wheels, lower, seat, valves
 

Hi, all.
New '91 323 (not SE, 1.6L SOHC 8v) owner. Love it so far but leans & revs a little too much. I've seen the light (http:\\wwww.car-parts.com) and I'm a reborn 'junkyard dog', great way to keep the retros below radar (ie: wife).

So here's my bargain list of used upgrades so far:
1) Miata steel rims, MX3 springs, Protege G1 LX/ ES sways, Escort (GT?) seats
2) Protege G1 DX F25M-R (Final: 3.619), think mine's 3.85, really buzzing at 70 mph
3) Capri 1.6L DOHC 16v (non-turbo) head, intake, exhaust

And along the way:
A) replace CD deck, speakers, (add bass?); tint windows; add rt door mirror, strut bar, short shifter

Hope rims, springs, sways will lower (a little)/ flatten & Final drive will quiet cruising. Replacing head may be bit of a dream but sounds fairly straight forward. Upper front strut bar will add a little stiffness. The short shifter gets my hand below seat height. Any warnings/ alternates?

zom, zom a little

Welocome to the ProtegeClub!

sounds like you have a pretty fun little project there and your definetly headed in the right direction, although you may want to look at the B6T (1.6L turbo) engine from the 88-89 323 GTX AWD models. You also may want to look at MX-3 seats, G1 LX disc brakes (f+r) and my handy new lower tie bars :p

Daryl/ Jesse, Thanks for the response/ encouragement. How 'bout a follow-up idea?

In another thread, I read about the risks of using MX3 struts/ springs (ie shorter unloaded height & stiffer spring rates mean running the risk of the springs 'unseating' if wheel swinging to full rebound, say after a big bump at speed). And if the 323 is (presumable) lighter than the MX3, they might not lower at all because of the higher spring rates.

So what about a set of struts/ springs from a non-turbo Mercury Capri? I wonder what their specs are (rates, heights, diams) compared to my 323s? Remeber, I'm not rallying/ racing, just tryng to lower & flatten a little (& cheaply).

Can you think of anyobe I could run this by?

back in the day of cut springs, friends used to wire tie the springs to the struts 3 top and 3 bottom. but with the MX3 uncut springs, i don't see a problem.

i think your best bet is a set of the ZX2-R struts, not only will you get preformance, and still basically an OEM part, but it's a steal at $170 for a set of 4.

http://www.oemfordparts.com