CarBastard's...car: a little 380HP purple Suzuki!

[CarBastard]

Well folks, I got a new car. It's a sad story...but the present chapter of it is called: "380HP PURPLE Suzuki Swift". AWWWWW YEAH!​

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That is my lovely new beast, looking all lovely and beastly at my uni's campus. Here comes the full story but a TL;DR is also available further down.​

Let's rewind to the first months of this year. My girlfriend had left me without reason after 6 years, I was getting bored with my career and the Mazda was in the shop after another shop I trusted ended up giving me the shaft. Back then, the car received a big upgrade: a turbine. A chinese turbine, but a turbine none the less. A tuner friend of mine told me one of his customers was parting his car and was selling a chinese turbo kit for STUPID cheap. I''m talking around US$150 for an intercooler, piping, BOV, turbo, exhaust manifold and an oil cooler. So I took the plunge. We found out, however, that the intake camshaft on the car was slowing it down because the advice I took from a forum was flawed and I got my hands on the stock FEDOHC (2000cc version of the FE3N ) from my trusty dutch dealer. The result? A head gasket that lasted just one hit of the throttle. Back to the drawing board.

You see, the tuner that I was taking my car to back then wasn't the same that installed the turbo. A huge mistake in hindsight, but you know, Capt. Hindsight is a 🤬. It was a shop that looked reputably enough and that I met when I had a brief go at local automotive journalism (Hint: that didn't end up well either), they impressed me with several cars they built like the shops Renault 9 that ran in the 12s/13s. Anyway, they stabbed me in the back and tried to scam me. I left the shop angry and with a poorly ported head. We rebuilt the engine with Leonardo, AKA "Ears" (because, you guessed it, he's :censored:ing Dumbo!), the tuner who had installed the turbo and, although it took it's sweet time, it seemed promissing: 2000 with forged Mazda internals and a fully refreshed, ported head with oversized exhaust valves! Finally, after the troubles caused by the previous shop, the website I founded and kicked myself out of, and the girlfriend that stomped and doused acid on my heart, things seemed to be going well...until the engine borked completely.

I was still breaking in the engine, the rev limiter was set at 4k and I had done almost all the 300 km of breaking in when it made a weird noise and returned to the shop on 3 cylinders. A :censored:ing piston skirt LITERALLY broke, so there you go, another rebuild. Turns out that the compression ratio ended up being too high even though we had milled the pistons, which was a precaution on itself because they were already low-comp ones. Oh, and the F9 ECU gave up the ghost. Great, more expenses. We fiddled A LOT to lower the compression ratio, got another set of pistons, offset the small end of the conrods, this and that...Leonardo took MONTHS and I was absolutely desperate: the last time I enjoyed a drive on the Mazda was the last time I had a good time with her'. I'm even tearing up as I write this.

Once I likened seeing your car towed to the shop to seeing a loved one in an ambulance to the hospital. This picture is the equivalent of seeing a loved one being loaded into a hearse. It was the final good-bye.​

One day I went to the shop and Leonardo had some absolutely 🤬 news for me: no dice, the compression ratio was still too high. The reason? The previous owner used the engine for touring car racing. In here, TC2000 cars are only allowed engines up to 2000cc and always naturally aspirated. There's no easy way of putting it: he had milled the block to bump compression up. Game over. Our choice was either having a set of forged pistons custom made...or giving up. Considering forged pistons go for around US$1k and I had already spent a hefty 1,700,000 pesos on the new ECU...you can probably guess up what seemd the most viable choice.

Enter: THE Twincam.
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I arrived home crushed. Totally, utterly crushed. Like "Russian roulete? 🤬 yeah, gimme that..." levels of crushed. I told my mother the news and locked myself in my room, crying as I faced the prospect of giving up on the dream of having a car to fulfill my motoring desires after all that hard work. The money just wasn't there for the pistons. The money wasn't there for a new car that could be any better than the Mazda...or so I thought.

