Lachstock and Four Turbo Charged Cylinders ['04 NB SE]

[ManiacLachy]

Thanks for the photo of my car, I miss seeing it each morning. I'll be there tomorrow to pick it up and spend some time with it and its new 4.3 diff.

Plus I will be seeing my partner as well, she is down in Brisbane already (5 of the 34 radiation treatments done).

No problem, it was good to see it in the flesh after reading about it for so long!

Sounds like it was an epic road trip on the way back. Id love to go on a road trip in my mx one day. Sounds like you have got it all sorted, now to get used to that grin haha. Keen to check it out on Sunday for coffee if your going.

Was a big trip, had some awesome moments, but it's draining! Would be a better trip to split it out a bit, spend some time along the way. I'll be there Sunday, eager to show off

looking good..i have golf on sunday ,weather permitting ,so will have to wait until next time so check your SE out.

Well I'm wishing for good weather too so I can keep the top dropped, so have fun golfing I'm sure I'll be seeing you again at a future Sunday coffee.

See ya Sunday Lachy, I'll bring the NA to make you drool! Well done and looking forward to seeing it

Rodger, if Rhys is coming, then you should bring the NB. As much as I love your NA, we'd have 3 very similar silver NB models, NB8A, NB8B and SE, would make a nice line up I think.

[speed freak]

See ya Sunday Lachy, I'll bring the NA to make you drool! Well done and looking forward to seeing it

Rodger, if Rhys is coming, then you should bring the NB. As much as I love your NA, we'd have 3 very similar silver NB models, NB8A, NB8B and SE, would make a nice line up I think.

That would be cool, then we can park them all together somewhere and take happy snaps haha

[ManiacLachy]

Just went for a drive to get lunch because it's a sunny day, and damn do I love my car!

She went into Automotive Plus this week for the 100k km service, and picked up a new radiator while in there. No major issues, some new belts and filters, a nut came loose on a pulley so that's been tightened again. The drive feels smoother after the service, I think it was overdue.

Other than that I've put some clear side indicators on, chrome fuel cap, and a Track Dog Racing shorty antenna. I also had some clear reflectors for the corners but they don't fit, so they're going back to Miata Roadster, and I've ordered some replacements from mx5partsk.co.uk, I beleive they're I.L. Motorsport and others who've fitted them have had no issues.

The TDR antenna looks great, reception isn't quite as good though. I pick up a bit of static out in the sticks where I live that I didn't get before and don't get in other cars. No matter, I have plenty of CDs at hand!

While the Five was in the shop, I was driving the in-law's Peugot 206. For some reason it doesn't feel the same or near as fun

Looking forward to some more driving this weekend!

[KevGoat]

Just went for a drive to get lunch because it's a sunny day, and damn do I love my car!

They certainly are infectious little devils ...

[ManiacLachy]

A few changes recently. I added the white corner reflectors to complete the look. Returned a set from MiataRoadster that didn't fit and bought some IL Motorsport ones from mxk5parts.co.uk that did!

And then Christmas in July came and I got a shipment of parts from our man NitroDann


I'd been sick all week, finally took Friday off to stay home as Thursday was a real struggle, and the temptaion to get wrenching overcame me and I set to work on replacing the stock TBI + BOV.

As we're all aware, Dann isn't a big company, his parts don't come with instructions, all you get is some metal tubing, some rubber hoses and a bunch of clamps. This is what it looked like layed out on the garage floor:


And this is what my dummy fit looked like:


I printed of several manuals from Flyin Miata and forum posts of various installs. Most deal with doing the TBI+BOV at the same time as the CAI. I have Dann's new CAI as well, but it'll be installed some time in the future. Today I was just going to do the TBI+BOV, so some thinking was required! It really wasn't too hard, hoses were varying sizes and could only go to certain fittings, apply some logic and it all comes together.

