Ordered my motor mounts today.

[jdmsp]

I have not changed my mounts since I bought the car so I decided its time. I am sure my old mounts are ready to be replaced anyway and have heard nothing but negative things about the stock mounts. here they are...

[MazdaTom]

Have fun with the rear mount! The front is cake. I've put inserts in the stock side mounts. The back is a HUGE pain though. If you haven't pulled the VTCS out of your intake manifold, this would be a good time to do it.

[jdmsp]

Any pointers you could offer with the back mount to make it less stressfull? I will probably have some help with it but any info you could offer would be greatly appreciated.

[MazdaTom]

Buy a new intake manifold gasket now. Probably a new throttle body gasket too.

There are 2 methods to get at that rear mount- one involves removing the IM and the other does not. I don't see how it's possible to do it WITHOUT removing the IM. Removing the manifold took me about an hour- which I thought was pretty fast since I wasn't rushing it.

The rear mount is held to the chassis by 3 17mm nuts (I'm 99% sure it's 17mm). They are located so tight against the firewall that they are very hard to get to. There is a wire bundle that is in the way, along with some plastic thing that holds the wire bundle and a couple studs sticking out of the firewall. I removed the plastic thing and the stud completely- had to fatigue the stud back and forth until it broke off. I used a variety of extensions and u-joints to loosen the nuts. I broke one socket in the process. I think what worked best for me was to put together enough extensions so I could get my breaker bar (with a cheater bar on top of that) clear of the top of the cam cover. You can route the extensions between the firewall and the brake lines.

Hopefully your install goes better than mine did.

Are you going to do your VTCS as well? I noticed a nice gain when I pulled mine. For a turbo, it should be even better.

[Buffalo]

Congrats. If you need any help let me know.

[Colombia28]

Very nice! You will have to let us know how they feel.

[jdmsp]

I have been reading into the VTCS and VICS loctite stuff. It sounds a bit difficult. I think its just intimidating because I have never removed my IM and with the quick steel and porting the manifold with a dremel etc I don't know. I guess I will just have to get at it. I am just worried it won't run the same (as in worse) But the whole loosing a screw from the VICS is making me even more worried so I am sure I will do it. Is there any other way around this as far as If I was to track down an MP3 manifold (which only has VICS) and just loctite the bolts for the VICS? This would be less tedious. Or maybe even a 626 mani even though there is the whole thing about them not improving performance what so ever. I really don't car much I just don't want to suck in a bolt and bend valves or hurt some pistons.

[jdmsp]

Thanks guys and I will if I need any more help. I appreciate the offer.

[TheNewBlack]

Awesome!! I'm sure youll feel a huge difference. Let us know!

[MazdaTom]

The way I did my manifold was to get a seperate manifold and remove the VTCS and port it over the course of several weeks. Then I re-sold my IM from my car for what I paid for the spare IM- so a free mod. Finding an MP3 manifold will be very difficult since there really aren't too many out there. The whole porting/VTCS removing/quicksteel thing was actually very easy. I just took my time.

Word of advice on the locktite thing- don't get the penetrating loctite for small fasteners. It runs alot and can clog up the butterfly shaft the ViCS are mounted on making it difficult to actuate. Did you ever get a recall notice about the VICS screws? I had mine done back in 2005. It didn't effect every Protege, so you might be alright.

[jdmsp]

Hey tom,
I just saw this at Protege garage...

Its there cast single runner manifold and it comes with the gaskets.
this should solve any issues with the VICS and VTCS right? I should get the EGR on it also or should I have them leave it off? Sorry I am super newb with Intake manifolds. Thanks for the time.

[jdmsp]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (MazdaTom @ May 5 2008, 01:01 PM) [url=index.php?act=findpost&pid=44439]<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/url]</div>

The way I did my manifold was to get a seperate manifold and remove the VTCS and port it over the course of several weeks. Then I re-sold my IM from my car for what I paid for the spare IM- so a free mod. Finding an MP3 manifold will be very difficult since there really aren't too many out there. The whole porting/VTCS removing/quicksteel thing was actually very easy. I just took my time.

Word of advice on the locktite thing- don't get the penetrating loctite for small fasteners. It runs alot and can clog up the butterfly shaft the ViCS are mounted on making it difficult to actuate. Did you ever get a recall notice about the VICS screws? I had mine done back in 2005. It didn't effect every Protege, so you might be alright.[/b]

I checked to see on mazdausa but there was no recall for my vin.

[MazdaTom]

Supposidly that 626 manifold (the cast single runner) is the way to go for turbo Proteges. There is some doubt on whether it is good for NA Proteges, but only 1 guy I know of has tried it and he didn't get a dyno (and now he's boosted). He said it worked well though when he was NA.

If you don't get the EGR pipe (your Protege pipe won't work) you have 2 options-

1. get a hose from Home Depot used for gas stoves. One guy did this. It worked, but the hose was really long and it routes all around his engine bay.

2. cap off the EGR nipple on your exhaust manifold and then stick a breather tube on the EGR inlet on the IM. You shouldn't get a CEL since the EGR valve is still seeing air flow.

I don't really know the effects of not running an EGR though.

[jdmsp]

Nice thanks man!

[MS3_Mafia]

Very nice Albert. Hope the install goes well!