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slow3's '08 Hatch S STF Build

43K views 276 replies 13 participants last post by  gigglehurtz 
#1 · (Edited)
New to the forums. New to the 3. New to Mazdas. Recently picked up a '08 CWP Hatch S . Car has coilovers installed and the exhaust resonator deleted and 95k on the clock. Main purpose is DD duties. But if my "race" car sells, the 3 will get prepped for STF to run mostly local non-SCCA events, but a few trips to Devens will be in order. If I get rid of the other car, it should be easy to justify a STF/slightly uncomfortable daily.

Here she is the day I got her




Ive since deleted the intake silencer and hacked the air box...why not, sounds cool. And stripped the door moulding, 2.3 and 3 badges.

Today I dug into the coilovers to see what Ive got. Unfortunately they appear to be Racelands. The dealer had adjusted them all the way up and the front were preloaded a ton. I took the liberty of removing the wheel gap in the process. Probably went to far, but whatever...they're Racelands :roll: Lowered the front around an inch.




The rears were seized. A little heat, big hammer and vice later and lowered the rear a 1/2" or so. One of the rears is missing the top spring isolator. :angry: I took the other out for now to match it up with a replacement. May or may not drive it as is.




Final outcome






Future Plans
- Replace motor mounts
- Put good tranny fluid in it
- Get a set of real springs and shocks/coilovers (already have a set of 7"x2.5" 10/12k springs, need shocks to go with them and maybe more spring combos)
- 17x7.5s w/ 215-225 200tw (Im thinking Slipstreams and ZIIs or RS3s; and a set of studs for the stockers)
- Rear camber arms
- Replace cat back (probably Corksport w/ HFC, it currently hits the subframe...uggh)
- Get into some tuning w/ MazdaEdit
- SRI
- pre-06 front grille
- Mazda air dam

Its a fun car. I like it more than I expected I would and it keeps growing on me. Few little issues to take care of. It grinds 2nd if you even think about being aggressive. With the mileage, Im hoping that some mounts and a good fluid change fix it. Needs some rust proofing, I'll POR the undercarriage this spring. Needs some plugs and a good MAF cleaning, maybe this weekend. The suspension setup will be fine for winter duties, but Im sure it'll be far too soft and under dampened for real tires and my driving. :)

Im really happy to find out they can be made competitive in STF. My current autox car is a stiffly sprung, stripped 380whp Evo in SM. I run our local street tire index w/ 285 ZIIs. Its for sale. Just trying to get the "toy" costs down. There are some suspension bits Id kill for right now in the FS section here. :twisted: But unfortunately Id be sleeping in the garage indefinitely if I acted on them before selling the Evo.

Anyhow, I'll try to keep this up to date. Thanks for looking

:cheers:
 
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#3 ·
Ive read a few posts here that say it should fit. I think as long as the bottom grille bar is part of the bumper on the 04-06, it should work. Apparently all the open mouths require trimming, but the 2 bar and 1 bar grilles don't go down that far...I think...

Ive got a thing for Nuse's semi blacked out 04-06 grille. That plus the mazda air dam will be it for exterior body mods.

Yours CWP? If so, want to trade? lol

Been reading up about these awesome coilovers...ugggh. I was thinking Id run them for a couple events just to slowly get used to the car, but now Im thinking its in my best interest not to put any high stress on these things.
 
#4 ·
Replaced original plugs today and did a compression test. #s were 167-175 across the board.

Cyl #1's plug was soaked in oil. It appears to be inside the chamber (not a vc gasket?). Anyone know if valve stem seals are problematic at this mileage?

I did get duped into an extended warranty and after a month or so I plan to visit a local Mazda dealer to take care of any issues like this. I'm capable of almost anything, but its worth a 100 deductible not to have to deal with it and especially not have to pay for OE parts. Im going to put a list together and see if I can get the trans looked at too.
 
#6 ·
I know! Ive seen them and I need them. Id have to ship to work and hide them until I sell the Evo! She'd KILL me if a large box showed up right now! haha

I may still keep the racelands for winter duty. Id hate to ruin a nice setup.

You list 550f/500r and 650f/500r. Do you have 8 springs or typo?

And have you found the front bias spring rates to work better than rear bias? My default was going to be ~550f/650r, with an adj rear bar and stock front w/ upgraded endlinks. Can your rears take the extra spring? Im assuming they need to be revalved and cant be adjusted to suit springs like the fronts...That is how the fronts work, right? My only experience has been with rebound only adjustables (FA 510s on the Evo and koni yellows/GCs on my old EG Civic).
 
#16 ·
Purchased a corksport cat back and Mazdaspeed Motorsports coilovers from squirrel mincer here. :bigsmile:

Cant wait to get rid of the clunk the PO's exhaust hackjob makes hitting the subframe. Its going to be tempting to put this test pipe in...but I do plan to run a HFC for inspection purposes.

The coilovers should hold me off for a while. Need to get camber plates for the front and arms for the rear. I may get the rears revalved and up the rear spring rate eventually. But I plan to run this autocross season with them as they are along with a RSB.
 
