Juicy's SE

[Juicy HiC]

Hi Guys, 1st off my name's Justin. I've had my SE since new (wife and I bought it in December 04). It was originally my wife's car as at the time I was into the Honda's and although I new it was a good car I hadn't realised how much I'd enjoy it. I'd always been after a Porsche and didn't consider anything else.
As our family grew it came time to get rid of the Civic that I had and get a bigger car, as by that time I was in love with the Mx5 and didn't want to loose that one. So after getting an 09 Subaru Forester my wife very quickly decided that she preferred driving that in and out of the city in Melbourne as it was auto (even though it was initially my car I had no say in that). So the Mx5 finally became my car.

It was about that time that I became aware of this forum and started lurking. It was another few years before I joined though. I also found out about the aftermarket availability for this car. I decided then that eventually I'd follow the the general mod process and do the intake, intercooler and exhaust. at the start I was going to do the mania stage 1 however the cost was very prohibitive so it was on the back burner for a long time.
I had previously tracked both my 86 Integra and 94 Civic and had been dying to finally get the SE on to the track. Finally in 2011 I managed to get out there and absolutely loved it, getting on both Winton and Sandown with the Mx5 club here in Vic. I also have 2 great friends up in Brisbane both of which own Na's. They also love the track and fortunately are silly enough to let me come up and drive their cars with the Qld club, which I've done a few times now. Unfortunately between having 2 kids and doing Ironman triathlons the car was once again on the back burner.
So towards the end of 2012 I finally bit the bullet and started moding the car.

My little carwash helper!

[shuey]

.. welcome! that's a nice clean ride. love it in red

[Juicy HiC]

My desire for the car is a good reliable track/street car that my wife will still get into and drive without moaning about it.

As a result of my job I actually travel to Honolulu fairly regularly. So with that in mind I decided to take advantage of this and purchase as much as I could from the states.

I started with the Wilwood big brake kit from Goodwin racing. One of my mates in Brisbane had recently put these on his Na6 and I was really impressed by them. Although I know they weren't a major increase in size for the SE I thought they'd be worth while just for the 4 piston calipers as well as the ease of pad changes. Especially as the idea in the end will be to drive to the track, have a blast then drive home.

The plan worked perfectly, they were there waiting for me when I arrived. Got them home and got to work. Nice easy one to get started with.

I was really happy with the end result, although I had a few issues with bleeding the brakes. I decided to take it to a local ultra tune because I thought I must have been missing something. Much to my dismay they made it almost undriveable, the pedal was almost to the floor. Unfortunately it seemed fine at the 1st stop but after that it was woefully inadequate and gave me a good scare.
So after that I redid it myself and it was perfect, don't know what the hell they did but at least I know not to go there for anything more significant.

[Juicy HiC]

Next on my list was to do an intake!

I had read a few posts regarding this and looked at the various ones available.

In the end I decided on the BEGI version partly because of the reports of the noise from the aem but also because I liked that it looked like a factory intake.

So I ordered it and the begi TBI to replace the factory one.

I got all the factory stuff out


Then in went the replacements




As has been stated by everybody that's done this mod, WOW! what a different car. I couldn't believe the improvement. I was also quite shocked to hear the bypass valve venting, oh yeah way cool. But then I realised that I was on the way to swap cars with my wife, oh crap she's going to kill me!!!

[Juicy HiC]

Quite quickly after that I went for the TurboSmart Kompact blowoff valve, a TurboSmart MBC and a boost gauge. Although it took me a while to get the boost gauge in.

[MINX]

Welcome Justin
Glad to hear you are enjoying the SE

[Okibi]

Welcome Justin!

How was the fitment of the BEGI intake?

[Juicy HiC]

Overall I thought the begi intake was really nicely put together. However the filter cover did need to be trimmed and shaped in a few spots to fit around the air con lines and there was one bolt head that was in the way of one of the corners.

[Juicy HiC]

Following what seems to be the general mod path for the SE I was on the hunt for a Down pipe and inter cooler. I decided on one of the ebay inter coolers and then I decided to go for the flyin Miata DP.

As by now I had been well and truly introduced to the ECU hesitation as a result of the intake I also got the Flyin Miata O2 sensor mod, Oil check valve to prevent oil from heading back up the inter cooler and a HKS type 1 Turbo Timer.
All of the above except for the inter cooler made for an interesting trip home from Honolulu that's for sure.

