ok im just wondering, as it is my understanding due to the high compression already found in the FS-Ze motor it is kinda pointless to turbo it, so what do u guys think is a better idea, turbo or engine swap, and which provides more realistic power options. thanx

 

a properly set-up turbo will give you much more flexibility in tuning and power out put than a N/A motor. also, a high output N/A motor will be less likly to pass any kind of emissions testing (if required), and will be harder to drive around every day.

personally, i would go for the N/A route. any one can slap a turbo on an engine and get big hp, but i like the screem that comes from a properly tuned all motor machine. (i get quite giddy watching indy racing) however, if someone wanted my opinion on what to do with thier car for more power, i would suggest the turbo route. big gains with little internal engine work.

 

I am doing the swap. I thought about doing a turbo on my 1.6L, but the more and more I think about it the FS-ZE would come out to be a much better swap for me in the end. The reason, you can always lower the compression in an engine later on to put a turbo on it. I plan on retuning mine and placing a turbo, but this will be much later after the swap. Either way you look at it just a boost of horsepower for a nice chunk of change. One thing thought the swap will take a bit more to do in my opinion than the turbo


Turbo

 

I agree with you guys regarding a N/A motor having emissions problems, The only problem with a turbo car is getting it right...especially when no one else has done it yet. I love turbos and voted that way even though I don't really care...what ever gives the Protege MORE POWER(arg,arg,arg!) floats my boat. The N/A route right now won't give you as much power as a turbo will (properly set up, with intercooler) and a turbo only robs 10% (compared to a supercharger which robs 30%). Turbos are the most efficient way to build power, but it also depends on what you use the car for. Turbos are good for racing and drags, high RPM power!
Superchargers are good for the street, silky smooth power delivery!
N/A tuning dosent take up any more space than whats already used, your just replacing factory parts with better ones!
This is my take of the good points about all three known ways to build power. I won't mention NOS because its only there when the system is on and when the bottle is dry your screwed, where as the other systems are always there...it's like premium fuel, only good when the tank is full!

 

or you can wait a while for the factory tuned 190hp turbo Protege, the Mazdaspeed 3. Yes Mazdaspeed 3 is its official name.

sources say expect them in showrooms towards the end of this year as a 2003 model...

 

190 hp with a turbo and tuned ECU, comone there talking like 200 hp from the bolt on kits, they need to do better then that

 

I am planning to stay with a N/A swap for the first part of my protege tune. I will do the turbo probably at the same time so I can install the turbo while it is out of the engine. I have already located a wrecked 01 ES. The engine and tranny are still good and are running, but the tail end is gone.

I do have one question though, does anyone know where I can get an aftermarket hood and body kits for the protege. Better yet does anyone know of any big brake upgrade kits. I was looking for something in the 12-14" rotor range for the front and some 10" or bigger for the rear.


Turbo

 

N/A- Doing a engine swap is hard work but what isn't! I have no idea where you guys are sourcing these fsze's but I haven't been able to find one for years. You have to be careful where you go because there are some places out there that say they can get you a fsze but really what they have is a fs03 which is the 2.0L probe/mx-6/626 engine. If I were you I wouldn't take the chance. Find a wreck probe/mx6/protege/626 2.0L engine( heard of a place in PA that if you pull it, it's yours for like $100. I haven't looked into that YET.) Take said engine and rebuild it with mazdaspeed pistons, j-spec intake, p n p everything, and if you are lucky enough to find a 626 engine 98 and above get the mazdaspeed exhaust cam. This should net good numbers!


Turbo- It has be proven that the weak point in the 2.0L are the pistons and connecting rods. A turbo would be great but on a car without forged pistons and connecting you would have to run low psi. Most any car can run safely around 6-8 psi. This would net somewhere around the 150whp on the 2.0L. As many people that I have talked to about taking a n/a engine and putting a turbo on it, you had better have some money in the bank for things that go wrong. Your car did not come from the factory with a turbo so your engine wasn't designed for the increased temp. in the engine bay the parts weren't designed for the added pressure of a turbo. Now I'm not saying dont do a turbo but if I had the money and the time I would get some forged pistons and connecting rods. Then again even 150whp turboed car would be alot of fun!

Too each his own! If you have the money and the time do what you want and be happy. You can't go wrong either way. And I have had many dreams of hearing a blow-off going off but in the meantime I'm going the cheap way. NOS! But if all goes well I'll have a turbo installed sometime this year without forged pistons and connecting rods. There just too damn expensive and I dont need 300whp!