#19 ·
Its a 1lb stainless ball. Had a buyer come by the other day for my Evo and figured Id swap shift knobs before he got there since the 3's doesnt say "Mazda" on it. Gloves help, but holy shit is that thing cold. My glove kept sticking to it this morning. lol

Shifts have definitely improved. Havent grinded 2nd since putting it in. And I tried fairly hard this morning. haha Still need mounts and a fluid change though. Wheel hop city.

That buyer is coming back tonight to put a deposit down on the Evo. :bigsmile: Hopefully it all goes well and Im stocking up on more STF parts for this thing really soon.
 
#20 ·
Rocking 16" steelies and snows now. MUCH better than the no-seasons it came with. :) Also raised it up a 1/2" or so.

Corksport cat back due to get installed soon. I need some gaskets. Looks to be a 2.4" ID pipe. I LOVE LOVE LOVE Remflex gaskets and want to use them. But they are 2.5". Will that work?

MazdaEdit purchased. Still need a cable. Looking forward to playing with it. Everything looks familiar to what Ive been using for the last 7 years. A local autocrosser has a 2wd dyno in his garage. Its currently being used for car storage, but I plan to visit him in the spring time for confirmation of butt/virtual dyno results and to really dig into what works and what doesn't without the road variables. I'll be tuning from now until then and will load maps back to back on the dyno to see how they really compare.
 
#21 ·
Finally got set up with MazdaEdit. I went through and touched up a few maps and the car seems to be responding well. Apparently Ive got the 1.6/2.3L ROM ID which is not defined as well as the others, although I have most of what I need. And some testing has uncovered some bad map names, but at least Im figuring out when they are used. The 3' of snow in the last 2 weeks has made WOT logging hard. My laptop comes with me every day I don't have my son in the back and its not snowing.

I haven't talked myself into braving the cold to install the exhaust yet, still "enjoying" the clunk it makes over every bump.

Still on the look out for a Hotchkis rear bar, some decent camber plates and some rear camber arms and I think the suspension will be close to being purchased for this year's set up.
 
#22 · (Edited)
Said goodbye to my 1st love last week. Guy flew in from VA to drive my Evo back. It was dropped off at an Evo shop in DC on Monday to start the NASA TT build the buyer is planning. <cry> 8 years, ~85k miles, and sold it with close to 400whp and a autocross SM prepped suspension. <cry><cry>

But now I have my garage back. And I can stop hiding packages as they come in for the 3. lol

Fatty Hotchkis rear sway bar received yesterday from miata_racer. :)

Im seeing big knock spikes in my logs when shifting or going WOT too quickly. Im assuming it is a combo of worn rear and leaky pass motor mounts.

Ordered the following over the weekend:
- AWR Pass motor mount, 80 durometer
- AWR Rear motor mount, 80 durometer
- Hardrace Driver's side motor mount, hardened rubber
- Spin-on oil filter conversion
- Remflex gaskets for the corksport cat back
- Dunlop ZIIs in 225/45R17. These are last year's compound...cause Im a cheap bastard and they were only 101/pc on closeout.

once all the mounts and oil filter stuff comes in, I plan to do my first fluid change on it and install the cat back and mounts.
 
#23 ·
Finally cleaned this thing the other day. Too bad its no where near as nice looking now. I hate winter.

Clean winter mode


The other day on the way home it starting sounding like someone hitting a hammer to the subframe over every single bump or crack in the road. Get home, jack it up and see the shock moving within the mount. :huh2: Fkn Racelands. Both sides were like this.


So I went ahead and installed the rear (black) shocks and spring/adj. perches from the MS Motorsports coilovers. Rides soooooo much nicer. I think the springs are actually stiffer, but the shocks are so much better that it doesn't matter. Every noise Ive been hearing was the shocks, not the exhaust. Its silent now.


My wife has a friend in town this weekend, so that means I had the green light to plan garage time. :bigsmile:

Yesterday started with the passenger side motor mount. The frame rail was covered in oil.


Old pos VS new AWR 80 duro mount


doh!




Then tackled the driver's side. She's buried underneath the battery box.
Old that wasn't too bad really VS new Hardrace hardened rubber mount




Then tackled the rear. Once I figured out to get the damn jack out of there and just let the motor sit, it was easy.

Old soft and mushy VS new AWR 80 duro


I then swapped the oil filter housing for a spin on style and did an oil change. No pics, but Im glad I did it. The cartridge was leaking. Glad to have a normal one anyways. Only problem here was the front clip/nuts on the undertray. What a dumb design, unless what Im seeing isn't oem.

Then tackled the exhaust. This was the only major pain in the ass all day. Only had to cut one section and wasn't hard to get off. But the rear support bracket at the tip was cut off. So after cutting the custom mount off the old muffler, breaking the bolt I wanted to use to mount it, breaking a bit to drill the bolt out, I finally got it mounted up. The fitment is pretty good.

old VS used Corksport w/ test pipe


Only major vibes are between 1k-2k rpm. Not too bad, couple rattles in the rear that are likely due to my exhaust hanger. I didn't expect this big of a change in exhaust note and sound. Very mellow at idle and low load, but its throaty and sounds like an animal under load. CRAZY resonance between 4.5-5k, which Im sure is a mixture of the mounts, intake mod and exhaust. :twisted: Hard to quantify any gains.

