Andrew's '93 NA6 - KL V6 swap

Beelzeboss · Postby **Beelzeboss** » Tue Dec 11, 2012 6:54 pm

bruce wrote:Did I miss something - did you get it engineered/registered?
Didn't know a supercharger was going on.

Havn't done any of that yet. The car was finished but leaking oil from somewhere and fuel from one of the injectors. Since I have to take the engine out and probably replace the sump I figured I might as well convert it to dry sump. Also rather than having the injectors cleaned I'm installing some 340cc ones I have. This needs a new manifold and fuel rail, so I thought I might as well put on the supercharger

Also I didn't want to do ALL this work for 150whp, I prefer the sound of 250whp (with any luck).

Beelzeboss · Postby **Beelzeboss** » Wed Dec 12, 2012 8:41 pm

I want to take the engine out tomorrow so I took the opportunity to measure how much clearance I have for the supercharger. It looks like it should fit and still be legal (able to see the ground 11m ahead of the driver) though I might have to locate the injectors inside the manifold. Not sure if that's possible but I don't see why not, the only downside I can think of is if there's a fuel leak overnight it could hydrolock the cylinders, since it would be leaking inside the manifold.

And a shot showing how big the power bulge will have to be in the bonnet.

Muzdaman · Postby **Muzdaman** » Wed Dec 12, 2012 8:43 pm

I like where this is going.

Beelzeboss · Postby **Beelzeboss** » Wed Jan 09, 2013 5:01 pm

Muzdaman wrote:I like where this is going.

Progress has been delayed because my 323 daily driver was backed into just before christmas. I bought a replacement which needed a bit of work (you didn't think I'd buy a perfectly functioning car, did you? :oops:

) so I've been concentrating on getting that on the road. The only thing it needs is new I/C pipes which don't run through the battery tray and a small rust repair on the passenger side rear sill.

The offending battery tray hole

The new intake pipes I made (both turbo to MAF and MAF to filter) are 316 stainless. The original was mild steel and didn't look great inside, and with the new pipes I'll be able to box the air filter for added legality.

Hotside I/C piping is going well

I'm also replacing the intercooler with a better made and better flowing unit. I had this from when I was turbocharging the MX-5. I can't decide whether to convert it to dual pass or run a pipe all the way around the cooler. I'll not be chasing any more power than stock so the intercooler should still flow plenty as a dual pass. It will simplify the piping immensely.

Rust repair. I didn't know about the second hole when I bought the car

Still, this will all be hidden beneath the sideskirts to I won't need to get a perfect colour match. I'll weld in a replacement panel, put on a thin skim of filler and leave it in primer. It's not a show car, haha.

Lastly the exhaust is a bit weird. It has a split 3" dump and 3" cat which then transitions into what looks like the stock nissan 2" system.

I want to make a 2.5" rear section or maybe even 3" but I'm not sure I can be bothered.

siren676 · Postby **siren676** » Mon Jan 21, 2013 8:43 pm

Thought i'd register on this forum to catch up on how your build is going, saw it on mcm forum and was really interested in the swap.

Cars looking good man.

Hjt · Postby **Hjt** » Mon Jan 21, 2013 9:07 pm

Looks like you have been keeping busy, Uni will be back soon!

Beelzeboss · Postby **Beelzeboss** » Mon Jan 21, 2013 11:37 pm

siren676 wrote:Thought i'd register on this forum to catch up on how your build is going, saw it on mcm forum and was really interested in the swap.

Cars looking good man.

Thanks Siren

Hjt wrote:Looks like you have been keeping busy, Uni will be back soon!

Very busy, haha, don't remind me about uni

.

I think I'm going to try and just register the MX-5 as-is and leave the supercharger until a later date when I have time. All I have to do is fix this unknown oil leak, get the injectors cleaned, reassemble the car and it's done!

bigmaxy · Postby **bigmaxy** » Tue Jan 22, 2013 10:50 am

Beelzeboss wrote:
I think I'm going to try and just register the MX-5 as-is and leave the supercharger until a later date when I have time.

Good idea. I thought you had mentioned it would be more difficult to get it passed with forced induction anyway due to a capacity limit.
What are your mates saying now about how long this project is taking? It's great work you have been doing and fantastic to follow.

Beelzeboss · Postby **Beelzeboss** » Tue Jan 22, 2013 11:02 am

bigmaxy wrote:
Beelzeboss wrote:
I think I'm going to try and just register the MX-5 as-is and leave the supercharger until a later date when I have time.

Good idea. I thought you had mentioned it would be more difficult to get it passed with forced induction anyway due to a capacity limit.
What are your mates saying now about how long this project is taking? It's great work you have been doing and fantastic to follow.

Yeah I might have needed NB8B brakes which wouldn't have fitted under the 13" wheels

My mates always give me sh*t about the car

but I don't mind, I enjoy working on it almost as much as driving it.

I'm so pumped to drive this thing, though. I just have to fix that oil leak but I have no idea where it's coming from. Oil accumulates on the exhaust on the passenger side and also on the bottom of the adapter plate. I have a replacement rear main seal but the oil doesn't look to be coming from there. I suspect it might be the head gasket. It was definitely leaking from there before and I reused the head bolts twice :oops:

. I think I'm going to have to get a new head gasket and head bolts. The oil on the exhaust could be from the valve cover gasket or the distributor seal, I'll replace both to be sure.

bruce · Postby **bruce** » Tue Jan 22, 2013 11:14 am

Roush charger? Looks like a big capacity unit from a Ford/Mustang.
Keeping with the Ford theme, you could fit a shaker over the supercharger?

Beelzeboss · Postby **Beelzeboss** » Tue Jan 22, 2013 11:17 am

bruce wrote:Roush charger? Looks like a big capacity unit from a Ford/Mustang.
Keeping with the Ford theme, you could fit a shaker over the supercharger?

Yes it's from a Roush mustang. I'd love to have a shaker/exposed charger, but unfortunately the law says if a part of the engine sticks out above the bonnet it must be covered by a mild steel (even though the bonnet is aluminium...) piece attached to the bonnet

bruce · Postby **bruce** » Tue Jan 22, 2013 11:32 am

Looks like a 2 litre charger, so you'd be upping the effective capacity of your motor to 4.5 litres.

Beelzeboss · Postby **Beelzeboss** » Wed Feb 20, 2013 7:54 pm

Well the Silvia is up and rego'd so it's back to working on the MX-5, and I've decided to try to register the car as-is. Driving the Silvia (similar power to weight as the V6 MX-5) has made me realise that for the moment ~130kw/tonne is definitely enough power.

So, I'm concentrating on fixing the oil leak from the sump by making a new alloy sump with an integrated oil pickup. Here's the progress so far.

I forgot to brace the pickup when I welded the sides on, so it dropped about 8mm lower

However, it doesn't hit the crank or rods (about 6mm clearance at closest position) so I'm going to leave it as it is and extend the pickup to be 10mm from the bottom of the sump again.

I have some hinges that I'm going to use with baffles in the sump to make sure the pickup stays under oil, and my tafe course is starting aluminium tig welding tomorrow so that will hopefully help

Tomorrow I'm going to finish the sump and check it for leaks. If it's all good then the engine will be going back into the car on Friday. I have ordered some ARP head studs and new head gaskets to hopefully fix my head gasket oil leak issue, and they'll go in as soon as they arrive. Then the last thing to do is modify the exhaust slightly for more ground clearance and, barring any huge issues, it's ready for rego