Juffa's turbo install - trials and tribulations

Bevan · Postby **Bevan** » Thu Jun 29, 2006 12:21 am

sabretooth wrote:"Oh, the speedo cable must have just fallen off!"

So how do you make it fall off? :mrgreen:

Juffa · Postby **Juffa** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 11:14 pm

As promised here is a pic of the dodgy intercooler pipes and clamps.

As you can see there is at least three different types of connecting hose. I have started ordering silicone hoses, in matching blue.

I am looking to relocate the blow off valve from its current position at the front of the engine, it can be seen under the upper radiator hose in the pic below.

J

Sean · Postby **Sean** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 11:33 pm

Lookin good mate

sabretooth · Postby **sabretooth** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 11:37 pm

Hey, that's my shock tower brace!

As Sean said - looking good!

Juffa · Postby **Juffa** » Sat Jul 22, 2006 8:55 pm

Well you have seen earlier pictures of the engine bay, with the dodgy hoses. Yesterday some new silicone hoses arrived in the post. I also had bought some new constant torque hose clamps earlier in the week. I spent a few hours today replacing most of the old hoses and clamps. Photos below.

I also had a local exhaust place (Long Beach exhausts in Chelsea Heights) fit a new bung hole for the o2 sensor as the old position was too close to the turbo and I was getting erratic AFR readings, which doesn't help when trying to auto tune the FM ECU. The new position is just before the cat.

J

jules · Postby **jules** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 2:21 pm

Looking good Dopey, what are your plans for the intake?

Jules

Juffa · Postby **Juffa** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 11:06 pm

jules wrote:Looking good Dopey, what are your plans for the intake?

Jules

Hey Jules, the intake will be staying as is (see previous photos) for the time being. With the current cool weather the temp at the throttle body is pretty good. I have seen as low as 4c on a crispy morning, and up to 24c later in the day while taking her a for reasonable drive on the freeway. I need to put some fibreglass wrapping around some engine bay components, and shielding around intake manifold.

J

jules · Postby **jules** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 10:36 am

You haven't had it dyno tuned yet have you? I wonder if you could expect Glen's levels of power. Now that would be impressive.

Jules

Juffa · Postby **Juffa** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 12:33 pm

jules wrote:You haven't had it dyno tuned yet have you? I wonder if you could expect Glen's levels of power. Now that would be impressive.

Jules

Hi Jules, no she has not been on the dyno since the turbo was fitted. While it will be interesting to see what she is putting out once tuned, I'm not looking for out and out power (if you believe that I have a bridge to sell you

).
The previous owner of the turbo provided me with a dyno sheet showing that the his MX-5 achieved around 122kw at the wheels after being tuned by a mob in Sydney. The only real difference, as I understand it, from the previous setup and mine is that I'm running the latest chip/software from FM while the previous owner had been using the original Link software. Not sure if that will make any difference on the dyno though.
I am also running more boost than Glen, but smaller injectors (330cc) which will most certainly influence the final output.

J

Juffa · Postby **Juffa** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 9:08 pm

Well, not much has been happened over the past couple of months due to a little trip to the US of A for John Hewitt's Backroads to Bavaria. Now I'm back and finding Tweety a little frustrating to drive. This is due in the main to the ECU needing some fine tuning to make it a bit more driveable in stop-start traffic. I will probably have AVO put her on the dyno early next year. I also need to get a wheel alignment...need to pay off the credit card first though :roll:

J

sabretooth · Postby **sabretooth** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 9:31 pm

What's happening in stop-start? Is the idle a bit low?

Juffa · Postby **Juffa** » Sun Nov 05, 2006 2:36 pm

sabretooth wrote:What's happening in stop-start? Is the idle a bit low?

No, the problem was that with the clutch in and the car in gear the engine revs would jump to about 1500, at which point the ECU would cut the injectors out. So she would sit there with the revs bouncing around.

I finally got a chance to sort it out today. I assumed that it was a parm on the ECU that I had either missed or screwed up. Turns out it was neither. I suspected that the clutch switch was not working. I got under the dash today and pulled the switch out. I then attached a diagnostic tool, which showed no signal continuity. I pulled the simple switch apart and found a small spring inside was broken. Off to Autobarn, Supercheap and Jaycar electronics. Auobarn and Supercheap had some small replacement springs, but none were the right size. I eventually bought a cheap switch ($2.70) from Jaycar. I pulled this apart and relocated it's spring into the Mazda switch. Works like it was meant to now.....no more bouncing revs. A couple of hours and a cheap switch......beats paying full price.

J