I tried to do a before and after with labelled diagrams, but the limitations of editing pictures within Photobucket beat me So instead, here's simply the shots without arrows and text:




A few connections are hard to see on the BOV.
* Unknown A connects to the silver nipple at the top of the BOV
* Unknown C snakes out of the BOV, under the TBI, then back up, which is why it's labelled twice, this hose was really long too,

Some notes on the install:
* The exhaust hose from the BOV that Dann supplied was really long, I expect because it's meant to reach to the CAI if that was connected, I'll need to buy a new hose when I get around to that. I snaked it under the TBI, had to be sure not to contact with the belts down there.
* The spring clamp at the bottom of the TBI was a pain in the arse. There are two of them, and you need reuse one of them, they're super tight, I used a plier tool that opened really wide to hold it open in order to manurer it around.
* Dann provided a new hose (that you can see in the picture of the parts laid out) for the signal line (I think) that was really lng, but again I think that's for his CAI which isn't in use currently so I reused the original hose. It's clamp was too loose on the new fitting so I bought a screw clamp to replace it.
* The wires coming from the AIT sensor unclip (this wasn't immediately apparent to me), then you'll need a 19mm deep socket to unsrew the sensor itself.
* Don't drop anything down the engine bay! Or you'll have to jack it up and remove the sheilding underneath. Well, not all of it, Mazda in their wisdom provided a little trap door, you can snake your hand inside of. I dropped a clip

I haven't noticed too much difference from this. Some people say they feel a power increase because the stock BOV is leaky and looses some pressure and also you'd expect some more noise from the upgraded BOV, but I think due to the low stock boost level neither of these are noticed too much in my car.

Next up, the exhaust! I have WD-40'd the bolts a few times now to get them ready, but haven't had time to actually do the work. Hopefully soon!

[Nevyn72]

Nice to see the first serious mod there mate!

Yep, I suspect both of the hoses were long in order to reach all the way across to the new CAI, you'll be amazed at just how much you remove to fit it too. As for instructions, I believe the Dann's design is very similar to the AEM CAI so those instructions would be good place to start and give you some ideas.

As for performance benefits from the inlet elbow and BOV, you likely won't see anything on standard boost. The factory BOV has more leakage problems when you start to increase boost levels but can start to fail at the stock 7.5psi too as they wear. Both of these mods are more about reliability and preparing for future mods (exhaust, intake, boost increase, etc.) as they would be more likely to fail after making these changes..... The fact that they look so much nicer is entirely un-related of course!

[ManiacLachy]

On the weekend I made a trip up to Bundaberg to visit a good friend and his family - any excuse for a drive Before going up I asked if he knew anyone who would lend us access to a hoist, and sure enough the fellas he works next to are a mechanics, and let us have the workshop to ourselves all Sunday! So I drove up with the exhaust in the passenger seat, luckily the weather was on my side as it wouldn't fit with the roof up.



Like a couple of kids in a candy shop, we set to work. Neither of us had done this before, my friend is a little more mechanically minded than me, but we were both out of our element, but eager. My friend wanted to start at the back by removing the muffler and work forward, but as anyone with an SE knows, the dumppipe is the hardest task on this job, so I suggested we start there. After some swearing and a variety of tools we got that bastard top bolt loose and then the whole lot came out



My car had a huge cannon sticking out the rear bumper, clearly not stock, I thought it was the whole muffler, but it was just a tip, the muffler and the rest of the system all looked stock, and it all looked it's 10 years!



Also, there was no O2 sensor in the midpipe as expected the bung had a bolt in it, and we spotted what we assumed is the sensor up by the turbo. Is this normal for SEs? All the writeups I'd read said it should have been down on the pipe. Anyway, the old pipe's bung bolt was looking a little rusty, and the copper washer in it was pretty much gone, so we went out to find some replacements, Repco to the rescue with an appropriately sized sump plug, and the workshop had a selection of copper washers, which was lucky because we couldn't find them in any shops!



Time to work out how this thing goes in! Dann advised using some High Temp RT Gasket silicone on the dumppipe's metal gasket (reused), so we applied that and slid up the dumpipe for a loose fit to see how we're sitting.

