mx5cartalk.com

Hi all,

So after a long term of my wife and I living off the one wage and not really spending a great deal of cash on myself I finally got the chance to get stuck in to a turbo conversion for the MX. . . on the cheap, detailed expenses listed at the bottom for those interested. The car runs soooo good and I can't rave about the improvement enough! I started by sourcing all of the parts with the plan to do the conversion over a couple of weeks holiday. I have a little workshop at home, extensive tool kit, jack etc. I bought a cheap gasless mig, cut off saw and vice for the project.

I did a decent wack of research - over the forums and general Googling. Shout out to Dann and his DIY turbo article for inspiring me to jump in and DIY and for supplying me my exhaust head plate and steam pipe. viewtopic.php?f=81&t=58863&hilit=DIY&start=30 and hence the main reason for me to do this write up is to help others. This whole project has been a pleasure and it wouldn't have been if I didn't have so much online information to guide me. So please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions I'm sure I've missed out plenty !

So here is my MX and my wifes BRZ


I started by buying this little china turbo off a forum member


I then jumped in a hastily purchased a T28 discharge flange which didn't fit the china 'T28' (later on I actually googled "china T28 flange plate" and found a supplier). This led me to running a 2" dump pipe from the standard turbo outlet instead of a 2 1/2" setup I was hoping for. On a side note if anyone is chasing this plate let me know - I still have it

Meanwhile I had a DIYPNP MS2 on order from the US.

Next step was to get my manifold and dump pipe bits, thanks again Dann who supplied me with a plate and steam pipe to complete the job. Before jumping into this endeavor I didn't have many metal working tools and thus purchased a metal cutting circular saw and gasless mig welder to do the job. Just the el-cheapo bunnings brand stuff - did the job for me!


A couple of test fits with tacking the turbo flange in place and making sure my dump piper had enough room and it was time to weld her up.

Before die-grinding

After:

Note that I did clean up the flange plate and get rid off all the splatters off the inside of the pipe before I bolted it all together! Don't want any of those suckers causing any damage to my wee turbo ;) Shame I also didn't get an 'after' picture of the cleaned up exhaust ports which came up equally as nice.

Most of my exhaust pipe came from old projects or pipe I had lying around with the total dump pipe owing me the cost of one tight 90 degree steam pipe bend. I'm not going to lie I buggered around with the flange that bolts to the cat for ages to get the right angle Only have a painted and wrapped picture of the dump pipe but in actual fact everything was tacked together and test fitted before I did the welds.



Meanwhile I was assembling my DIYPNP MS2 in the evening. I have to admit it did take me a little while to wrap my head around the instructions etc. and even to find out the best resources for the build. But once I got started it was a great experience, I would recommend the DIY option for anyone who doesn't mind just tinkering away at it. I think it took me about 8 hours in total to assemble. Maybe a little more by the time a made a couple of mistakes.








So now that the exhaust side of things was sorted I moved on to everything else working my way from the back of the motor to the front. First thing was to get the coolant re-route sorted. I got the re-route kit off a forum member and the kit did require a bit of refinement. So with a bit of drilling, sealing, cutting, welding and some different hoses she was all good! Now the back of the motor is starting to get cramped so a lot of time was invested setting everything up so I would get minimal rubbing. Including my oil feed line which uses the oil gallery bung at the back of the motor.




So now that the back of the motor was sorted, I moved on to the rest of the turbo lines; coolant feed and return and oil return. I used Dann's guide to drilling and tapping the sump which wasn't without challenge. I struggled for a while to get my tap started on the funky angle/limited space but had a win in the end. I feel it is also important to mention that I spent about an hour at pirtek getting exactly the right fittings for the turbo so I wouldn't struggle later on. For me it ended up that I went with three banjo fittings for the coolant lines and oil feed and a 45 degree oil return. I took extra care in making sure there wouldn't be any tight bends etc. This is where I ran my coolant lines to and unfortunately I didn't get a picture of the return to sump but that one just runs straight down from the turbo.

