average wheel horsepower is about 90 stock. it is reasonable to consider about 20-25 hp on the i/h/e mods and another 5-10 on the mp3 ecu. the only real downside is that the mp3 ecu will require you to use premium gas. i use premium anyways, so it doesn't matter to me much. some people don't like it much though.

combine those mods with a nice set of ngk spark plugs, a good synthetic oil, and a fuel treatment to clean everything up a little. that will make for a nice daily driver.

 

does the year of the mp3 donor matter?

 

they only built the mp3 in 2001, so no, the year doesn't matter.

 

I just got a 1999 protege ES. It is an auto and a little bit of a ricer right now, in my defense the body work was done before I got it, but is very tasteful. I want to add a little bang the car now. Some nice sound and a little power to go with the look. What is my first step? I don't need to go over board it is still going to be my DD, but I willing to do a bit of work on it to give it a little more bit. Thanks for helpin the newbie.

 

i am guessing that your 99 ES is a 1.6l? i can give you the same advice as the other poster, but your 1.6 is different. a lot of people are having luck with forced induction on the 1.6, so i would recommend turbo if anything. this motor is pretty durable in handling boost, so you could safely run about 8-10 psi.

 

It is 1.8 and from reading this sticky and the N/A sticky I was hoping to stay as N/A as possible. Thanks.

 

n/a, you could do pretty much the same mods. intake, header, exhaust, and maybe some ignition mods. if you want to really get into some work, open up the valve cover and drop in a set of mild cams with adjustable cam gears. the 1.8 responds pretty well to advanced timing with the stock ignition.

 

i use premium as well, so no prob there! thanks for all the help man i'm sure i'll think of a million more questions along the way.

 

Do you have any recommendations for the IHE setup? what I might look at spending? Thanks

 

intakes are pretty much generic. the only difference is short ram or cold air. i like my aem short ram, but i have also used an injen cool air. i like the aem for the way that it looks, since they both perform pretty much the same.

header selection is pretty much limited to either custom or obx. there are other headers, but there is really no reason to spend the extra money. as you saw in the n/a section, tuned length will add more gains and the obx is tuned length.

exhaust selection is based pretty much on pipe size. vibrant is a great exhaust and is pretty cost effective for a cat-back exhaust.

look here www.protegegarage.com