The mystery of this whole install was the U bracket. Where did it attach to to hold the midpipe? Best we could spot was to piggy back it on to one of the bolts that holds the heat shield. The only other options was to bolt it to the gear box, but I didn't feel like undoing anything on that was a good idea.

Then the muffler went on, Dann provided a new soft gasket for this connection, and we put some more RT silicone on here too for good measure. Slap the bracing and undersheilding back on and we were ready to turn it over



Man that was a good sound! And with that we knew we had to take it for a quick spin around the block, and boy was it a quick spin. The improvement in power delivery was noticeable! The sound was sweet, you can now hear the turbo spool and the blow off valve hiss, and such a lovely burble and crackle on the overrun!

But there was a problem ...

[Nevyn72]

If it's anything like my car what the exhaust really helps is low down torque and allows the turbo to spool a lot earlier and stronger. Top end really benefits from freeing up the intake side of the equation.....
The other thing the exhaust really helps is the sound, no more sewing machine!

As for the old exhaust, that's definitely not a factory muffler. They probably assembled the two parts from off the shelf items to make a complete replacement unit.

The O2 sensor near the turbo is the factory narrow band, used by the factory ECU.
The bung in the resonator/cat on the factory exhaust if for a Wideband O2 if you want to install one. Dann's exhaust provides a port in a similar location for WB-O2 as these need to be fitted ~60cm from the turbo (to prevent them being burnt out) but before the Cat to work properly.

[ManiacLachy]

...

The problem is a vibration coming from under the car, some where the exhaust is touching something it shouldn't and at various points in the test run the annoying rattle would ruin the awesome exhaust note. So back up the hoist the car went!

Of course, Dann's exhaust is much larger than the stock, and clearance between the chassis of the car and the pipes is greatly reduced. The suspect of the vibrations is the heat shielding.



The issue likely caused by attaching the U bracket to the heat shielding, can't help but pull the exhaust close to the shielding, and contact becomes inevitable. We pulled the shield off, and tried to see how we could adjust it to improve clearance. After a couple of miss fits where as soon as we lowered the car and backed out we could tell it wasn't right by the enormous clamour coming from underneath. Finally, we were getting a bit frustrated and tired, we got it almost perfect ... it would still come into contact from time to time, but we weren't going to get it better that day, and it wasn't constant, I'd be able to drive home the next day without loosing my sanity.





Dann has since told me that the U bracket should attach to the bolt on the gear box, not the heat shield I'm home now and no more hoist access, so the car will have to go up on stands this weekend for some tweaking. I'm not looking forward to lying on back messing around with all those bolts, but it has to be done.

For the mean time, the vibration is occasional and while jarring it doesn't last long and is liveable.

The exhaust note has settled some after the big drive home, not quite as loud as it was, but still sounds great, still burbles and crackles, and still performs!

The last of Dann's goodies to go on, the CAI will be installed in a couple of weeks I think



Oh and on the way home, I ticked over 100,000 kms.

[ManiacLachy]

If it's anything like my car what the exhaust really helps is low down torque and allows the turbo to spool a lot earlier and stronger. Top end really benefits from freeing up the intake side of the equation.....
The other thing the exhaust really helps is the sound, no more sewing machine!

You're preaching to the choir my man

As for the old exhaust, that's definitely not a factory muffler. They probably assembled the two parts from off the shelf items to make a complete replacement unit.

Really? Looked old, about the same age as the rest of the system so I assumed stock + tip. But I haven't seen a stock muffler unattached so I wouldn't know. Thanks for the tip.

The O2 sensor near the turbo is the factory narrow band, used by the factory ECU.
The bung in the resonator/cat on the factory exhaust if for a Wideband O2 if you want to install one. Dann's exhaust provides a port in a similar location for WB-O2 as these need to be fitted ~60cm from the turbo (to prevent them being burnt out) but before the Cat to work properly.