Note the high temp high pressure hose which I think is a good option for around the turbo.

So now I have all of my lines to the turbo sorted, coolant reroute sorted to the back of the motor, it's time to sort out the intake. I am not running an intercooler at the moment, this may be something I do after I kill the motor and take it all up a level. Due to my hot side coolant re-route taking the route of my prefered plumbing method, I have to take the turbo outlet towards the left headlight then back in front of the motor. I have also plumbed in my idle air control valve inlet.


Last few things is to get some sort of air filter intake happening, I am still yet to get a proper airbox happening so I have done up a temporary pipe and am awaiting requirements from my. . . engineer. Wired in my o2 sensor, IAT sensor and installed ECU. Note I did get a DIY o2 sensor controller from JayCar but ended up being gifted a AEM controller and hence haven't put together the JayCar one. (I still really want to do this but it will take some decent assembly time if anyone is interested http://www.jaycar.com.au/wideband-fuel- ... e/p/KC5486)


So all this was a couple of months ago now. I did the whole thing in my two week time frame only spending the week days on it. Tuning with the megasquirt was a pleasure, I can't believe how easy it was to get the car running well. I have given it a full service after doing about 5,000ks, I have had to tighten some hose clamps along the way in particular the high pressure high temp coolant hose, because of the thick outer wall these do need some decent tension on them. I have also replaced the intake manifold gasket and injector seals/filters.

Some lessons learnt and things I might do differently next time:
Wouldn't do a hot side coolant re-route - makes everything very tight at the back of the motor and limited my front turbo pipe.
I didn't factor in the o2 controller in my research, just something to be aware of as this is a large expense.
Blackwoods have heaps of great hose fittings, pipe etc. Good place to check out.
Find a good exhaust shop to get your mandrel bends from - have been ripped off before, ended up going to Scott's Rods in Ipswich.

So what did it cost? I spent $2074 on all of my parts, including miscellaneous items such as hose clamps, bolts, fluids, sealants etc. I also spent an additional $572 on additional tools for the job, which I can tell you I have used since doing this. See below some more detail if you wish ;)

-19.94 Air Filter
-4.57 Waterpump O'ring
-35.75 Fluids
-22 180 bend
-102.84 Silicon hoses, bends and hose clamps (expensive!)
-28.81 Silicon hose and ally adapter
-88.95 DIY Wideband controller - JayCar
-33 Exhaust bend and flange
-11.2 Nuts and bolts
-25.65 Hose fittings and tap for sump
-15.49 Coolant hose
-28 Steam pipe and welding wire
-235.16 Turbo lines and fittings
-64.98 Silicon hoses and bends
-80 Exhaust pipe and flange
-128.11 O2 Sensor
-20.99 Misc, sealants etc.
-35.45 Serial cable, solder, wire
-29.95 Soldering iron
-170 Manifold parts
-678.38 DIYPNP MS
-40 Airtemp sensor and cast manifold (welding cast was a bust ;))
-175 Turbo

-290 Welder
-179 Cut off saw and vice
-103 Die Grinder and burr

Cheers, Jase.

Tools are not part of the cost for job.

You'll have them for a long time and will most likely use them on other projects

Nicely done.

I'd love a garage though.

Imagine the bling if you cromed the water re-route pipe

You fabricated all the piping yourself....how hard would it be to get the CAI to fit the old hole?

Very impressive.

StanTheMan wrote:Tools are not part of the cost for job.

You'll have them for a long time and will most likely use them on other projects

Nicely done.

I'd love a garage though.

Thanks! No garage :O, my wife and I are looking at property at the moment and one of the prerequisites is a big shed or room for one! Yeah I agree about the tools but some do argue you can't do it on the cheap because of tools - just threw it in there to encourage people not to discount the idea if you don't have the tools

StanTheMan wrote:Imagine the bling if you cromed the water re-route pipe

You fabricated all the piping yourself....how hard would it be to get the CAI to fit the old hole?

