Jayces SP20

[D3FEKT]

Well, I've picked up my new daily/project.

For those whom seen my introduction thread, I stated how i was to travel 390kms down south of Western Aus to a town called Albany..

Anyhow, I have done just that. 6 hours on a bus with the wife taking the "Scenic" route, Turns out you just see a few more red dirt dominated towns for an extra 100kms on top of the 390km basic route.
Left sunny Perth at 10am and arrived at 4pm in Albany, which like usual was pissing down with rain.


After walking 5kms in the rain we picked up my one owner, full service history, 130,000km, Late 2003 BJ SP20 hatch/wagon.

I went over the car with a fine pick and the only thing i could even remotely find wrong with it was a crack in the original headlight protector and slight sag on the drivers side of the front bumper, Nothing else!

Everything was intact, Unused ash trays to original SP20 floor mats, Original marketing brochures and all the original documentation of sale from the Albany Mazda dealer, I just couldn't believe it.

After purchasing the car, drinking a few beers (If you can call Emu-bitter that) and having a good yarn me and the wife decided to hit the road and put our belongings at the hotel and then take for a drive.

Took it for a spin up in a few of the main mountain roads, a few gravel but mainly sealed as i was absolutely terrified of having mud on this new gem.
It was a blast to drive, Even in complete stock form.. I wouldn't call an FS powered Mazda fast but they do handle very well for their age.

Inevitably I couldn't avoid it from getting red dirt/mud up the side so after our nice drive I headed back into town and searched for a car wash.
She cleaned back up nicely after a soap bath and light rinse.

Fast forward another 14hours and we headed back to Perth, To my surprise there wasn't anyone on the road and took me 3hours and 40minutes to get back to Perth only stopping once in Williams to get an iced coffee from the BP.

Did very well on fuel not even using half a tank but did notice a few slight pings here and there under load - Possibly from running 95octane from a generic service station which happened to be the only thing opened at the point of us leaving the town.


Now I did have a whole collection of photography I took over the trip but as technology continues to do best, and that's to fail!
Bloody memory card from the camera corrupted (Anyone know if data recovery is possible on an SD card??)

Anyhow, my plans of this are uncertain and not sure what would be my best point of attack would be however I do think I'll start modding in the aesthetics department first as they are usually relatively cheap to perform and gives me a chance to work out what I'll do.

I do have a couple of photos which I took on the misses Iphone which I'll put here but hopefully I can resurrect the ones on the memory card.

But yes, Hopefully haven't bored any of you too much and will be logging my progress with her as I go.

-Jayce.

[JDM323]

very nice i would recommend rustproofing as the first mod seeing as it has seen 10 years on the coast already.

[BG1.8sp]

very nice mate!

yeahhh the FS isn't so much of a powerhouse :/
but do a few suspension mods and you have yourself a nice little GoKart! Bucket loads of fun through the twisties. Go and chuck some Mazda 6 brakes on there as well (not the greatest brakes on the SP20... but depends on what roads you are driving on)

Hope you enjoy it!

[maz sp20]

To fix sag with the front bumper get some of those. they also make it easy to take bumper off & on

http://www.aggressiveautoculture.com...bumperbrackets

[marcs_sp20]

Originally Posted by maz sp20

To fix sag with the front bumper get some of those. they also make it easy to take bumper off & on

http://www.aggressiveautoculture.com...bumperbrackets

Or get them from Orion on here

Nice sp20 mate, looks the goods and cant wait to see what you do with it

[Ben]

Looks the goods! Defiantly get the bumper sag brackets. Brilliant things!

[D3FEKT]

Originally Posted by shaley323

very nice i would recommend rustproofing as the first mod seeing as it has seen 10 years on the coast already.

Thanks, Where would i start on finding out on getting it rustproofed or can i buy an off the shelf item?

Originally Posted by BG1.8sp

very nice mate!

yeahhh the FS isn't so much of a powerhouse :/
but do a few suspension mods and you have yourself a nice little GoKart! Bucket loads of fun through the twisties. Go and chuck some Mazda 6 brakes on there as well (not the greatest brakes on the SP20... but depends on what roads you are driving on)

Hope you enjoy it!

The FS is no where near being a bad motor, Had quite a bit more low down torque compared to my past BP and B6 motors i've run.
Suspension is defiantly on the agender, Coilovers, Swaybars, ect.

Now the Mazda6 brakes, Do they bolt on? Also would Mazda3 brakes be interchangeable? As my mate does have a full wreck minus engine..

Originally Posted by maz sp20

To fix sag with the front bumper get some of those. they also make it easy to take bumper off & on

http://www.aggressiveautoculture.com...bumperbrackets

Thanks mate, They look top notch for such a cheap mod.

Originally Posted by marcs_sp20

Or get them from Orion on here

Nice sp20 mate, looks the goods and cant wait to see what you do with it

Thanks, Does Orion deal with them directly or does he have some in stock over here? I'll be sure to send him a PM.

Originally Posted by Ben

Looks the goods! Defiantly get the bumper sag brackets. Brilliant things!

Cheers mate, Will do.

[BG1.8sp]

Yeah I came from a BP (hence my user name)... Nothing beats the revs on those things tho.. As you said doesn't have the torque of the FS.

Mazda 6 brakes are a 100% bolt up mod for the fronts. Rear require left calliper on right and right calliper on left with longer handbrake cables.
No idea about the Mazda 3 ones.
If you can measure up the calliper brackets... If there is a 160mm distance between bolt holes on the front then they should fit.

[maz sp20]

Endrust is good if you have someone in your area

[marcs_sp20]

I have used POR15 in the past, its a lengthy process but it works well!

