Ambient

Now you'll get to hear where my loping comes from

Blub blub blub blub

Eric F

I wonder if the increased lift makes the exhaust valves and interference fit with the pistons? Also, the special edition Sport 20 that the exhaust cam was made for didn't make much more power than the stock FS-ZE motor. It included the exhaust cam, 3 lb lighter flywheel, and slightly higher compression pistons (10.7 vs 10.5). I think it only gained about 5 HP.

Traveler

I can't imagine that the valves will come anywhere close to the pistons. The valve reliefs are almost always cut to the same depth on both sides of a piston regardless of valve lift. Besides, we have 9.1:1 instead of 10.7:1 compressions so I'm sure the piston is lower in the bore than the Sport 20.

JustMe

I also ordered the Jspec cams and installed them both, no big cains at the moment except better pull from the end of the 2nd gear , but lost its 1st gear pull. My custom header and larger pipe from header is still under construction, so i hope its get better then
My air intake is like this at the moment:


But i noticed that the my intake and exhaust cams were the same, the ex cam was made from intake.... then that was mazdaspeeds one?

Traveler

Car is back together. It's a tiny bit less smooth at idle. If you'd never driven a stocker, you probably wouldn't notice. Other than that it still idles well and runs smoothly.

The butt dyno says that I've made a definate improvement. The car is much more willing to rev now, and feels a lot quicker. I threw a CEL about 30 minutes into driving it but I reset it and it's done fine ever since. I'll keep watching. It may be because it's moving more air now. It makes a lot more intake noise now since I modified the air box but only under high load so it doesn't affect normal driving.

Anyway, I got the tooth count off the crank trigger while I was doing the cam and gave it to the dyno shop. He'll be talking to Dastek about which Unichip they would recommend for our application. In case anyone is interested, there are 35 teeth and then a gap. The cam position sensor reads 2 different points on the exhaust cam 180 degrees apart. I'll keep everyone posted next time it hits the dyno and also if Dastek comes up with a recommendation for a Unichip.

zeus

Yeah, there’s a lot of valve room in the camber and clearance won’t be a problem at all. Certainly not with the J-spec, Sport 20 or Mazdaspeed cams. Am I the only one that looks at the specs on these cams and sees so little difference from stock, that I wouldn’t expect much gain? Especially not enough to merit a higher rev ceiling. I mean they’re still factory cams, go back and look at the lift speced for the world challenge Protégé. Now that’s an increase. I wish they’d say what durations and lobe centers they’re running too, but I’m sure that’s their secret.

I know this motor will wake up with lumpy, long duration cams. The power band will extend well past the current 6400rpm drop off and make the car a lot more fun to drive, even with the stock ECU. I’m not talking big power gains, probably like 130 at the wheels, just a broader power band with a higher rev ceiling, that would enhance the performance driving trill of a great handling car.

I now have my extra set of cams to do an aggressive regrind on, but am so slow getting anything done, I haven’t got the specs on the stock springs yet. I know the profile I want except for the lift, and need the spring specs to determine just how much lift we can get without bind or float. You see, I’m cheap enough to not want to buy new springs and lazy enough not to want to pull the head and remove some springs for measurement. Also, if I did take it apart now, I have to put it back together while I wait on the cam grinds and that’s just a pain in the *** I’m not ready for. Does anybody have detailed valve train specs, or know where I can get them?

If anybody else is also interested in going with a custom grid, check out the $70 billet cam blanks Cork Sport has to offer. Oh another thing, custom cams require adjustable pulleys for the full effect. If the aftermarket doesn’t come through soon, I’m going to design my own and have them built. Since things like this are cheaper when you have a quantity made, I was wondering if anybody else is interested.

Traveler

Well I definately notice a difference in the way it pulls now. It pulls all the way through 6500 which is something it didn't do before. The exhaust cam does have another .020 of lift which is quite a bit on a 2.0L. The duration is the about the same on both cams I'm sure but is up 8-10 degrees from stock. Again, enough to feel it. I'm sure these things will really wake up with a decent piggy back controlling fuel and spark. Also, they are still small enough to be able to use with any kind of forced induction so I won't have to remove them when I do that and they should add a few HP with a power adder.

