TICO the SE

[Kev05]

Anyone know where the 2.5l came from? Was there a limited number built or the 2.5 from another car?

Rhys, John bought the 2.5 to put it into his NC. There are no limited build variants. It is all aftermarket modifications.

[speed freak]

+1 on John Toomer's NC, it's the only NC I've ever liked the look of.

I dunno Regies's NC looks good.

Anyone know where the 2.5l came from? Was there a limited number built or the 2.5 from another car?

Looks great though, seen it at Lakeside a couple of times.

you can get the 2.5 from the Mazda 6, 3SP25, put the 2l head on it and it fits in

oh thanks for the complement

No worries Its one of my favourite NC's, everything just works, looks great.

I thought that may be the case, engine swap from the SP25 or so. Slight increase in power would be nice but the increase in torque would be beneficial especially at the track.

[sailaholic]

John said power and torque are up but rev range is also down. Consider it as a factory stroker.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Regie]

yep they are gutless after 6000rpm

some nice cams will fix that though

[orx626]

yep they are gutless after 6000rpm

some nice cams will fix that though

...or you just force it in and it's good to 7,000rpm then!

[tomli123001]

Anyone know where the 2.5l came from? Was there a limited number built or the 2.5 from another car?

Rhys, John bought the 2.5 to put it into his NC. There are no limited build variants. It is all aftermarket modifications.

Yeh, true. Always wanted to know one could swap engine with the 2.3L turbo MPS 3 and 6.
You are holding onto you car now, Kev?

[tomli123001]

Some minor updates happened in last week.

SMB down and mid pipes arrived. For those with SE or oem/racing beat mufflers, the SMB fits under the car well, but NOT perfect fit.
The down pipe will not clear the SE metal shielding (that thin silver pices under gear selector), it must be removed and luckily it is only for noise reduction and no structural use.

The end of down pipe does not clear the sports brace goes across the center. The spacers and longer bolts must be used to lower the brace and fit under the pipe.

Finally, factory and my racing beat muffler have a different flange to the end of the mid pipe. When joint, the mid pipe makes the muffler tip off center just slightly. MX5 plus offered to help me modify the tip to add an offset and to center again.

Overall, the sound improved a lot. No droning on highway, but louder outside car, not much inside.

I now installed some gauges also
in order, wide band O2 gauge; Innovate dual function oil temp/pressure gauge; boost gauge.


The factory silver 6 cd changer headunit is now for sale for very little, if anybody here wants one for their early NBs.
The Innovate is not yet plugged in, as I do not want to sense oil temp at the sump. I have ordered a Thomason relocation kit and the sensors will be plug into that area.

I had my brakes updated recently, cos of some good deals I came across. I got the gold DBA pair for just $50 off Brakedirect.com clearance sale and a pair of RDA in the rear for less than $200 from MX5 plus, so I put them on. I have to say, it makes the car look a lot better. Was gonna paint the caliper, but SE is already painted Silver at factory, so I will leave them there.

Front


Rear


At the same time, I had the MX5 plus stainless steel brake lines and Clutch lines installed. I must say the brakes now feel so much firmer (maybe due to the long overdue brake fluid change).

brake line


clutch line. Thought it goes into the clutch plate, but it does not.


Most MX5 clutch lines I could find only replaces the that last short bit of rubber hose, but still retained the factory metal hoses running across the top.
The MX5 PLUS hose however is longer and replaces the whole lot of metal and rubber hoses. Directly down to the clutch from the cylinder. I can now feel the difference in clutch pedal.


Finally, I had the I shift installed. Setting up the rev lights is easy. I set the light comes on at 4k rpm and all flashing at 6k rpm. So that I still have time to shift before I reach my ChipTorqued 7100 rpm redline. I really liked it. I do not have to watch my rev tacho as much and I rarely runs into fuel cut now. Certainly recommended.

Another feature really good is the voltage measuring to track the battery health when starting the car. Without starting the car, the 4 green light means >12V (which is health at about 12.5). With the engine running, it should read with 1 or 2 more lights, meaning >13V or 14V (which is healthy at 13-14.5V)

I found something interesting in my car, it normal reading of the car without starting the engine is >12V, which is normal. When the headlight is turned on, the voltage drops by 1 or 2 volts.

Normal reading, engine NOT running


headlight on, engine NOT running, reduced voltage.


Assumed all these 12V electrical items are connected in parallel to the battery, they voltage should stay the same according to what we learnt at high school. But it is not the case. I did hear from Jason before at MX5 Plus telling me about the electrical problems SE owners experienced with aftermarket standalone ECU is associated with this. At night time, when headlight is turned and the voltage drops, will cause issues to engine running and stall the car even sometimes. I think AC does similar to the car, if the ECU not tuned well. I do not know much in details, but I think this is what I have read else where also. Jason did suggest me Piggy back to SE because of this. I guess it is inline with what Chiptorque stage 2 is doing -- adding on an Excede piggy back to the already chipped SE ECU.

