SPRX3's TURBO NB8A build (lots of pics)

[sprx3]

although ive had this car for quite a while now up until now i'd never thought of putting it in the garage section.

I got this car around April 07 after selling my series 3 rx7 that the wife (GF back then) hated. The rx7 was way too quick, way too loud & way too smelly for her liking so one day i asked her if i was to sell it what should i get.......

the answer was a convertable. The deal was i get to do what i like with the new car as long as it was still a fun car. Deal was done & the rx7 went up for sale.

With the amount of work that was done to it & how clean a car it was, it was quickly snapped up & i went out looking for for an mx5. Id always wanted an mx5 but could not afford one in my younger days, so had to wait, like they say good things come.......

I found this on carsales & after having a good look at it took it home. It was a high km car that had a lot of extra's on it. Im sure the high km's bothered a lot of people but with what i had in mind with it that didnt faze me one bit.







The goodies on it where
HOTBITS coil overs all round (this is a melbourne based co. that has rebuild prices at $80 a corner & replacement parts at hand)
RAYS G-GAMES 17" rims
REMUS exhaust (rear section)
WHITELINE strut brace
Slotted front discs
Tan Leather interior
& a few other little things

After i got it, i pulled out the standard stereo system & replaced it with an alpine cd player i had from a previous car, i also installed a cd stacker in the boot, an alpine v12 amp behind the pas side seat & mb qaurtz 3 way splits which consist of 8" woofers in the doors, 4" mids that i put in the windblocker, Tweeters that replaced the factory ones & 2 huge cross overs behind the drivers seat. This set up sounds amaizing in such a small cabin & theres no need for subs or any other fill.

The car was also sitting on the bumpstops when i bought it so i wound up the coil overs but was unhappy with the spring rates in the rear, i contacted hot bits & got them to rebuild my rear shocks (at $80 per corner) & bought new springs for the rear, the springs where also $80 per corner. GREAT PRICE & GREAT SERVICE.

next up came a decent alarm & central locking with auto window wind function. one of the best things ever.


I drove the car around like this for a while & went to things like the mx5 club GOR cruise & things like that. the inlaws have a house in Anglesea so we are regulars around the area.













also did a few fun days at winton, these were great & i couldnt beleive how good the car was compaired to the rx7 which now felt like a bus around corners & was always a hand full as soon as you put your foot down in any gear.

One of the highlights was playing with a wrx & a production series ea falcon around the track & outcornering both cars only to have them pass me on the straight.

more to come......

[Ando]

I can sense the lerve...

Great story about switching from the RX-7. Says a lot about big power vs balance and poise...

Great pics. Enjoy!

[sprx3]

around Oct 07 while driving to my kitchen makers place to check the progress of my newly ordered cabinets i ran over a bolt, at first i didnt think much of it & thought i got a flat, its when i took the wheel off on the side of the road i noticed this monster..







so after my great fortune i threw the damaged wheel & tyre into the boot..... more problems a full size tyre wont fit in the boot of an mx5 with a cd stacker in it..... so onto the front seat the wheel went just to remind me of my problems all the way home.

Not only was i pissed about the problems that i'd just had but i also had more coming, you see the mx5 was going to be in my wedding in less then 6 weeks..... now you would think ah just a wheel, walk into any tyre shop & order another one.... not so, yes i could get them but there were none is oz & i was told it could take up to 2 months to get it in unless i payed insane prices on getting one on a plane & even still they still had to make it.......

i found the australian distributer in melbourne & they were able to help me out & get the new wheel just in time for the wedding.....

oh & yes the stacker did come out of the boot.

The big day came on the 3rd of November & the car was back to its former glory....





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even though the car looked & felt great i was starting to miss the power of the rx7, 250rwkw's a best time of 11.5 down the 1/4 @ 125mph in laymans terms ment it was a blood quick street car.
So a few days before the wedding i went to see Lee at avo & put my money down for their stage 1 kit, this way when i got back from the honeymoon the kit would be waiting, i ordered the kit to come powercoated in black that way i had the stealth look under the bonnet. I also bought an Greddy emanage ultimate & put it in just before the wedding. Infact during the wedding we had to keep the aircon on all day to keep the radiator fans on.... yup it still needed fine tuning but it did run & worked well on the day.

[Szemen]

nice wheels, nice exhaust!

How does the Remus sound compared to stock?

[BadBong]

Glad to read another Goldie's story posted up ;)

I have yet to see another Goldie in real life though...

[sprx3]

nice wheels, nice exhaust!

How does the Remus sound compared to stock?

Thanks Szemen, the remus on a standard exhaust is "almost" pointless, it had a nicer note but not to the point of the money you need to spend on getting one, in saying that as soon as you open the rest up it really shows where the extra money goes, you can get a real nice note out of it without it being loud & gets the gasses out fast. all in all im not sure i would spend the money on one BUT as ive been lucky enough to have bought 2 cars with a remus on them am really happy with how they work.

Glad to read another Goldie's story posted up ;)

I have yet to see another Goldie in real life though...

