!

 

[StealthWyvern]

i hit the header up w/ some steel wool and it made it shiny again but it still needs more. i need to get some 01 steel wool, all i have now is 00 because they didnt have 01 at lowes. so hopefully soon i'll get some 01 to attack it again

post 1000= n00b!!!!!

any progress pictures?

 

[CTt3P5]

Put her up on stands and painted the calipers with some Folia-Tec red. Also gave the wheels a good cleaning front and back since they were off the car.

 

[whitemp5seattle]

any progress pictures?

again with the double posts u n00b

 

[StealthWyvern]

again with the double posts u n00b

I only see one post you damn post Nazi!!! lol