Hi all, MY name is Jeff and im new to this board and love my Protege. Its a 2003 LX and I just changed my motor because it messed up at 64000 miles. I heard a while back there was a batch of 03s that had a survice bulletin out for them involving two screws and a butterfly valve coming loose due to vibration. Luckily at the time my VIN didnt register as one of these affected models, However when visiting my family in Canada from MI my car started bogging and wanting to stall and heard rattling from my motor like a screw smashing around in a aluminum can, so I sent it to my buddy who is a mechanic. I told him about this survice bulletin and after time with him trying to diagnose the problem he found a marred up butterfly valve that fell into the intake, and the 2 screws. The first screw was sitting atop a piston all bent and warped, with metallic shaving in the oil pan, the second screw was in the cat converter almost melted in the honeycomb. Im sure we can all imagine the damage to the piston and possibly valves from screw #1 aswell as scoring the inside of the cylinder wall. He told me repairs would be very ugly, best case scenario $3000cdn including labour. So I called mazda headquarters and told them my situation and asked if they would help, can we all guess what they said?? apparently there is a difference between a recall and a service bulletin the service bulletin is VIN specific and my car wasnt covered, and obviously my warranty was expired, i guess im SOL. My only option is a motor replacement. In Toronto my brother and my friend the mechanic found a import part warehouse type place and carried motors, the had what they said was a 03/protege engine with under 20000KM and only wanted $1200 canadian.
I wired them the money and they bought it after them looking at the motor.
My brother called me when they got the motor to the shop and noticed some differences in the newly purchased motor and my existing one. He said this motor i bought is a J-Spec motor, it has a differant intake/manifold setup and a different, better flowing header. They checked the cams and noticed the intake cam on this new motor was more aggressive as he said, while the exhaust one was the same, original motor (intake cam FS1G,exhaust FSD7) New Motor (intake cam FSH9,exhaust FSD7), It also says on the motor the head is a FS9 and the block is a FS. Is this a J-Spec Motor? it also came with NGK iridium plugs. Is it factory from japan or did some guy just swap a cam? Why is the intake manifold different aswell as the header? They told me they cant use thenew intake manifold and exhaust header for some reason which sucks, because of rerouting vacuum line and somthing about the fuel rail not being in the right place, and for the header i need a collector or somthing. Do you guys thing I got a good deal? and is this setup faster then my previous? someone please help me and give input.
BTW they said the new motor is very clean and there isnt even any rust on any bolts
I wired them the money and they bought it after them looking at the motor.
My brother called me when they got the motor to the shop and noticed some differences in the newly purchased motor and my existing one. He said this motor i bought is a J-Spec motor, it has a differant intake/manifold setup and a different, better flowing header. They checked the cams and noticed the intake cam on this new motor was more aggressive as he said, while the exhaust one was the same, original motor (intake cam FS1G,exhaust FSD7) New Motor (intake cam FSH9,exhaust FSD7), It also says on the motor the head is a FS9 and the block is a FS. Is this a J-Spec Motor? it also came with NGK iridium plugs. Is it factory from japan or did some guy just swap a cam? Why is the intake manifold different aswell as the header? They told me they cant use thenew intake manifold and exhaust header for some reason which sucks, because of rerouting vacuum line and somthing about the fuel rail not being in the right place, and for the header i need a collector or somthing. Do you guys thing I got a good deal? and is this setup faster then my previous? someone please help me and give input.
BTW they said the new motor is very clean and there isnt even any rust on any bolts
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