Thanks BadBong, yeh i love gold, although if i had to paint it another colour i'd go white, i think white on an NB is sexy, dont know why, maybe just because there are so little out there, but the same can be said about evo gold/ evo orange depending on where you live in the world & if your male or female....... the reason i say that is my wife will sit there telling me its orange until she is blue in the face & to me its gold........ go figure

Im Melbourne we have a few goldies, Rod's would have to be one of the cleanest & most original examples..... so if you come to Melbourne you may just see a few if your at the right place

[sprx3]

Man its funny how time passes so quickly, time for an update....

After the wedding i had a week off work mostly so i could fit the newly arrived avo turbo kit. The install was easy the 2nd time around why?? because the kit failed to come with decent instructions & after putting on most of the kit I found lots of little problems that i could not get right without lots of little mods, so i went on search for some kind of install instructions & came across some on one of the international avo sites, then all my questions where answered, little silly things like cutting 10mm off the exhaust manifold studs & how to put the cooler pipes on without breaking the aircon pipe (oops too late) so by the end of the week the car was running & it now had the addition of a turbo to give it that extra bit of kick. Also during the install i put in s5 rx7 550cc injectors to cope with the new added power & got a 2.5" exhaust made up by a mate who is a guru with exhausts, this made more power straight away & was still silent which was very important to me.

I drove it around on a feature called auto tune on the emanage & although it ran well it was always pig rich & never went HARD, it was quick but sp or se quick not ultra quick.... anyway i drove it around like that for ages mostly because i didnt have time to put it on a dyno due to work & other commitments. Then one day i decided to take my wife on a weekend away, not too far but far enough that my car decided that she would break & cause me enough problems that it would need to be towed home..... great we thought first time we can get away & its all about the car again....... not to worry i thought, call our parents they will save us, so out came the inlaws with a trailer on the back of the 4x4 followed by my mum in her trusty echo, 4 hours after the break down we were back on holidays laughing about how good our parents are to us..... we had the echo & i knew reggy (my mx5) was in safe hands


So a couple of days latter we arrived home & first on the agenda was to work out why reggy broke down, for days some very knowledgeable mates & i scratched our heads trying to work out why she wouldn’t start, reggy had no ignition so we looked at coils, leads, plugs, hall sensor with no avail, then we thought may be she has jumped a tooth in the timing so off came the covers belts & & other bits & pieces needed to fully inspect the timing belt & thats where we found our problem, the timing belt was fine infact it had only been replaced a week or so before i bought the car, so what was the problem?? The harmonic balancer bolt had not been tightened correctly & had come loose making a mess of the balancer & crank, you may think hold on you have an nb this only happens on short nose na’s, not so infact when the bolt comes loose on an nb you wont get spark because the nb’s run a hall sensor not a crank angle sensor so when the balancer comes loose the trigger plate moves around & you loose ignition...

So then i had to work out what to do about the damage & how to correct it, i knew if i put it back together she would never be right & one day happen again but putting a new crank in it would be a huge job that i just didn’t want to do at the time so back together it went with lots of thread lock & she was back up & running.

Some more time passed & I decided it was time to finally put it on a dyno so I booked it in with a mate & we made 150rwkw on 12psi, she felt great & pulled like a cheap hooker on double time. Reggy was starting to feel like a real car, well until the clutch decided it was just too much trouble to hold that kind of power, so down went the boost again to try & save the clutch. By this time i got a b2600 dual cab ute & drove that around most of the time until i could be bothered with reggy again. Every time i drove reggy she felt worse & worse so i decided to have another look at the balancer again & just as i suspected the glue & bandaid fix had stopped working, i looked at 2nd hand engines & decided that it would be best to keep my motor & freshen it up, all i needed was a new crank & balancer & she would be back to normal again, but it was a tired motor so why not put some more goodies in it & chase more power..................

The Build had begun

More to come

[sprx3]

The reason i decided to build the motor instead of replacing it sounded simple, hi-po parts in the states where as cheap as standard parts in oz so i worked out what i needed & started ordering, before i did this the motor came out & was pulled apart to make sure that it was still a virgin block & no other damage was done other then the crank. All looked good & measured up fine. I ordered 9.5:1 supertech pistons & belfab h beam conrods from Belfab racing in the states, this also included rings, total cost around $1k, i couldnt get h beam rods for that price in oz. Although this didnt come without problems as they had sent me 11:1 pistons which would have blown up my motor as soon as i got onto boost. I emailed them & told them the problem & after a lot of issues got the correct parts sent to me. If i had another chance i would use them again BUT would make sure they triple checked everything twice i think thats 6 times all up i had heard lots of issues regarding their service & its all true BUT they are the cheapest by far in terms of hi po parts, catch 22 i guess.

here are some pics of the parts.





wrong pistons notice the large dome on the pistons





I also bought eibach valve springs from CI motorsports in the U.S also & even though their website asked for a stupid shipping price an email quickly fixed that, great bunch of guys & would not hesitate to deal with them again.



