Ghoti

Hi everyone,
I am from Saskatchewan, Canada and I own a 1999 Mazda Protege Touring Edition. I bought it bone stock for 12g tax in with 69km on it. I have done some modifications to it which include:

Full tint (7windows)
exhaust (2 1/2 inch piping, no res, tom's Hi power titanium tip muffler) has a nice bass tone
stereo (JVC deck, 10inch rockford sub, 150wat rockford amp)
17inch Giovanna Kyoto Racing rims
custom rear window decal that says Bad Cop No Doughnut!
Alarm


Mods comming this upcomming summer:
the removal of my front end(windshield to bumper) and replacing it with the front clip of a 2003 Mazdaseed and thats everything bumper, side pannels, engine, turbo, etc. etc.
suspension
sideskirts and rear lip
new pait(painting it myself), electronic blue maybe?
upgraded turbo/intercooler if funds allow

summer after will be a RWD or AWD tranny!


I am open too all feed back good or bad. I wanna hear what you think, any sugestions on brands/ tecniques are apprecated. let me know your experences with certain mods!

Thanks for checkin out my Protege!

Anarchistchiken

It would be soooooooooo much infinitly cheaper to buy a Mazdaspeed and get your entire car chromed then to put a MS front clip on an EX (or whatever the "touring edition" is called)

If you plan on converting this car to RWD, you will be the first that I know of. My strong recomendation is to buy yourself an SR20DET and make that fit. Same with AWD. Our engine just isnt strong enough to make that kind of insane mod worthwile. While you're at it, you might wanna buy a CTS-V to drive around while your cars in the shop. That thing'll be chump change compared to what your plans will cost.

It's Electric blue, not electronic blue.

It's spelled "donut" not "doughnut"

If you want a suggestion about brands/techniques for an AWD turbo charged car, I can highly recomend Subaru.



I'm not trying to bust your ***** here, I'm just saying that the plans you have for your car are going to cost an amount of money that is exponentially more than any protege was worht brand new at the assembly line door. If you do what you say you're gonna do, you will be a god. But I've heard that same plan many times before, and I even had one very similair to it when I got my P5. Just be sure you know what you're getting yourself into, even as far as literally not having your car for months and months at a time when it's in the shop, before you sink your time and money into it.

Roddimus Prime

hmm....because of your pm to me I'm going to offer my advice.

#1. make a CLEAR plan of what you want your car to be when you're done. What do you want cosmeticaly, performance-wise, handling-wise, audio/video, etc.

#2. I suggest this to everyone....DO SOMETHING ORIGINAL. Every 3rdgen protege almost has the msp front end....while it's a great looking piece you should maybe try something that makes your car stand out. I just picked up a new line of body kits from Postert. see my vendor thread for pics.

#3. Don't be all show and no go. Noting is worse than looking fast and being slow as hell. Be able to back up your image!! Turbo isn't the only way to go. Nitrous is cheap and VERY effective.

#4. do your homework. Know what you're talking about doing. Doing a MSP front end on a 99 pro is a lot of work for little gain. It wouldn't be worth it to me.

#5. please don't do ricer stuff like put worthless stickers all over your car and if you're going to put a manufacturer's sticker on your car make sure you actually have one of their parts on your car.

#6. Start saving your money. It sounds like you have big plans and are probably very young. You'll need 5X's as much money as you think you will. Trust me.

Roddimus Prime

This a picture of a bumper Inow carry for the 99-00 protege. If you're interested in it as opposed to the MS bumper let me know.

juddz

BTW, that facia would look ultra cool on a P5, which never came with anything but the MP3/P5/MSP bumper/grille/headlamps.

Oh, and perhaps the biggest problem swapping out an entire MSP front clip on to a stock Protege - just try and find a MSP that's been hit in the rear. I suspect that most of them that were in accidents anyhow were not totaled out because someone rear-ended them. I would guess they are most commonly totaled out because the person behind the wheel suffered from "Camaro Syndrome", had to drive everywhere with his foot nailed on the throttle, and chances are, he probably ended up ramming the front of the car into something. Hard. And in such a case, not only wouldn't you get the body work from your front clip, but you also won't get the intercooler, and much of the powertrain could be suspect as well. Cracked blocks, anyone? In addition to that, they are such rare cars, that finding a good, low mileage front clip from one is a time consuming process in and of itself.

Ghoti

The frint clip of the mazdaspeed is cheaper then you most likly think, I already have one lined up for summer. It's only gonna cost me $3500 to buy it then shipping, there is nothing wrong with the motor, fenders, etc. they are in excellent shape. I know that it's gonna cost me alot for install but I hope to get that reduced(which I may actually). I am doing cosmetic, preformance and suspension in the summer. As to doing something original, well I've already done that becasue in my city theres mostly just civics, integras, cavys. sunfires, etc. There are only two protege's being done up. It may not be original for everywhere but its for here, also I have only seen one body kit that I like for my Protege and I would still pick the MS front over it. I'm not gonna be all show and no go, instead of having my 122hp i'm gonna have 185hp, and if I want I can purchace a 250hp Subaru turbo for $800. I am going to do my hw, if the cost is too much for the front clip to be insalled, I'll just order the motor/turbo/intercooler/suspension. The place I'm going to is pretty flexible with cost, so we'll see what happens on monday. I only have 2 stickers on my car, the small rear one and the windsheild one (which is my friends store, where II bought some parts from). Trust me I know the original cost of somthing always (usually) gets shot up by unsuspected problems, a few of my friends had that problem. Thanks for the replies guys, it was greatly apprecated.

