tooslow

listen i know people ask alot of stupid crap h*ll i do all of the time. but i am seriously losing my freakin mind over this car. i stay up so late im starting see sh** during the day from lack of sleep. all i do is search and read search and read all freakin night and day.

sorry, anyways i have $4000 for this car i was going to put it down on a wrx ( really freakin comfortable car, but i was tired atr the time so maybe i was loopy ) but thats the easy way out plus i hate making payments really sucks. ive searched turbo's but im so afraid i will blow the fs motor ( 65k miles ) plus i dont know how to tune it, but i did find a guy to install w/out tuning for $500...i also searched n/a but seems like a big waste of time and money...and finally spent a long time researching the klze swap but i dont feel like dealing with the wiring issue..at this point im closing my eyes and requesting some freakin guidance. just tell me what is in my best interest turbo seems like the way to go but again if i blow my motor im going to set this car on fire and roast freakin marshmellows till hell freezes over...anyways what should i do??..any safe turbo kits out their ( hibbost is killing me $3800 for turbo kit doesnt he think of the little people, cant cost more then $1800 to build the thing )

Roddimus Prime

Is your car paid for? If not put $2500 towards paying the car off. Take the other $1500 and invest in suspension upgrades and brakes.

If the car is paid off and you have $4k pocket cash you should trade in the Protege and put the $4k cash down on a MS3 or MS6 and enojy smoking the crap out of turbo'd 3rd gens in your brand new stock car.

If you want to upgrade your exsisting protege a turbokit would be a great way to go about it but it won' be bulletproof with only a $4k investment. You'd need like $3500 in built internals, $4k for the turbo (very fair price) and then $1500 in the suspension/brakes to make the car a total package.

Sometimes you've just gotta pay to play.

t24u

Well said. If you got money go for it, turbo it. But again, if you got money (and decent credit), why not .. .. MS3 or 6.

tooslow

yeah i thought about the mazdaspeed cars, but the wife won't let me. She has to have a cx-7, which its not a bad casr just not a tuner car. i really didnt want the extra car payment cause my car is paid for. ididnt want the cx-7 plus the extra car payment. i think im just going to get the hiboost and run 6 psi and saving for internal work by spring next year. Will the hi boost require more tuning then the map that its supplied with?.after i buy the kit i could afford to pay somebody to install for me, but tuning would surely be out of the question.

as far as the suspension goes is there any lowering kits that dont give up a great deal of ride quilty not saying the protege is a caddy or anything ,but i lowered my last protege and it was like being on a moon bounch after every bump i hit..as far as brakes go im already upgrading to slotted rotors and a nicer pad, my brakes are starting to grind right now so i figure ill do that upgrade.

on a side note would buying a probe fs intake manifold from a junk yard been a improvement over the current one i have now? im not looking to be a race car just want to keep up with the other tuner cars currently out. you know a 8 sec 1/4..lol.im looking to kit mid to low 15's

Roddimus Prime

#1. CX7 is a badass tuner car. Id pimp the crap out of one. Same engine as the MS3/6 just heavier

2. Hiboost's stock map is pretty good as it is. You could easily drive it at 6psi with no worries. I did.

3. If your protege bounced like it was on the moon it wasn't because of your springs...it was because of your struts.

4. i wouldn't bother with the probe manifold. CAI, header, j-spec cams...if you want anything more than that get a lightweight flywheel and stage 2 clutch. motor mounts front and rear and then start gutting the car to make it faster.

tooslow

hey roddimus i just came across a website called www.paeco.com i called the guy and just shooting the sh** he said he could build a stage 2 motor completely forged,head work,cams that would create alittle chopy idle but would be ok for the street and the motor would create a 40% increase over the stock numbers ( 11:1 compression ) and he said it would be $5000 thats more then i wanted to spend but i figure with that investment add some fuel upgrades ( pump, injectors,etc. ) and a nice fmu i could probably get the car tuned for like 200hp, but the motor with proper tuning would be bullet proof. then down the road add a low boost turbo and call it quits. ohh and tranny upgrades.

what do you think??

Roddimus Prime

i know paeco personally. They are about 20 miles from my house. They are also 100% full of ****.

There is another forum member on here and msprotege that used them and the total bill was closer to $10k and it took something odd like 14 months to complete.

Tell me what you think is a better investment:

$5k for a 40% increase in power (paeco) 140-150whp

or

$4k for a 80% increase in power (hiboost low pis kit) 170-180whp



I contacted Paeco several times about making custom ground cams for the fs-de and they basically blew me off with the line "no two cams are the same so there's no such thing as a "stage2 cam"" They are morons.

tooslow

well when you put it like that..lol..i was excited to hear they would grind cams because for $ 200 usd you couldnt find a better deal i always thought a decent cam grind was closer to $500-$800 usd..im for sure going to get the hiboost kit and get a decent gauge setup and have everything installed, unless you think that a trubo install is something a basic mechanic with very basic tools could handle?..well i suppose im going to contact protege garage and get the ball rolling. thanks for your help!!!

Roddimus Prime

depending on your location I'm sure there are active forum members who could help out with the install. Especially here on the eastern side. We have a ton of skilled members in the S.E. and P-garage's new shop is opening up in the Chicago area.

tooslow

im north eastern ( delaware ). i spoke to the guy at hi boost earlier today and he told me the kits are cheaper he said that the starter kit would run $2500 w/out engine management and $2700 w/ engine management. if thats the case i wouldnt think twice about buying from him. Now dont qoute me on those prices because we were both on cell phones and i do believe he has an accent. also took a browse on protegegarage and saw the have a " budget " kit but excludes map,bov and slim line fan ( never new there was a clearance issue with the turbo on these cars, does the msp run a thinner fan then the stock proteges?