I knew the car has a stock narrow band, I just thought it was down on the midpipe based on my readings from FM installs around the internets. Guess I misunderstood something. Eventually I'll be installing a WBO2, I know Dann's exhaust is prepped for it.

[Roadrunner]

The exhaust makes a huge difference! Nice rumble, pops and crackles on downshift and most importantly the turbo spools much earlier! I do feel for you though having to get under there to sort the heatshield on jack stands, there is no room to move in there! (I chickened out and paid to have my exhaust put on. The intercooler I might do myself though)

[Mokesta]

Let me get this straight... The exhaust is mounted mostly on flexible hangers but has one fixed bolt to the gearbox? ?? Seriously??

Stainless exhausts like to grow significantly longer as they heat up. They need clearance to do that and they need flexible mounts to allow the stretch and to isolate the vibration.

A fixed mount in the middle will just increase the stress in the pipe and turbo as the expansion is restricted. Maybe that flex joint helps a bit but I have to say a fixed exhaust connection is just wrong. Perhaps that size pipe just doesn't fit in that space once everything is considered?

M

[track_addict]

Great write up on the exhaust. I'm eagerly waiting for mine to arrive and I'll be helping my mechanic install mine. Good to hear that you were happy. Now, to give another sunlight silver SE (my car) a Dann 3" exhaust ;).

[ManiacLachy]

The exhaust makes a huge difference! Nice rumble, pops and crackles on downshift and most importantly the turbo spools much earlier! I do feel for you though having to get under there to sort the heatshield on jack stands, there is no room to move in there! (I chickened out and paid to have my exhaust put on. The intercooler I might do myself though)

I'm glad I did this myself, even if I didn't get it 100% right. I'm not too mechanical and it took longer than I thought, but I learned a lot about my car, and that's always worth it. However, if I didn't have a hoist and a workshop's tools, I don't think I could have done it. I should be able to do the adjustment without one, it won't be fun, but it needs doing!

I expect I'll be doing the intercooler myself too, but that has me more anxious than this did what with cutting the hard pipes and all!

Let me get this straight... The exhaust is mounted mostly on flexible hangers but has one fixed bolt to the gearbox? ?? Seriously??

Stainless exhausts like to grow significantly longer as they heat up. They need clearance to do that and they need flexible mounts to allow the stretch and to isolate the vibration.

A fixed mount in the middle will just increase the stress in the pipe and turbo as the expansion is restricted. Maybe that flex joint helps a bit but I have to say a fixed exhaust connection is just wrong. Perhaps that size pipe just doesn't fit in that space once everything is considered?

M

I'm trying to recall how the stock system was installed and I don't think it was much different. The dumppipe had a bracket up high, which isn't reused, and given how close it was to the bolts I don't really see it doing much. I think there was an attachment on the midpipe, but I can't recall it right now Maybe there wasn't one even. There was a series of rubber hangers at the rear to support the muffler, all but one of which is reused. The system isn't ridged like a rock once installed, it has some give and sway as you'd expect, without being loose.

The middle mount on Dann's exhaust is a bracket around the pipe, which connects to the chassis, not a direct bolt from pipe to chassis. In this way the pipe should be able to expand and move within it to a degree. Ultimately I don't really know, I'm not an engeneer, but I trust Dann has considered it. Love to hear others chime in on this though.

Great write up on the exhaust. I'm eagerly waiting for mine to arrive and I'll be helping my mechanic install mine. Good to hear that you were happy. Now, to give another sunlight silver SE (my car) a Dann 3" exhaust ;).

Helping the mechanic install it is probably the best compromise You'll get the job done quickly and properly, but you'll learn what's going on at the same time

You know, when I first started looking for SEs, I wasn't sold on the Sunlight Silvers, probably because of how many awesome Titanium cars are up here on the forum from MINX, Lokiel, Crapweasel and Nevyn. But this colour has really grown on me, I love it. This car is mine, no others will be like it

[MadMikey]

Yup, definitely can't go wrong with silver. Nice write up