XelderX's BG FSP Build

The motor is out, finally. I also dismantled the front suspension and will hopefully be making some Delrin bushings for the front control arms. I'm going to need a complete engine wiring harness. The person I bought the car from hacked it all to pieces wiring in the controlers for his turbo setup and relocating the battery. Looks like I may be spending a lot of time at the salvage yard this week.
 
it's a race car. It doesn't really even need to pass the 10 yard test... That's money that could be well spent on go less slow parts ;)
 
Going delron on the bushings. Whats wrong with urathane inserts?

The zx2 master kit will fit almost the whole car.
and if checked on Clubprotege the link on the front site will get you to inserts for every arm on the car.

Why going with an FS motor. I know the BP can handle good power stock or turbo power. PRetty strong motors. Is it just easier to make HP on a FS than a BP? (just wondering for personal knowledge).

I know some BG guys were thinking of running BJ suspension but know one really tried, was all told it wouldnt work.

Good Luck with your BG.
 
Going delron on the bushings. Whats wrong with urathane inserts?

The zx2 master kit will fit almost the whole car.
and if checked on Clubprotege the link on the front site will get you to inserts for every arm on the car.

Why going with an FS motor. I know the BP can handle good power stock or turbo power. PRetty strong motors. Is it just easier to make HP on a FS than a BP? (just wondering for personal knowledge).

I know some BG guys were thinking of running BJ suspension but know one really tried, was all told it wouldnt work.

Good Luck with your BG.


I've got a lathe and some extra Delrin laying around. I can make the bushings cheaper than I can buy them. I'll check on the urethane stuff though. If the price is right it could save me a lot of work.

The main reason I'm going with the FS motor is because I already have one built to spec. Prepping a BP motor would take easily a $1,000 or more to set it up the way I have the FS motor. Right now, the only thing I need for the FS motor is some adjustable cam gears. Other than that it is built to the limit of the rules internally.

The front BJ suspension will work. All of the mounting points are the same. The only difference is the width of the spindle mount. The BJ mount is a little bit wider. Nothing a few washers in between the spindle and strut won't fix. The rears require a little more work. As the top and bottom mounting points are a little off. The top holes need to be slotted slightly as the BJ top mount's bolts are farther apart. It's only a few millimeters though. On the bottom mount the lower mounting hole needs to be lowered a little. My coilvers are insert type so I can remove the insert and modify the housing safely. I'll just relocate the bottom mounting hole a little farther down. and everything should fit. Luckily all f these modifications are legal in Street Prepared.
 
It will eventually be sprayed, but I haven't decided on a final color scheme yet. I can get it painted for just the cost of paint from a friend.

John Deere Blitz Black, and your choice of accent color
 
I spent a few hours today trying to figure out one of the few "problems" with the motor swap. I really want to retain the power steering on this car, but that is proving to be a real issue. The main problem is that the FS-DE mounts the pump on the head and the BP mounts it on the block. The location of the reservior is different between the two. The line that runs from the steering rack to the pump is a lot longer and the end is angled differently on the 1st Gen. I can mount it to the FS pump, but it sticks up pretty high. I really won't know if that is a big problem until I have the motor in and can mount the pump. I also realized that it will be nearly impossible to use the 1st Gen reservior. The problem is that it sits entirely too close to the FS pump. There is no way to route a line between them and make it work legally. I was really pissed for about 5 minutes when I had an idea. I went over to the Protege5 to see how the reservior mounted in it. I removed the small mounting bracket that bolts to the fender and carried it over to the 1st Gen. In Mazda's infinite wisdom they found it ideal to put two threaded holes in the 1st Gen's fender spaced almost exactly right for the 3rd Gen bracket. I bolted it in and then attached the reservior to it. Success...now I know that I have half the problem solved. The line going from the pump to the reservior will fit now. The next issue is the routing from the reservior to the cooling loop. I ran out of time to tackle this, but I'll try it again tomorrow. The only issue I can see so far with the reservior is that it now sits a little higher than normal and the hood hits the cap when it closes. Luckily Mazda made the mounting bracket rubber mounted so it just flexes right out of the way.
 
I'm trying to imagine what you talking about without seeing a picture, but I'm thinking as long as the air space in the reservoir is higher than the highest loop in the hose, you won't have any problems with air bubbles or air lock.
 
I'm trying to imagine what you talking about without seeing a picture, but I'm thinking as long as the air space in the reservoir is higher than the highest loop in the hose, you won't have any problems with air bubbles or air lock.


You should have seen me staring at all the PS parts laying around and then trying to imagine how it could all go together. I was about to go on a hunt for a 2nd Gen Protege to see if it had anything I could use. I was a little short on time so I didn't get any pictures. I'll try and get some tomorrow. The goofball that owned the car before me also cut out the whole PS cooling loop. That might be a non-issue though since the 3rd Gen loop should be a better fit with the 3rd Gen reservoir.
 
I spent a few more hours with the power steering today and didn't really make any progress. The 3rd Gen cooling loop won't fit. It isn't even close. I'll have to run to the salvage yard tomorrow and get 1st Gen one. I piddled around with a few other things, but nothing worth mentioning got done. Here are a few pics of the 3rd Gen PS reservior mounted and the front camber plates in. You can see in the second pic approximately how high the line from the pump to the rack will sit.

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Kevin, we were both kind of right on the alternators. Both have internal regulators, but the BJ one is controled by the ECU. The BG one is internally controled and the outputs/inouts go directly to the idiot light n the dash...not to the ECU.
 
Kevin, we were both kind of right on the alternators. Both have internal regulators, but the BJ one is controled by the ECU. The BG one is internally controled and the outputs/inouts go directly to the idiot light n the dash...not to the ECU.


That's what I thought. I wouldn't be surprised if the BG alt shared the same part number as the Miata's.
 
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