one word.
BOOOOOOSTED!!!!!!!!
It is in.
car makes noises that make you go mmmmMMMMMMM!!!
It all began one faithful morning, Tues the 7th i believe.
After packing the car, (yet again, i did this a few weeks ago only to have Megasquirt issues. Turns out the stock TPS will kill the Megasquirt, THANKS GSLENDER!), i left for Newcastle.
Nitro-Danns to be precise.
Arriving there at about 8am we got straight into it.
Was in such a rush all 17 Hours it took so i did not get really any pics during the build.
Only thing i regret.
A timelapse would have been AWESOME.
Also i was short on a few things, Hose clamps etc etc.
So a few of these had to be scrounged up to get me home.
Rest assured, all rusty hose clamps will be changed
First up was to make sure the MS was working this time.
In it went, car started up, got Connected to a laptop and went for a drive to get a start on the tune.
Straight back into the shed to change over to my brand new 450cc Denso Injectors from 949. (Emilio had them to me in 2 days. CHAMPION!)
Changed the REQ Fuel and straight back onto the quiet back streets.
Dann is a bit of a whiz at this "tune ASAP dealeo".
Within 20 Mins of him furiously mashing keys and me moving the throttle on his every command we had the car pulling harder than i have ever felt.
Seriously, i would have been happy coming home with the car having that extra power up top that it never had before.
It just felt bigger.
Once we were happy it was straight back onto the stands and 'Operation -Remove Boring bits' started.
Was not long before we had the car to this point.
I bought some 2" & 2 1/4" Mild Steel piping as Dann was going to weld up some Intercooler piping for me.
So at this point i continued on with what i could and he started measuring and figuring out the piping path which was complicated by my WANT OF MY AIR CON TO STAY!
Much to Danns disgust
Clearance was going to be the issue.
He nailed it.
The hot side is all one piece.
Super happy with it.
He apologised for the welds.
OH YEAH, THERE DISGUSTING
He then moved on to the Cold side,
This was a little interesting as i had a few bits of Aluminium that i wanted to use with the 2 1/4" Mild steel.
The Aluminium piping had the Idle Bypass and BOV Outlet welded.
Dann welded the AIT sensor bung in.
He again apologised for the dodgy weld.
yeah cos it looks TERRIBLE???
So a few Silicone joiners where used here but it works Great.
I will remove the Hot & Cold side piping shortly and spray it all Black.
The Intercooler, "which Dann had somehow made a bracket and installed it while i must of been daydreaming" looked great.
That too will come out for a quick Black cover to keep it slightly more stealth.
It is a Cooling Pro 550mmx140mmx65mm unit from Just Jap.
Pretty good build quality for $140.
When i remove the piping i will look at raising it slightly if possible but i really wanted the stock radiator to still have flow as i still have Aircon and did not want to be chasing cooling issue at the moment.
Off course once track work begins i will have to re-vist this.
We realised that my stainless oil feed line fitting was not M10x1.5 for the OEM feed from the block.
After running around like mad for a hour Dann had a Lightbulb moment.
Use the Feed from the back of the head.
Low and behold the threads matched.
The came the oil return to the sump.
We removed the Aircon Compressor and i crossed fingers and prayed to the car gods as Dann drilled away!
Went great.
We ran the old oil through the engine then some spirits to flush any shavings out but honestly nothing seemed to get inside.
Topped up with Penrite Full Synth 10W50. $40 not going to complain.
The came the final installation of the turbo and 'Turbo tony Downpipe'.
HOLY F**K!!!!!!!
This was a nightmare.
My patience had died, It just would not fit.
Sad to say, some Hammer work happened here.
The main issue i had was the Aluminium Aircon line, which seems to not be the usual routing, got in the way of the downpipe.
So i had to bend and force the downpipe past it.
It is touching but if it become as issue i will get the aircon re routed.
Also, if i learnt one thing this long day.
It was V-BANDS!!!!
Honestly, if you are building a Turbo system.
Use V-BANDS!! If you do not, i will personally stab you in the face with a screw driver.
Due to the design of the Greddy kit which this sort of loosely is based on, the only way to install the downpipe is to have the manifold loose on the studs, then slide the downpipe into position (hammer is you have a awful air con line in the way) then fumble around to get the 4 studs through then nuts then try and get it all back onto the engine and hope you got it all right.
We did not a few times.
Needless to say once it was completed never want to touch to again.
I had to remove the windscreen reservoir, and am now kicking myself for not going in to the group-buy for a NOPRO unit.
Oh well i am sure i can sort something out.
At this point all that was really needed was to finish hooking up the oil lines and refill the radiator and start her up.
She fired straight up at about 1130pm.
We went for a awesome night drive with Dann again at the keyboard giving me a safe tune.
The first time i heard the turbo start to spool up i got giggly.
Then when i actually felt the boost come on, well i lost it.
Could not stop smiling.
I left Danns place at about 1245am for a 2 hour trip back to Sydney.
I could not get my Pod filter on, so it was a unfiltered trip back but man it sounded good.
Still have a ton to do, but the hard part is done.
On the to do list -
Have to wait for some silicone joiners to arrive so i can finish my intake
Stock exhaust requires replacing obviously
Boost controller
Stock Diff will not last long
Want to plumb BOV into the system
Rewire the AIT sensor
Mount the MS properly in car
Paint pipes and I/C
Mod the Undertray slightly to fit back on
Mod the Flyin Miata Heatshield, just rubs slightly on the downpipe
Keep reading/learning about tuning.
Hopefully this can all happen in the next week or so.
HUGE thanks to Nitro-Dann, the Dudes got HECTIC-
Skillz!!
What would have taken me weeks, he got done in a day.
Even at this rough stage the car is at it is amazing.
I Love it.
Engineering is my goal, the tune will be hardest part. Might have to try and find a tuner who is willing to have a play with a Megasquirt to pass emissions.
It is running quite rich at the moment, (hey it was seriously a 45 minute tune
) so that can all be sorted in time.
One other issue i have is after a Full Boost blast when i let off the throttle i get a cloud of Blue smoke.
I believe it could be a PCV issue.
I bought a GTX PCV from Repco, but testing with my mouth it seems to only fully seal sometimes. So that may be no good also.
Meh, i am sure i can sort something out.
