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Ok we have decided to do a writeup on our mom's RS. This story has nice DYI bits, nice info and advice on BJ/ ZL-VE engines. Stay tuned!!!!!

MAZTUNE wrote:OThis story has nice DYI bits

Do Yourself In??!

^:lol:
niceness!!!
i have the RS too so it's very applicable to me!

cool

ok well let's begin the exciting story of mom's RS. Well in 2005, the lady wanted a CAR, to go from A to B, but knowing us and our car/performance background, we were not having no silver Nissan Almera in our yard. So after some serious convincing, we got her to buy a 323 hatch (yes just the S-model eh) Tried for the Sport20, but get blank....so RS it was. Now, I think up to this day, my mom does not know it's an RS she is driving, just a normal BJ 323 wagon. Although we getting constant nagging about drinking gas, coming to that part in a bit.

Now the 99'-03' BJ 323 RS and RSS come standard with the ZL-VE 1500cc DOHC Variable Valve Timing engine, giving out a surprising 130HP/128ft-lb torque @7000RPM on a 16bit harness (notice the white pinout jacks on the Plastic ECU, the 98'-99' is 8bit, yellow jacks, metal ECU)



Basically the VVT or SVT as Mazda calls it, uses oil pressure from a tap of the oil unit on the block to a solenoid that varies timing to basically increase power and torque. The RS and RSS comes with a nice 4.4 final drive gearbox (real nice with that 7200RPM rev limit ) and a 4speed triptronic auto with a 3.9 final ratio.

you can check http://www.protege323.com for more info.

The only real difference with a RS and RSS is rear disc brakes (we wanted ) the full flair kit and alloy wheels.

so wha yuh sayin my car is an RSS sedan then

I guess mine is a RSS wagon.

Dat car does run nice!

red bwoy wrote:so wha yuh sayin my car is an RSS sedan then

yes it is! very very RARE!!!!

So it only have two rss in trinidad one sedan and one hatch..

Nice info so far .... nothing new though , any mods....

@ Naresh, it look so.....

I actually saw 3 like mine before. I following this thread like ah stalker.

wing wrote:Nice info so far .... nothing new though , any mods....

LOL now starting... just doing it when I get time.

ok so a little information on the RS and the ZL-VE. So on with the story, so the car looked normal, too normal for us, I am talking 14" steelies, hubcaps, it was just plain LAME. So we got a sweet deal in some Mini Copper S 17" wheels, sprayed them black and the car slowly came to life.





So first mod, had to get rid of that intake, so installed a custom made short ram intake, by cutting away the stock air box, revealing a nice 2 1/2" plastic piping, just got a 2 1/2" to 3" piping adapter and fit in the filter. This was actually LESS responsive than the stock system because as soon as the engine heated up, the hot air went directly into the intake.



Around this time, we also installed a Strut tower brace. So now it's 2006, we removed the cat but left the 4 to 1 headers that naturally come with the ZL-VE, and installed an Aerospeed rear barrel.

those wheels looking real good on the car man.

whats that parked next to the RS?

gona be following this thread closely.you guys realy kno ur stuff from what i have read from the previous builds u have posted

Strugglerzinc wrote:whats that parked next to the RS?

looks like an RE .

did removing the cat make a lot of difference?

What did you do to alleviate the hot air to the intake

ok ok a lot of questions coming in, well first question, yes that's a 1974 Mazda RX-2 RE running a 300HP Series 8 FD3S RX-7 engine, but that's another story. LOL don't worry coming soon to a Trinituner thread near you....

Yes Naresh the cat gave us a little more low end torque, but as we learnt, making an NA exhaust too free without at least one restriction actually made less power. We learned this from the laser E5 days.

To alleviate the hot air to the intake, you can do 2 things, install a heat shield, which works OK but I believe than any intake sitting in a hot (esp Trinidad) engine bay is going to pickup some level of hot air. OR install a cold air intake (CAI) . These are fairly expensive, so we tried a DYI CAI for now until we would afford an AEM or K&N .