I love you. Both. With all my fully-sized aortic pump.
​

I browsed classifieds all night but it was even more depressing. To give you an idea of how depressing the Colombian car market is: I found just 2 NA Mazda Miatas. One of them was near my city: they were asking 38,000,000 pesos or roughly US$15k. The other was half a country away...and they were asking more. While discussing the situation with my mother I mentioned the Miata just to give her an idea of how tough it is to find a fun car here within budget and, to my surprise, she began having crazy ideas. We went to talk to Leonardo and ask for his opinion but she had made up her mind and, even though I felt crappy because I was putting a financial burden on my mother, I couldn't say no to a new car considering the onslaught of bad stuff that I was going through.

"Y'know, Mechas is selling his car. You should give him a call..."
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We went for coffee and Leonardo revealed some interesting info: "Y'know, Mechas is selling his car. You should give him a call". I asked him if he was referring to a Suzuki Swift built by a VERY reputable shop called T.N.T, one that I had seen doing absurdely fast 12s quarter mile runs, one that sported an impossibly sexy purple hue on it's body. "Yeah, I think he's asking for 18 million, and it's got a new turbo on it...", one phone call later I had arranged to take a look at the car. By the way, the car in question's best pass on the quarter mile was an 11.8s run...at a crappy dragstrip...2600 meters above sea level.

I am not making things up. This 🤬 is FAST. Not "fast". FAST.
​

I'll be honest: it wasn't love at first sight. I've never liked "Twincams" as they're known here, they're too common and usually riced beyond dignity. But after one highway pull that made me almost shout "SOME POO'S COME OUT!" in my best brittish accent, I was smitten. I've even been along for a ride in a truck on a hillclimb race and in another turbocharged Swift...but never had I felt so scared: the tyres, Advan Neovas no less, cried for traction through 3rd and 4th gear! The price, unlike the car, was very reasonable: 18,000,000 pesos is around US$6k. I did the maths: it had a new Turbonetics-brand turbocharger, a Haltech Sprint 500 ECU and a decent Twincam goes can't be found under 14,000,000. I had a long chat with my mother, I told her I didn't want to live outside our means that I didn't want to feel guilty by it. We crunched some numbers and she made a choice: a small savings fund she had for my college education was gonna turn into a fire-breathing Suzuki Swift. "After all, you diserve it. Think of it as a reward for having got into the National University and money I didn't have to expend on a more expensive university", she said. Just for context: Colombia's National University is the country's top college but it's quite hard to be admitted. Not only is much better than private universities: it's also much cheaper, but not everyone can get in. In a couple of days time the deal was made. The choice was made to part-out the Mazda and buying a car that ran a quarter mile in the high 11 seconds. Hey, I never claimed I was sane.

WHY ARE YOU SO :censored:ING GORGEOUS???
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I picked up the car VERY scared. After all, it had been months since I drove something faster than my mother's Fiat Palio and the car was in it's high boost setting at around 25psi. Thankfully, "Mechas", the previous owner, had it limited to 4k rpm so I could drive it to Leonardo's shop without wrapping myself around a streetlight. "Mechas", by the way, is a nickname that has nothing to do with giant robots, it literally only means "Hairs" and every male here with long here gets called that. Except "Hairs" no longer has long hair...but I do, so it still is "Mechas' car"...only a different one.

"The bad news: I'm a slow driver. The good news: I don't have a learning impediment!"
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The first thing we did was adjusting the wastegate. The car ran up to 38psi and produced a whopping 380HP at the front wheels all the way to an 8500RPM redline...ON A CAR THAT WEIGHS LESS THAN 1800 POUNDS! Talk about overkill! Since I don't want a car to find a fancy way of killing myself and I acknowledge the limit of my skills, we detuned it to 13psi with a softer wastegate spring and set the redline at 6000 RPM. Mind you, it still managed to put down 178WHP at the dyno! Since then, it's been a JOY to own besides a couple of minor issues like an alternator that didn't charge enough or a fuel pump connector that basically melted and unplugged itself from the ECU. Besides that, the car has been an absolute BLAST on the streets and, specially, at the track.

