The guys over on mazda3forums.com are recommending a balance shaft delete on the 2.3 in the mazda3. It's a cheap mod to do, less than 30 dollars. But I see a lot of dumb things from them and a lot of "ricey" things going on, so I thought I'd come here and see what the opinions from you guys are (I trust FTE's experience more than any other site).

Basically they claim less rotational mass, quicker revs, and a few more hp (2-5). I'm more concerned about long term with this mod. They claim the only purpose it serves is to dampen vibrations and has to affect on the engine other than that.

thoughts?

 

The BS delete is a good mod if your builing for hp, if you gonna keep your car basically stock, then why bother. You can buy the kit from cosworth or Marcey motorsports. I have a focus st with with the cosworth kit, it does rev faster. The BS weighs about 18 pounds, so that is some drag on the engine. The ranger duratec 2.3 doesn't have the BS. They put it on the focus to give it a solid european feel. With mine off I can't really tell the difference in vibration, maybe just a tad in the steering wheel. If you didn't know thw BS was missing, you would never notice the difference in vibration. If you go with solid motor mounts, "then" you'll notice the difference, "YIKES" !!!!!!!. I'm pleased with the mod, but I'm going for hp, I don't know if I'm going with the focus sport turbo kit, or go all motor with cosworth. As of right now I just have the AEM cai and borla catback and just those 2 mods made a big difference, she fly's !!! I'm not doing the solid motor mounts, after driving a focus with them, your hands get numb holding the wheel, I'm not willing to sacrifice that much comfort for a hair faster launch. I just noticed that you have about the same mods that I do, yeah, I would do the BS delete next, then a header, cams and a tune. Headers are tricky because of the cat and the emission's police, but well worth the hp increase.

 

How's the borla system sound? I love the sound of my magnaflow - deep and mean sounding, I'm glad it didn't end up sounding toooo ricey(one of these days i'm going to have to admit that's what i'm turning into).

I plan on getting a stiffer motor mount because the wheel hop on the Mazda 3 is horrible, but not solid. I've also read that a throttle body ground does some good (it is a mazdaspeed option, so it must do something..) for responsiveness. I'm kind of afraid to do the header because of the flex pipe and all of the emissions stuff on there.

Eventually I'd like to do a turbo kit, but with the car still under warranty and it serving as my daily transportation/biggest part of my job, I don't know if I want to sacrifice longevity and gas mileage. I'm also serisouly considering a valve body upgrade to let my manumatic launch like a manual in first - its a neat setup, you just press the manumatic stick forward in first gear like you'd be going go gear"0" and it acts a trans brake. and of course to cut down on heat/slippage with any other modifications.

These little engines have awesome potential, it's very surprising.

edit: have you lowered the focus yet? I bet it would look awesome with a 2 inch drop

 

Borla has a deep rumble as well, I love it, very aggresive sound at wot. I got to get a header, you would not believe the power that a header unleashes on these motors. without a header your about forced to run a turbo, the stock exhaust manny is a bottle neck if you go all motor. Then again, the turbo kit does away with the e-manifild also, so I'm screwed either way. I guess one could allways keep the stock e-manifold and put it back on every couple of years to go get checked, but what a pain. I don't know why ford put a cat in the exhaust manifold, that makes it rough. There supost to do away with emissions testing here by 08, I hope so. Mine is a manual tranny and I spin like crazy, I need a quafie or torson lsd and a good center force dual friction clutch. I'm a little leary about the aluminum flywheel because of the chatter that it makes, jurry is still out on that one. I pretty much have the svt suspension, it handles like it's on a rail, but it does need lowered a hair, I'm waiting for eibach to make a pro kit for the 06 st, I'm also going to 17" wheels with BFG- g force tires, not sure about the rims, sorta like the 03 svt rims, or mustang cobra R rims. These motors will haul, cosworth as build kits to do the motor in stages, if you do all 3 stages, it's good for over 250 hp all motor, no forced induction. Check them out at www.cosworth.com. Go test drive a duratec ranger with the auto, and thats how your car will feel with the BS delete, not bad at all, I can't really tell the difference untill I mash the gas and the needle tries to jump off the tach ha ha.

 

I guess I'll do the BSD at the next oil change. I don't know about the focus, but the Mazda ecu can't be tinkered with, you have to buy a standalone unit to do tuning, so it gets really expensive. That's a lot of hp for a NA motor.. do you know of any dyno graphs for one? It seems like it would be really peaky, I enjoy the lowend this motor makes.

Right now I'm on the stock goodyear rs-a's on 17's.. they aren't BAD tires, really.. but they wear rather quickly and are no where near worth the 200 dollars they go for a piece. I'm thinking I'm going to go with Bridgestone Potenza RE750 for my next round of tires.

You should get some pictures of that thing in your gallery, sounds like a sweet ride. I need to get updated pictures of mine too.

 

I don't even no how to post pitures, I'm a computer idiot, I'm going to get someone to show me how one of these days and start a gallery. On the focus you can use a sct tunner, thats the most popular. The cosworth kits come with a reflash, "well", they don't come with it, they provide you with packaging to send them your computer to have it reflashed, it's included with the price of the upgrade package. I don't know if it would work for mazda or not. I don't have any dyno graph's, but ask on www.focaljet.com or focus fanatics .com and I'm sure some of the guy's could provide you with one.