MAZDASPEED MSP 2003.5 Titanium Grey

[MP4088]

Hello Everyone !

I am from the Montreal area and I am new to this site. I have recently purchased the a/m vehicle which I will get in mid-april when the streets are safe for the ZR tires. It will be my summer car only.

I wish to exchange any info on cars. My knowledge about cars is the reliability, resale value, gas consumption, general things like these in which I can share without problem.

I know very little about car mods and even less for the Speed so if you have any pertinent info on how to upgrade the car on it's horsepower / torque only as the rest seems to be at the top of it's class for this price / type of vehicle. Please keep in mind that I would like a mod that will EITHER Not Void the Warranty or that can be taken off without any proof that anything was ever there . . .

Having sold cars at Toyota, I know that car companies always protect themselves by putting a lower number to any effort the car has to make : ( example 1500lbs of towing allowed for a Corolla, but in Reality, it can pull almost Twice that much without any problems!). Thus, the 6.9 PSI that the Garrett Turbo is set at "should" be much lower than what the Turbo can Really give the 2L motor Without Damaging it . . . does anyone have an answer to this also ?

I will conclude my statements as I could go on for hours . . . ANY info / experiences would be appreciated, thanks so much for reading !

P.S. PLEASE no "judges" on whether the car is "good" or not and no maybe's, just facts, thanks!

[RainmanMSP]

Probably lots of responses by now, but very informative thread at http://www.msprotege.com/forum/showthread.php?t=31763

New MSP owner in Ottawa.

Rainman

Originally Posted by MP4088

Hello Everyone !

I am from the Montreal area and I am new to this site. I have recently purchased the a/m vehicle which I will get in mid-april when the streets are safe for the ZR tires. It will be my summer car only.

I wish to exchange any info on cars. My knowledge about cars is the reliability, resale value, gas consumption, general things like these in which I can share without problem.

I know very little about car mods and even less for the Speed so if you have any pertinent info on how to upgrade the car on it's horsepower / torque only as the rest seems to be at the top of it's class for this price / type of vehicle. Please keep in mind that I would like a mod that will EITHER Not Void the Warranty or that can be taken off without any proof that anything was ever there . . .

Having sold cars at Toyota, I know that car companies always protect themselves by putting a lower number to any effort the car has to make : ( example 1500lbs of towing allowed for a Corolla, but in Reality, it can pull almost Twice that much without any problems!). Thus, the 6.9 PSI that the Garrett Turbo is set at "should" be much lower than what the Turbo can Really give the 2L motor Without Damaging it . . . does anyone have an answer to this also ?

I will conclude my statements as I could go on for hours . . . ANY info / experiences would be appreciated, thanks so much for reading !

P.S. PLEASE no "judges" on whether the car is "good" or not and no maybe's, just facts, thanks!

[MP4088]

WOW ! Now that's what I can an Answer !!! Many thanks for the link / info !!!

[RainmanMSP]

No worries. Just trying to do my part for a fellow Canuck. BTW, a local MSPer in Ottawa sent this link to me. A bit too late for me I am afraid but it might help you....LOL! http://www.mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm

Rainman

[MP4088]

I unfortunetly will Not take this advice . . . as I will not be a hard driver with this car. I will "test" it once in awhile, but I will more often than not drive it smoothly as I wish to keep it for many years to come and keep it in mint condition. Thanks though for your other link.

[RainmanMSP]

I want to keep my car for a long time as well but this advice is interesting. I asked a friend who races cars and has a lot of experience with cars about this break in advice. He told me that there are certainly two schools of thought where break in is concerned. There is the general school of thought where you have to take things easy for the first 1000 km so that you don't damage the engine. This came aobut because historically when engines were being built more by hand the tolerances for the various part was very poor. If a worker was not paying attention, or was tired, or just wanted to go home before the weekend then the quality of the assembly would suffer. Sometimes they would even substitute a similar part for the correct part because they were too lazy to go get the part that they had run out of. However, now there are much tighter tolerances as a result of automation of assembly (for mass produced vehicles). Where precision assembly is required, machines perform the assembly leaving much less to human variability. The result is an engine that is better able to handle the demands that an owner might subject it to, and one that is better able to replicate or even surpass the performance for which the manufacturer has rated it. This has led to the second, more controversial, school of thought. Many people who are involved in racing or hi-performance engine manufacture/assembly believe that the tolerances are so tight on these particular engines that they can handle the stress of heavy loads without fear of tolerance related issues. Furthermore, the heavy load break-in allows for higher temperatures which, as the article mentions, causes the piston rings to be more evenly heated. This allows them to seat better around the pistons, within the cylinder such that after the break in period you get a better seal within the cylinder allowing for a more efficient engine that performs better and can tolerate heavier loads. When I asked him about this issue this is the answer that he gave me and he had not yet read the article.

He was quick to point out that this is not necessarily true of all engines in all cars, but moreso for limited production performance cars and race cars where great attention is paid to detail.

I missed the break in deadline according to the article, but I do use my engine heavily at times. I like you would like to keep my car for a long time. However, I do believe that a manufacturer would not make a performance car and then NOT expect people to take advantage of that performance. I will be sure though, to take car of my car, but maintaining it well and by changing my oil regularly and frequently. I did my first oil change at 3000 km and switched to Mobil 1 synthetic 15W30. Before I changed the oil, the car went through oil very quickly. But now that I have gone to the less viscous synthetic oil the oil has better longevity. The only trade-off so far has been that with the more slippery synthetic oil, the turbo impeller tends to make more noise under load. This translates to a louder turbo whine when you hit the throttle hard.

That is my two cents for the dayh.

Rainman

[MP4088]

The advice given to drive the car hard in its first km's still gives me a bad impression. The main reason being that the a/m site with the statements is the only one that I have yet to see. I also have never heard of this type of "breaking in" for a motor ever from anyone, whether they were mechanics, sport car modifiers, friends, family, colleagues, etc. If this statement ever becomes concrete after a qualified organization tests these remarks, then I may ( and probably be glad to . . . ) "break in" my car hard in its 1st km's, but for now I am sticking to the advice people (almost everyone) give which is to drive normally for the 1st 1K.

The advice given from your friend can be perceived in different ways. He states that it is not for all engines but more so for limited edition performance cars or race cars. From his statement I would have to conclude that the Speed is Not a car in which it's owners should drive it hard initially. Even though it is a limited edition 'performance' car, the Speed still has the "domestic" / original engine that Mazda Protégé's ( LX, GT-ES ) have. So with this observation, I would have to believe that this limited edition modified car is not included in his definition of performance / race cars being equipped with the basic family sedan engine. IF the engine itself would have been modified, THEN I would have included the Speed as part of these vehicles.

I inquired about synthetic oil, semi-synthetic oil & standard oil. From the information I got, the huge majority of people recommended the semi-synthetic oil for summer driving. The reason being that the "mixed" oil will not burn as quickly as the normal oil will and with it being normal oil, it is the best for the engine.

Normal oil is just that, normal. People said it was just the basic need for a vehicle ( of course! ).

For synthetic oil, people mostly told me that it was best for winter driving with the extreme cold, the oil gets up in the motor much quicker which of course reduces the metal to metal friction, therefore less damage to the motor, but for summer driving they mostly recommended the semi-synthetic.

The only thing that I will not do that is recommended by Mazda and also most people I talked to about it, is to change my oil every 8K. I will change it every 4K as 1st of all I did get 10 Free Semi-Synthetic oil changes free with the purchase of my vehicle !!! . . . and also because I don’t want to see my engine oil become black at all, therefore keeping the inside of my engine as clean as possible.