Project FI Protege!

[Falango]

Well, 3 words can sum up my last week.  What a mess!!!!!

Having the past week off gave me more than enough time to get my Hiboost kit installed and running, or so I thought!

As we started emptying out the engine bay to make room for the new stuff, I realized there were some pieces missing from the kit.  My oil feed line adapter was missing, and after 3 trips to Lordco to piece together random adapters to get something to work, we got nowhere.




I finally got the adapter (thanks Niv) and was able to move forward in my install, but not before I had to get a new power steering pump.  Import Auto Recyclers happened to have one on hand, but at a price much much higher than I expected.  Let's just say, Mazda quoted me $950 for it!!!  I was quite shocked!  So, oil feed line connected, new power steering pump put in, then the exhaust manifold went in, just to come right back out!  The manifold did not have a stud on the side for the EGR pipe.  In the end, I had to take my stock header into Mazda and have them take the stud off so I could put it on the new manifold.




After that, the manifold was ready to go, the turbo, J-pipe and downpipe were installed, things started going good, until I had to do the wiring.  If you haven't looked at the stock ECU in our cars, there are about 95 wires coming out of it going to the engine bay.  Now I'm no electrcian, but I tackled it anyway.  After a few hiccups, I got the wiring sorted out, though it looked like a mess!!  Finally time to start it..........or not.  When I reconnect the battery, the alarm usually goes off, and I disarm it right away with the keyfob.  This time, it would not disarm, under no circumstances at all.  With the alarm going off, it was cutting power to the starter, so I had zero chance of it starting.  This was a real mystery until I found a blown fuse in the cabin.  The 'Room" fuse had blown, which controls the keyfob signal, interior lights, and alarm.  I just so happened to have a keyfob that wasn't working, interior lights that weren't coming on, and an alarm that was pissing me off!  After 2 days of searching for the problem, it turned out to be a 50 cent fuse.  Replaced the fuse and it fired up right away, and boy was that a relief.



Now that it finally ran, I was ready to piece the car back together.  After about 2 hours of cutting up my front bumper, it finally went back on completely concealing the front mount intercooler, but not so much on the piping, haha.  Don't have any final pictures yet, but my piping is hanging out a bit, but I didn't really care because this project was finally finished.  In the end, I had to cut away the supports for the lower grill to let the intercooler fit, and cut away big chunks on the corners to allow the IC piping to fit.

Time for the first drive!  Without new spark plugs, the car ran pretty rough, but it ran.  It was struggling to go after coming to a complete stop, but with old spark plugs, I didn't expect it to run like a dream.  Didn't push it hard at all, but the extra power was kicking in around 3200-3300rpm, and is a nice kick in the pants.  Absolutely love the sound of the BOV as well.  BOV squeaked in at about 2500rpm but is nice and loud at higher revs coupled with the vented hood to amplify it.

All in all, it was a really rough week, about 10-12 trips to the auto parts store for random nuts, bolts, and adapters.  In the end though, when the car is running good, I know it will be worth more than the time and effort put into this.  Soon enough, it will be on it's way to be tuned and dynoed.  I'll update the thread as things progress!

Huge thanks to Niv for practically piecing half of my kit together with random extra parts he had, haha.  He was also my car doctor for about 4 days, I owe ya big time!!

[Username]

Jeebus. Finally. Are you coming to bowling this Friday? Want see/hear the car in person.

  Kev

[Falango]

No, unfortunately I'm working late that night, but I'll be at TBC for sure, and the car will be running at it's full potential then.

[melonvitara]

congratz Chris!!!!
turbo finallly in!!!

[Wito]

Cool! Finally it's in! No go tune it and kick some butt!!

[Falango]

Will do, but after all this hell I gotta work til Sunday, and I've already been informed this is going to be a rough week back at work, haha.  Hopefully it will be going to Kinetic on Monday.

[Username]

Tell you what Chris. I work close to Kinetic, and seeing as I'm such a nice guy, I will take the car off your hands and take it to be tuned for you this week. Deal?

  Kev

[Bong05]

Tell you what Chris. I work close to Kinetic, and seeing as I'm such a nice guy, I will take the car off your hands and take it to be tuned for you this week. Deal?

 Kev

hahaha...nice one kev

[Falango]

Deal, as long as you find me a Lotus Exige to drive in the time being?

I heart Lotus Exige..................oh, and the Mazda Protege ES-T!!

FYI, as far as I know, I am the only HiBoost powered Protege sedan in BC!!  Could quite possibly be the only (if not, one of very few) turbocharged 3rd generation Protege sedans around (not counting Mazdaspeed Proteges of course).

[need4speed]

Will do, but after all this hell I gotta work til Sunday, and I've already been informed this is going to be a rough week back at work, haha. Hopefully it will be going to Kinetic on Monday.

Kinetic in Surrey. Good group of guys.........

[tonyzoomzoom]

Good stuff, Falango.  Glad to know that the car is running 

[M Speed]

good now get us more pic.....

it is frustrating when hit a bump during DIY...but now it's all good. The vrooooom.....psssshh....will put a smile on your face.

[Falango]

It did put a nice smile on my face last night, though it wasn't running perfect, just the sound was a relief, lol.  And as for bumps in a DIY, it felt like a hit a dirt logging road at 120k damn it, it was hell!!!!  But ya, off to get my plugs, gap them, and see how they make the car run, updates later!

[MS3Pilot]

Congrats on the setup...should prove to be a lot of fun!!

Up next: upgrade brakes!! !!

it will be interesting to see what it pulls on the dyno at Kinetic!

[Falango]

Well, change of action here, trying to setup a group dyno at Forcefed in Surrey with 2 fellow boosted P5s.? Hopefully this goes through tis weekend because my car needs tuning badly.  Yes bigger brakes will definately be in the near future.  I only have drums on the back, so I may do a disc conversion, price pending.  When you go faster, you gotta slow faster.

[MS3Pilot]

been there done that with other projects!! P5 has rear disc don't they? why don't u just swap all the gear from one of them??!! you can probably get most of the setup off a wrecked car and then get new discs and pads for your car!!

[M Speed]

well actually the rule of thumb is make your car stop faster then make it go faster.....

but who can say no to pssshh.....

rear disc is more a show then real stopping power. Sure rear disc cool down faster....but your front does 70% of the braking in most situation.

[Falango]

Oh I know that the rears don't do much of the stopping, but if I was to get a bigger brake kit for the front, I wonder if there was some way to take the front stock disc setup and get it to work on the rear.  Almost 100% sure the P5 setup at the rear is the same, but the ES sedan actually came in 2 trim levels, mine, and then the GT package.  The GT package came with rear discs so a rear end from there would practically be a bolt on.

[M Speed]

well then you have to see the cost of doing so, if the cost is cheap then doing it to make a complete look is great.

[Falango]

Well, played with it for about half an hour tonight, and it runs much better.  It seemed like it just wasn't getting enough air when idling, so I increased the idle a bit to let more air in and at red lights and stop signs, it pulls away very smooth now, which is a relief.