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So I have had my SE for a bit over a year now and thought I should start my own garage thread to show some of the things I have done and will do when I get to them. And because you know, there's no such thing as too many SE Garage threads

I have never had a "sports car" as such and was never really on the cards till I drove my sister in laws NB and my wife and I fell in love with it.
Needing a second car, It was only a matter of time (that afternoon I believe ) before I started the hunt for an NB and soon found the turbo SE model and thought hey, I've never had a turbo car before so why not!

After a short hunt around I found the one. Completely standard and in pretty good nick. (Stock other than an oil filter relocation kit)



A barrage of more posts to come to update on what I have already done so far ;)

So first "mod" was the metal throttle intake elbow. After noticing it slowly moving closer and closer to coming off the throttle body I did some research and found it was common for this to blow off under boost so decided rather than just put a better clamp on, I would replace it totally, and being my first modification figured it would be an easy one to start on.

Its the metal elbow from MX5Mania which I believe is the same unit Flyin Miata sell in the US. comes with a turbosmart BOV to replace the stock unit which is also known to be unreliable


Install was very straight forward. The temp sensor is removed from the factory holder and screwed directly into the elbow. The BOV is moved to the left side of the elbow but using the provided hose combined with the leftover elbows etc from where the BOV is normally mounted it was easy to hook up. However I noticed that the new elbow didnt have a barb for the boost signal like the factory unit.
After a little freakout I found a tee piece in the box but had no idea where to plumb it too.
Having little knowledge of turbo systems in general so I consulted the interwebs and the recommendation was to tee it into the hose from the BOV to the manifold

So after a few weeks of having fun and getting use to the car I decided the next thing to be address is the 4WD ride height.
My sister in law had already put yellowspeed coilovers in her NB and after it was raised to a sensible height was rather comfy and didn't upset the handling at all.
The SE having factory Bilsteins on it, I was a bit worried the comfort factor that the wife is use to in this car (especially on some of our crappy local roads) would be lost, but Iv got to say im genuinely impressed. Iv been in lowered cars before that have been so rock hard its ridiculous or bottoming out on every bump and bouncing down the road, but the yellowspeeds were only just a little firmer than the Bilsteins over bumps and other than hard bumps/potholes were as comfy as the Bilsteins and got the wifes approval (phew!)
This is it after the drop. Installed by Mania, ride height is spot on and at the factory stiffness seems just perfect.

Before: (notice the rear seems much higher than the front)


After:

Looking good. I see the reflectors and indicators changed colour along with the ride height

Looking forward to more posts on your car!

Roadrunner wrote:Having little knowledge of turbo systems in general so I consulted the interwebs and the recommendation was to tee it into the hose from the BOV to the manifold

I hope you fixed that and put it between the intercooler and throttle body where it belongs......

BTW, great to see your garage thread at last and remember, you can never have too many pictures!

Oh, and the new suspension looks great!

Do you know how much they lowered the car overall as the stance looks about perfect.
I'm sure Lokiel will be along shortly to have a word to you about those wheels though.......

Is that your sister inlaw's NB in the background?

Nevyn72 wrote:Oh, and the new suspension looks great!

Do you know how much they lowered the car overall as the stance looks about perfect.
I'm sure Lokiel will be along shortly to have a word to you about those wheels though.......

Is that your sister inlaw's NB in the background?

The one thing I forgot to do is measure the height from standard, but I'll measure what it is now tonight for you. I would like it just a tad lower but the roads here can be very unforgiving in the Hunter

The boost signal line has just been updated to the correct position on the elbow, I'll talk about that in a post soon ;)

And I'm expecting Lokiel SE wheels are staying though for now
And yes that's my wife's sisters NB in the background. The car that got me into MX5's

The next mod I was set on upgrading was the factory exhaust, but wanted to install a boost gauge first before doing any go fast mods so I can take note of what's happening and what changes between mods.

I looked around a various brand gauges but was undecided on where to mount the gauge when I came across a post on the mazdaspeed forums in the U.S
This mounted the gauge into the factory oil pressure position and looked very factory. Just what I was after.
As the oil pressure gauge is a dummy one, as in it only shows there is pressure and if you loose pressure it slowly drops to zero which by then your engine is gonners, I will be using an LED light to show if oil pressure is lost as an immediate warning.

The guage needed for this is one by SpeedHut in America. Its an electronic boost gauge so no need to run a hose through the firewall and allows very shallow mounting. It was a bit over $200 shipped from the US.
I believe it was Lokiel who also has done this mod and gave some guidance on the install.

This is the gauge untouched. Silver background with red letters to match the factory colour scheme. Speedhut even on request put the word Mazdaspeed in the correct font on the gauge which also glows of a night. Very impressed with the build quality:


So to install this into your dash, first remove the three screws underneath the steering column and remove the plastic trim around the steering column.
Pull the dash cover over the cluster towards you. It is hard to remove but just keep pulling and it will pop out of its clips in the top middle and then on either side of the steering column.

4 screws are now exposed. Undo these and remove the cluster and unclip the three electrical connectors to the back of the cluster then remove from car.


When your at a clean desk, push the clips off that holds the plastic cover and black surround off the cluster to reveal the gauges


The oil gauge is easy to remove, turn over and three screw hold it in place.