Roddimus Prime

this all sounds SO familiar.......

Ghoti

I'm not suprised that you've heard this before from other people, I have also heard stuff like this from my friends and they never did it mostly because they didn't have the money. Where as I can tell you right now that I have enough money to buy and ship the frint clip. I'm just waiting till April/May so I have enough for the install and any problems that my come up.

Roddimus Prime

sorry man, this is just all so unpleasantly familiar. we get a lot of people who come on here and tell us they're going to do the 13B RWD swap into a protege because "money is no object"....these people are all talk. I hope you're different. I'd hate to think we have another mouth-runner.

Ghoti

I totally understand why you're thinkin that, I'm takin no offence to it. I'll be posting everything that comes up from price to the work involved, to negotaitions, etc.

FlyinHawaiian071

Hey Ghoti, go for it man. I can't believe these people will try to discourage anyone from trying anything. Everybody thought Carroll Shelby was crazy for putting a 427 Big Block into an AC Cobra, or that a Rotary engine (in a Japanese made car) could never win Le Mans.... and both turned out pretty well if I remember correctly. If I really had the money to burn, I'd go crazy with my car as well. I would LOVE to turn it into a RWD car just because I could then untilize the car's potential power and its handling to the maximum. I would kill to be able to drift the car with Induced-Power-Oversteer during an autocross event, but alas, the e-brake handle with have to do for now. If you want any of my advice, you can read the rest of ths message, if not, no problem. Since you got the bastard-child years of the Protege (99-00), there is a very limited selection of cosmetic upgrade that can be done. For the record, I am in love with my Sport-20 package and think that Mazda should have made the US bound cars look like it. I think you should too. It may not be the MOST origional thing you can do, but it is still a rare conversion and looks, IMO better then the MSP front end. If you do, in fact, go with the Sport-20 look, then you eliminate the need , and cost, of completely switching out your front end. That will also free up some $$ for the bigger turbo, which I would reccomend getting. As for the RWD upgrade, that will kill your pocketbook, and really take a lot of work for the car, an idea would be to use the existing cavity that the exhaust sits in for the drivetrain and maybe consider going to a sidepipe(s) config (which could also look sick). Also, seeing where a rear differential would sit could prove to be an additional challenge, but workable.

All I am trying to say here, and this is more to everyone, is that Mazda has always put performance as its top priority. Honda and the other Japanese manufacturers, are dedicated to making cheap people-movers, and that's why you see the domestic upgrade market so large... All their owners can do is go ^UP^. I think Mazda would be proud to see you cadavering thier car in order to take it to another extreme. Everybody, I'm giving Ghoti my full support in his endevour, and I think that people should give constuctive advice, words of wisdom, and support to anyone who wants to work on their car, no matter on what level.... That's why we're here, isn't it?

zerocover

You could definetly go with the awd conversion just import the sport20 drivetrain.
The touring edition is the 1.8l right, there would be no prob in getting everything to bolt right up. Then if you want to go rwd you can just mess with it to send all the power to the rear.

I wouldnt bother with the mazdaspeed engine parts, the 2.0 is pretty weak. You can keep the engine you have and just get one of the many turbo kits out there, hi-boost makes a good product that should give you plenty of power. If you want you can even get the wagner forged block and just boost all hell out of it.

If you really like the mazdaspeed front go for it. I find that there is just much better looking after market parts avalible.

Do some more reserch and cruise the forum for a while. Im sure you'll find plenty of ideas.

VagaBond-X

well said man....
seriously, we will always be getting people coming here and saying i wanan do this, or i'm gonna do that....
but what i say, is if u have the knowledge, u might as well share it right....

thats why in the 13B-RWD conversion thread, i gave all my knowledge on the 13B engine.... and etc etc.... evne tho it was probbaly not gonna be done, it was still cool to think about, and i was happy to give my knowledge to help out....

and ghoti man.... u know what..... i say do as much as u can do man..... make ure car awesome if u have the money too..... one advice i would stick with, is stay with the 1.8L and get a turbo kit to put on....

i essentially have the same car as you.... lol check my signature.... u'll see...
and us 1.8Ls have a more linear powerband than the 2.0Ls.... so if you can man, i say stick with the 1.8L.... i know i want to....

and zerocover.... dpeending on ghoti's power goals... teh AWD tranny from the overseas proteges is weak..... it cant handle too much power....

Ghoti

"1.8Ls have a more linear powerband than the 2.0Ls" you mean acceration right? if not can you please fill me in.

and as for my power goals well the more the better, I don't have a certain limit set, I'm mostly consentrating on the pro's and con' with the mazdaspeed motor. someone said they were weak, how are they weak? why are they weak? this is some stuff I'm tryin to find out.

As for the trany well its a long ways off so I have lots of time to deal with that.

Drackonn

too bad you didnt have that bumper before i did molded the accord front lip, i like that, and it would have saved me a lot of time and trouble.

sorry for the threadjack but as for what your doing i would reccommend boosting the 1.8 if you have all the money to do that conversion i would just boost the 1.8 and do some nice simple exterior mods like a lip kit or that nice bumper up a few post.


just my 2 cents though.