Newbie MSP owner

[mx23ang]

How's it going everyone! So Ive been a 2003.5 msp owner since 2006 but its only until now that Im needing some help with a tune. I plan to slowly drop 5,000-10,000 into her over the next year and I want to start with a ecu upgrade. any advice on brands? where to purchase one??

[MS3Shadow]

Welcome.

[Raider]

5-10 grand into a $3000 MSP? Well I have seen at least 1 video of a MS3 powered MSP. Was pretty cool.

Although I am not a fan of the forum, Mazdas247 was the forum for MSP back in the day and holds a lot more info on that old thing.

Before you mod, look at your pinky. That is a connecting rod. So build the motor to take the bigger tune, first. Then read up on all the details.

MAZDASPEED Protege Forum

[livelyjay]

Raider is correct. I've owned two MSPs since 2005 and mazdas247 is the place to go for information, only because there's a bigger MSP following still alive there.

The connecting rods are like pencils thin.

STOCK BLOCK
The most powerful build on a stock engine block was around 275whp, but the guy dropped a lot of money into tuning. I believe he used a UniChip or did full standalone. He also was using the disco potato turbo as the OEM peaks out in the low to mid 200whp range.

SUSPENSION
You're going to find the aftermarket scene for the MSP as basically non-existent. For suspension there's no performance struts or spring that bolt right in. The rear Tokico Blues spring perch are 1/4" higher (or was it lower?) than the regular Protege. So if you want to change out the suspension, you either convert to regular Protege struts/springs or do full coilovers.

ECU & TUNES
The factory tune is extremely rich. On the dyno my car was going below 9:1 AFR from the factory tune. You can purchase a SplitSecond AFC (SSAFC), which is a piggyback computer. It allows you to change the fuel maps. There is also an upgraded unit that allows you to change the ignition timing as well but it's more expensive. This unit works well, but you need someone to professionally do the tune. I had mild success street tuning it myself, but it still never worked 100% right. It also never worked 100% correct in cold temperatures. People reported success using the UniChip, but it has to be tuned by a shop certified to work on it. You could go full standalone and make a big project for yourself with Megasquirt. I believe DIYAutoTune has a plug-n-play unit for the Mazda ECU plug, but don't quote me on it. That's a pretty intense project, as I'm in the middle of building one for my project car, and it's been sitting for 2 years waiting for me to find the time to do it. Other than that you're going to a more expensive commercial off the shelf standalone like AEM and Haltech.

BOLT ONs
Turbo manifold compatible with OEM turbo location you're stuck with custom builds like SteedSpeed or something like it. You can find vendors on mazdas247.com. If you don't care about keeping OEM turbo location then you can get any number of regular Protege turbo manifolds that support pretty much any turbo you want to go with. CAI you're stuck with the typical AEM or Injen unless you make your own. Intercoolers you have more options, but the stock boost levels make it difficult to fill the system quickly enough for the factory ECU to handle the fuel mapping. Again if you go with a different ECU and tune you don't have to worry about this. There are a bunch of FMIC options and there's a single SMIC upgrade you can get that is a cheaper option and drops right in place of the factory SMIC.

Damn, long post. Oh well, hope it's informative.