First we had to jack the car up to remove the PPF.
The PPF bolts to the rear differential with these 4 studs.
The front of the PPF connects to the transmission with 4 more studs. There is an aluminum crossmember just under the transmission that ties the center of the chassis together for increased rigidity.
After dropping the exhaust, we were ready to remove the PPF.
We removed the 4 nuts from the front and rear of the PPF and it dropped out of the way.
5 comments
Love it. Wild that there are so many new developments on 90s cars.
Good writeup guys! Is the FD PPF really that heavy? I only have experience with the NA/NB Miata PPF which is a very light aluminum piece. Maybe only 5-10lbs. Is the FD one steel instead?
It’s steel and weighs 20lbs. The new aluminum braces are much lighter.
I’m completely unfamiliar with Mazda’s ppf, so apologies if this is a dumb question. The ppf looks like it provides a bit of longitudinal stiffness that isn’t replaced with the new parts. Is there a risk of increasing the stress at some of the subframe connection points as a result?
Love the project regardless – thanks.
No worries at all, thanks for the feedback. The purpose of the PPF is to turn the entire drivetrain from the engine to the differential into one solid unit. So the entire drivetrain hangs off of the two engine mounts and the two differential mounts. The new setup changes this to a more traditional layout where the transmission is supported by a (new) bushing and the front of the differential is supported by a (new) bushing. Each additional bushing triangulates the engine/trans and the diff to provide longitudinal support and stiffness.