My FD is starting to pick up alot of miles (200K) so I figured it's time to pull her apart and fix/update a few things..

- new diff bushings (shifter is moving, no good). I'm going stock as I'm scared of how stiff nylon ones will be.
- fuel filter (relocate it this time!)
- remove ac/ps (loop it) and all those little associated parts
- install new IC, duct, mp/downpipe/ecu. I might be asking for trouble doing it all once? I will do the IC/duct for sure
- motor mounts
- spark plugs
- etc etc..

Smaller things...

- remove plastic restrictor in front bumper
- smaller battery + battery tray

What else am I missing? (Mainly anything that will improve my ole FD).

I've read the Faqs/searched, I'm mainly looking for those 'small' things that aren't mentioned much.

 

don't loop anything...if you remove something remove the entire system and mod the parts to work as they should. even at 200K don't treat it like a honda.


make sure you have all the clips on your plastic pieces...cuts down on rattling. Find all the rattles and fix them.

 

I can't remember the company name off hand, but there is a shop that will take your steering rack and convert it for you. I've seen pictures and and they come back looking like a brand new rack, modified to be manual. The weld the quill among other things, which I have read is essential for a conversion of this nature.

 

Suspension bushings began to fail left and right on me when I was approaching 180k. Im not sure what suspension set up you have but new bushings all around made a significant difference in driveability. Keep up the good maintenance.

 

you'll love the deleted p/s and a/c.

what do you mean by dp and mp? are you running stock precat and cat right now? be careful running with no cats and stock turbos/wastegate.

 

DP/MP as in downpipe/midpipe. I think I'm going to leave those as it is for now (maybe do the DP).

I need vaccum hose help. (Oh no, open a rats nest, expect a mess right?)

I have 2 places where there is NO vaccum hoses at all. I will check the colored vacum chart, but maybe someone knows right off hand?

Here is the first...

Edit: Well, golly, looks like this one is supposed to be empty as well? It says so on the diagram.

 

And the second missing one...

Edit: Nevermind, this one is supposed to be empty Talking to myself, whee.

So both of these are empty, can someone please confirm this for me??

I checked this diagram, it's the red one that says empty? (On both sides?)

http://www.xcalibertactical.com/images/M1341vsCans.mov

 

right, i know what they stand for, i meant---are you still running your factory precat and cat? a downpipe would be a great mod, but i recommend leaving the factory cat in place.

 

I think I recall ehos saying he's running a stock precat with relatively low miles.

I'd consider it too (to run autox as a superstock) but I never see low mileage precats.

 

I personally can't understand why anyone would want to remove the power steering and/or air conditioning from these cars...or any car that is driven on the highway for that matter. A race car? Sure. But why butcher a perfectly good car, which lowers the value and the overall driveability factor?

Oh well...just me I guess.

Good to hear you're taking time to fix all those other little things. How many of the 200K miles did YOU put on? Just curious. There are not too many owners that have been behind the wheel of these things for those kind of miles.

 

I don't think it's a good idea to remove the air conditioning, but plenty of people do it.

 

I live in Edmonton, AB. So we have really nice summer days, but I love HEAT. Even in summer it's not hot enough for me. So AC is a no brainer. Besides it didn't work anyways, just used the AC button to turn on the fans. PS was easy too as I've run my FC without it and I loved it.

I put about 20,000 miles on it in a very short amount of time. (For example I drove it 28 hours to Vancouver and back, no issues).

I'm going to do the power mods one at a time.

 

whoa, relocate the fuel filter? Can you elaborate on that? Where would you relocate it to? I just replaced mine and what a PITA! I don't wanna go through that again!

 

Here is what I would do:
-Keep the PS/AC
-M2 ECU (Stage 3)
-High Flow SMB Metalicat
-Catback of your choice
-DP of your choice
-Some sort of intake box (M2, PFS, etc)
-SMIC (PFS/M2/etc.)
-Mazdacomp Diff. bushings (~33% stiffer than stock -- not fluid filled)
-Motor mounts
-New shifter/bushing (makes a huge difference, imo)
-At around 200k, I'd also get new shocks/springs/etc. (frankly, I'd replace all bushings)

I'm sure there are things I forgot.

 

Apart from the M2 ECU, I'd agree. With used PFCs and Commanders selling for ~$500-600 (and new for not much more on eBay) I don't think chipped ECUs make sense any more (unless the cost $200 or so). With the PFC you can control the fans, the OMP, cure the 3k rpm hesitation if you have it, and have a nice monitoring tool to boot.

Perhaps not what you want to hear, but with that many miles I would just sell it for $10k and spend $16k or so on another one with 50k or so miles. Add up all the parts that need upgrading at 200k miles and I'm not convinced it makes financial sense to keep it.

 

I disagree with this; I think your fine looping the power steering line since the "cooler" is just a line that runs through the front opening of the bumper. Although I do agree with the logic behind it, normally I would agree and say don't half *** things but I really don't think looping the PS line is a half-assed move. When putting on the Blitz FMIC, I had to loop it.

 

At Gotham Racing we used to do this on all customer cars that required a fuel filter change. Get some high pressure fuel hose (i think it is 5/16th, but cant remember the size) and simply use it to extend both inlet and outlet line so they are long enough to use a hose clamp to secure the fuel filter onto the subframe. it will make it a breeze to do the next filter change, and you can tuck it up enough so that road stones etc arent a problem. also, you can use the fc filter, which is cheaper than the fd filter. the inlet and outlet nipples are angled differently, but you arent dealing with the tight space requirements of the stock filter placement anymore so you can run the fc filter.

hope this helps

 

I've had my p/s looped for a number of years with no problems whatosever.

 

The shocks, springs, some smaller suspension parts, etc etc were changed by the PO. He spent a grip of money on it right before he sold it. He kept buying stock Mazda parts ($$$) like the OEM airpump (cha-ching), cats (ouch), catback (ow ow ow). I think he bought seats as well.

I'm amazed at all the low mile FD's out there. Do people even drive them? ~90K miles in 13 or so years is just ridiculous. I put 5K miles on my car in one month.

I looped my PS from the lines that were on it. Took 20 minutes, I think Mazda engineers were smart. They made those lines to be looped

 

Sorry for the hijack but Ive searched/read the manual but can't how to control fans w/the PFC. Any links for me??

Sorry for the hijack again.