Was long time owner of 2005 Mazda6 wagon that finally gave in to winter de-icer rot. (Though it lives on as my 17 yr old gr-nephew's - he and his friend love it)

April 2023 I bought a loaded, low-mileage 2020 CX-5 Signature. Haven't done much yet. H&R springs, Bilstein shocks & struts, Godspeed adj alignment bits, AutoExe strut tower brace. Now this weekend - AutoExe fresh air inlet. AutoExe rear sway bar about to be installed.

 

Nice choice of aftermarket parts looks good

although expensive, what would tie together all those suspension parts that you added, would actually be the addition of a performance front sway bar. Not many people do that because they don’t want to install it themselves and it’s not cheap because of the labor involved and installing a swaybar on the front of a Mazda.

oh and don’t forget to look into a pair of gas struts for hood, supports instead of the factory rod,

I guess I should mention as you won’t read it on too many forums, but that nice engine cover is for sound reduction and actually creates under hood temperatures that raise your IAT’s. So getting a CAI or anything close to that kind of defeats part of the purpose of getting it.

 

Right now a different front bar is not needed. The front plants rather nicely at this time. It is the rear that needs controlled. If I find the front needs changed after installing the new rear bar, I'll upgrade the front. It's not that big of a job- guessing it's primarily just removing the bolts at the rear of the engine cradle and loosen the fronts until it drops enough to slide the bar out. Possibly unbolt the strut/spring assembly at the bottom. Same as when I put headers on my 1st gen 6 wagon.

Hood struts will be a 'We'll see' thing. The convenience is nice but they do not hold the hood as high as the rod does. You'll actually see people with struts keeping the prop rod. When they need to work on the engine they'll pop the struts and use the rod so they have more clearance,

The engine cover isn't doing anything to air inlet temps. I don't know if you own one of these, but if you do you know the engine compartment is basically a closed-off box that becomes an oven. Heat saturation is going to happen regardless of that piece of plastic sitting over one area, and it's not even over the inlet. If it was gone the engine will still get to the same temp and underhood will get to the same temp. And I've seen no sign the air from the fans -IF they happen to be running- they blow any air across the engine. Even if they did it would be warm air pulled through the radiator and blowing against warm air. Removing the cover to benefit the inlet is not logical. What would benefit more is using a heat wrap on the inlet tube itself.

 

The front bar will wake up the lazy steering characteristic you have now actually created by how far the H&R springs lowered the ride height they choose based on customer feedback and desires rather then the best performance is to low for the MAZD platform and as such it changes steering geometry (can not be fundamentally corrected on the Mazda platform and can not be adjusted with a performance alignment) . That and unless you ordered the Track/Race none progressive spring (harsher ride quality) then they are progressive which adds to the mismatched suspension parts.
I use H&R as well many other top brand spring companies for many of my customers project as well as fully engineered suspension systems.

If you access your ECU and set up a monitoring of the IAT, and coolant temperatures as well the knock % and timing you well see that a simple testing a day on a same route and close to the same ambientes that YES that cover will increase and effect all of the mentioned and in a performance standpoint negative. When ever I DYNO a customer vehcle I ask them if they want real world results or "fudged" numbers. The fudged numbers are when the DYNO operators when setting up the program compensates for negative effects on total engine output. Many know from seeing the large fan placed in front of the vehcle and many claiming it is to keep the engine from overheating or heating to much. The down side to doing that is that setting up a repeatable and adjust DELTA's for testing is almost impossible. At any rate even if the engine hood is closed there is also a performance difference between the engine cover installed and not.
The radiator fans used by Mazda are low cfm and are only adequate at maintaining normal operation. You may notice that on fane setting high the actual air even from both on at the same time always seems low. This is because higher efficient fans require larger motors and inherently are louder. On a semi luxury vehcle this is not a selling point? You can however go into the ECU and adjust all the fan control and speeds which can compensate slightly for better cooling control. I personally by-passed by way of shutting off all ECU fan control and installed my own adjustable fan controller along with a manual bypass power switch. More efficient for more spirted driving habits in ever changing operating environments.
Wrapping the intake ducking does not work but is often a DIY thought that it does. The challenge is the balance between creating an oven environment that will actually raise the IATs during normal driving or none highway speeds and the time it takes to cool the intake charge/ The % of throttle operation with drive-by-wire directly effects the IAT. Wrapping the ducking and airbox adds to the delaying of a cooler intake charge. This is basic thermal dynamic principles about heat radiated heat and air velocity. Really if you want to go to the subject, the best way to cool the intake charge is either spraying the intake manifold with water or having a completely custom water/meth system that can have a 2 stage operating system for both WOT and monitoring and controlling IAT.

