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Originally Posted by Mad_Aussie
I'd be looking at a complete system. Just worried about the quality of welds and things - I had a set of china headers on one of my r31's, and it cracked on a skidpan day from the heat.
I plan to do some breathing mods to it too, I want to import one of those cossie intake plenumns, and a 60mm throt body, and possibly crower stage1 cams down the track, and am thinking by that stage I would have wanted to get the 2.5 system instead of a 2.25. However all plans for power mods may be sidelined if it means I have to get a motec just to drive the cams.
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I did a lot of research on the xforce system before buying it, and I didn't come across any issues. There was lots of info on it in the various Mazda 3 problems, and there was no mention of cracking, poor welds etc. From memory, the full system retails at ~$1500, inc fitting. There are no issues with fouling as far as I know. The problem you will come across (and the Mazda 3 guys experienced this too), is that the exhaust gas flow now becomes too efficient with this system, triggering off a check engine light (CEL) - the rear o2 sensor thinks that the cat is operating below efficiency. There is 2 ways of fixing this - #1 get a custom tune, that disables the rear 02 sensor, or #2, see my post HERE (scroll down to post #8) - the o2 spark plug non-fouler trick (cheap fix but it sure works!).
Speaking of custom tunes, you don't need a motec to run the cams. The stock
ECU is tuneable via the SCT X3 tuner, check Bullet Performance Racing's website for details. You can plug this into the OBD2 port, which is down near your right knee. Cost of a custom tune costs $1300-$1500 at most places, but this includes the hand-held device, which can store several tunes at once.
The cosworth intake plenums are excellent, and ignore the false rumours out there that they cause a loss of bottom end torque. With a good tune, the plenums will allow for good power + a nice, consistent torque curve. One of these have been on my to-do list for ages, but I'd only look at combining this with cams at the same time.
Have you considered the cosworth cams instead of the crower cams? The cossie cams are designed to work with the cossie intake plenum. The Ford Fiesta ST150 guys in the UK (aka XR4) have the same engine as our Focus and get 200bhp at the engine from the cossie plenum + cossie base level cams, when combined with the K&N intake, exhaust and custom tune.
Piper cams also get a good wrap, they are used by Mountune in their Ford upgrades, although they're a little more expensive. Speaking of which, Mountune also have a new type of intake plenum coming out for their ST150 stage 3 upgrade, which should also be compatible with our cars.
By the way, to get all of your parts, check Burton UK. They have better pricing and good customer service.
I hope some of this helps!