Turbo with Cams...

afrey2002

Member
Contributor
Does anybody out there have the Mazdaspeed intake and Jspec exhaust camshafts on thier turbo'd car? If so here's my question, have you had the CEL blink. This happend to me the other day when I was on it hard. I looked at the workshop manuel and it said it only blinks if quote; "MIL flashes if PCM detects the misfire which can damage the catalytic converter during first drive cycle.
Therefore, PENDING CODE is not available while MIL flashes".
but then it say's that one of the possible reasons for this is; "Excess air suction in intake-air system (between MAF sensor and dynamic chamber)" or "Inadequate engine compression due to engine internal malfunction" so my question is, am I ok, because my compression would be different with the cams and I would be getting more suction with a turbo. Anyway's My CEL has always been on since I put the cams in last year, but it's never blink. Nor has it it done it again after that one time, and I just autocrossed on sunday. So I don't know whats up. Any answers???
 
Really well, it pulls super hard, and then at about 5000rpm it pulls double what it just did, a very nice little boost that leaves a lot of people scratching thier heads. and asking, how much of a shot???
 
"Anyway's My CEL has always been on since I put the cams in last year"

WTF? so if i install the intake and exhaust cams then i will have the same problem. It seems like every !@#$%^& mod we do to our cars we throw a CEL, so it seems to me... none of us should even focus on mods, the first thing we should mod is the ECU or standalone mangemnet that will let us program everything.... then we can get all the !&#$%^@ mods and performance upgrades we want, b/c the stock ECU is the problem.
 
"Anyway's My CEL has always been on since I put the cams in last year"

That shouldnt be, because I have had my cams for about 2 months and no problems.
 
Hey WRX guys deal with the same problem...You just get aroud it. We need a company that makes all the little CEL fixes stuff like that (HINT HINT!)
 
I thought those cams were counter to what you wanted in a turbo. N/A OK but not turbo.
 
I have had those cams in for more than half a year and never had the CEL light brink or turn on? Do you have it installed properly, especially when putting it back together with the timing?

I was actually wondering the same thing, I'm about to go with turbo.

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2002 Silver Mazda Protege5
Racing Beat Exhaust
FS-ZE Intake Cam/ MS Exhaust Cam
AEM Short Ram
Eibach Springs
AWR 19mm adj Rear Sway
HID conversion 6000K
MP3 Front Lip
17' Racing Hart/ 215/40/17
more...

www.mpsport.net
 
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I installed them both last spring. I ran dynos of before and after and I also have a shorty equal length header, modified exhaust, and an aftermarket intake. I've never thrown a CEL on my car.

The intake cam is longer duration than stock, but only about 8-12 degrees. No one has published specs on it and I don't have a degree wheel that will fit the DOHC to check them with. The lift is the same. If you don't lope at idle (and these cams are still so small you won't) then they will work fine with a turbo. The exhaust cam is the same as the intake basically. At least the early one is (the one I have). They ended up changing the valve events slightly on the revised part # that came out last summer. I have the 'early' Sport-20 cam. The lift is only .340 gross. That should be .330 net with the clearance set at the proper .010. That is very small in the world of cams. They still idle smooth, but the power is much better up higher.

I'm going to be removing the VTCS from the intake manifold in the next few weeks and will keep you all posted about that.
 
ok where to order these cams?? Might be my next mod
Same lift heh...don't have to change out the shims and springs sweet!
oh yeah does anyone make aftermarket cams for these cars (crower . . .)??
 
Actually the CEL did not come on when I put the cams in, it came on a week later when I added the UR crank pulley, but it's been funny, with Chevron and some 76 gas it would stay off, but with Shell or any other cheep gas it would come on, but there was never a noticeble change in performance, now I had the pulley removed (because of the turbo) and at first the light didn't come on, it actually didn't come on untill a few day's later, and even now it will turn off, and come on, randomly. It's only done the blinky thing once, now I figured the CEL comes on for emissions reasons, as of right now it's been on for the past day and a half, it hasn't turned off, I've had 91 octane 76 gas that I normally don't use. Oh now that I remember, I was using 100 octane racing gas when the CEL first appeared, and when it blinked... I think I may be on to something.
 
afrey2002 said:
Actually the CEL did not come on when I put the cams in, it came on a week later when I added the UR crank pulley, but it's been funny, with Chevron and some 76 gas it would stay off, but with Shell or any other cheep gas it would come on, but there was never a noticeble change in performance, now I had the pulley removed (because of the turbo) and at first the light didn't come on, it actually didn't come on untill a few day's later, and even now it will turn off, and come on, randomly. It's only done the blinky thing once, now I figured the CEL comes on for emissions reasons, as of right now it's been on for the past day and a half, it hasn't turned off, I've had 91 octane 76 gas that I normally don't use. Oh now that I remember, I was using 100 octane racing gas when the CEL first appeared, and when it blinked... I think I may be on to something.

My guess would be the UR Crank Pulley.
 
But that suckers been off since I put the turbo in, and when I put the turbo in the CEL didn't come on immeadetly.
 
Take it to the dealer and have them check codes. You might have a bad MAF. That should still be under warranty even with the turbo kit.
 
Depends on the dealer. If it's a bad factory part, then they should replace it under warranty and not charge for diagnostic time. If it's a code caused by the aftermarket parts, (sensor out of range due to airflow or you not properly isolating the MAP sensor from boost) then they'll charge you 1/2 hour for reading the codes. Unless they are pricks and want to charge you a 1 hour minimum. Shouldn't be the case just to read codes. There is a possible problem with our MAF's. One of the guys in our shop was a Mazda master tech and just came over to work on BMW's. He said that the coil packs on the 1.8L (99-00) and the MAF on the 99-02 pro's were problem children. No recall, only replaced on a customer complaint basis under warranty.
 

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