Queue cheery Eurobeat song now! MAX POWER! THE TOP! RUNNING IN THE 90s! REMEMBER ME! Oh, 🤬, forget the last one.
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My heart hasn't fully healed after what she did to me, seeing her in the pictures I had posted in this thread with my old, beloved Mazda was hard. Ditto posting the picture of the Mazda on the towtruck. But hey, when I'm behind the wheel of a car this fun I don't have time to think about that stuff! I'm too busy concentrating on driving it as carefully as possible, looking forward to improve my skills with each passing track day and being ocasionally naughty on the highways when the night comes. So far the only modification I've done to it is a GReddy Profec boost controller I found used for dirt chip which, after a 🤬 of a setup procedure now allows me to go from 13 to 15 or 18 psi at the touch of a button. What does the future hold? No idea, but finally I got a fun and reliable car to drive through it!

STAY TUNED FOR MORE ADVENTURES OF A CAR LOVING BASTARD AND HIS WONDERFUL SUZUKI!

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TL;DR:

My girlfriend left me. My car-culture website was a massive disappointment. The university got boring. The Mazda's engine block had been milled because it was previously used in a naturally aspirated racecar. I thought of giving up. My mother backed me up and rewarded me with a car that came up for sale: a 380HP Suzuki. I bought the Suzuki. Long live the Suzuki.​

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[Perfect Balance]

Basically, its a slow Mazda. If you like it, buy it.

 

[TheBook]

Might as well go for it. Generally, engine swaps don't increase the value of a car much from what I've seen. Even still, that's not a half bad price.

 

[niky]

I've heard tell the FE can take copious amounts of boost, but that doesn't look boosted to me, so that doesn't matter. If you're looking at a naturally aspirated one with nothing more than a tune and an intake manifold (from what I can see)... don't expect more than 140-150 hp... engine condition unseen, unknown.

I'd go for something more stock. A tuner car with a base that old and with custom wiring isn't going to be a reliable daily.

 

[Punknoodle]

i've heard tell the fe can take copious amounts of boost, but that doesn't look boosted to me, so that doesn't matter. If you're looking at a naturally aspirated one with nothing more than a tune and an intake manifold (from what i can see)... Don't expect more than 140-150 hp... Engine condition unseen, unknown.

I'd go for something more stock. A tuner car with a base that old and with custom wiring isn't going to be a reliable daily.

+1

 

[CarBastard]

Well, it was a hard choice and one I had to ponder a lot upon but I took the plunge. I took the car to a couple of mechanics I trust and both said the car was in good condition and that it was a good buy. I'm a bit unnerved by a couple of things because this is, after all, my first car and it's one year older than me. First of all, there's Niky's suggestion which I totally understand. I do have to say that this Mazdas are somehow cheap to keep running where I live because they were actually assembled here. So far, a couple of weeks in and having driven it for the first time a month or so ago, it's proved to have spotless reliability: the engine starts without a problem, doesn't overheat and doesn't behave abnormally. Also, the car had been on sale for almost a year before I bought it...hmmm...I think it's a bit suspicious. Anyways, the owner was very kind, he even offered to be helpful in the long run and offered to introduced me a man here who is an expert tuner of the FE3 engine. Only time will tell if his kindess was actual honesty or not.

But still, in between episodes of nervousness, I'm happy. I'm living the dream I've seen others in this forum and many others live: being a teenager with your own car, with all that it entails. I'm working at a call center 6 hours a day to pay for it, and I can drive it to and from work...it's GREAT fun. It's a big step from mom's 1.3 SOHC Fiat and it's, in regional terms, quite fast. My girlfriend and my friends liked it as well, they love the design, the interior and the exhaust growl when I floor it. Jorge, a family friend and my most trusted mechanic, has been very sympathetic and has offered me his help since the beggining. Here's hoping I can finally learn some hands on mechanics!

