Purchased new at the end of 2018 Mazda3 Touring and immediately started modding.
NitroM3 Mazda 3 2018 2.5 Automatic
- Thread starter NitroM3
- Start date
How many miles on it now? What mechanical mods? Any problems with the car or the mods?
ekrampitzjr
Thank you for the interestI have 34k trouble free miles. I did get a recall about the possible failure of the BCM(Body Control module) regarding a possible with no warning wiper actuating to fail? I changed the BCM myself just in case.
I have done so many mods I am not sure where to start. Body, Chassis, Engine, Transmission, interior, etc. Some needed to be re-thought and re-engineered but for the most none have failed, but not all necessarily improved anything either?
The last project I did has improved the MPG only ever so slightly but it is so new a mod I have not had time to go through a few tank fills of fuel and done an extended highway drive of say more then a hundred miles one way none stop?
Here is short video of the finished latest project.
The project draws water vapor created from the engines vacuum while driving normally through the intake system that theoretically will clean the complete intake system from behind the throttle body all the way through the intake manifold as well prevent and clean any carbon deposits on the intake valve and inside the combustion chambers.
https://www.youtubekids.com/
I wanted to do a thread for FUN on the the projects I will be doing to the MAZDA. Please keep in mind this is not going to be a technical thread in any way. Some of what we do may to some seem ridicules, in-practical, unreasonable, functionally questionable and down right insane but hey its my MAZDA right? Besides all of us like to do things the way we want anyway.
Also a WARNING do not attempt to copy what we do to our MAZDA unless you truly believe I know what I am doing and can duplicate the project in every detail. And I have been told so often in my life that I don't know what I am doing so maybe better just look at my pictures and have a good laugh on me with my fun with my MAZDA. :laughin
Onward .....
One of the starting engine mods I prefer to do to most of my rides is a larger Throttle Body. Unfortunately for the 2.5 SkyActiv engine no one offers a performance one yet? So I had to machine my own. I obtain a donor throttle body from a auto recycler and disassembled it. From there I machined the larger diameter without sacrificing the integrity of the main body by going to thin. The Throttle plate had to be made from scratch and it actually took a couple days to get the closed angle at 180 degree difference from the opposing edge correct. I counter sunk the throttle plate screws as best as I could again considering longevity over the highest flow capability. I did however reduce the throttle shaft size so I think that compensated for the screws? The end result was a Throttle body that is 5% by volume improved, The engine will start and idle fine and after a few months on the engine has not generated any DTC's, loss in MPG or any other negative results. I have not as yet and have not decided if I will do a DYNO test to see what it actually did for the power at WOT/REDLINE. It really does not matter to me at this point anyway and may only be the ingredient catalist for controversy?
STOCK THROTTLE BODY
The completed larger throttle Body
Also a WARNING do not attempt to copy what we do to our MAZDA unless you truly believe I know what I am doing and can duplicate the project in every detail. And I have been told so often in my life that I don't know what I am doing so maybe better just look at my pictures and have a good laugh on me with my fun with my MAZDA. :laughin
Onward .....
One of the starting engine mods I prefer to do to most of my rides is a larger Throttle Body. Unfortunately for the 2.5 SkyActiv engine no one offers a performance one yet? So I had to machine my own. I obtain a donor throttle body from a auto recycler and disassembled it. From there I machined the larger diameter without sacrificing the integrity of the main body by going to thin. The Throttle plate had to be made from scratch and it actually took a couple days to get the closed angle at 180 degree difference from the opposing edge correct. I counter sunk the throttle plate screws as best as I could again considering longevity over the highest flow capability. I did however reduce the throttle shaft size so I think that compensated for the screws? The end result was a Throttle body that is 5% by volume improved, The engine will start and idle fine and after a few months on the engine has not generated any DTC's, loss in MPG or any other negative results. I have not as yet and have not decided if I will do a DYNO test to see what it actually did for the power at WOT/REDLINE. It really does not matter to me at this point anyway and may only be the ingredient catalist for controversy?
STOCK THROTTLE BODY
The completed larger throttle Body
I posted the video earlier in this thread of the finished project so here is how I did it.
