The time has finally come. I picked up my 1st Gen Protege last Friday. I've been looking for a LX model with a manual gearbox and no sunroof for a while. Let's just say they are pretty rare. This one just sort of fell into my hands. The previous owner had a turbo on the car and finally melted a piston. Looks like my first major job will be a complete engine rebuild. While I'm doing that I'll also be weighing a lot of the parts from this car and the DX base model to see what I can swap out to save the most weight.
XelderX's BG FSP Build
- Thread starter xelderx
- Start date
GhostMercury
Member
- :
- MazdaSpeed 3 08.5
looks like its gona be a fun build, have fun
nazgul350r
Member
- :
- 03 MSP & 08 CX-9 GT
What are you going to do if it ends up being slower than the 5?
nazgul350r said:
Theres no way it could be slower. It already weighs less than my Pro5 in stock form and the engine is a little better. The suspension setups are pretty similar. I'm not street driving this car so there will be some very aggressive weight reduction going on as well as engine tuning.
apexlater said:
I took a look at that yesterday. The rear offset is very small meaning that the rear 275's would stick way outside the fenders. I don't want to make the car too much wider. I could do a staggered setup, but I'm going to try the 225/13s stretched on a 9" rim all the way around first. If I do go up to the 275s it will probably only be in the front.
the gearing on the 275/35/15 (22.5") is about the same as the stock 185/60/14 (22.7"). obviously the 13s are much shorter.
justin: it's good to hear that you won't be half-assing this one like the Pro5. what a softy that car is.
i'm glad you found the one you wanted...you can also look for parts from an SE, which was the base model in 1990.
mmm...FSP protege w/ CSP miata power. nice.
justin: it's good to hear that you won't be half-assing this one like the Pro5. what a softy that car is.
i'm glad you found the one you wanted...you can also look for parts from an SE, which was the base model in 1990.mmm...FSP protege w/ CSP miata power. nice.
Yea...gearing will be short, but I don't think it will cause any issues. I'm pretty sure the gear ratios for the transmission are the same as the Pro5. There are only a few courses I hit the rev limiter in 2nd gear in the Pro5 and I'll be able to raise the rev limiter on this car a little. If the 13's cause problems I'll go up to the 14's next.
- :
- 2003 Black Mica MazdaSpeed Protege
Congrats on the find and good luck with the project!
zumzumzoom03
Member
- :
- 07 Civic SI
1st gen protege was my first car. It was a 90 lx. Damn that engine was strong along with the car. I beat the living crap out of it and got my inner ricer out on it. Great car makes me want to get my old car back. It had 210k miles on it when it left so it's probably a metal cube even though I would trust that car on a road trip to Cali.
Good luck.
Good luck.
Justin, if you want to save a few bucks off the bat on the engine rebuild. Take a trip to Atl (you have a place to stay, as always) and we'll pull one from the local junker for $120. They usually have plenty that are in good shape. The BP will fit comfortably in the back of a P5 (done that twice).
On a side note, I'll be picking up a BG tomorrow
. Unfortunately, I doubt it has a BP. However, it's free, so I'm not complaining.
On a side note, I'll be picking up a BG tomorrow
. Unfortunately, I doubt it has a BP. However, it's free, so I'm not complaining.
Last edited:
kcbhiw said:Justin, if you want to save a few bucks off the bat on the engine rebuild. Take a trip to Atl (you have a place to stay, as always) and we'll pull one from the local junker for $120. They usually have plenty that are in good shape. The BP will fit comfortably in the back of a P5 (done that twice).
On a side note, I'll be picking up a BG tomorrow
I might be calling you if this block ends up being too damaged for an overbore to save it. I'll be looking for a few spare BP heads as well. Let me know what BG you get a hold of. I'm looking to trade out my power windows for manual ones if they end up being lighter.
xelderx said:
It's a 94 (maybe) Tracer, lol. I'm really hoping that it's an LTS, but I'm not getting those hopes too high. I heard the words Tracer and free in the same sentence. That's all I needed. I haven't even seen the thing yet.
The yard that I frequent, 2 of them actually, always have lots of Escort GTs and Protege LXs. A head goes for about $45.