All in all, it's the beggining of an adventure, I've got every finger crossed hoping it's not a tragic one. This is something very important for me, it's...it's a lot . Pics coming this days once I can get a decent camera.

Oh, and by the way, if any of you has any Comcast product please be nice when calling customer support. You might be transferred to a third-world call center and may very well end up talking with a GTPer doing his best to pay for his car!

 

[niky]

You know the saying?

PICS.

 

[CarBastard]

Spoiler: Pictures of the Mazda: lovely pictures of a good friend that's gone, a girl that's gone and a car that's gone. Yeah, Life...

I stopped at a mate's house today after work and shoot some pics. I think they came up quite well, I'm definitely a happy man so far with this little beast!

It's definitely got a beater appeal. It's a fairly regular mid-range econobox that's a year older than me. And sure, the engine might not sound special to most of you but it actually is given the context. Mind you, this is a country where a Nissan GTR is considered an extraterrestrial spaceship with all it's 480 BHP, 12 second quarter mile passes are reserved only for those who have wallets larger than my appartment. 150-160HP is actually more than enough given our roads and given the nature of cars driven here and well, Takumi Fujiwara made do with almost as much! It does sound fantastic at anything over 2k RPM and is enough to put up a good fight to most of the tuner cars around here. The interior is also in pretty good shape and my friends loved that it's very comfy and spacious and that it has A/C. The tinted windows looked tacky at first, the previous owner installed them, and made visibility a bit tricky but I got used to them and I actually like the look now. It's definitely not short on quirks and noises because it's...well, a 21 year old car, but it seems in good shape.

So far, the plan is, first for all, paying the money I borrowed for it. Then, strut bars fore and aft, a new exhaust system (it's still got the stock Mazda can, and despite that it makes such a noise!!!), maybe new valve springs, and if I'm financially prosperous, an LSD and some coilovers. No turbos, no stripped interior. It's a daily driver for strolling the streets of Bogota...and ocasionally munching the head off, hopefully, a Jetta GLI MKIV.

 

[Hayden]

Looks very clean man. A nice looking rig you've got there, and I'd really like to hear that engine note if possible

 

[CarBastard]

Ok...they're gonna sound weird but I've got a couple of questions right now wrecking my mind and I would like to get some input from you guys. And no, the car hasn't blown up yet .

1. What kind of sounds are a reson for worrying in a car?
2. What can be done to "restore", to say it somehow, the power of an engine? I mean, right now a couple of people of tell me that my specific car with that specific engine should be a tad faster than it is right now. So far, this is what I know may be the causes: The previous owner told me the ECU currently has a "dumbed down" fuel map, and a couple of days ago I checked the sparkplugs and they were really black, suggesting the car may be running too rich. Does any of that...erm...make sense?

I know all this sounds basic and some of you might think I should take it to my mechanic. Well, I know they're basic but...well, I'm a basic guy and I'm just beggining into this whole world of auto mechanics. And...yeah, I'll take it to the mechanic I trust and sometimes spend some time with but I think the more information, the better .

Thanks in advance for all your help !

 

[niky]

Did the previous owner give you a cable for the ECU so you can tune it? If them plugs be black, it be running rich fo sho.

But if you don't know much about tuning, best take it to someone who knows what they're doing and who has a wideband O2 reader, so they can dial in your fuel maps for you.

 

[CarBastard]

Did the previous owner give you a cable for the ECU so you can tune it? If them plugs be black, it be running rich fo sho.

But if you don't know much about tuning, best take it to someone who knows what they're doing and who has a wideband O2 reader, so they can dial in your fuel maps for you.

The previous owner gave me a suitcase with a 90's-tastic laptop that has the Haltech software installed on it. A couple of days ago I did something I should've done earlier: Ask him where the actual ECU was installed and where was the cable located. It reassured me a bit that the guy told an exact spot and exactly there was the computer cable and other electric wizardry going to the ECU.

