I've searched the forums trying to find the recommended shift points from Mazda.

All of the entries I've been able to find give lots of opinions based on experience and/or the ubiquitous check the Owner's Manual. Personally, I'd like to experiment a bit with the factory recommendations and see what the differences are with that and other people's recommendations. Unfortunately, being the second owner of my FC I don't have an owner's manual (supposedly I have one in the poste off ebay.)


I think it would be a really great resource if someone has a copy of their S4/S5 OM;
could they check if they have the information and post it here.

I myself would like S5 information but I am sure there are some S4 owners out there that would want the same info. I'm also a bit curious to see if Mazda changed the recommendations between S4 and S5.

Thanks!

 

Im not sure if there would be that info in an s4 manual, there is a shift light built into the guage cluster, as far as i know s5's dont have one, or maybe it was turbos dont have one? Anyways the light udjusts itself based on how hard you are accelerating.

 

You kinda need to be more specific.
Best shifting point for what? MPG? Speed? Engine life? Best sound?

The Factory does recommend that you shift before redline.

 

This isn't Initial D Arcade Stage. You shift at redline for maximum performance, and shift at whatever RPM is appropriate for every other kind of driving.

 

the shift points in the owners manual have you shifting under 3000rpms, you'll always be late

 

I dont think so, cars have a peak performance at certain rpms for each gear, once hit its down hill from there. Shifting at that peak would give you a quicker acceleration

 

I'm thinking power band more than gearing when it comes to shifting. At full throttle I shift at 7,000 on my s4 cars. I shift at 2,500 while driving around town. The lower the better for MPG. Keeping it consistent helps MPG. If your facing downhill you can easily start in 2nd gear and shift at 1,500 etc in granny gear.

When you shift at 7,000 it seems to throw you into the middle of the power band where most power is made in the next gear.

 

No. It's not all about where peak power is, it's also about where you're going to be in the next gear. Hence why you should go to redline for maximum performance, unless your gears are WAY off or your power band is completely disproportionate to your redline, neither of which is true about the FC.

 

I want to say that it's
1st 0-15 mph
2nd 15-25 mph
3rd 25-36 (38 turbo) mph
4th 36- 45 mph
5th 45+ mph

coming from my S5 owner's manual, but I don't have it in front of me.

P.S. guys, I haven't forgotten about scanning the owner's manual; I'm really bogged down with work right now.

 

i thought that vacuum level made the mpg go up and down. shifting between 2500 and 3300 got the best mileage for me. vacuum was around 15-10"hg all the time.

 

a dyno i found from a n/a

i would shift a lil past peak power

mods:
CorkSport catback and midpipe
cone intake
Six ports wired open (temporary, until I get the 13BT in)
No A/C, PS, airpump

Sorry I don't have a scanner, but here's the numbers:

Dynopack (no roller) dyno
RPM/ Horsepower/ FLYWHEEL torque
2400 - 46 - 117
3000 - 58 - 118
4000 - 74 - 112
5000 - 103 - 124.3
6000 - 112.33 - 114
6800 - 106 - 95

In all, 112.3whp@ 6083RPM and 124.3lb-ft flywheel@5052RPM

It was odd that they gave me approximate flywheel tq instead of wheel torque, but whatever. I was somewhat dissapointed in these numbers, since the last time I dynoed was with a stuck six port '88 which got 96hp/105tq. One of the guys mentioned I may have a clogged precat, and sure enough, the front precat broke down and clogged the second. I caught word that a new shop opened this past weekend, and was giving free dyno runs.

New mod:
Gutted precats

Dynojet (roller) dyno
RPM/ Horsepower/ Wheel torque
2800 - 50 - 90
3000 - 55 - 93
4000 - 76 - 102
5000 - 104 - 108.2
6000 - 117 - 105
7000 - 115 - 87

In all, 120.1whp@ 6500RPM and 108.2lb-ft@ 5000.

By gutting the precats, not only is my car stupid loud, it has 8 more peak horsepower. The charts go rich past 5k, so I figure more can be made with a fuel controller and leaning it out up top.

When I crunch the numbers though, I still only come up with 141.7 hp and 127.6 tq at the flywheel, still both shy of the 146/138 it is supposed to have stock. Besides my 3800 stumble that shows in both charts, what do you guys think? (I'm just generally debugging now, the 13BT swap is coming in in a couple months. )
__________________

 

Nononononono it's:

1st 30mph
2nd 60mph
3rd 85mph
4th 115mph
5th oh no there is no 6th!

 

doesn't anyone Just Drive Cars anymore?

 

Thanks Jpk3200, for reading my post, for responding, and for working on scanning that owner's manual. Please don't feel in any way this post was a "hurry up and do it post."

I just had a question as to what the actual content of the "see owners manual" response was. If you could confirm when you have some spare time that would be great!

Also, I guess I appreciate everyone's input even though it wasn't what I asked for, when I can get Mazda's baseline confirmed it will be interesting to see how different people's tuning and driving style deviate from the baseline. Of course this just may all be numbers for fun as I suspect Mazda would be rather conservative with their figures, but I think its still interesting.

 

Sure, and that's what I do... just occasionally my inquisitive side gets the better of me and I wanna dig deeper into seeing how stuff works both on and off the drawing board.

 

Those dyno numbers are so low because your not using your aux ports properly. On my last engine I toyed with I ran with them not even hooked up and it had a butt ton of lag and didn't idle worth a crap. Hooked up the aux ports and air pump... felt like it added 30 horsepower.

 

come on, you can get to 130 in 4th

 

http://howto.globalvicinity.com/gv_w...=118&co=1&vi=1

There's a link to a complete S4 (86) owners manual.

 

It's nice to see S5's hit 140 in 4th.

 

Just shift when you hear that annoying *** buzzer

 

^haha, good advice.

 

I was just reading this in my 10th AE manual last night. Funny. jpk3200 got it really close.

 

yea its not mine just a average n/a s4 dyno chart, you gotta have those 6 ports working

 

recommended factory shift point??? 6800 RPM

 

Does the link on that page actually work. I tried it both at home and work and the server doesn't seem to be responding...