I just wanted to say hello and tell the group a little about myself.

The Protege5 is primarily my wife's car, but I do a considerable amount of driving in it as well. We bought our Protege5 just before the 4th of July, 2001. We were in the market for a mid-size, but we were also open to compacts. After I fell asleep during the 626 test drive, we decided to give the Pro5 a shot and fell in love. We bought it that day! We had been shopping for about a month and my wife had her heart set on the Wolfsburg Edition Jetta. I wanted her to take a better look at other cars, so we did a little more shopping. Early that day, we test drove an Alero, Altima, and Accord.

About 5 years ago, I bought a Grand Prix GTP and joined a mailing list. A few years after that, I also joined an online club then started a local chapter. I had only been modifying the GTP the last two years and was able to transform it from a 15 second grocery getter to a low-13 street machine that gets better fuel economy than our Mazda.

I don't plan on leaving the Grand Prix community, but I do plan to apply what I've learned about FWD vehicles and Forced Induction to the Protege5. In the process, I hope to enjoy exchanging information and getting to know fellow members.

Sincerely,
Gene O.

 

Welcome to the board, and feel free to pass on any and all forced induction knowledge you care to!

 

Welcome to the board. The P5 needs a few more horses under the hood. Any ideas, sugestions and/or information will be very helpful

 

Great to know I'm welcome here Thanks!

I did a little more looking around and all I can say is, WOW!!! I had no idea there was so much already availible for these cars. The level of knowledge with many of the members is impressive as well. I also very pleased with the level of maturity displayed in these forums. . . to the Moderators!

When I picked up my Grand Prix, there was virtually nothing availible for performance aftermarket parts. It looks like I'll be doing more shopping and less discussing. j/k

 

hey, what did you do to get better gas mileage?

 

I should've said it gets better fuel economy on the highway than the Protege5. In the city, the PR5 gets far better fuel economy. Although my GP is 1000lbs heavier than the PR5, stock highway fuel economy is 28mpg vs. 30mpg, so were not talking a huge gain. The gearing in the GP is better suited for highway. I have an automatic tranny in the PR5, so it doesn't do as well as the manual.

Just from the engine breaking in, I noticed some improvement right around the 30k mile mark. When I swapped in a smaller supercharger pulley, my fuel economy went up. Not bad for a mod that gave me 20ft-lb gain in torque and 20Hp as well.

Another thing I did was use something I saw on an informercial. Great, only my second day here and I'm gonna get laughed out of the forum. Anyway, I tried ZMax and my fuel economy improved considerably.

Then there's the standard stuff like keeping an eye on your tire pressure and driving conservatively. Annually, I do a top engine cleaning and replace PCV valve and fuel filter. I also keep my spark plugs in check and regularly clean my mass air flow sensor and throttle body.

My wife doesn't want me to take off the roof rack. Although minimal, I'm sure the decrease in drag would help fuel economy some.

Not everything can carryover to the PR5, but there's a start.

 

Smaller supercharger pulley? I wish we had that option. The extra fuel economy comes at the expense of the engine running leaner though. Do you have an air/fuel ratio gauge?

 

At cruising speeds, the bypass is opened so the engine is not under boost. The A/F mixture is regulated by the computer based on O2 sensor readings, so I wasn't running any leaner than prior to the swap. I don't have an A/F gauge, but I can monitor my 02 sensor voltage when I have my laptop plugged in. From there I can interpolate what the A/F ratio is. Not quite as good as an Exhaust Gas Temperature reading but fairly close.

I once read somewhere that the best fuel economy is attained by matching cruising rpm with peak torque rpm (for a given throttle position, not actual peak torque at WOT). My guess is that the increased flow shifted the torque curve to better match my cruising rpm.