Whats the worst that can happen?

If i put a turbo in a automatic what the worst that can happen?

Worst that can happen is you blow it up....

HAHAHA whats the worst that can happen,..besides blowing your engine up? destroying your tranny?

same goes for superchargers right?

Same goes for any power adder (Nitrous, forced induction, etc.) If you don't go crazy with it, you should be fine. I wouldn't try to exceed ~220-230 hp overall for reliability. If you set it up right, it can work great. But if you don't, it can be catastrophic.

oh really, and how would you suggest i set it up

If you're basically a newbie to engines, I'd recommend avoiding high power adders.

With Nitrous, you want to make sure you don't go lean as you can melt valves/pistons when cylinder temps get too high. Having the proper solenoids/shutoffs to make sure your engine always has sufficient fuel (A/F ratio meters to verify you always avoid lean conditions.) and shutoffs that kill the motor in the event of fuel pressure loss. If you go too heavy with the Nitrous you will overwhelm the stock internals of your motor. You also want to never hit the Nitrous at anything less than ~3000 rpm as you will almost certainly grenade the engine (People usually use a WOT Wide Open Throttle switch to activate the nitrous when they mat the gas as well as a controller circuit that doesn't allow it to kick in below a certain rpm.)

If you want to see some killer 2.0/2.3L Mazda engines, check out Cosworth (search under yahoo) They do tons of work on Escorts/Focus, but the Zetec engine is very similar (almost identical). They have kits to build up your motor to 250-300hp without forced induction or Nitrous. These are expensive, but the engines are built to take the power.

Anytime you try to get more power out of a stock engine, you are running the risk of exceeding the ability of the stock components to hold up to the increased forces generated by that increased power. You can never do anything like this on the cheap (some people say they can, but they're the ones that blow their stuff up.)

One big problem with the Mazda3 is how the computer works, it is very difficult (almost impossible) to reprogram the ECM in the Mazda3. Without this ability, you can't tune the engine to perform with the new performance components. Just bolting parts into a car never works...

Even installing exhaust and a CAI will give you only certain gains. With the ability to re-program the fuel maps, etc. You would be able to get a lot more power out of the same modifications.

Some companies have begun offering standalone ECM's (not piggyback to the stock ECM) to allow the user to tune his/her engine. I don't know anything about the reliability/ease of use of these systems. It's definitely not recommended for the beginner.

Speed costs money son.....how fast do you want to go?????

very well said, for someone who is a beginner in engines, i would not touch the high hp mods like nitro/turbo/supercharger, especially on my daily driver with my son in the car with me. if you are someone who likes to tinker with things and has another car to drive and is not financially responsible for other people's well being, i would say go for it. see what you can crank out of a 3. i have read about a turbo kit for the 3 that is supposed to push 350 whp, but i dont know if it is available yet. i think the price was about $3,800 and that was a stage 1 turbo with only 5lbs boost, if you wanted to go higher, you would need an intercooler to help cool it. also, the stock transmissions are only built to handle so much hp, i would check into that before adding anything like turbo/NOS/supercharger.

5 lbs of boost would only net you around a 35% increase in power (160hp stock to 216hp) If 1 atmosphere of pressure is 14 lbs (rough number), than 5 lbs of boost yields roughly 5/14% more power (so you know how I got the calculation.)

The guys I have seen running ~280 hp are up in the 10-12 lb boost (some higher). Beyond 280 hp you definitely need new internals (crank will blow apart in no time.)

Bottom line is that in order to make the Mazda3 truly fast, you have to spend too much money to do it and make sense. If I want to go fast I'll buy something V8 and rear drive.

Worst thing that can happen? Your Zoom Zoom Zoom will go BOOM!

personally, i would not turbo or NOS the 3 or 6. it is not worth it to me. I would just go with a CAI and catback exhaust. on the 3 i think the stock exhaust pipe size is either 2 or 2.25" i would increase that to a 2.5" pipe, make sure it is mandrel bent or use u-bends so you have the same amount of volume all the way through the pipe. alot of places will use crush bends, basically smashing the pipe at the bend, and reducing the amount of air space by up the50%, creating more back pressure, sometimes more than stock.

Thanks everybody for your help, its just that i hang around a lot of people that have and i really get caught up in the excitement and act like i got something, but there are four people that i really want to beat, and im just trying to find out what i would need to keep up if not beat them, and all i know about them is this; first there is my friend Sonic has red civic hatchback with a B16 engine, Pual with a dark blue supercharged civic, matt with a black 03 supercharged mustang, and and my good friend charles with a 95 gray primer twin turboed skyline engine 240sx. if anybody knows what i would need for my 3 (list parts that are not available yet anyways) to keep up i would like 2 know.

there really is not much you can do as of now to increase your hp/torque in the 3. really, the only one you would have a chance keeping up with is the hoda civic hatchback w/b16 engine. those engines produce 160hp, the 3i w/2.0L is 148, add a CAI and exhaust and you should have hime beat.

see for one thing i got a 2.3L, and th other thing is thats all i know that they have in there but i know its more... alot more, Sonic wont pop his hood so nobody not even his parents knows what he has under there, Paul's third gear mysteriously blew the day he bought it, charles has not been seen for about a week and matt is on the run from the cops and has yet to be heard from.

with the 2.3L you should be pushing 160hp, enough to match the stock b16 engine in the Honda. You gotta find out what he has going on under the hood to see what you need to do to try and match him, or buy the 6 with the 3.0L v6, that should do it.

Blowing his third gear sounds like your buddy is hosing his Civic (Nitrous). He was most likely on the juice when he made the shift (something you do not want to do).

Start with Cold Air intake and get a high-flow cat & exhaust. If that doesn't do it, best bang for the buck will be a ~40hp Nitrous system. That would get you in the 200hp range. Also keep in mind that the Civic weighs less than the 3 (I believe).