I also decided to do the rest of the exhaust and so after reading the review about Tidd Brothers Exhaust by one of the other Forum members I took the car down to them to get a quote. Fortunately they're just down the road from me. I was immediately impressed by them and the way they went about they're work. As I was really busy with work and so on I also got them to install the down pipe.
I thought about lots of different tips but decided on a fairly benign 3" chrome tip.

I am rapped with the sound, it's not to loud but has a really nice throaty burble now. In fact it was such a subtle increase in loudness and note that my wife didn't even notice! Yeah

It was also about this time that I developed a real boost issue. First there would be a terrible hesitation then it would go ballistic. The boost gauge was showing 15psi when in first gear, as soon as I'd get to 2nd it would all start again but this time I'd hit the boost cut. I was pretty certain that it was developing major boost but I wasn't sure why. I tried taking out the MBC, but that didn't work. Even though I was certain that it was making boost I checked for a leak as I'd had that before and the hesitation that I was getting was very similar. No leaks. The last thing that I could think of was the waste gate. At the same time that this was going on my Dad who also has an NA (1.8 with turbo) was having a few issues with his car and had taken it to Motsons in Brisbane. They were having a bit of a chat about my car and he suggested that I try getting some cr7 or similar on to the actuator. Gave that a try and to my utter amazement it worked. YEAH!!! During this period I also came across a tuner in Hoppers Crossing with a Dyno. I decided to get the car serviced by them and to also do a run on the Dyno. at 9.5psi with only the intake it came in at 136kw at the wheels. Would be interested to go again now that the dp and rest of the 2.5" exhaust is in but just haven't had a chance.

It was time for a short break from the changes and I also really had to figure if I wanted to do the ECU or not. However I did have a few more bits arrive for me to put on-

[Lokiel]

If you haven't installed it already, don't bother installing the turbo timer, it's not worth the hassle and you'll rarely need to use it. Turbo timers are a thing of the past and were necessary when turbos weren't water cooled.

I'm glad you got an actual dyno reading with just the CAI. I've read on the forums that that it bumps the power to 135rwkw and when I installed mine, the butt-dyno really noticed a difference so that's the figure I use when quoting its affect (though I often forget that this figure is with PSI boosted from 7.5 psi to 9.5-10.0psi).

The downpipe and 2.5" exhaust make a difference on the dyno, you'll probably get around 145rwkw, but your butt-dyno probably wont notice - it's not as big a difference maker as the CAI (ie. is only 10kw vs 30+kw.

[Juicy HiC]

Well I got all of my new bits and pieces on the car last week. Took me most of the week to do the work, Babysitting, triathlon training and car modding take up a lot of time!

I am so happy with the results. Fitting the FMIC was a lot easier than I expected although the plastic screws really suck!


front bar off

Getting ready to cut the intercooler pipes


All done, now to put it back together


It was then on to the coilovers, I decided to use the long bolt method which turned out to be a wise decision. I went for a set of Bilstein pss9's. Of all the available coilovers I decided on these because they seem to offer the best compromise between comfort and performance. After driving on them now for about a week I'm very happy with the results, although at the moment the alignment of my right rear is so far out that it's affecting the car. I had an alignment done after fitting them and they found that one of the bushings is worn out and the cause of this. Unfortunately Pedders have quoted me $500 to replace this one bushing so I'm on search for someone else as I don't have time to do it myself atm.
Unfortunately when I opened the bilstein package the c wrenches were not in there. As I bought them from Tyre Rack in the states it was going to take a while to get them out here. They were very good about it and they're already on the way but I did have to get the height set by Pedders, man they are expensive! $55 per corner, again no time and they were closest!

Before


After, I haven't gone to low as my wife drives the car as well and there are a lot of speed bumps near us


While I was doing the coilovers I also installed a Whiteline 24mm front sway bar. I definitely think that it's made a difference. I can't wait to get the alignment sorted and really see the difference. I'll also hopefully get back on the track shortly.

[Okibi]

Looks good, intercooler fitted below the power steering pipes?

[Juicy HiC]

Hi guys, been quite a while since my last update.

In answer to your question Okibi, I'll have to have a closer look but from memory there were no issues. Although I haven't yet refitted the plastic engine cover, mostly through laziness/lack of time so when I get that done I'll no for sure.

So I've had the coilovers in for a couple of months now and while I'm still getting the settings right I'm really happy with the outcome. Only a little stiff than stock but with a very nice stance. I'd love them to go a little lower but given the state of our roads it's probably a good thing that they don't.

