Help Me Build A Race Machine!

[mazstar]

lol

Lets put bigger wheels in the rear!

so true idiots that do this deserve to wreck there diffs
as for evos bein quick off the line dnt know what series evo fazdaboy4eva's mate has but the majority of the series came out with anti lag set ups, if you guys are unfimiliar they release pressure to the exhaust manifold via a valve at the same time b.o.v goes thats why the more boost they run with this the faster they kick boost .

[mr_momentum]

U guys are telling me to buy a whole new car? If I wanted to BUY a race machine, why not save up for a McLaren F1 or something? Let's get realistic here... a Protege is never gonna compete with a nicely modded SRT4 or Evo, but aren't those cars considered in a different class? I'm speaking of "race machine" in terms of cars in THIS class, and tuning it to performance levels that would shock owners of much beefier cars, like, "That's a Protege?! No way man."

Besides, this is a Protege forum, so why recommend something else? We should be keeping it in the family. The fun of tuning is building upon what you got. I understand recommending a more powerful Protege engine, but I'm not gonna go to the lengths of doing a swap. Fully modded, I'd be lucky to get 250HP out of my car, which, for a car that initially had 122HP, is quite a transformation, especially considering regular Proteges aren't the best tuner cars to begin with. What I'm asking you guys to help me with is to successfully get it from Point A (122HP) to Point B (250HP or more, if achievable). This is my project car, and I'm sticking with it until I max out its performance.

[13thghost]

see the thing you have to understand is that you are throwing around big numbers like 6k!!! thats a lot of money for a car that you will never ever see that investment back.but if you was thinking of spending on some engine mods.
then the engine will be best swapped.my buddy just got into a srt4 for 8k not bad. trust me we are''''''' well i am all about my mazda. but i also intend to build a drag car with 6k not a daily driver.theirs just to many problems with investing that much money into a daily. trust me i speak from experiences on this subject. but i will still be glad to point you in the right direction.

[mazstar]

yea thats allot if u reali wanna keep your mazda after all that there is ways to get way more power then you want you just gotta go down the turbo route like ive done stuff all to my car and it has 278hp with 6 grand you can be looking at a 350hp+ engine, pistons rods bearings headgaskets cams camshafts adjustable cam wheels plenums headers sumps youu name it you can get it the easyest way to save some money is source a gtr engine however there hard to come by,good luck tho wish i had 6gs of american money to throw around.

[Kitty]

U guys are telling me to buy a whole new car? If I wanted to BUY a race machine, why not save up for a McLaren F1 or something? Let's get realistic here... a Protege is never gonna compete with a nicely modded SRT4 or Evo, but aren't those cars considered in a different class? I'm speaking of "race machine" in terms of cars in THIS class, and tuning it to performance levels that would shock owners of much beefier cars, like, "That's a Protege?! No way man."

Besides, this is a Protege forum, so why recommend something else? We should be keeping it in the family. The fun of tuning is building upon what you got. I understand recommending a more powerful Protege engine, but I'm not gonna go to the lengths of doing a swap. Fully modded, I'd be lucky to get 250HP out of my car, which, for a car that initially had 122HP, is quite a transformation, especially considering regular Proteges aren't the best tuner cars to begin with. What I'm asking you guys to help me with is to successfully get it from Point A (122HP) to Point B (250HP or more, if achievable). This is my project car, and I'm sticking with it until I max out its performance.

1st bold- no, the evo isn't a super car its an overpriced sports compact, and the srt 4 was the MSP's main("US made") competition.

2nd bold- Its called being realistic. The protege is a DECENT platform. But when it comes down to it there's more parts for d15 powered civics than these cars. You should be happy people are telling you the truth rather then" hell naw get a big as $2000 turbo and a forged motor and run 20-30psi!"

And hell you're not even starting out with the top of the line model in you're own generation. So you're already 2 pegs behind to start with.

[mr_momentum]

Maybe I approached it wrong with my first post... If I wanted a dedicated drag car, I wouldn't have spent $6000 on aesthetic parts, and I would probably just gut the whole car completely and swap the engine. No frills, just performance.

It's obviously a high priority of mine to make it look pretty, but the bottom line is that I wanna see how far I can push the 1.8 while looking good. If it can't be pushed that far, then so be it, but I want it to at least have some credibility amongst the other 1.8's out there, maybe to the point where I could trick people into thinking there's something other than a 1.8 under the hood.

[edumspeed]

Encouragement like these are what make people rarely post here anymore. Anyway, if you want to upgrade everything, start a search FIRST. Most parts for the BJ platform can be found here: http://importperformanceparts.net/
And here:http://corksport.com/
hope this helps you.
P.S. Performance mods on ANY car will always be money that will never be recovered back at the time of resale. We do them in the first place to have fun with our cars, simple, right?

[mr_momentum]

Of course u never get back what u put into it, other than the satisfaction that you breathed new life into your car. Money is not the issue here. I just need the time and the advice from the Protege community, so any constructive opinions are appreciated.

[edumspeed]

Of course u never get back what u put into it, other than the satisfaction that you breathed new life into your car. Money is not the issue here. I just need the time and the advice from the Protege community, so any constructive opinions are appreciated.

True.

[mr_momentum]

Engines seem to be a touchy subject in these forums, even though we all know the engine is not everything (although it's the beating heart of your car). So let's put the engine aside and first tackle the drivetrain. The clutch is a good place to start, so like I had mentioned before, what should I be looking for with regards to most torque and responsiveness?

- Sprung or unsprung?
- Full-face, 4 pad/puck, or 6 pad/puck?
- Organic, kevlar, carbon/ceramic, or iron?

[edumspeed]

Go with ACT. They are very good all around clutches. I have one on my 1.6L since last year and it holds pretty strong. It can chirp in 2nd w my 16"s.

[edumspeed]

You may also post on: http://www.mazdas247.com/forum/adv_index.php?

[mr_momentum]

Thanks for the input ed. But I know ACT makes a bunch of different configurations. That's what I'm kinda stuck on. What advantages would a full-face, 6-pad or 4-pad have over each other, if any?

[mr_momentum]

Is anybody running a 4 or 6 pad clutch? Is it spring or solid? How do u find it handles on the Protege?

[edumspeed]

I have a sprung 50/50. It's good for about 200hp max, i think. A solid would hold more hp, but the drawback will be a rougher engagement, but you wouldn't have to worry about breaking any springs.
A friend of mine has a 97 ES w a 4 puck and a cheap pressure plate and it engaged pretty good, till the plate gave in to the ghost. A six puck holds even harder, i was told by an autoparts sales rep I know, so maybe for the street may be too much. That rep has a turbocharged Suzuki Samurai, and knows Mazdas very well too. That Samurai is crazy!