Raverx17

Well Just wanted to say hello to everyone and hopefully this will be the beginning of good thing here. Hope to learn allot from you guys.

I just purchased my second car as a project car (2001 Protege ES) And I think I got a good deal on it $3000 with 55K Miles. I have one question though did these cars come with a leather option from the factory? Because the one I purchased looks like factory leather and the owner said it came with factory leather. I just never realized they offered leather on a protege. Well there goes one of many more questions to come.

Thanks guys and like I said before hope to learn allot .

Jackelope

welcome to the club! I also got an '01 ES myself (Sunlight Silver) .. well thats my wife's car.

Roddimus Prime

I had leather in my 03 P5 but I believe the P5 was the only protege with leather. IF another model DID have leather it would be the ES though.

kargoboy

I think only the P5 came with leather as well.
Welcome to the forum.

JoshP5

Welcome to the forum!
No sedan ever came with leather from the factory.
What plans do you have for your ES?

blockage55

whats up im new to mazdas so any info would be nice.......... does any actually have a protege5 with a turbo as their daily driver ???? if so how do you like it and how much psi can you run on stock internals????

Roddimus Prime

I had a P5 with a supercharger as my daily driver. 4.5psi = 160whp.

Stock block is good for about 200-225whp tops.

JoshP5

The weak link is our rods, which are only good to 7 or maybe 8psi. Maintaining a turbo P5 is a constant effort. Even the MSP, which has the same engine with a factory turbo, suffers from reliability issues.

Roddimus Prime

You have to be very careful about making statements like this because it's not true. 7psi from a Td05 turbo is a lot different than 7psi from a T66 turbo.

Psi isn't what determines how much a motor can hold but stress and power levels do. I'd not be worried to run a small mitsubishi turbo on the engine at 10-12psi with good EMS but I'd never attempt anything over 6psi from a T3. So it's all relative.

JoshP5

Ok, I should have quantified that statement--I assumed a GT25 like the MSP.

sumo_Bob

welcome to the forum

Raverx17

Thanks everyone

For now I'm really just open to any suggestions you guys might have. Like what do I do first(Fast goodies,looks, etc...)

So how come this leather looks factory not at all aftermarket well to me anyways. Oh well it looks nice though and I have to admit I was very surprised when I saw it had leather I never would have imagined a protege (Sedan) with leather.

_Kansei_

Welcome all you new guys!

Yes, you can have a turbo P5 as your daily driver, ask me how I know o_O

Just plan it out carefully and don't buy anything from Corksport.. at all, and you'll be ok.

If you are looking to stay under 200whp (to keep the stock block intact) like I was, you can usually resort to the MSP ecu (~350 dollars from www.protegegarage.com) for easy engine management.. just be prepared to run a 9.1:1 air/fuel ratio when in boost. I get 36mpg highway with turbo but if I check my mpg just after an autocross I'm getting 11mpg!!

Oh and, don't ever think you can turbo the car cheaply. I got my turbo manifold (Callaway) for $75, got my turbo (GT2554R.. the msp turbo) for $225 absolutely mint with like 10k miles on it, got my FMIC, bov, and piping for $400, and the ECU for $300. $1000 and I was basically done, right? That's what I thought too. It cost me over $3300 to get started :P

Some nice cost cutters:
-- Buy an MSP clutch if you aren't looking at breaking the stock block. I've heard people say it lasts just fine at 200whp, but either way my hope is that it'll slip before my rods bend (a false hope I know). Stock MSP clutch kit is around $197 from Protegegarage.com.
-- MSP ECU - $350 dollars, and you're done in terms of engine management. I wouldn't recommend it if you stray from the MSP formula too too much (like a different turbo), but it'll get the job done. It has it's drawbacks (search for threads discussing 'hesitation') but for a Haltech fuel management unit it's like $900 so it's worth trying the MSP ECU.. plus it's a 15 minute job to install it
-- Used manifold, turbo, downpipe. The only issue here is that you might end up with a manifold that is cracked, or a turbo that leaks oil like crazy.
-- Careful planning --I dropped at least 400 dollars on shipping costs to rush ship last-minute items to my house.
-- Leave out the oil cooler .. though I don't recommend this one at all. Oil coolers are pretty cheap.
-- Ditch the A/C so you can use stock fans sorta.. I rewired the thinner of my stock fans as the radiator fan and relocated it to the driver's side of the radiator with zip-ties.. it isn't pretty but it works.. and saves you $250. You could always buy the MSP fans if you went the MSP manifold route, as theoretically they'll fit (but you'll probably have to ziptie something somewhere as the MSP uses a smaller radiator.

All that being said, if you want to keep your car a daily driver you have to be ready and willing to spend 6 hours fixing your car on any given day. I'm not saying that it'll happen often, because it shouldn't, but it can and you have to be completely ready to pull the turbo off in an afternoon. That means having caps and plugs for your oil lines, coolant lines, and vacuum lines, and keeping your pre-turbo exhaust manifold handy. I had to do this this past sunday because my corksport downpipe broke.

And don't listen to people telling you the MSP is unreliable, it doesn't have to be true. I've been romping on my car for the past 7 months after turboing it with no reliability issues aside from the low-quality Corksport downpipe.