 

Well the FS-ZE engine produces around 180hp and bolted to the transmission I expect a loss of about 20% so we are looking at about 140whp already. I have a machine shop about an hour and half from where I live that is ready to jet top the cylinder walls and make me some forged pistons and titanium connecting rods. All I need to send them is one of the old ones. I will probably replace the factory head gasket with a larger copper one to drop the compression ratio down a little then I plan on using a turbonetics t3/t4 hybrid turbo charger. I will probably be pushing around 8 psi of boost. As for finding an FS-ZE try calling corksports it may take them some time but they can get you one. I am having my friend's father look around tokyo to get me one. He lives there so he says its no toruble. If he cannot find me one I am going to get mine from Corksports with the factory ECU from the engine. I plan on pulling the odes from it and my old one. A couple of the people I work with are into building custom electronics, so I plan on building a reprogramable ECU for the swap and if it works out then I may build a few more to keep as spares and prototypes for someone to mass produce.

 

I really dont think I would just go out and buy a fsze engine specially if I had a 2.0L protege. And this is way- What would be different? The intake cam and higher compression pistons. So would it be worth it to go out and buy a $2061 engine that is est. at 170bhp? Maybe if you blew yours up then I would look into it. So go out and buy the jspec intake cam for $168 and either buy the jspec pistons for $180 or Mazdaspeed ones for $120. You dont need the jspec intake manifold because you already have it on your car if you have 2.0L in your Protege. If you are one of the few people that have a lower displacement engines, I would go out and find a used aspec 2.0L and buy said parts and pnp everything. The cost would still be lower and the gains would be great. But to go out and buy a jspec engine for somewhere around the 2K mark and the spend god knows how much to put a turbo on it( I'm thinking that it would be somewhere in the 2K ball park) would be a alot of money without 100% knowing what the end result would be and specially if you could save money by nt buying the fsze. On top of all that I have been told that it may take up to 6 monthes for corksport to find a fsze and you are still required to put down 2/3 of the cost of the engine. I have yet to see a fsze engine install in anyones car. The fsze is a pipe dream for most! I know that corksport doesn't even offer a ecu with the fsze. Hell it took them a year to offer a upgraded ecu with the klze (2.5 v6). I'm trying to be a dick, I just putting out info that I have gotten over the years of dealing with the 2.0L engine.

 

If you have a 2.0l, then turbocharge it

That truly is the only way. If you're looking for horsepower and you stick the FS-ZE engine into your car, how long do you think you'll be satisfied with the measly 170hp???? Not very long, I promise. Then you're only option is to turbocharge the FS-ZE. With the FS-ZE you have even higher compression and you're worse off then you were with the stock engine.

With turbo's you're only limited by your wallet and your tuning abilities.

 

trubo is hot , but I kinda like the natural way ,, but to be honest everywhere I go everyone has frigin turbo cars and it is kinda like if you don't have a turbo you better have a big bottle of NOS
bruce

 

I don't exactly understand that point of view (not saying you're wrong), but what's unnatural about a turbo?

All it is doing is taking advantage of your wasted exhaust? Once your exhaust leaves the engine it's gone. What's wrong with actually making it useful?

When you think about how it works, you kind of have to wonder why all cars don't come equipped with a turbo.

 

I agree with the earlier comment on upgrading the FS-DE engine over buying an old FS-ZE. The way I see it, your FS-DE may have less miles on it which is a good thing. Also, from what I've learned over the past months, the differences to the FS-ZE are the intake cam, pistons, ECU and intake manifold. Well, if you order an FS-ZE from corksport you will NOT get the FS-ZE ECU. Therefore you're paying $2061 for the same engine with three upgrades. If you were to keep your FS-DE engine and buy those three pasts it would cost($530 + $168 + $180) only $878. Not to mention, cheaper labour to install a cam, pistons and intake manifold compared to an entire engine swap.
On a page I was viewing, there were those Protege ES's that Jeremy D and Jeremy T had thrown an FS-ZE into. It said that these cars were slightly faster than the MP3's. So maybe around 150hp. If you truely want the 170hp you need that ellusive ECU, otherwise your FS-ZE is basically an FS-DE with three upgrades. Even if you bought those three parts and an FS-ZE ECU individually, it would probably cost less than $2061, and you'd actually get the ECU.
It seems a lot more cost effective to just keep your motor and only change the better, corresponding jspec parts. Then you don't have to play with your odometer too.
Is there something that I'm missing that makes me totally wrong on this?

Turbo's rock, but they are damn expensive. Definately a good idea if you have the $$$.

 

You know the best way to answer this question is to ask yourself these few questions:

How much money do you have to spend, honestly?
How much horsepower do you want?
What are you going to do with the horsepower?

You may also want to consider learning how to do this work yourself. Paying people to do this will get REAL expensive. At the same time if you don't know anything about the system, then there are those that will suggest you shouldn't have it. And I wouldn't necessarily disagree with that. What are you going to do when the car needs a little adjustment? Pay someone to do it everytime? (Modified cars are always needing something done to them). I would suggest that instead of paying someone to install your first few mods, that you get in a local car club and find someone who is willing to help you learn to install them yourself.