JAL1639

I would have paid 3K more for that!!! That's PHAT.

MadeInJapan

Caretaker...your tire size are the same as mine. What's available in Nippon in regards to tires? In other words, who makes them there and what's decent. We are still very limited to tires that fit our car over here in the U.S. Presently I have Kumho's on mine and am liking them pretty well, but they are a rougher ride than the OEM Dunlaps.

Caretaker

I opted for Yokohama DNA GP. Those are not available in the US I think yet. I am pretty sure you can find some Bridgestone for your wheels. Btw, I did not realized it until recently: the president of Bridgestone is Mr. Ishibashi ;-) I guess you will make the connection..
;-)

CT

MadeInJapan

Yeah, I knew about Ishi Bashi...Stone-Bridge...pretty cool. But haven't been able to find Bridgestones in my size over here. Will look for the Yoko's in about 30,000 more miles (at least I hope the Kumhos last that long).

Caretaker

Maybe some of you know, I think the FS-ZE engine of the Sport20 is also used for some Ford Probe in America.

98zoomzoom

So if english is your second language,
what is your first?

Caretaker

French. I was born in Quebec City.

any people speaking French here?

98zoomzoom

So did you speak any japanese when you moved?
I am really interested in knowing how you adjusted.
Are there alot of english speaking people there?
How about the cost of living? How about salaries
for say a web/graphic designer?
sorry so many Q's

TR3CK

Je parles francais et je suis de Montreal.

Content de savoir qu'il y a un quebecois immigrer au Japon qui a une Familia Sport20. Savais-tu que l'auto que tu as au Japon est la plus populaire au Quebec, c'est une drole de considence

Moi j'ai une Protege5 et j'ai comme projet de la convertir completement en la version japonaise, autant mecaniquement que estetiquement. J'ai commencer par changer l'embleme "Protege 5" par celui de "Familia Sport20" et j'ai coller les 2 sticker "Sport 20" sur les 2 portes arriere. A part de sa il me manque le pare-choc arriere qui est plus court que celui d'ici, j'ai de la misere a trouver une facon pour le faire venir ici. J'ai aussi les vrai grille et lip Autoexe, pas les replique qu'on trouve ici. Pour la mecanique, la grosse etape va etre de changer le moteur FS-DE d'ici qui fait 130hp par le FS-ZE du Japon de 170hp que tu as dans la tiennes. Je ne vais pas me rendre jusqu'a changer le volant de cote, c'est la seul chose, il y a quand meme des limites

J'aimerais que tu me donnes un peu de tes impressions sur le FS-ZE. Comment est la plage de puisance et de torque? Dans les spec ca l'air d'etre un moteur assez unique parce que il donne le gros de sa puisance dans le high-end, a 6800rpm meme si il n'a pas de systems de variable valve timing comme les moteur VTEC de Honda.

En passant, je t'invites a aller faire un tour sur le forum du Club Protege Quebec. Les autres membres du club serait content d'avoir quelque mot d'un quebecois comme toi qui a immigre au Japon et qu'en plus conduit une Familia Sport20 la bas!
www.clubprotegequebec.com

Salut!

Caretaker

I spoke zero japanese when I moved. Where I live, near Tokyo, there are about 10,000 foreigners (about 3%). Living cost here becomes expensive when you want to buy a land. To give you an idea, I paid 800,000$US for a 8000sq feet land and house...In Canada I would get a small castle for that!

Salaries are great..I am a doctor and the income tax is just 20%. this is a great incentive to stay longer ;-)

As for the salary of a web designer, I don't know. but one thing for sure, the unemployment rate is so low here that it is easy to find a job.

Caretaker

Je vais répondre en anglais à ta question si ça peut informer le plus de personnes.

He is asking me about my impressions on the FSZE engine.

Indeed this is a unique engine. I think it is used by Ford in some Probe GT.

this engine LOVES the high revs. So forget about shifting around 3000. It is made to be pushed to 5000 before changing gears. To give you an idea, I can keep it in second gear until 90 km/h and it revs at 6700 rpm then. As for the top speed, I pushed it to 210 km/h in 5th gear and was around 6500 rpm.