So thats the easy part down, and now the stressful "Point of No Return" begins

The gauge comes apart by unscrewing the chrome ring. remove the clear cover. then unscrew the plastic ring that holds the gauge into the cup.
To remove the gauge completely you need to cut the large plug cables
(sorry for out of focus photo)


With the cup separate you can drop it into the oil filter spot. Its just too tight around the edges and no where near shallow enough.
Thankfully the lugs that the gauge sit on inside the cup are deep enough that you can cut the top edge of the cup down to level with the cluster.
You also have to file down the thread on the outside of the cup so it fits in the cluster. you really have to take it close, like egg shell thin. Quite unnerving!



Also a problem is the back of the connector for the cluster stops the cup sitting low enough. Theres plenty of depth in the cup between the base and the back of the gauge so slowly dremel out the top back section, test fitting regularly.








You also need to cut a hole in the roof of the cluster to feed the three separate sets of cables through.
In the pic below I fed the larger cables under the speedo and the thin lights cables between the turn signal and the cup.
I later redid this and used a piece of plastic to push the cup slightly to the left to centre it.
Little bit more filing required here:


Once it fits neatly, remove it all as you need to now wire in an LED for the oil pressure.

The LED I purchased had a nice chrome mount with a screw down to secure it from behind with decent wires already attached.
I drilled I think a 6mm hole?? in the black cluster cover for the LED to drop into to the left of the tacho. Theres plenty of room in the cluster here for the wires.


One of the three screws that holds the oil gauge in is its connection to the circuit board, another is its connection to ground.
I used a nut, bolt and washer combo into the "oil" hole, and then ran a crimped wire from it to the LED and then utilised an unused ground on the left side of the cluster. The ground is very secure as its a threaded hole. The oil nut/bolt, you want to make sure is solid as if it comes loose you will need to remove the boost gauge to tighten the nut again


The gauge of wire I used was way too thick but it was all I had at the time and it works so its staying in.


I have also since these photos were taken removed the crimp connectors and soldered for a permanent connection.
When the oil LED is wired in and your happy (I plugged the cluster in to check it worked before going further) drop the boost gauge back in and rotate it so its straight. This is very trial and error as the needle auto calibrates when you turn ignition on. Where it stops is 0psi so if the face plate has rotated, you need to spin it to line up 0psi with the needle. If now the gauge is not level you need to try to rotate the whole cup. Rinse and repeat.
The cluster cover will hold the gauge face secure and the cup is squeezed into its spot between the turn indicators. So far nothing has moved.

I put the black plastic cover back on to hold everything in place and then gave the clear cluster cover a very good clean down to remove finger prints etc before clipping it back on too.

Plug in the cluster connectors, and screw the cluster back in, pop the dash cover back on and then the steering column and your done!

And here it is all illuminated.

The boost gauges light was much brighter than the clusters lights. Theres no bulb for the boost gauge, I assume its an illuminesant panel? so I went out the Jaycar to pick up some red LED's for the cluster. They had awesome ones the had multiple LEDs on the top and down the sides in a pentagon shape. Only problem is they were just too tall to fit
Returned those and purchased a set from Autobarn which didnt look as impressive but fit and did a good job of matching up to the boost gauge brightness. With the dash brightness turned down slightly they matched up quite close.

10months on and the gauge hasn't moved and still going strong!

With the boost gauge in now I can see what I thought. The boost wasnt coming on till after 4000rpm
Having gotten use to driving a turbo I wanted more and sooner!!

Not long after I lined up a full Magnaflow exhaust from front to back from MX5Mania.

After being left with them for the day I picked up the car and was very impressed.
Its a 2.5inch mandrel exhaust with a 3inch tip.
It looks like the factory tip but much much larger

The sound is very nice too. Deep burble and crackles on down shift, doesn't drone at all and loud, but not loud enough to be annoying to the neighbours or attract unwanted attention.
Still grinning ear to ear every time I drive it.

The best thing though, and the reason I installed the boost gauge first, is that the boost is clearly coming on and hitting peak boost much much earlier. On the freeway home in 6th gear just a slight touch of the throttle and and its instantly rising and the car moves. Before there wasn't much omph and had to drop back a gear to overtake.
From a standing start its a totally different car. Much quicker!

ManiacLachy wrote:Looking good. I see the reflectors and indicators changed colour along with the ride height

Looking forward to more posts on your car!

Yes good spotting, forgot that
When the suspension was put in I picked up some clear indicators. These look much better than the yellow ones

Great write-up on the boost gauge install mate, do you have a picture of it fitted during daylight hours?

While this is probably the way I'll be going too I think it's a bit of shame they can't do a gauge where the numbers appear black but glow red so as to better match the rest of the factory instruments, they certainly have plenty of other options for these custom units...


Also you're backwards in your description of the wiring for the oil LED.
What you referred to as a ground is actually an ignition power circuit, the ground is on the other side of the oil sensor reached via the 'oil' screw mounting of the original gauge.

Great write up!
And you are correct, you can never have too many SE garage threads.
Great photography btw. The "before" suspension shot is sensational!

Any plan on the ECU yet and tuning yet?
Your car will fly and boost comes in earlier when the tuning is done, along with your exhaust and intake.

Nevyn72 wrote:
Also you're backwards in your description of the wiring for the oil LED.
What you referred to as a ground is actually an ignition power circuit, the ground is on the other side of the oil sensor reached via the 'oil' screw mounting of the original gauge.

Yes you are correct. The LED should be connected to OIL and IGN as per the photo. I used a free IGN screw on the edge of the cluster as it had a factory screw.

Am I able to edit this part of my post to update this info? The edit button is no longer available?