[Hammo]

Nice clean SP20 you have there, looks like a good canvas to create something with.

[JDM323]

if you know a good panel beater then they should know, for the mazda 6 brakes i have done the swap, here is the link http://www.astinagt.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19832

[HAIGHIE]

neat car mate, can't wait to see what you do to it looks really tidy

[D3FEKT]

Thanks guys for the help & comments.
After a quick search I found there is really not many places in WA whom do rust proofing, Only repairs once they have cancer heh..

However I can get access to POR15 which marcs_sp20 mentioned and does look like a lengthy set of tasks but is worth it right?

I also hit up my mate at the local Mazda wrecking yard last night and mentioned i can get a set of Mazda 6MPS front brakes and hubs complete for quite cheap,
Did have a look at the conversion thread but couldn't spot it, Will these work?
They do look a bit more beefy.

Also much to the Wifes disgust I am looking at putting an order in on some Volk TE37's in the next month which leads me to my next question - Will 17x8.5 fit with a +30 offset?

Cheers,
-Jayce.

[JDM323]

the 6 mps brakes will work just not sure of rim size required to clear them.

[maz sp20]

Originally Posted by D3FEKT

Thanks guys for the help & comments.
After a quick search I found there is really not many places in WA whom do rust proofing, Only repairs once they have cancer heh..

However I can get access to POR15 which marcs_sp20 mentioned and does look like a lengthy set of tasks but is worth it right?

I also hit up my mate at the local Mazda wrecking yard last night and mentioned i can get a set of Mazda 6MPS front brakes and hubs complete for quite cheap,
Did have a look at the conversion thread but couldn't spot it, Will these work?
They do look a bit more beefy.

Also much to the Wifes disgust I am looking at putting an order in on some Volk TE37's in the next month which leads me to my next question - Will 17x8.5 fit with a +30 offset?

Cheers,
-Jayce.

Hey mate go down to your local mazda dealer and ask who they get to do the rustproofing on there new cars or look up professinal detailers they sometimes do it too.

[BG1.8sp]

Spykey is running the 320mm MPS calipers. no need for hubs. just caliper and bracket.

he used the MPS lines with custom brackets for the lines.

I am running the current model mazda 6 calipers and rotors (300mm)
using stock lines.

regarding those rims and offset... that's crazy! lol
can be done... but probably not the look you are after.

mazda run high offsets.
my rims are 7.5" +50

i have a few mm between strut and rim with 1 or 2 mm between guard lip and tyre (running 10mm stretch)

those rims with that width and offset would have 7mm more clearance between strut. and would stick a further 33mm out than my rims.
so you are looking at a good 20mm poke.

fitting them under would be guard rolling, guard pumping, stretch and camber.

or coilovers stock height stiff as so you don't drop the guard onto the tyre
for something that you can keep your stock set up with, with no extra camber and without guard rolling. cant go any more aggressive than what i have.
Even now... i should still roll my rear guards.

[smurfy]

they will fit... buttt the main question is how low you wanna go and how stiff do you want your suspension to be?..

eg. chris_180 ran 17x8 35+ on king superlow with a bit of camber and had no trouble with guards rolled..
http://www.astinagt.com/forums/showthread.php?t=18910

im running a setup with my wheels sitting 2mm in compared to chris on coilovers and at the height my car is atm (about not even 1cm gap between guard and wheels) im fine with just me in the car.. passangers... hell no ahaha...

what i did when tryna work out where the wheels would sit was type in tires1010 ( i think into google not sure on my phone) put in all the info.. will give you how much further it will sit out then the wheels atm then measure where they would sit.. gives you a rough idea where they will sit

[smurfy]

theres the website btw

http://www.1010tires.com/WheelOffsetCalculator.asp

[D3FEKT]

Well guys, owned the car for a little over 2 weeks now and haven't noticed any problems other than burning a slight bit of oil, Is this normal?

There is no smoke at all from the exhaust, no leaks and i even took the spark plugs out to inspect which there was no evidence of oil on them..

Would like to note also, Mazda 3 SP23 front calipers don't fit. They seem to come close to fitting but hit on the hub. Luckily my the wrecking yard let me take them back.

Anyway, I have started making a 2.25" 309stainless exhaust system going by a stock SP20 exhaust i had found on gumtree which i got for free.
Ordered a few things off Ebay and corksport.
Have ordered some stainless extractors, Magnaflow stainless cat and muffler to suit the system i am making, Also a Familia Sport20 badge and a few other rear window stickers.

I have also removed the rear muffler and pipe as i wanted a bit of noise now until my new system is complete.
I bent up a bit of mild steel pipe and welded on a flange and also a HKS cannon muffler i had from one of my previous cars.
Sounds nice, Not droney at all - Will post a vid later once uploaded to Youtube.

I still aint 100% convinced on the FS 2litre, Might be the extra weight of the Astina but my old KF TX3 - BP DOHC with the usual exhaust/intake mods seemed a whole lot quicker..
It would be what seems cheaper and easier to slap in a BPD turbo engine from a Familia GTR and make more alot more power than squeezing power out of this engine but maybe that isn't the point??
I'll carry on for a while and see where i go with all this, It is my daily after all so don't want to really do any illegal engine conversion/crazy modifications.
If i get real depressed on it's power output, I could buy a $200 KH laser with blown headgasket. Find a BP turbo and slap it all together for a quick little thrasher i guess.

I do appologize for my dribble, I do get carried away with boring crap.
I did go on a cruise with a few buddies last night through the hills, Did well against a few 4litre falcons + 6litre SS atleast, so cant be too hateful towards the basically sock FS.




*Edit
Youtube link of exhaust sound