This is an engine that is very responsive. Even at 170 km/h in 4th gear, it was eating the road and asking for more.

as for the max torque, I think it seems best around 5000-5500 rpm.

TR3CK

I will try to write in english, im sorry if i make some fault.

The Ford Probe was in reality a Mazda MX-6. Both shared the same frame, mecanical part and engine too but all this was enginered by Mazda, including the engines. The 2.0l engine that was in the Probe, MX-6 and 626 too (which is named Capella in Japan) is the FS-DE. This engine is now in the Protege in north america and 323 in europe. The FS-ZE is a spicy-up version of the FS-DE reserved for Japan only.

xx-ZE engine from Mazda usely stay in Japan domestique market. Why? I think it's for anti-pollution reason. The FS-ZE (like the V6 KL-ZE that was on MX-6) are tuned to give the max of power, not to be ecological. Because the gas emission norms in north america (USA and Canada) and europe are stronger than in Japan, Mazda cant export this engine. I think this is why most japanais cars in north america have less power in general than the same model in Japan, i think this is more the fact why than the tax about hp that you have mentioned.

I remember to have read a thread about someone who have swap the FS-ZE in his Protege but he have keep the orignal ECU of the FS-DE. At dyno it was not geting more than something about 145-150hp at the crank. Its really not a big improvement compared to the 130hp (or 140hp with the MP3) of the FS-DE. 5-10hp extra came at most from the piston compression that higher on the FS-ZE. The ECU is what make the big differance in the number of hp between the FS-DE.

BTW, the FS-ZE stock by 2002.5 have lost 5hp. I think i have read its because in Japan there have adopted a new gas emission norms. So Mazda needed to reprogramme to ECU to lower the engine power by 5hp. But im not sure about it, maybe you know.

The FS-DE give all his 130 or 140hp at 6000 rpm. The FS-ZE give all his 165 or 170hp at 6800 rpm. Its like if the ECU on the FS-ZE was programmed ask the engine to continue to give all the power he can after 6000rpm. In the case of the FS-DE, the power line decline after 6000rpm.

Other than this, the red-line on the dash-board of Protege start a 6500rpm and the ECU on the FS-DE do the engine cut-off at 7000rpm. Where start the red-line and the engine cut-off on your Familia Sport20?

For the gear it look the same but im not sure. I will do more test on my Protege to see if its the case. I will appreciate if you can give me at what speed your car is rolling when the engine rev at, say, 4000rpm in 1st, 2e, 3e, 4e and 5e gear.

The FS-DE give 135 lb-pi at 4000rpm and the FS-ZE give 128 lb-pi at 5000rpm (the convertion is good from 18.4kg-m?). So, first the FS-ZE have less torque than the FS-DE, second the FS-DE give his max torque at lower rev than the max torque of the FS-ZE (and i dont like it, it make Protege more rude at a stop start). I think it have to do with the piston compression, 9:1 on the FS-DE vs 10.4:1 on the FS-ZE, but im not sure about it.

Well, thats about it for now

Caretaker

OK I think you will like it. I just went out for a quick test with camera and filmed the speed and rev meters as I was accelerating. I will edit and put up the video on my website soon and post the link here.

To answer your question at 4000 RPM:

1st gear - 30 km/h
2nd gear - 58 km/h
3rd gear- 79 km/h
4th gear- 108 km/h
5th gear- road was too short ;-)

But as you will see on the video, it was at 110 km/h at 3400 RPM before I had to hit the breaks.

Another series of data at 6000 rpm:

2nd gear: 80 km/h
3rd gear : 120 km/h

couldn't test 4th and 5th..road was too short again.

Liquid_Ag

i wanna see i wanna see

Caretaker

Ok it's dirty but it will give you a good idea. Remember I was holding the camera with the right hand as well as the steering and shifting with the left. Also, I shifted based on the sound of the engine for the WOT movie. Click on the two links below to see the movies.

4000 RPM test movie on Sport20 4WD

WOT movie

As you will see, the speedmeter ends at 180 km/h. This is same for all japanese cars, even the GTR and the WRX. To get the true top speed, I used an aftermarket APEX digital speedmeter.

I'd be curious to see the same data for the Protege sold in US that has the 2.0 liter engine.

thank in advance

CT