PART #1
To keep the carbon build up under control in my DI engine I desided to do a low engine speed high vacuum input constant water vapor project. The other water /meth system connected to this engine is a high pressure pump suppling mist spray into the intake manifold more intended for sport driving or higher engine speeds .
So here are the basic NEW items that I picked up at SAFEWAY grocery store
and a Lowes.
The hose I ordered from my Auto Parts Disturber Warehouse which they were kind enough to deliver.
The challenge will be to somehow convert the lid for the purpose I need it for. I will somehow find a way to install 2 hoses one to draw atmosphere air into the bottle close to the bottom fully submerge in the liquid and the other will be using the brass valve to control vacuum input from the engine near the top of the lid out of the liquid near the top of the bottle.
PART #1
To keep the carbon build up under control in my DI engine I desided to do a low engine speed high vacuum input constant water vapor project. The other water /meth system connected to this engine is a high pressure pump suppling mist spray into the intake manifold more intended for sport driving or higher engine speeds .
So here are the basic NEW items that I picked up at SAFEWAY grocery store
The hose I ordered from my Auto Parts Disturber Warehouse which they were kind enough to deliver.
The challenge will be to somehow convert the lid for the purpose I need it for. I will somehow find a way to install 2 hoses one to draw atmosphere air into the bottle close to the bottom fully submerge in the liquid and the other will be using the brass valve to control vacuum input from the engine near the top of the lid out of the liquid near the top of the bottle.
Part# 2
The cap portion with the sealing drinking spout was easy. I just completely took apart the lid to see how it was manufactured and eliminated it replacing it with hose fittings and a vapor collection funnel.
The cap portion with the sealing drinking spout was easy. I just completely took apart the lid to see how it was manufactured and eliminated it replacing it with hose fittings and a vapor collection funnel.
Part#3
The next step was to find a suitable location and make a mount for it. Again this was easy. The next step is a little more evolved because no I need to really consider fluid, volume and vaporization dynamics and combined them all in a bottle that will fundamentally work like my mind tells me it will. I have done these before and it is not a new concept but these are mostly for carbureted engine not ECU/EFI controlled engines. And to be sure I am not the designer of the concept which I did actually sorta copied in the 70"s when companies like Marvin Miller came out with their very primitive for the time water injection kits.
The next step was to find a suitable location and make a mount for it. Again this was easy. The next step is a little more evolved because no I need to really consider fluid, volume and vaporization dynamics and combined them all in a bottle that will fundamentally work like my mind tells me it will. I have done these before and it is not a new concept but these are mostly for carbureted engine not ECU/EFI controlled engines. And to be sure I am not the designer of the concept which I did actually sorta copied in the 70"s when companies like Marvin Miller came out with their very primitive for the time water injection kits.
Here is the finished modified bottle lid with an adjustable air stone tube/hose combination.
OK so the air charge does NOT need to be hot or cold because of solubility of Oxygen in water that changes with temperature and I will also be adding alcohol to the mixture. The key is to introduce some water vapor into the intake system which will dynamically change as it gets closer to the intake valves and into the combustion chambers.
I purchased a mini funnel ran the intake line through the radiator support and will be securing it in the grill. I painted the funnel and the location should not effect the normal incoming air to the condenser but as you can see from the pictures and the use of my handy Dywers Magnolethic meter that I would conventionally use to measure differential air pressure I only am using one tube to simply test if air is actually being rammed into the funnel and to my bottle? You can see in the pictures that with the fan on the lowest setting without the funnel only an open 1/4 hose it works and with the funnel works even better and the fan is even further away for the picture. So that works for me!!
The project is finished and working GREAT! I just came back from a short 45 minute combination highway and through town. No DTC's not adverse engine conditions. So over the next few tank full of fuel I will see if I made any MPG improvement's. I will also scope the combustion chamber and see what they look like as well. Naturally in about 250 miles I will check a couple of spark plugs. It was kind of funny while I am only running a 50/50 mixture of water and alcohol while I was doing the primary adjusting I could smell alcohol burning from the exhaust.
I purchased a mini funnel ran the intake line through the radiator support and will be securing it in the grill. I painted the funnel and the location should not effect the normal incoming air to the condenser but as you can see from the pictures and the use of my handy Dywers Magnolethic meter that I would conventionally use to measure differential air pressure I only am using one tube to simply test if air is actually being rammed into the funnel and to my bottle? You can see in the pictures that with the fan on the lowest setting without the funnel only an open 1/4 hose it works and with the funnel works even better and the fan is even further away for the picture. So that works for me!!