Now, I going to do a writeup like if the car was BONE stock. But if you could afford the proper AEM or K&N you can't go wrong with that.


Total cost: around $600 with filter. Again this is DYI.

1) Remove all Stock air ducting and airbox. Carefully Remove the Air flow Sensor from the box. You are left with a 2 1/2" original kinda flex hose that goes to the throttlebody. That stays


2) Take apart the airbox, if you look inside the top half you will see a 2 1/2" plastic pipe molded into the top half of the air box.

3)Take a Dremil or cutaway tool and carefully cut away the 2 1/2" pipe from the airbox. Note this pipe also has the attachment for the air flow sensor. Do not touch that.

4) You should now have a 2 1/2" pipe with the airflow sensor attachment. Now you have a choice of using 2 1/2" bore for the entire cold air or go up to 3" because its easier to get a 3" Filter and for better flow.



5) We decided to go with the 3" option so bought a 2 1/2 to 3" increaser hose and 2 pieces of small pieces of 3" aluminum pipe. Next bought 3" flexihose about 2' and a K&N Extreme Filter.

6)There is a 3" hole next to the radiator overflow bottle. Relocate the radiator overflow bottle to get access to the hole by turning around the bracket using the 10mm bolts.



7) Ok time to assemble. Attach your plastic 2 1/2" plastic pipe(with airflow) and run it to your increaser, then to 1 3" aluminum piece then to the 3" flexihose down into the hole to the other 3" aluminum piece to your K&N filter. You K&N filter is now away from the hot air and in the left front bumper.

8 ) Next thing is to make a water trap so water does not enter the engine. You can take one of the 3" aluminum pieces and tap off a water trap so water goes in that not your throttle body.

9) Do not DRIVE THROUGH FLOOD. Cold air or not it will friggup our tranny/ gearboxes and your cold air will make it worse. PARK UP AND WAIT!!!.



10) DONE. you will get a feelable different on mid to high end torque and HP.

Nice,keep it coming...

now you would notice that the intake manifold in the last pic has been changed....After doing some research thanks to miggy (migram) ,we found that the ZM-DE intake manifold was a better flow design than the ZL, but a direct bolt in. So one evening when moms and pops sleeping, took an hour and swapped the manifold, be careful not to let the injectors fall out of the fuel rail because once those injector O rings tear, its headache, and gas misting everywhere!!!!!

BUT as always one mod MUST lead to another (pressneas law of Mazda) so yes putting a CAI and better flow intake manifold did lead to a slight lean condition due to more denser air causing to melt the knock sensor constantly from slight detonation. So a fuel upgrade is needed.

Alot of people feel once they have a CAI, extractors and big barrel exhaust that they immediately increase HP and Torque. In theory it should but as you pointed out, too much free flow eliminates the required back pressure for optimal performance. A common example of these "upgrades" take place with the popular Nissan QG engines where alot of owners did these "enhancements" but yet their engines are less responsive and they burn more gas.

I will be following this thread as well. Excellent write-up once again MAZTUNE.

Good point X , waiting for more MAZTUNE.....

MAZTUNE wrote:ok ok a lot of questions coming in, well first question, yes that's a 1974 Mazda RX-2 RE running a 300HP Series 8 FD3S RX-7 engine, but that's another story. LOL don't worry coming soon to a Trinituner thread near you....

great read so far man! how far down into the bumper is the filter? I'm guessing you had to take off the bumper to attach it?
and can you explain step 8 plz!

great info man

Zorak wrote:great read so far man! how far down into the bumper is the filter? I'm guessing you had to take off the bumper to attach it?
and can you explain step 8 plz!

nope, the bumper did not have to be removed. just the bottom of the left fender shield. The filter rests comfortably in a kind of compartment, away from water once the fender shields are not damaged. Oh and it resides just under the 3" hole so its not that far down.

Ok a water trap is basically a container to trap any water that happens to come in though the filter letting only air pass. You see the aluminum 3" pieces you can tig weld a water trap container to it. Well that's the idea I had in my head.

Naresh boy looks like you need to step up soon!