On the subject of CAI... there are none on the market that actually work on any Mazda and often will increase at low vehcle velocities both under hood coolant and transmission temperatures. This can be seen by monitoring the IATs and throttle drive-by-wire % along with coolant all at the same time. The factory airbox and intake system is still better even in WOT engine operation. However aftermarket CAI look and sound really good. LOL

As for the hood struts not sure why anyone would ever need the hood lifted at an extreme angle ? The only semi , sort of downside to hood struts is if you are changing the wipers or removing and installing the wiper arm. LOL then you do have to work around them? The absolute best company with top quality hood strut conversion is Redline Tuning is the leader in Hood QuickLIFT Systems (gas springs, struts, dampers, lifters) for all vehicles that have an OEM prop rod.

I have used this company for decades on mine and customers vehicles. Aside from real quality high pressure struts their warranty and customer service is old school where the customers are important to them.


All in all you write with experience in modding and I do see some MYTH beliefs that is often developed with DIY which I never disregard because they are hard to change minds because DIY/Modders know more then us that engineer and developed Performance parts? rolmao (poking fun atcha)
I f I am wrong and you are in the Automotive performance Industry in some capacity then I apologize but I am and have been for a long long long time.
What do you do or have done for a living - Mazda Forum - Mazda Enthusiast Forums



Please do not take any of my comments or suggestion as negative I do like to see other members modding more then esthetic and going for engine and suspension upgrades.
I would likely come to you if I needed advise in your field of training and education as a Mortgage analyst.

 

The cover is not making anything warm or hot that shouldn't already be warm or hot. This was after only a 3 mile each way round trip and a couple minute stop for a fire truck returning to station, but the initial part of the video shows the air inlet tube is hardly 'hot' for the conditions. It is the opposite. And if you watch to the point where I pull the cover you will see a Mazda McDLT. That hot things are hot and the cold things are cold. The engine cover is affecting nothing. It CAN'T affect them- they are a close environment with an insulated and (sealed) hood. It's a box. An oven. What is going to get hot is going to get hot because of what the part does and/or the ambient temp underhood as things heat soak.

 

I was clear about what I posted and that was operational IATs.

your video is nice but is not accurate for driving only static.

not going debate you because it is clear you have not had a vehicle Dyno’d , nor have watched ECU specific PIDs during driving.
next time look at the suggest areas during driving with and without the engine cover

but I frequently run into DIY fun theorizes of how their world works

hey it’s your thread so sorry for posting empirically fact based information and real word tested .

Good luck with your modding



last thing before I call it a night , you really should spend some time cleaning and detailing the engine bay as well the wheel well and Componets in them. All those nice new parts would look better.

 

You like to apply generic and specific info across vehicles in general.

The steering/response is my CX-5 is night and day different since (just) the swap of springs and struts & shocks. It is nothing close to 'lazy'. There is noting more I'd want in reaction and speed of reaction. To do so would create something twitchy.

Your comments about the engine 'cover' affecting the inlet make no sense whatsoever. Both thermal imaging and ScanGuage monitoring show zero effects. The inlet tube is nearly totally unaffected as running time and temps increase. Removing the PARTIAL engine cover sitting 6 to 14" away will have zero effect. Nothing about the inlet air tract is close enough to be affected.

You remind of the 'experts' who told me running my '05 6 wagon with all O2 sensors upstream of the cats would cause CELs and issues. It didn't.. It hasn't... For 17 years now...

Know what you know. Don't pretend to know more.

 

not really …

and I don’t pretend..that’s a funny comment considering you amateur testing and the interesting results.

really dude you waited a month to return and to respond to my last ? Lol

look it’s your thread and project am not going to comment anymore on ridiculous… unless u respond again about my information 🤓


btw you had Ho2 sensors not o2 sensors. And the fact you don’t understand why one is mounted up and the other down stream states a lot what you don’t know or understand

 

Finally got around to improving factory brakes. Not enough initial grip. Too soft a pedal. I took care of the grip but not yet the pedal fill. Although... it did improve with the pad and rotor change.

Went with PowerStop rotor & pad kit. Was pricing EBC bits, which I've loved in past, when I found a helluva deal on the PowerStop kit. Zinc plating will help in the Midwest. Drilling adds a bit of looks. The Evolution Z23 pads are not my preferred choice. Don't get me wrong, things are HUGELY improved over factory. If I had my choice I would like to have Hawk HPS. Had them on my 3 previous cars and been thrilled. But, alas, they do not make them for the CX-5. I'll give these a ago and see if I remain happy.

Have not yet installed the braided lines. Kinda missing the immediate feel and response of them. I'll do them soon.





psst.... I didn't return to respond so you. Hilarious you think I would.

 

Looks good.

you may want to use some navel jelly in the hub nut area to remove the rust then shot some rattle can paint to keep the rust under control