I want to say thanks to Randy (The New Black) for selling me his old car, I promise to take as good care of it as you have. As you might know the engine needs to be replaced and there is a slight chance that the transmission may need to as well. My question to you all is, while I am in the process of taking out the engine and trany and putting a new one in, what else should I consider replacing? The only think I came across was to replace oil pump and water pump along with all three engine and trany mounts. Can you think of anything else I should consider?

Thanks.

What are your intentions with this car?

I was hoping to split my driving between the cars so a good everyday car. Maybe some here and there performance mods but just simple.

After i get it working properly, i saw a set of Megan Racing coils for it, figured it could use some new springs and struts.

Autox it hard! Strip it down and race the thing! Check out http://www.themazdaforum.com/forum.php there are tons of protege guys there.

Thanks Andrew, There is a good thread over there for newbs. (which i am on this car). I think i might sign up over there a bit later.

Thank you to Tom as well, i was hoping you would see this and post up, i look forward to what you have to say about the car.

good to hear that some one else is lookin to fix up a 5. i woud love to totaly redo myine but the $ is in the way but till then ill keep it stock! its a great daily driver to

If you ever think you're going to boost this motor, then getting some forged rods would be beneficial, but stock rods are good on NA motors with stock rev limits. Other than that, the stock internals are pretty good. You could maybe add a JDM intake cam.

OBX 4-1 header
SLS/Protege Garage Mid-pipe
Racing Beat/Magnaflow cat-back exhaust--> maybe the Corksport, but I've heard it's a bit on the loud side
underdrive crank pulley
intake of some sort

That's pretty much the "bolt on" power which is very safe and reliable. You could add in a lightweight flywheel while you have the engine out, that would help free up more power. Also a short shiter and better bushing would help with shift feel.

Other than that- it's a Mazda. It was practically born to handle. But adding chassis stiffening braces and better springs/struts/sway bars also helps dramatically- not to mention tires.

The brakes are good on the sedans/P5, but can tend to look undersized if you go with a larger than 16" wheel. Brakes off a Mazdaspeed Protege are a direct swap. Also, the front calipers from the MSP are shared with the last years of the V6 626.

What about his intake mani? Since he is going to be in there should he do the VICS/VTCS or swap out to a 626 manifold? So this is why you were asking where to get the jdm tails from. Nice man you should start a build thread so we can see your progress from now to when you get her up and running.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (jdmsp @ May 28 2008, 10:01 PM) [url=index.php?act=findpost&pid=48857]<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/url]</div>

What about his intake mani? Since he is going to be in there should he do the VICS/VTCS or swap out to a 626 manifold? So this is why you were asking where to get the jdm tails from. Nice man you should start a build thread so we can see your progress from now to when you get her up and running.[/b]

Ah yeah, can't believe I forgot about that one!

The intake manifold on 3rd gen Proteges comes with 2 different systems of butterflies- one to help the air "tumble" and improve cold start emissions (VTCS) and one to effectively change the length of the intake runners (VICS) which is suppose to move the torque band higher up the RPM curve.

The MP3 Proteges (2001 model year only) did not come with the VTCS system. Along with that, a different ECU which advances the timing and a slightly different exhaust, gives the MP3 about 10 more hp than the non-MP3 Proteges. A popular mod is to completely remove the VTCS butterflies. I did it and my butt-dyno seems to feel a noticeable improvement in get-up-and-go. Plus, it's one of those "free" mods. All it costs is time (and the tools if you don't already have them). Plus if you are getting a new motor with an intake manifold attached, you now have 2 intake manifolds- one of which you can sell for $50-$100. Lots of people are always on the lookout for a spare manifold so they can remove the VTCS and port the runners on the spare manifold in their spare time and then swap it out with their manifold on their engine (what I did). I think Albert would be interested in picking up a spare manifold......

As far as removing the VICS, there is no conclusive evidence that removing it does anything beneficial for you. The theory behind the butterflies seems to point to the contrary in fact. Just make sure that the screws holding the butterfly plates are tight and lock-tited in (use non-penetrating lock-tite) as they have been known to work free and go through an engine.

The 626 manifold (and I'm not 100% on what years), however, have been known to show worthwhile increases in power on turbo cars. These manifolds are a single runner as opposed to the "variable" runner of the Protege (a product of the VICS)- and it seems that the 626 manifold flows overall better too. On a NA motor, it's believed that a 626 manifold will really take away from the bottom end torque but reward you with high end HP. I know of only one guy who installed it on a NA motor along with a piggyback and he said it was a really good upgrade. He's since gone turbo though.

Thanks for all the advice. I was reading online about the whole intake manifold thing and wasn't sure what i am going to do. I might have to create a build thread with some pics, problem is i don't have a camera so i have to ask my friend for his. I will keep you up to date as much as i can. I have to work on paying some bills first and the truck seems to be leaking oil on the rear diff so that is my next issue to deal with.

Thanks again.

I would like for you all the meet Project:Protege5


Before we start to add all the performance parts we need to make sure the basics are taken care of. So this is where we currently are:


The reason we are missing an improtant part of this car will be found after we take a close look at the engine block:



And we found the reason for the holes in the block:


So after i payoff a couple of things i am going to get started.

wow that is always cool to see even though it sucks

Ouch. Can't wait to see the progress of the P5!

Today i took out the headlights and the driving lights so that i can clean them up. They look a bit better but not the best. Question: Does anyone know what works good for cleaning the headlights? The kit i used had sandpaper and some polish but it didn't do as good a job as i want.

I am going to update this post with pics from all the good stuff i should be getting in over the next couple of months. There is no reason for ordering these parts in this order, just did i guess.

June 9th, 2008 B&M shoft shifter