Yeah that would be a lot I am certainly not a blind kinda guy though the more stealth the better IMO. As for the CAI, you're right I could route it back to the hole I already made, only problem is my AC pipe will get in the way and will need a decent amount of persuasion to get around. At this stage I have held off doing too much with it until I hear back about the requirements.

smy0003 wrote:Very impressive.

Thanks mate

Love your work

greenb0x wrote:

StanTheMan wrote:Tools are not part of the cost for job.

You'll have them for a long time and will most likely use them on other projects

Nicely done.

I'd love a garage though.

Thanks! No garage :O, my wife and I are looking at property at the moment and one of the prerequisites is a big shed or room for one! Yeah I agree about the tools but some do argue you can't do it on the cheap because of tools - just threw it in there to encourage people not to discount the idea if you don't have the tools

The type of people capable of doing what you have, in most cases would have the tools. The type of people who can't do this job probably use the excuse to include the tools so they don't attempt this as it gets too expensive for them.
Overlord Nitro Dann did something like this a little while back. He is capable of it and perhaps the undisputed king of turbo but he also has the tools to do it.
Honestly I don't have the courage to attempt this I tip my hat in your direction.

Nice work.
I'm also impressed with the results of the manifold given the price of your welder! Goes to show what can be done.

I like the matching white cars. I tried to convince my better half to buy a BRZ, but she ended up with an ND instead.

congratulations on your work.(and shame on me I had that turbo on the shelf over a year for my na6,and never got around to it.now I have another turbo sitting on the shelf for my NB,don't ask how long! got wideband and MSPNP installed and very little else)
Mick

Well done Jase.

StanTheMan wrote:The type of people capable of doing what you have, in most cases would have the tools. The type of people who can't do this job probably use the excuse to include the tools so they don't attempt this as it gets too expensive for them.
Overlord Nitro Dann did something like this a little while back. He is capable of it and perhaps the undisputed king of turbo but he also has the tools to do it.
Honestly I don't have the courage to attempt this I tip my hat in your direction.

I agree, something you wouldn't really consider if you hadn't tinkered around before. Nitro Dann's build thread gave me the inspiration to get stuck in and showed me some great tips for getting it done! His build turned out a bit more schmicko than my one though ;)

beavis wrote:Nice work.
I'm also impressed with the results of the manifold given the price of your welder! Goes to show what can be done.

I like the matching white cars. I tried to convince my better half to buy a BRZ, but she ended up with an ND instead.

Thanks mate, I was pretty impressed with the welder too! I actually made some car ramp extenders so I could drive the MX on to them before I did the manifold to get a feel for it. The ramps didn't last the test of time I might add - didn't use thick enough steel for the job.

Yeah the matching cars is cool, my wife loves her BRZ. I have been really impressed, she gets out every weekend and washes it and keeps a coat of polish on it. When I drive it I have to blow the moth balls out of it ND is certainly a good alternative!

noobee wrote:congratulations on your work.(and shame on me I had that turbo on the shelf over a year for my na6,and never got around to it.now I have another turbo sitting on the shelf for my NB,don't ask how long! got wideband and MSPNP installed and very little else)
Mick

Mate you're half way there! What turbo this time? Nitro Dann does some prefabricated manifold/dump pipe options that could provide a semi DIY option (and many other manufacturers). Also what wideband option did you go for?

Galeforce wrote:Well done Jase.

Thank you mate

Nicely done!

I gave my mig to a mate but looking to get a bunnings tig and teach myself.

Can't wait to see what you do next

Sent from my GT-I9506 using Tapatalk

Wow! Kudos to you!

I remember discussing the $2000 turbo build with Dann a few years ago when he was still operating out of his garage, and whether or not he should do it...well, there you go, the circle of life.