Kev's JDM 1997 Protege

[irishkev90]

Just vacuum bled everything this morning. Both my dad and his coworker (mechanic-turned-instructor) said everything looked fine. No air in the lines, no evidence of air in the master cylinder, no fluid leaks. Is the Z5 maybe not capable of creating the vacuum needed for the ES/BP brakes? I can't imagine there being much a difference there as I think master cylinder and booster part numbers match for both engines. Hell, I just bookmarked an electric vacuum pump on eBay because I don't really know what else it could be.

[irishkev90]

Little bit of an update on the airbox. I've finally reached the point of no return. A.K.A. cutting apart the MAF.

I finished up the shape of the box, the filter now sits flat and snug. I trimmed off any overhang and test fit it on the car. Perfect fit, plenty of clearance around everything, and sits right under the hole for the hood scoop. The next step was to cut the MAF sensor out of the housing. I was honestly not looking forward to this part because I don't have a backup MAF and can't afford one so I had to be extremely careful and I'm also now forced to finish this if I want to drive the car. I cut it up and decided to fit it sideways into the tube of the airbox. This allows me to plug it in without having to extend the MAF wires and still leaves plenty of slack to allow for engine movement. I haven't finalized a location for the IAT yet, but I know want to keep it out of the way, same with the breather tube. I'm using some old JBWeld to attach the MAF to the box, I hope it's still good, but I'll probably have to get more anyway. Enough talking, now for pictures.

















The location of the MAF isn't as perfect as I was hoping it would be, but I'll probably revisit this project in the future for Airbox v2.0 and rework the size of that tube and placement of the sensor. I was thinking about having the IAT come in the back to the right of the tube, but I don't think the MAF housing leaves enough room for that. I might have to go up from the bottom. To be continued...

[HMT]

Cool, this looks really interesting. I hope the new housing does not negatively affect the AFM's output!

[irishkev90]

I'm not expecting it to affect it too much. It's a little bit bigger than the original housing, but I think I have it centered well enough that it'll work. I'm also not too worried because I'm not trying to make mucho mas power out of this little thing, I just want the scoop to finally be functional. If I do run into issues with it, I'll get a spare and make another, more accurate version from sheet metal, maybe aluminum.

[irishkev90]

Cool, this looks really interesting. I hope the new housing does not negatively affect the AFM's output!

Alright, get the "I told you so"s out of the way. The car didn't want to idle properly when I first fit the box with the MAF fully attached. No air leaks, but I discovered that blocking some of the airflow on the inside of the turn made it idle smoothly. Not sure if too much air was just bypassing the MAF on the inside of that turn, or if the MAF was tuned for the exact dimensions of the original housing. Either way, some bondo glass around the inside to reduce the diameter was all I needed. I then tried to fit the IAT sensor, but the wires were too short. I had to cut and solder in a few inches of wire to extend it enough to reach the box. After that was the breather tube, pretty simple fit for that. I found the original breather tube that had just the right bend to come up into the bottom of the box. It pushes the box to the right a little bit, so I'll have to play with the tube or trim it down so it doesn't do that anymore.

After fiddling with the MAF and fitting everything else, it runs. It idles smooth. There's a slight humming at idle, but it's not noticeable from inside the car and I kind of expected that to happen anyway. There's a teeny bit more induction sound when first cracking open the throttle, but exhaust noise quickly overpowers it. As for performance, not much has changed and I didn't expect it to anyway. I imagine torque might have suffered a bit considering there's no longer anywhere for the air to gain velocity before entering the engine. I did this mod simply to make the hood scoop a functional piece. I might get some better gas mileage, though, since the engine is now breathing ambient air temps instead of the hot, engine bay air.









Gott get rid of the bracket for the old intake system. This airbox still needs some finishing work. A little trimming, some body filler, sanding smooth, and some black paint. But, given the MAF issue with this one, I might just hold off on the finish work for this and just build v2.0 with a more accurate fit. We'll see.

Oh, and now the M spring for the driver side caliper is caught on the inside of the wheel and drags. I tried bending it back down, but didn't stay. I have some spare springs, so I'll swap one in and make sure it's not bent up too high. The ES calipers come really close to the inside of the 14" steelies. Can't wait to get my 15" Miata wheels back on.

[FE3-323]

thats pretty awesome, nice work man!

[irishkev90]

Thanks. I wish It came out a little cleaner, but I'm glad it works. Like I said, v2.0 will have a better tube/MAF fitment. Do you know if anyone has been able to retro fit the new, stick-style (for lack of a better description) MAF into an older car? The new ones I've seen are 5-wire and I think incorporate the MAF and IAT into one sensor. Being able to use one of those might make this an even cleaner install, but not sure how the wiring would work. More research is required.

Edit: Research has provided me with the existence of an adapter harness that combines the MAF and IAT into a 5-wire MAF plug. I think I figured out the wiring on my own already, but a pre-existing adapter would make the work easier.

[irishkev90]

Not much going on lately. I did remove most of the rear end to prep some hard to reach areas (behind tail lights, around trunk opening, etc) for paint. Scuffed it up with a pad and used a Dremel to grind away some small rust spots. Nothing anyone would see, but I'd rather take care of it now than have it pop its ugly head up later. Self etching primer on the bare metal areas and then primer sealer over that. Should keep it safe until I can get the rest of the car ready. And I finally got a new set of turn signals for the fenders. They're off a 2005 Saab 9-5, but they're the same shape and profile as the ones the car came with so I'm happy with them. I'll have to cut a new hole for them to mount into, though. The ones on the car now are literally just a hole for the bulb and the housing is mounted with two self-tapping screws. I have to cut a rectangular hole for the new ones to fit into. They're also a black housing instead of chrome which I think will look nice once the paint is done, going for a dark metallic charcoal for the body and probably a shade or so darker for the wheels.

[FE3-323]

unique bulb connector.. but otherwise those will look great!

[irishkev90]

That's what I thought, too. I would have liked to have the connector/pigtail for them, but haven't found anything. I guess female bullet connectors will be fine, though.

Edit: Just realized there's a pick'n'pull not far from me that has an '02 9-5. I'll stop there some time this week and see if I can find some pigtails.

[FE3-323]

let us know what you find. im curious if it is some special connector. or if its just bullets like you mentioned could work.

[irishkev90]

Just got back from PnP. They had two 9-5's, a '99 and an '04. I'm not sure which was which, I'm not familiar enough with them to pick up on the details, but they're the same body style with the same turn signals as the ones I have. Anyway, the first one I found just had plain wires and butt connectors so I was kind of disappointed, but figured I'd check the other one for wits and shiggles. The second one had actual connectors which made me happy. $9 later I can finally hook up my new turn signals. The insulation on the actual terminals is a bit crusty and falling apart, but I'm not too worried about that. The metal terminals still looks clean so I'm not going to bother with trying to replace the insulation.

The signals also had rubber seals between them and the fender, but all four unfortunately crumbled when I popped the signals out. I'll have to find another solution for that. I might have some black vinyl laying around I could cut up for it. We'll see.

[FE3-323]

nice! those connectors look much safer

[irishkev90]

I think I've made a decision on what color I want. It's a Nissan "Gray Lustre Metallic" (paint code KV3) according to Automotive TouchUp. There's no clear on the test panel, just sprayed some Prep All on it to give it some shine, and ignore the white spots, the panel fell and I tried to fix it, but said screw it.

I think the new Saab signals look perfect with this gray. I'm going to mount them up to the car in the next few days where they'll probably look out of place against the light tan. More motivation to get this done, I guess.

[FE3-323]

that will look quite nice!