I've read a bit on the whole wideband/narrowband deal because my mechanic suggested it may be due to the O2 sensor as well. I also got in touch with a local tuner that has an absolute badass F8DOHC 626 Coupe and he told me that an ECU reflash with dyno runs was around COP$350,000 or US$175. The questions now are: Will an ECU reflash at this point be properly invested money? Woud I be needing a new ECU reflash after I modify, say, the intake or the exhaust? What help would it be installing a wideband O2 sensor + AFR gauge? The car currently idles at different RPM depending on the situation, warmed-up and in normal circumstances it idles at 1000 RPM, is it normal for a car to idle at, say, 500RPM in a cold morning and at 1000RPM later on? Can the 1000RPM idle be part of the cause of the car running rich? And, last but not least, is US$175 a reasonable amount to pay for some ECU tuning on a dyno?

And, honestly, massive thanks for the answer and the help niky! There are so many things I have to learn and I'd rather make sure of what I'm doing before I 🤬 it up because I can't afford big mistakes. Guys like you are the reason why GTP is like my second home

 

[niky]

I have no idea how good or bad the price is. My friend charges less... About $125 for tuning on the dyno... but our labor costs are low here. $175 could be okay for your area, for all I know.

You typically want to do everything first, then retune later. Of course, most of us don't actually do this, but it all depends on your wallet...

The idle itself won't be causing the rich running... it could be if the car is running too rich on cold days, that's what's bringing the idle speed down. Very hard to tell anything without seeing the car firsthand. Make sure all the sensors are working properly before the tuning. Would suck to have to retune after fixing an O2 sensor or MAF sensor issue.

 

[CarBastard]

I have no idea how good or bad the price is. My friend charges less... About $125 for tuning on the dyno... but our labor costs are low here. $175 could be okay for your area, for all I know.

You typically want to do everything first, then retune later. Of course, most of us don't actually do this, but it all depends on your wallet...

The idle itself won't be causing the rich running... it could be if the car is running too rich on cold days, that's what's bringing the idle speed down. Very hard to tell anything without seeing the car firsthand. Make sure all the sensors are working properly before the tuning. Would suck to have to retune after fixing an O2 sensor or MAF sensor issue.

Massive thanks Niky for the help, I'll do just that. If I'm able to go through another month answering calls for Comcast's tech support... :lol

 

[rizzo]

I would suggest you search for Mazda forums and much like GTP you're bound to find all the info you need.
Good Luck and Congrats on your first car.

 

[CarBastard]

I would suggest you search for Mazda forums and much like GTP you're bound to find all the info you need.
Good Luck and Congrats on your first car.

I found on facebook a group called MX6/626 GD Enthusiasts and a forum called MX6.com. The facebook group has posts daily and is quite useful but MX6.com seems to me a bit dead by now. Still, they're very valuable sources of info. It's just that...I can't put my finger exactly on why but I like asking people at GTP. I see this forum as my home on the interwebs and there are quite knowledgeable people here.

Thanks for the good wishes. Updates coming soon!

 

[hawkeye122]

Good stuff man. They have any organized race events there?

 

[CarBastard]

Yesterday, a friend of the owner of the shop I go to dropped by. A very knowledgeable man, respected by all the mechanics in the shop surroudings. The shop owner pointed and my Mazda and told his friend "That is no ordinary 626. Pop the hood". The man, Alvaro, knew about the engine. Turns out, he is a mechanical engineer and was head of a good number of Mazda dealerships in town, drives at local rally events and is very closely connected with the FCA, Colombia's national governing body for motorsports. He took the car for a short blast around the block and noticed something a bit off so today we changed the thermostat and adjusted the timing belt and the distributor cap. Turns out, the intake camshaft actually was 1 tooth of the timing belt retarded and that caused the car to be a bit sluggish and to respond slower than it should, specially on upshifts. The issue was fixed, the air intake was repositioned to be sitting just behind the radiator fan and the engine definitely feels better. It's subtle, but it's there. Upshifts are now much more lively, specially shifting from 1st to 2nd gear. We'll further do some adjustments and on Monday he'll check what's going on with the ECU.