Eibach EVS Pro valve springs feature:
* Race-proven motorsport quality
* Maximum lift for maximum performance and durability
* Increased seat pressure for optimum performance
* Higher natural frequency for high-rpm capability
* Dual chamfering for less wear on seats and retainers
* In-house SpinTron and Bosch dynamic testing
* Automated production for consistent quality
* Easy installation with stock retainers--no machining required

Single Wound Valve Spring Specs:
- Type: Single Spring
- O.D.: 25.7mm
- I.D.: 18.1mm
- Seat Pressure: 66 lbs @ 39mm
- Open Pressure: 200 lbs @ 27mm
- Max Lift: 12.00mm
- Coil Bind: 24.2mm

[sprx3]

the correct pistons more then a month after receiving the incorrect ones

see how there is very little dome on the top of the piston









I also bought ARP mains studs & head studs through VPW in Melbourne, if only they held more mx5 parts that would be unreal, these where the only parts other then bearings & gaskets that i got from oz & were cheaper then the states & way cheaper then alot of the mx5 "onsellers" in oz, if you every need anything from there let me know & i will put you on to one of the guys thats part of the mcca & will help you out.








this reminds me of going to the drags when i was a kid & watching the teams do 1 hour rebuilds on funny cars & dragsters & the studs hanging out of the blocks total TUFFNESS

[sprx3]

After much searching & speaking to people both overseas & in oz decided to work with a place called highway brake & clutch in camberfield regarding the extra power that i would be making & the current clutch not holding, in the end we went with an exedy 9" pressure plate out of a 626 fe engine, custom made 9" sprung 6 puck clutch plate & an exedy thrust bearing which just catches the diaphragm as the standard mx5 one wouldn't. this was only discovered after the motor & box went back in the car & the clutch would not engage, out came the box again & we found the problem, i also made a custom braided clutch line removing all the unneeded tubing.

the feel seems no different to a stock clutch in weight & has a little more grab then normal but nothing out of the ordinary, a fantastic effort by the guys to think outside the square & give me a clutch that was 1" bigger then standard, hold like buggery & still feel stock



as you can see in the pics theres also a bottle of redline lightweight shockproof gear oil for the box & the diff


I was also lucky enough to pick up a GURU Modena torsen, these things are rated at 600 hp & are fully adjustable

[sprx3]

After I had received all the parts i needed, i had the block sent out to be bored & line honed, the head ports cleaned up a little & the new (2nd hand crank) crack tested. I got the crank from a mazda 323 astina, & bought a short block for $100 which was way cheaper then trying to get ome out of an mx5, its funny because "mx5" is a dirty word which when mensioned to any auto industry person allows then to mark up the price of a part ten fold, but i had mine back by buying the exact same parts but under the cheap nasty name of astina....... so once i had the short block from the wreckers i pulled it appart to find it had spun a few main bearings, not great i thought but the damage on the crank was minor so i thought i would send it out....... well after ages of waiting the engine builder told me that that crank was cracked & i needed another one, if he tested it first i could have got it while he was doing all the other machining other then my gear oh & my gear (yes it was a long wait & what made it worse was it was around the christmas holiday period wher most trades close for two weeks) & he could have had it all done in no time BUT he didnt so out i went looking for another short block, this time I picked the car it was coming out of & i found a car that had low km's on the dash & had been hit in the front pretty hard but not hard enough to damage the engine, the prior short block came out of a car that had no damage & must have gone in because the owner was just sick of throwing money at it, hence the spun bearings.

I got this block home & pulled it appart, the crank was perfect & measured up spot on, so finally i had all the parts i needed & was ready to put my engine together.

The harmonic balancer was also used from the astina although i had to pull it appart & add the mx5 striker plate to it for the hall sensor to work.

The engine came together easily, everything was clearenced & machine work was better then spot on, finally i could see it all coming together....

[sprx3]

[sprx3]

[sprx3]

While i was waiting on parts I had a mate paint up my rocker cover, intake manifold & plenum, throttle body & front turbo cover in a high gloss black, these came up a little too good & made me wonder how i would keep it clean once it was back together

I also had the cast avo turbo manifold, dump pipe & gt28 exhaust housing sent out to be ceramic coated as i was not happy with the heat that was being generated under the bonnet




the specs on ceramic coating are unreal & between that & the coolant reroute the temps have dropped a fair bit in there & on the gauge.

After reading SO much about the coolant reroute i decided to take the plunge, I ended up ordering a moss adaptor & thought i would buy a few more goodies since i was having stuff shipped out,

[sprx3]

so in the box with the adaptor came a black MSM style fuel lid



& MSM diff mounts

I also had the mate that did my exhaust bend up some pipe to do a hotside reroute, this went around the rocker cover & ended up at the front of the engine where the original outlet came out, The front of the head was blocked off & i had to stuff around with extra fittings & hoses to cool the turbo & throttle body as well as machine the adaptor to fit the thermostat & added a heater hose bung & temp sensor to it.


Once it was all right i welded some brackets onto it, painted it gloss black & mounted it on the exhaust manifold. Sounds a little crazy but the mounts are long & the manifold has a ceramic coating, although if i notice the paint bubble i will look at remounting it.

A few hoses later & it was all together & looked like it should have been there from the factory.