Your not going to even come close to your friends with the Mustang and 240 twin turbo. Don't waste your money trying.

It's easier to get more power out of older vehicles due to their less complex computers. It's fairly straightforward to reflash & tune a vehicle 10 yrs or older. Basically, when OBD II came into effect, the ECM's became much harder to modify. Mazda computers actually "learn" around any tuning tweaks you make to the fuel map, so without completely changing out the Control Module (definitely not recommended for the beginner), any tuning you do won't work for long.

If you want a truly fast car (which I suspect your parents don't want you to have), you need to get something else.

Oh yeah, don't street race and you won't have trouble with the cops. Keep it on the track. (There are track event days out there.) If someone gets killed while you are racing them, you will be charged with Reckless Endangerment and possible Vehicular Manslaughter. The second being a felony punishable by prison time. It's not worth the risk.

well put, i agree with your last post sstlaure. for your sake tracker, dont try and keep up with something you know you cant, go with the intake/exhaust set-up, maybe NOS, that is not something i would use because it is a pretty unstable substance, especially in AZ with the heat that can get to it, I have heard of peoples tanks exploding cause the inside car temps were well over 100 degrees. And yes, the Honda Civic is lighter than the 3 since it is a 2 door car, it is a little smaller I believe. Also, its not just about hp to win races, torque has alot to do with it, you maybe able to pull along side someone, but if there car has more torque they are going to be able to pull on you.

For example: 03 SVT Cobra is rated at ~390 hp. I've seen wheel hp numbers of 385 hp stock, so it's really more around 430 hp at the engine. (90% efficiency estimate) I believe they are around 3600 lbs. It's easier to talk engine hp so you don't have to take into account losses, so we'll go with that...

3600lb/430hp = 8.37 lb/hp

Stock a Mazda3 is around 2800-2900, I'll give the benefit of the doubt and say 2800lb and is rated at 160hp

2800lb/160hp = 17.5 lb/hp
2800lb/8.37 lb/hp = 334.5 hp

To have the same power to weight ratio as the Cobra, you'd need in the neighborhood of 335hp.

As the Mazda3 is front drive, you'd probably need even more to compensate for the weight shift off of the front wheels at launch (The Mustang gets help off the line as the weight is pushed onto the rear (drive) wheels.)

About the widest tire you'll fit without issues is a 225/45R17 or 225/40R18, whereas the Cobra is sporting either 275mm or 295mm rear width tires. That's a full 2" of additional rubber in contact with the road (30%) More tire = more traction, more traction = faster launch.

You'd blow the stock transmission at ~260-270 hp, but a Lentech trans can solve that ($5000), you'd have to both upgrade your engine's internals ($3000), then go with a pretty stout turbo system ($4000), then add a fuel system that can feed it ($1000 braided lines ain't cheap), then a full ECM to program it all ($3000), a better cooling system to keep that sucker from overheating $1500 (it's a lot harder to cool down 350hp than 160hp), a Limited Slip Differential so that you don't put down the 1 wheel peel ($2000)......Get the point.

That's $19.5K in obvious upgrades, the details/misc. BS will add probably another 20% to that....Over $23K......

I paid $14,900 for my whole car out the door.

You'd smoke the hell out of that Civic though....

The Civic had already had its 3rd gear blown, it has no nitro, Pual had bought it from the owner of Polk audio, (and get this he only 17 yrs. old, he dosent live in a rich neighborhood either, but he does live next to Cal Ripkens mom, and he bought the car with his own money, this is his second car), anyway i think his civic might be a little heavier due to fact that he has a bodykit, 3 batteries, 4 12in. Polk subwoofers, 6 250watt amps all in custom trunk, a TV in the center dash, and 2 6in. subs on the side of each door. And if ya care his first car was a 95 Tiboron with $40,000 of stuff in there that he also bought himself.

I race against all cars i dont care what it is, its because i love to race, but im not stupid on where i race, but again id race F1 even i had a Geo Metro with 2 donut tires (the outcome is obvious...id win) but seriously i live in fuckin Maryland the most boring place ive ever been to but the weather is fairly nice, i appreciate the warnings but i know what im dealing with, when we have our street races oops i mean car meets we do it at closed locations, with no neighborhoods around so as not to disturb and race from night to morning, but get away with racing on the highway.

your seventeen year old friend, Paul, must be dealing some sort of drugs if hes blowing 40 grand on a tiburon and that entertainment center on wheels he calls a civic ... and by the way, all of the actual good drivers are at the track, not racing on the street.

And he works at Pizza Hut...its sad i know, and we dont have a track nearby.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Tracker

And he works at Pizza Hut...its sad i know, and we dont have a track nearby.

He must be heavily subsidized by his parents to afford that on Pizza Hut money. When I was in high school I drove an $800 1984 Cavalier hatchback. I did pay for that car myself. It makes me ill to see that amount of money handed over to a high school driver.

A kid in my school got killed in his shiny new 5.0L Mustang that he swore to his parents he wouldn't race...late at night, like 3:00 in the morning......

As far as there being no tracks in Maryland.....

Maryland Int'l Raceway - Mechanicsville, MD
http://www.mirdrag.com/

Capitol Raceway - Crofton, MD
http://www.capitolraceway.com/

Mason/Dixon Dragway - Hagerstown, MD
http://www.masondixondragway.com/

Here's a drag racing series
http://www.mdstreetracingassoc.com/

He is a reaponsible guy and knows his stuff but still likes to show off, as much as everybody wants to race him he politely declines most of the time, but he has alot of connections thats probaly has so much shit...damn im jealous, but thanks 4 the track sites but i 4got to mention that we live in Aberdeen.

www.myautoevents.com