Happy with it. Was really happy to get some known issues fixed before they became worse. All-in-all a good day of wrenching.

Front coilover setup waiting on a good deal on camber plates to pop up. I'll put the rear bar in at the same time and may go ahead and do endlinks all around.

Got some tuning to do now. :bigsmile:
 
#24 ·
Still trying lots of different stuff with the tune. But Im hating the rareness of my ROM. I obtained a stock tune from a different ROM and its soooo much more defined than mine is. Ive had someone helping me look into it without much success, but I think Im getting close enough. Should be ready for dyno time at my buddies house in a couple weeks. Hoping to have a really good handle on everything before then so Im not chasing my tail on the dyno.


Installed an Eonon GA5151 yesterday. Having a few issues that Im still working through just like everyone else with the unit.

Im excited to get the Torque app working so I can monitor stuff without carrying the laptop around. Ive had the laptop in the car almost daily now and its hard to not try and watch it as well as a pain to carry around. Found that the unit doesn't work with the OpenPort 2.0 via USB, so I ordered up a Bluetooth adapter. I should be able to upload datalogs to the laptop via WiFi and just have to bring it to the car to flash.

GPS seems to work well. Im using the Sygic at the moment and trying a few others out before committing to pay. I cant tether or hotspot my Android phone so I have to get offline maps. Republic Wireless $25 unlimited plan, apparently with features disabled. May be root time...

Havent figured out how to hook up the backup camera yet and now its cold again, so that will wait.


Spent the morning today finishing off the purchases for this season's setup. :bigsmile:

Corksport camber plates
SPC rear arms
Whiteline adj. Endlinks F/R
Whiteline front LCA front bushings
Whiteline rear toe bushings
Prothane rear LCA bushings
Energy Suspensions rear trailing arm bushings (Focus)
17x7.5 +45 Rota Slipstreams in Steel Grey

Hoping that's enough to PAX top 5 locally and not get stomped too bad down at NER events.
 
#25 ·
17" slips discontinued, so I jumped on the 15" band wagon. :) Sold the 225/45-17 ZIIs and bought some 225/45-15 RS3v2s. I didnt realize it, but according to tire rack and wheel weights online, Im saving almost 25lbs in just rotating mass! Thats crazy.

Looks like Im keeping my 17x8 Enkei OEM Evo 7 wheels for daily usage. Probably just put some budget 215 or 225s on them. Theres a little life left in the tires installed, so they will get put on soon.

Everything except datalogging is now working well with the head unit. Bluetooth adapter should be here this week and I'll be able to try Torque out.
 
#26 · (Edited)
17" slips discontinued, so I jumped on the 15" band wagon. :)
You'll be glad you did. Just about everyone on the serious side of STF runs 15's.

Sold the 225/45-17 ZIIs and bought some 225/45-15 RS3v2s. I didnt realize it, but according to tire rack and wheel weights online, Im saving almost 25lbs in just rotating mass! Thats crazy.
After you burn through the 225/45/15's you might want to consider a 205/50/15. Most guys competing at a high level in STF aren't running 225's and run a 205/50/15 or a 195/50/15 on a 7.5" wheel. I switched last Fall and I'm definitely a believer now.
 
#27 · (Edited)
I ran 205s on my STC Civic with 15x7.5s. I wanted to put ZIIs on the 3 and those are offered in 205, but just felt like they would be tiny on this car. If tire Rack wasnt so quick on shipping, Id change my order. I ordered yesterday and they are probably on my door step today.

Biggest difference is turn in response, right?
 
#29 ·
Right, the skinnier tires feel better but seem to have the same level of lateral/longitudinal grip because tire grip is much more affected by rim width rather than tire width. I noticed better results right away after doing nothing else but switching to the narrower tire and the car just plain feels better. I have no actual testing to back that up, but guys way better than me have and they prefer the narrower tire. I think it's an urban myth that a bigger/heavier car needs a wider tire, it actually needs a wider rim but of course we're limited to 7.5." In my experience the 205/50/15 works great on the Mazda3.

Again, much of this is my personal opinion so take it for what it's worth.
 
#30 ·
I passed on the offset front LCA bushing. To me it wasn't worth introducing some bind to the suspension to gain a measly .5 degree of caster. If more caster is desired, I'd slot the upper strut towers. You can gain more caster that way while at the same time not bind up the suspension.
 
#31 ·
gaaaah! The 15x7.5 Slips are backordered for 5-7 weeks. I knew I shouldnt have waited this long. crap crap crap

Our 1st local event is typically the 1st of May. They havent released a schedule yet due to us losing our really big venue and scrambling to find replacements.

Sent TR an email seeing if I can change the order since I havent actually received tracking yet. If so, I'll change to 205s and may end up getting some wheels from them and having them mount and balance.
 
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