[tomli123001]

wow, that NC has changed a fair bit since I last saw it

no any NC carbon parts being made??

Hi Regie,

No, unfortunately. Marc is still kicking his head for missed an NC buy in China, but bought an NB instead.
Do expect to see a lot NB carbon parts listed in this year though. We will try to get NC across next year.

[kenson]

Ooer nice write up - keep it up!
What make/model are those shift lights?

I also need to do something about gauges. While I've been road tuning, I've had the boost gauge blu-tacked to the dash (held up for at least a year now) and I've got the wideband on a mobile phone holder haha.

[tomli123001]

Thanks kenson. These are shift I units. Google them, their website or eBay listing will come up. They are supposed to be the best ones, as they have lots of features and fine tune. The manual is really good, unlike Chinese or cheap ones.

I know many put the gauge in the air duct， but it too hot in qld and I don't want to lose any more cold air.

As for the wide band, I like it on the dash. Quitevintersting to watch it up and down during driving. I think by retaining the factory ecu, the car still runs well on fuel economy, not overly rich.

I talked with chiptorque about max power with the new turbo. He Saud even with the chip and his excess, I will only have max 190kw at wheels, due to factory ecu limitation. But the drivsbility and electrical issues will be perfect.

The only way to increase up further is to dump the air flow meter and this means no more factory ecu. The electrical and other drivability issues can only be solved as much as possible, but will never match the time effort Mazda puts on the oem ecu.

So that is the truth of ecu and I will have to make decision or compromise. For me, I just want to keep the car street wise and stick with my factory ecu piggy back. I will report on the max power run with chiptorque stage 2 with factory turbo and ecu and unopened engine.

[speed freak]

Looking good

How good are the braided brake lines hey? I couldnt believe the difference it made when I got mine put on.

With the innovate oil temp/press gauge does it come with the 'normal' screw in type sesnors that would go into say a oil filter relocation kit port?

Also where abouts have you routed your wires for the gauges? I cant work out how to get them through the firewall and into the engine bay. Meaning I cant find a rubber grommet that leads to behind the dash somewhere.

[kenson]

I agree with the air con vent. I'm not going to give up my aircon!
I'll do the same as you in the longer term.

Thanks for the info about the shift light. Looked it up, good reviews!

As for ECU, I have the older Adaptronic (e420C) and still need to run the stock ECU for the electrical stuff. So far so good (aircon, radiator fans).
Though I'll give you more feedback once I get the car dyno tuned.

[edit] That is the manifold/turbo combo I also want to head down too. Did you check out the FM manifold? Or going for local? That's a good price for the SMB.

[tomli123001]

Looking good

How good are the braided brake lines hey? I couldnt believe the difference it made when I got mine put on.

With the innovate oil temp/press gauge does it come with the 'normal' screw in type sesnors that would go into say a oil filter relocation kit port?

Also where abouts have you routed your wires for the gauges? I cant work out how to get them through the firewall and into the engine bay. Meaning I cant find a rubber grommet that leads to behind the dash somewhere.

I will take some good photos for you this week.

[tomli123001]

I agree with the air con vent. I'm not going to give up my aircon!
I'll do the same as you in the longer term.

Thanks for the info about the shift light. Looked it up, good reviews!

As for ECU, I have the older Adaptronic (e420C) and still need to run the stock ECU for the electrical stuff. So far so good (aircon, radiator fans).
Though I'll give you more feedback once I get the car dyno tuned.

[edit] That is the manifold/turbo combo I also want to head down too. Did you check out the FM manifold? Or going for local? That's a good price for the SMB.

I think the SMB is good enough and price wise, it is better than FM.
I have decided to actually keep my SE factory like at the moment, as I want to keep it street car. I felt if I built the engine, throw away the oem turbo/manifold/exhaust, it is kinda silly. If I were to modify all these, I should not waste the extra money spent on the SE, but get a basic NB. I would be turbo terrific by now with money already spent on SE purchase and current work.

I will try to convince wife to let me have a cheap NA/NB for next year, so i can properly DYI everything from things learnt so far.

[speed freak]

Looking good

How good are the braided brake lines hey? I couldnt believe the difference it made when I got mine put on.

With the innovate oil temp/press gauge does it come with the 'normal' screw in type sesnors that would go into say a oil filter relocation kit port?

Also where abouts have you routed your wires for the gauges? I cant work out how to get them through the firewall and into the engine bay. Meaning I cant find a rubber grommet that leads to behind the dash somewhere.

I will take some good photos for you this week.

Thanks