The project is finished and working GREAT! I just came back from a short 45 minute combination highway and through town. No DTC's not adverse engine conditions. So over the next few tank full of fuel I will see if I made any MPG improvement's. I will also scope the combustion chamber and see what they look like as well. Naturally in about 250 miles I will check a couple of spark plugs. It was kind of funny while I am only running a 50/50 mixture of water and alcohol while I was doing the primary adjusting I could smell alcohol burning from the exhaust.
The control valve works very well. You can actually hear the engine start to idle rough if I adjust to much mixture.
Clean almost new but this exhaust system has been on for over a year?
Old UPDATE I simply copied what I posted a couple weeks ago:
The first fill up and did some figures. So after a week of driving almost exactly the way, i.e. work and home and shopping I filled the tank and did some math!
This fill up only gained roughly .70 increase in mpg. I was hoping for more but this is as I said the first tankful and to do a real assessment I should calculate it over a month of driving.
There was the AC service which I had the engine idling off and on while servicing it for about 30 minutes which can reduce MPG,
Here is things I noted, I do want to say that here in CA where I live the average ambient for last week were in the low 100F's.
IAT were about 20F higher then ambient, timing actually increased surprisingly higher then what I thought the Mazda ECU programming was set for. In other words in the 3 years I have owned and monitored the timing I have never seen the numbers as high? Because I used the AC more often then normal the radiated heat soak was higher but the the bottle with the 50/50 mix was notably cooler. That would be expected because of the properties of methanol when it is vaporized. Although it may be my "butt" Dyno the engine felt like it had crisper throttle response. I know it arguable at this point. hahaha! I will say but I did not pay attention to but will in the future but the last couple days I started to watch my throttle % use, and I noticed I have been using less then normal but attaining the same MPH. I did not check the spark plugs because I seemed to have misplaced my Mazda supply of them in my garage, so that will come later.
All in all the project went fine and I am so far happy that at least it seems like there is some improvements. When I scope the engine again at the next engine oil service and spark plug change I will know if the main reason for this project was to clean the intake valves and combustion chambers?
Things to mention TODAY:
Yes I have a baseline power sheet that I do follow up and set the exact Delta's before running it up on the DYNO
It does show a slight increase but nothing worth mentioning but we did 4 runs that resulted in exact numbers.
Since I finished the project I now have more MPG data and it still looks in a plus margin and still seems to be increasing? I just need more miles maybe a couple of months to really look at the number from 3 years of my information about MPG
This was my project not my idea but I did re-engineer and rethink its original use and design to what I thought would be a better mouse trap so to say in the end I think I made it much better then the original designer did.
I did scope the engine before this project to see the extent of carbon deposits and did another yesterday. The inside of my tail pipes look like the muffler new out of the box so you can imagine what the intake and combustion chambers look like now..
I am not running lean. I examined the spark plugs again today after a power pull and they were ideal, as well I constantly monitor ECU systems like timing, temperatures and sensor values. No DTCs and my monitors are in readiness state so I think my engine may be carbon reduced if not carbon free at this time?
I am not going to offer this project in my Performance line of parts. This project was for me and for fun.
Please remember I have said this thread and my projects are for fun so respect that and understand I will not be conducting a technical Q&A about this project and its results. I will simply say again it seems to work for ME!
The first fill up and did some figures. So after a week of driving almost exactly the way, i.e. work and home and shopping I filled the tank and did some math!
This fill up only gained roughly .70 increase in mpg. I was hoping for more but this is as I said the first tankful and to do a real assessment I should calculate it over a month of driving.
There was the AC service which I had the engine idling off and on while servicing it for about 30 minutes which can reduce MPG,
Here is things I noted, I do want to say that here in CA where I live the average ambient for last week were in the low 100F's.