With each mechanic that looks under the hood and compliments the car I'm even happier. Everyone says I payed a real good price for it and that it's got gobs of potential. Bare in mind this is no Japan or USA and high HP numbers are much harder and more expensive to reach. Locally speaking, the car is definitely fast!

Good stuff man. They have any organized race events there?

There are some touring car championships but, as far as I'm aware of, they're very far from reach of guys like you and me, read: young guys that attend to college and have their first car with all the budget constraints that such a profile entails. The only affordable track time is quarter mile drag racing...but let's be honest, that's no fun unless you have 300+HP and here that requires a BIG wallet. Plus, the 1/4 mile drag crowd here is a mixed bunch...made up mostly by snotty kids and men who are still snotty kids. Sadly, there's nothing similar to AutoX and track days, on our only track, are only for people who practice for actual proffesional racing events :rolleyes. Alvaro mentioned something about rally driving courses for free and signing the Mazda for some mixed gravel-tarmac rallies...so...who knows, maybe there could be some organized events I can reach and it's just a matter of me missing out of them because I have no connections. Time will tell...

 

[niky]

Funny thing, my intake can jumped a tooth once upon a time, too... That's Mazda for you...

 

[CarBastard]

Getting close to my birthday and the presents will go to my Mazda

This week I'll pick the new distributor we had shipped overseas and I'm trying to get a quote for some australian guy from MX6.com to send me an MX6 grille. If I'm able to make a deal with my mom and get to be her assistant at work, I think the car will see some head porting as well this month .

I found this picture I think it was in probetalk.com or something like that, it's definitely the look I'm after except for my car being a 4-door (626 L in Colombia) and the one depicted being a hatchback (626 LX here). That exhaust looks great, really great and I must say that "TURBO" sticker looks AWESOME to me, increedibly discrete...I wish I could rightfully replace the "2.0" one that my car has for that one. Thing is...apparently I ended up getting a 1.8 ...or in Mazda lingo an F8DOHC which may not be as tolerant to even mild turbocharging as the FE3N I thought I was getting. Oh well...time will tell (again!)

 

[Bc4]

Nice car! looks like its in pretty good condition

and yeah cars are expensive here in south america Xd

 

[CarBastard]

Dear diary:

Well, three things:

1: I've gotta update the thread title. The engine is DEFINITELY an F8DOHC and not an FE3N! It's not such a big deal however, although it feels like **** having been lied to. The car is even registered as a 2 liter...but the block serial is F8, under the red paint the cam cover is plain silver and the cams have the exact combination only F8DOHCs had. It has flat-topped, low-comp pistons and the only differences between the FE3N and the F8DOHC are the stroke and the VICS variable intake system. It'll be a matter of getting a Kia 2.0 crankshaft and some conrods for 86mm stroke instead of 78mm and voila, FE3N.

2. Given that the engine had the cams for an F8DOHC, I upgraded the intake cam to FE3N spec from the F8K1 ones. Had to get the exhaust cam from Kia and get 5 mm of it milled but besides that it was a direct fit. The difference? 2.5MM LIFT! Huzzah! Moaaaaaaaaaaaaar low-end torque!

3. I secured a stable income . The next thing to come around march will be re-doing the entire exhaust except for the manifold in preparation for the turbo that'll eventually come. 2.5" piping, proper muffling...ahhh...can't wait!

Nice car! looks like its in pretty good condition

and yeah cars are expensive here in south america Xd

Gracias!

Indeed cars are very expensive here so every "go-fast" aspiration has to be toned down to suit the context. I know this is no sports-car, but most mechanics here see it as a pretty peppy street car and if I achieve the 250whp target I'm thinking it could be considered a very serious performance machine! (Again, in Colombia. I don't wanna hear about how many HP/$ you can get in the U.S or Europe... )

 

[niky]

How do you know when you're in too deep?

