First Romanian BT MS3

[mituc]

My profile matches pretty much any MSF'er profile here that become passionate about his car and thought seriously about modding it.So I got the car in April 2008, the 8th from my country and the second Cosmic blue (there are only 2 Cosmic Blue here in .ro even now when there are more than 25 MS3's).

I left it bone stock for 2 years, and in April 2010 I began modding:
- Bilstein B14 PSS9 coil overs;
- AutoEXE front brake pads;
- Street Unit TMIC;
- Cobb SRI;
- Denso ITV22;
- TurboSmart BPV;
- Full SU engine mount kit;
- SSR TypeF 7.5x18 with Michelin PS3 225/40/ZR18 tires,
...all done in one day.
When I first started my car next day in the morning when I've got it back from the shop it was a completely different animal: insanely loud and glued to the ground.

After just one week I switched back to the stock side engine mounts and from that moment on it was VERY clear to me that whatever I change with aftermarket parts needs to preserve de ride quality and decency. This was, still is and will be my daily driver for as long as it will hold in one piece. I've put 75k miles so far on it, and even though I could easily get another car for DD I wouldn't be able to live with the thought that my actual soul car sits in some parking lot and I'm not enjoying it every moment I'm behind a wheel.

After a few months I switched back to the stock RMM with the CS inserts and this is how it is now (I also took advantage of that occasion and fitted the CS CAI BOX). I had a tentative of switching to the CP-E RMM a few months ago before I went BT but despite the fact is was fitted by a professional who also followed by advice on torque specs and bolt torquing order it was clunking and the aluminium washers were squealing when they were rubbing against the rubber bush.

After fitting the TMIC, intake and BPV of course problems started to arise: was getting throttle reduction due to increased boost (the boost was holding straight to 17.5PSI on my DashDaq).
I already had the Drew Tech DashDaq since September 2009 as I knew I will begin modding and monitoring came first.

Since it was clear that I began with the wrong foot in September 2010 I finally got a tune: Hypertech.

In November last year (2011) after, I could say, years of research I purchased the Ultimate Racing Downpipe (400 cels ceramic cat) and the resonated test pipe. Sound levels remained decent and the cabin comfort ok. During winter (at around +4C/40F) with the current set of mods at that time I was getting 310-313BHP on the VD with the DynoJet emulation.

But now since I had the downpipe I thought that I could use more boost up top and for that I needed a better tune, so I switched to Versatuner.

Problems began again. There was a mixture of them actually, most of them MAF cal related because during winter the set of gas additives is significantly different and caused MAF table variations of 5-8%. because I was tuning alone and I was scared to death to push the acceleration pedal I aimed for richer AFR's at first (targetting AFR 10.0 at 6000+ RPM for load above 1.5 and no more than 11 anywhere in the rev range for load above 1.6) which seemed to affect the ability of the stock fuel pump to deliver fuel in the mid range at high boost (19.5-20PSI around 4k rpm).

So I switched back to Hypertech happy I still had the engine in tip-top shape and purchased the Autotech FP internals from Edge.

...then I thought... what the fuck am I actually doing and what are my tuning goals? Monster torque with 21PSI at 4k RPM with good fueling and still blow 15-16-17PSI of fire into the engine anywhere above 5k rpm and get no more than 300bhp? No! I'm doing it right this time! So after a few days I contacted Eric from Edge again and told him to put together a GTX3071T BT kit.



At about the same time I contacted Alex from Stratified and booked a month of tuning for late March/April. The shop I was servicing my car at was also put en-garde and warned that I may bring some parts in that they don't work with on a regular basis.

Fitted all parts in late March this year at 103k km on the clock (about 65k miles), got the base tune from Alex and then began tuning. And this is how this became the first Big Turbo Mazda 3 MPS/MS3 in Romania. Or actually the first Big Turbo 2.3 DISI Turbo engine here.

In the meanwhile I've also got the Bosch 3BAR MAP sensor because I wasn't happy with only 21-21.5PSI.

So here I am after almost 10k miles of BT fun, with a decent daily driver that my wife and daughter are happy with. Long trips (300-400 and even 800 miles a day) are not a problem, power is there anytime I want it and when I don't the only thing that sings into my ears is the light engine sound and the wind.

Bebe liked it! - YouTube

Bebe liked it! - YouTube

The microphone is on the dash so it may record louder than it actually feels in the car. The radio is always at 6 max 7 - so that you have a point of reference.

Here I was gathering logs to send over to Lex to review the results of a 20PSI tune version (speed read from GPS):

Logging... - YouTube

Logging... - YouTube

This car is and will be for daily use. I intend to track it whenever I have the occasion but that's not something I intend to do a lot. We don't really have good trakcs here in Romania and we have to go to Hungary or Germany for that.
This year my brakes failed after 4-5 laps on the EuroRing in Hungary and I had to drive like I was on the public roads. Here is my track FAIL:

EuroRing 20120603 almost-no-brakes - YouTube

EuroRing 20120603 almost-no-brakes - YouTube

I noticed prior to that that the front-left rotor is heating up a bit more and there's more brake dust there, but there were no vibration, the steering wheel was remaining strainght when I was braking hard and lifting the hands from it.

Later I resurfaced the front rotors and replaced the front and rear pads. I still had the original pads on the rear worn like 50%, but they had cracks after more than 4 years of use. The front left rotor was slightly wrapped, but there were no vibrations during braking from any speed.

Now it's ready again for anything and still working with Lex to get as much power as it's safe from my setup considering I'm still on stock clutch and internals (I have a spare SPEC Stage2 self-rathething clutch waiting, and maybe I'll also forge the motor this winter, but I don't know yet). Even after going BT there was no oil consumption what so ever, so I'm not really sure if forging the motor now for a tad more power is the best (as if I want more power I'll also have to change the intake and ditch the CorkSport CAI box (which I like a lot and keeps the IAT's at the same level with the ambient temps) and possibly move to stronger and noisier engine mounts.


...And now it's time for a few/lot_of pictures:

Mew!! Mew!!!



Tough winter with 80-90cm of snow and -25 Degrees Celsius:




And here she is after digging in snow after it:


And this is how it looked before it started snowing (winter wheels/tires setup):





Standing still in the rain with no desire to boost:




Almost dust-free interior (this is how it looks even now after 75k miles):





DP install pictures (yes, DP is heat wrapped). I was amazed how clean and dry the intake was, no oil there after 30k+ miles):






My intake:


Suspension:



Brake Pads:




Caska Install:




Special thanks to (no particular order):
- EdgeAutoSport for putting a lot of effort into keeping track of how every part performs and keeping their customers happy;
- @Lex from Stratified Auto for his ability to send tons of awesomeness and knowledge in a little binary file attached to some ordinary email;
- Cobb, Corksport, StreetUnit and Cp-E for constantly investing knowledge and time into developing custom parts for this platform (is sad to see some of them slowing down though);
- Versaline for releasing the Versatuner and giving the Euro-spec (and not only) 2.3DISI Turbo cars a chance to get a custom tune;
- @Haltech for creating this forum and giving me the opportunity to find out about the above mentioned individuals or companies;
- Mazda for designing these very well balanced family cars, monster wolves in sheep clothing.

This is not a single post thread, more will come.