FNG from Seattle

I've had my '07 for a long time, but it's been gently used, only 100k miles on it. Short version is I decided use the circumstance of the K04 slowly dying to push the thing. I don't have any place to work on it, so it's in a shop right now getting a whole pile of stuff done at once: CST4, HPFP internals, and CS downpipe. Dramatune for the tune. Should be fun. Taking it to a track in a few weeks to see what it can do. Yesterday I spent some time cleaning it up a bit, so that's the photo. Mazdaspeed CAI was the only thing I did prior, so I'm hoping for great things with all this.

 

That is one CLEAN bay! Old school Mazdaspeed intake I see. Make sure it has the post-recall straightener, especially with more go-fast stuff.

 

Welcome. I'd think a rear motor mount and a rear sway bar would be first (or near first) up for mods. At least thats how it was back in the day.

Good luck and have fun?!

 

Sounds like you're going to fall in love with it all over again man! I had that intake with my ko4 but the CST4 will max it out at a fairly low boost probably. You might look into my custom 3.5" intake I did with my CST4 install that was less than $100 and has been working great with no tuning issues.

https://mazdaspeeds.org/index.php?threads/diy-3-5”-air-intake.6201/page-2

Any reason for choosing Dramatune? I have no personal experience but have heard not so great things so just curious why you chose to go with them? Good luck man!

 

Nice to see a new looking engine bay!!
Wow!
Great job keeping nice.

 

Thanks for the encouragement. Dramatune I chose because the guys at Corksport recommended him. I haven't gone too far down the path with him, but he does seem to have their trust with with their own cars, and working on their products. So I may take my chances. If someone has specific details on something that didn't go well, I'd like to hear it, for sure. The 3.5 inch intake from scratch is a really interesting idea. I do know two people right near me who are very serious magicians with all manner of metal, and either of them would get a kick out of making an intake for a hotrod Mazda. Few things would give me more pleasure than putting a piece like that on my car for $100. I can definitely see how a big fat intake would move massive amounts of air to that nice CST4. I doubt that I'll ever really make the most of the kind of horsepower that the thing can produce, even with the stock K04. But there is real fun in doing something just for the sake of doing it. Check out this picture of my other insane car. A '64 Galaxie. I am a lucky man.

 

Whalecum to MSO! Nice clean bay sure puts mine to shame. Nice galaxie too got any more pics?

 

Thanks. I find the obsessive cleaning of cars to be good therapy. I literally have more than one doctor telling me to drive these two cars more. Stuff I won't get into here. But the therapy sure works! The Galaxie has a 390ci engine. From the factory it got 10mpg, about 300hp. The way I drive it, gets about 6mpg. But who cares? They actually raced this car's big brother at NASCAR, with a 427 engine. They cleaned up with that car in 1964. "4,000 pounds of pure hell," the drivers called it. I have a very quiet set of Flowmasters on it, but when you open it up it's pretty loud. I'm beyond excited because right now it is with a mechanic getting a 4-speed put into it, which will make it really insane as well. Otherwise it's mostly finished. Discs up front, new suspension, electronic ignition. Just needs body and paint after that. It will definitely be a driver. More than 15 years getting that car up to where it is now.

 

How's the project coming? Couple months back on the last post you sounded very close. Hope you're doing well.

 

Yeah, it's coming along. Thanks for checking in. I got the CS intake in, and I'm on my second revision of a tune from Freaktune. I need to find a safe time and place for the pulls, particularly the one from 1500 to redline in 3rd gear. Last time that got me up to just over 80. That's not super fast, but going WOT like that is something I will only do when I can control the conditions: clear daylight, no possibility of cross traffic. Nobody is getting hurt or killed because of this build. Anyway, I think I can do that pull this weekend. I'm in the rainy and dark Pacific Northwest, so I have to adjust some of all this to winter road conditions. But eager to keep getting new tune updates.

So now the car is really fast, and runs great (CST4 plus monster, 4" CS intake, good downpipe and high-flow cat). I do have a noise from the front end that sounds like a caliper stuck or the rotor messed up somehow. A "grrr - rrrr - rr" sound that increases in frequency with my speed. I have some new EBC rotors and yellowstuff pads coming, and I'm planning to get those on next weekend when I have the parts and a free couple of days. I don't recall ever putting in new rotors, and I'm at around 100k on an '07 car. Hoping that will take care of it. Also ready to go are a new CS aluminum skid tray, a Mishimoto OCC, and a CS boost gauge. The plan is to get all that stuff in, let the pads bed for their 500 miles, and then try to get to the track. The track near me operates even when it's raining, so I'm ready to do that whenever. I don't want to spend a day at the track with an undiagnosed/fixed noise in my suspension.

 

As planned, I replaced the OEM front rotors and pads with EBC stuff. Good fun getting my hands dirty. Much more satisfying than paying someone else, and I know exactly how it was all put back together. Looking forward to another track day soon.