Once you've changed out the camshafts... you're in too deep. Much fun the interoperability of Mazda cams are.

 

[CarBastard]

How do you know when you're in too deep?

Once you've changed out the camshafts... you're in too deep. Much fun the interoperability of Mazda cams are.

Explain please!

 

[Bc4]

Gracias!

Indeed cars are very expensive here so every "go-fast" aspiration has to be toned down to suit the context. I know this is no sports-car, but most mechanics here see it as a pretty peppy street car and if I achieve the 250whp target I'm thinking it could be considered a very serious performance machine! (Again, in Colombia. I don't wanna hear about how many HP/$ you can get in the U.S or Europe... )

250whp sounds like plenty

you'll be leaving those corsa's in the dust

 

[niky]

Explain please!

Completely sane people leave the motor alone.

The first level of addiction is your typical gateway drug, a muffler, perhaps a cone filter... at worst an exhaust header. All reversible.

Once you start irrevocably fiddling with the interior of the engine, you're committed. Totally.

Camshafts are reversible, but you're teetering on the precipe of madness.

Good luck with the build! 250whp is certainly possible on the 1.8 block. But it will take a lot of work and very, very careful tuning.

 

[CarBastard]

Completely sane people leave the motor alone.

The first level of addiction is your typical gateway drug, a muffler, perhaps a cone filter... at worst an exhaust header. All reversible.

Once you start irrevocably fiddling with the interior of the engine, you're committed. Totally.

Camshafts are reversible, but you're teetering on the precipe of madness.

Good luck with the build! 250whp is certainly possible on the 1.8 block. But it will take a lot of work and very, very careful tuning.

Actually, the camshaft I got was one that Mazda used on the FE3N 2.0l engines so it isn't that mad...although I agree that it's a symptom of irreversible addiction. Ironically enough, I went for the hard drugs before mufflers and stuff like that!

Sadly, today I learnt my first lesson in careful tuning. Went to the shop to have a look at the fuel map with my good 'ol mechanic and he/we...sort of fiddled a bit with the Haltech. Result? The car is **** now. Engine goes off easily and it feels like a neutered Rottweiler when you go full throttle, it feels so damn restricted ! Hopefully it's as easy to fix as it was easy to mess-up...but I'm slightly worried because of my current budget.

Sheesh...never even touch your ECU if you know nothing about it, seriously...

 

[niky]

Pays to invest in dyno-time when fiddling with the computer. Or at least do lots of runs down the road with an O2 sensor to make sure it's roughly okay. Might be the maps are too lean, and knock is causing the engine to pull timing.

 

[CarBastard]

Back in the game!

It turned out to be a faulty spark plug wire. That 🤬 really messed up my logic! I mean, the car was fine after the new camshaft was installed and turned awful after we fiddled with the ECU. But even if I loaded the fuel map file the previous owner left on the laptop, the car still was running awful. We asked around some nearby shops and somebody gave us a wire from a Skoda the were about to throw away. The car worked much better but was still acting up above 4k RPM. I changed all four wires and the car was working flawlessly once again!

I also got in touch recently with a local Mazda owners club . The guys are nice...and they when all the more nicer when they peeped under the hood!

 

[CarBastard]

Well, time for another update. Not that many people here care, but I really need some advice now...I hope I can get a couple of replies here.

I want to know from you guys when is it "enough". I feel that today I'm at that point. I've had it. Money is really tight and the car will most likely stay stock (because I was lied to and got a stupid F8DOHC instead of a full-on FE3N so in order for me to turbo it, I'd have to rebuild the engine first WITH IMPORT PARTS!), which seems to me like an absolute waste of time and money. Track time is out of the question as well. The car is in the shop again, and I'm thinking that if the repair bill is something I cannot pay with a month of my current income, I may as well sell the damn thing and be done with this pathetic dream...

Any thoughts? What are your horror stories? Which cars took you to the edge of "enough" and how did you realized it was "enough"?