IAT were about 20F higher then ambient, timing actually increased surprisingly higher then what I thought the Mazda ECU programming was set for. In other words in the 3 years I have owned and monitored the timing I have never seen the numbers as high? Because I used the AC more often then normal the radiated heat soak was higher but the the bottle with the 50/50 mix was notably cooler. That would be expected because of the properties of methanol when it is vaporized. Although it may be my "butt" Dyno the engine felt like it had crisper throttle response. I know it arguable at this point. hahaha! I will say but I did not pay attention to but will in the future but the last couple days I started to watch my throttle % use, and I noticed I have been using less then normal but attaining the same MPH. I did not check the spark plugs because I seemed to have misplaced my Mazda supply of them in my garage, so that will come later.
All in all the project went fine and I am so far happy that at least it seems like there is some improvements. When I scope the engine again at the next engine oil service and spark plug change I will know if the main reason for this project was to clean the intake valves and combustion chambers?
Things to mention TODAY:
Yes I have a baseline power sheet that I do follow up and set the exact Delta's before running it up on the DYNO
It does show a slight increase but nothing worth mentioning but we did 4 runs that resulted in exact numbers.
Since I finished the project I now have more MPG data and it still looks in a plus margin and still seems to be increasing? I just need more miles maybe a couple of months to really look at the number from 3 years of my information about MPG
This was my project not my idea but I did re-engineer and rethink its original use and design to what I thought would be a better mouse trap so to say in the end I think I made it much better then the original designer did.
I did scope the engine before this project to see the extent of carbon deposits and did another yesterday. The inside of my tail pipes look like the muffler new out of the box so you can imagine what the intake and combustion chambers look like now..
I am not running lean. I examined the spark plugs again today after a power pull and they were ideal, as well I constantly monitor ECU systems like timing, temperatures and sensor values. No DTCs and my monitors are in readiness state so I think my engine may be carbon reduced if not carbon free at this time?
I am not going to offer this project in my Performance line of parts. This project was for me and for fun.
Please remember I have said this thread and my projects are for fun so respect that and understand I will not be conducting a technical Q&A about this project and its results. I will simply say again it seems to work for ME!
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Superb engineering and write-up. Thank you for a great effort. Ed
A few brands and viscosities but I suppose mostly Mobil 1. I have about 33k miles and have changed the oil and filter about 11 times,5 of which oil analysis was done by Blackstone labs. I have also done 2 transmission oil pan and filter changes and 2 oil analysis.I have to ask: what oil
I used Fram original orange , an Amzoil oil filters on 2 oil services and then because of a super deal on a case of Mazda filters now pretty mostly Mazda oil filters.
Thank you very much Ed.
Not yet. I have not found any of the current programs that really offer full access. I don’t mind leaving the tcm programming as is but not being able to globally adjust is not my cup of tea.
At this point I can wait until someone offers a good program for someone brave enough like me to do their own ECU/EFI Performance calibrations. I won’t really need it until I swap my head . And that’s another project because I am still drawing up retainers to machine and deciding to either have spring made to my specifications or just get something already available. The porting and basic machining on my core head I have already done. And my NS cams are working well no problems . I doubt even Mazda would be able to determine I have performance cams in their Skiactv engine. And this car after all is still only a daily driver . I have a dozen or more projects I started and yet to install or finish with this Mazda. My downfall is I procrastinate and get easily sidetracked with ideas that turn into a project. Those struts , springs , airbags and shocks you see in some of the pictures back ground have been finished and sitting on my small work area for a year now. And I have 2 complete upgraded brake sets I have not decided which to use. The upgraded performance exhaust system is more or less my creation and it is almost ready to install.....geeeeez.
At this point I can wait until someone offers a good program for someone brave enough like me to do their own ECU/EFI Performance calibrations. I won’t really need it until I swap my head . And that’s another project because I am still drawing up retainers to machine and deciding to either have spring made to my specifications or just get something already available. The porting and basic machining on my core head I have already done. And my NS cams are working well no problems . I doubt even Mazda would be able to determine I have performance cams in their Skiactv engine. And this car after all is still only a daily driver . I have a dozen or more projects I started and yet to install or finish with this Mazda. My downfall is I procrastinate and get easily sidetracked with ideas that turn into a project. Those struts , springs , airbags and shocks you see in some of the pictures back ground have been finished and sitting on my small work area for a year now. And I have 2 complete upgraded brake sets I have not decided which to use. The upgraded performance exhaust system is more or less my creation and it is almost ready to install.....geeeeez.