My son rode with me this afternoon and he says he definately notices a difference in power. The other thing is, the surge that was less when I did the intake cam and the exhaust work, is now gone. That's right, the low speed throttle tip in surge that everybody hates is gone. I really like driving the car now. Keeps pulling hard all the way past 90 MPH (oops, I was just revving and shifting and happened to glance at the speedo...) and feels like it would bounce happily off the speed limiter. No more feeling like it runs out of steam at 5500 RPM.

I've got a dyno appt. for Tuesday of next week at 8 AM so we'll see what the numbers end up being. I'm hoping for leaner this time at least but I'm sure the numbers will be higher.

02p5

I'm planning to purchase the intake and exhaust cam from corksport, a few questions though...

1. I just need to purchase the cams (intake+exhaust), do I need to change anything else?
2. Would this modification pass emmisions tests? ex. Cali standard?
3. Do I need to use higher octane fuel? reg ok?

Thanks
02p5

2002 Silver P5
AEM Short Ram
Racing Beat Springs
6000K real HID conversion
Mp3 Lip
Shifter Modification
Modified JDM front bumper

Eric F

Try reading through this thread.

Traveler

This just in! The dyno shop called to let me know about the Unichip. They spoke with Dastek and gave them the info I provided about the crank trigger and cam sensor.

They do have a system that will fit! It will require from 2-3 hours to install then 1-2 hours on the dyno to set everything. The unit itself will be $500-550. The tech I spoke with said he didn't remember which as it was the owner of the shop that got the info. I'll talk with the owner when I have the car dynoed Tuesday. Figure 3 hours at $55 an hour ($165) plus dyno time ($122 to $244). Should be $900 or so to get it all done. I'm trying to sell some other car parts from a different project right now and if the stuff sells soon I'm thinking I'm going to do it.

DBR

i called the unichip distributor in toronto. he said the chip, including installation and tuning would be about $1200 (cdn). he said it would affect ignition and fuel at mid to WOT, but not at low throttle. he said to expect about a 7-8 hp gain on a stock protege.

anyone have any theories why the new intake and exhaust cams would eliminate the low speed throttle tip in surge?

Traveler

You know, I did the exhaust mods to the cat and the #1 to #2 cat discussed earlier and that may also be what helped. The engine is probably scavenging better. I haven't heard from anyone else that's done the cams say that it fixed their low speed surge.

Traveler

The next dyno is done. I also found out that the Unichip (through my local distributor anyway) is $595, plus $295 for installation and all dyno tuning. We're talking $1000 by the time the tax is in. That may be a little much to get 10% HP. That's realistically only 12-14 HP. The AEM plug and play (if they make one) is only about $1800 and will have a LOT more tuning capability and data logging ability. Anyway, here's what happened.


Both of these runs were eveything connected just like I drove it to the testing place.

Run #1 April 23rd 2002 Run #1 May 14 2002

RPM Power Torque A/F RPM Power Torque A/F
2750 54.0 103.1 14.9 2750 53.4 101.9 14.8
3000 58.5 102.4 14.8 3000 57.7 101.1 14.8
3250 65.0 105.1 14.8 3250 63.9 103.2 14.8
3500 71.5 107.3 13.7 3500 70.9 106.4 14.7
3750 77.5 108.6 11.7 3750 75.2 105.3 14.8
4000 83.0 108.9 11.4 4000 82.2 107.9 11.6
4250 87.1 107.6 11.2 4250 87.8 108.5 11.0
4500 91.7 107.1 10.7 4500 92.8 108.3 10.6
4750 93.5 104.3 10.7 4750 96.0 106.2 10.4
5000 96.8 101.7 10.7 5000 97.8 102.7 10.5
5250 99.7 99.7 10.4 5250 101.3 101.3 10.3
5500 101.5 97.0 10.2 5500 103.0 98.3 10.0
5750 101.3 92.5 10.0 5750 103.5 94.6 10.0
6000 100.9 88.4 10.0 6000 103.2 90.3 10.0

Not much of a difference, but a slight increase in top end and a slight decrease in torque below 4000. Still way rich damnit

Traveler

Okay, why the hell why won't the post save the spaces I'm putting between columns?

njaremka

dude, you lost a lot of torque down low.