proto-J

Greetings everyone!
I'm new to the world of Protege, Mazda & car clubs. I've been snooping around the forums and they seem like a great resource for iniformation and ideas.
I'm not about street-racing or shaving tenths of a second off my lap time. I am about enjoying the driving experience in my Protege 5. That means adding a little more "zoom" under the hood and making it stand apart from the Protege 5 owned by the little old lady down the street.

I guess, the usual first step for a novice such as myself would be intake & exhaust. Here's my plan:

Ractive air intake (chosen by cost efficiency (cheap) and availability). I'm still trying to decide on a muffler though. I think that Weapon R's Cyborg muffler looks cool with the coloured ring but that's all I know about it. I still use the car as a daily driver in summer and winter plus I have a two year old that I have to cart around. Would the Cyborg be overkill just for looks? I don't know what kind sound it produces and I wouldn't want to attract the wrong kind of attention (especially with a 2 year old in the car). My other option was the Mazdaspeed muffler from the dealer. Once again my knowledge of this product is limited.

If anyone has any opinions or suggestions with these products, please let me know.
(sorry for my long winded first post. I'll try harder next time to keep it brief)

akaveli

welcome to the Club Normally Intake and Exhaust would be the first mod but it also depends on what you wanna do first. If price is a issue then yea start off small. If not the best intakes to choose from are AEM and Ingen. Exhaust, MSP, Racing Beat or get a custom 2.25 cat back.

Zooooooooooom

Yeah, welcome to the club. Haven't heard much about the Ractive intake, but i chose the Injen one because its cold air, not ram air like the AEM one, and "heard" it may give a little more hp gain than the AEM. But since the hpgain isn't going to be huge anyways, go with whatever you can afford. And definitely go with that Racing Beat exhaust, mostly cause the dealership will rip you off if you want to buy the Mazdaspeed one.

mtbfreak40

hey, because of your 2 year old, you probably want to keep it somewhat quiet so i would go with the racing beat exhaust. this is a catback system rather than just a muffler so you will get a little performance out of it and it wont be really loud. as far as intake, theres been alot of complaints about the ractive fitment and quality. i went with the aem becuase of the easier installation than the Injen and almost identical performance.

kenchan

unless you got forced induction, you're not going to see
much advantage over other pro5's with just intake and
exhaust. i put on the dealer Mazdaspeed muffler just for
dressup (axle back). im only going to do the K&N drop in
air filter too...

even if you did go forced induction 5-6psi, you'll only do like
0-60mph low 7sec, so its not even worth the trouble.

i say for this car, dress it up and enjoy the drive (no racing).
so far i put on eibach prokit and some dressup 17's.

im expecting my rear swaybar to come in within the next
few days. i might do the short shifter down the road.

proto-J

thanks for everyone's advice!
it's been very helpful.

I called the dealer, and they said the mazdaspeed exhaust would cost about $315 canadian. I'm not much of a DIYer, so thay said install would cost another $300 plus for install (I wrote down the exact prices but I forgot the paper at work, sorry). Does this sound right, or are just trying milk me for cash. I asked my local speed shop for pricing on the WeaponR Cyborg, and was roughly half as much and he suggested an install of about $40.

any thoughts?

ZoomZoomH

that $300 labor is complete bullshit.

it's a 15 minute job.

you don't even need to get under the car completely to install it.

just take off your rear passenger side wheel (car jacked up and on jackstand), get a 14mm socket wrench, some WD-40, and you can do this all by yourself.

the mazdaspeed muffler comes with instructions, you'll see what I mean once you read it.

DO NOT go let the dealer install this! heck, it's so easy, I bet your local mufflerr shop will install it for you for like $20 US

Snacks McGee

Anybody know where I can get the Mazdaspeed muffler and how much it will cost U.S.??? And how easy is it to install yourself?

ZoomZoomH

please do a search on Mazdaspeed muffler, you'll find T-O-N-S of info.

as for your question, you get it at the local dealership, and it's very simple to install.

Snacks McGee

Search option is having techincal difficulties at the moment...well...at least for me.

ZoomZoomH

doh! you are right

but you still got the short version answers to your question, from yours truly

akaveli

hold up?! now I'm confused.! Is it the MS muffler/axle-back? Or is there a MS Catback Exhaust?

ZoomZoomH

let's make it clear:

Mazda/Mazdaspeed NEVER made a catback exhaust system for the NA market.

Mazda/Mazdaspeed ONLY made an AXLE-BACK MUFFLER for the 3rd gen Protege.

clear?

proto-J

hey ZoomZoomH,

thanks for the info.
i totally felt a $300 install sounded fishy.

i think i will get the MS muffler and do the work myself (if it's as easy as you say)

anyone have any opinon on Weapon R just for comparision sake?

goldstar

Try www.mazdastuff.com for the Mazdaspeed muffler. Price is $195 US and installation is real easy.

02 DX Millenium Red
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AEM Short Ram intake (sometimes)