Patterson,
Thanks for looking the thread over. I did do mods, but they were things like Oil Pressure guage, Transmission Temp Guage and Water Temp guage. I had bungs welded in the various locations and installed the sensors.

I was ambitious and located a Mazda header and come cat-backs but that is when I learned how much trouble it was going to be with the O2 sensors. It would seriously mess with Air/Fuel and timming.

I was able to communicate with Steve Hanes and those headers were indeed the Mazda headers (Duratec Engine) but he never finished it. It would require alot of custom bending and welding to create a new exhaust.

I opted to cut down on the heat with cloth "muffler wrap". This did cut down on under hood temps. Wrapping the header, pipes and cat. The "paint" on the wrap lasted for almost a year before re-coating. You could also opt to have the ehaust cerimic coated, cutting down on the heat.

Mods that take time and gain very little performance are porting. While the heads are off you can smooth out the hard edges and the casting with a dremel or equivilant tool. This can give you a little more HP but not much.

These engines are already pushed to a very high standard stock. If you bore there ar some blicks that are sleeved and you run into the possibility of runing the engine. There are only 3 sizes of rings which means you would have to buy new pistons it you are able to open the bore. If you open the bore you would need to get larger injectors etc... the list goes on.

Nope, I need a reliable, drivable vehicle. Not a hot rod, that would be the weekend car.

 

jfenley, I hear you on the O2 sensors. I'm guessing with those headers, the O2 sensors would read and send differently than stock and throw off the ECM. You might not be able to pass state Emissions Testing, etc. However! I imagine Steve Hannes has figured it all out and made it work, Lol. I dig his JAG Motor Project blog. It's cool that you talked to him. He never wrote back to me. Are you saying that he never finished that Project #15 - "Oil Filtering"? That's a good project, one I want to do.

Hey, the best of luck and success with this project to you and 310JAG. This is one of the best threads on JF because we get to see the raw JAG, absolutely torn asunder! and put back together again. I'm more of a "parts installer". 310 started the thread, it rocks, and you both really hooked the rest us up with many many pics and good long clear write ups. All of us are going to need this info someday. Unless they don't want to be cool no more and sell their JAG.

 

It is an Electrical Nightmare!