On a related note to the coilovers I initially had the alignment done at Pedders in hoppers crossing, one of the worst alignments I've ever had. The car shuddered and whenever I hit a bump would jump sideways. Not only was it very uncomfortable I'd say that it was very unsafe as well. My wife took it for a drive and rang me after only 5 minutes to tell me she'd nearly spun after hitting a bump in the wet. I was aware that it was not right from the start as Pedders had told me that during the alignment that one of the bushes on the right rear was to worn to allow them to align it properly and that they had had to leave it at 9.0 toe out on the rear. That certainly had a big effect. They told me that they could do the bush for $550. Holy crap!!! They said the part was $250 alone. No thanks, quick call to my local autobarn and had the part ordered for $130. It was from whiteline, I checked they're website and there was no price difference. I had heard how hard bushes can be to change but having never done it before I jumped in with both feet, to only discover how hard they really are. Took me a good 2 days to get it done with a few quick trips for tools to try and get the dam things out.

Ended up getting a valve spring compressor which worked a treat. I did both left and right, once finished I ended up taking it to beaurapairs in Newport (used them quite a bit for tyres) and got the alignment redone. The manager there, Jason had me come in while he was doing it to show me the previous settings. Now I know that they would have changed a little when I had the control arms off and with the new bushes but they where so far out it was ridiculous, Jason couldn't believe that the car drove even remotely straight. Was also amazed that pedders left it like that, it may not have been perfect when I took it in to them but at least it wasn't that bad. Once that was done the car was unreal, loved it.

[Juicy HiC]

So what to do next? Well that became pretty easy when my dear old Dad bought me a nice new headunit. We'd been talking on the phone while I was driving, initially I was using a blu-ant speaker but was really struggling to hear so took it off that and put it to the ear. Well he'd just recently gotten a fine for this, $150 in QLD. I told him that I'd been looking at various stereo's to avoid this but hadn't yet bought one. Well on my next business trip to the states there was the one that I'd been looking at waiting for me at the hotel. Thanks Dad!


Couldn't wait to get this in. It was a fairly straight forward install although it did take the better part of a week and a half to do it. As I have an iPhone 5 and thanks to apples last minute change to the lightning connector I had to order an extension cable to be able to plug the phone in. Now this isn't necessary if you only plan to use Bluetooth but I had other things in mind.

I had installed my boost gauge into my right eye vent which works really well but my wife, who still drives the car, hates it. I also wanted to install an afr gauge and at some point probably an oil pressure gauge. Now while I like the boost gauge I'm not a huge fan of multiple gauges all over the place. So I decided to investigate something that could display multiple parameters. It's led me to investigate quite a few options but in the end I settled for a PLX set up with the Kiwi Wifi OBD plug in. My initial plan was to use this along with dash command which is a supported app on the pioneer to have them displayed straight on the stereo. Since I've finished the H/U install and had a play with dash command I definitely like it but am a little disappointed with the interface. At first even with the correct cable from pioneer the iPhone 5 still wouldn't connect because they were yet to get the firmware update completed. This was released a couple of weeks ago and once completed worked reasonably well but I then had to change my battery, which caused me to lose power to the HU which in turn ment that it went back to factory setting and so lost the update meaning that I will have to do it again. Very frustrating as I know that I'll have the battery disconnected every now and again, so will have to repeat the process quite a bit. So I have now decided to get the Plx DM 100 gauge which I will install into the factory oil pressure spot. It's now just a waiting game until the gauge arrives. Although still not in yet I've got the afr sensor and the boost sensor. Hopefully if I have sometime this week I'll get those in. I stumbled on to these and then realised that it had been done by Lokiel, I've now read his thread through quite a few times and has given me much inspiration on how to get these in.

I will say though that I love the HU and the Bluetooth connection works great. So no more holding the phone to my ear, yeah!
Before


After


I also decided to try a carbon fibre vinyl wrap on the facia which I'm really happy with.

So I think that once I've got the gauges all sorted that'll be it for a while. At least until I can afford a new ECU. I have also put in the flyin miata O2 signal modifier but as yet haven't had a chance to drive the car to see if its worked.

[Juicy HiC]

So I've now met a few of my fellow Victorian mx5 lovers.i actually managed to get to one of the Thursday night get togethers last week. It was really great to meet some others, especially some in the same area. Had a great night and got home much later than I thought.

I have managed to get July 6 off so now with Wife approval I'll be heading to Phillip Island to finally get the car back on the track since September 2011 (I've been out but in QLD with Slug Dub our other friend and my Dad). So hopefully I'll get to meet some more fellow Victorians there.

Here's a couple of other photos from the stereo install.

Lots of wires!