Emily's 04 VR SE

[Roadrunner]

Those rims look awesome! Can't wait to see them on the car.

Might be the colour I paint my track rims!

[emily_mx5]

Apart from not being chrome, it's a very close match to SE oem wheel colour.
I have to wait for the second pair to be delivered as they were split up for shipping

[ED_MX5]

What's your tyre choice?
I can't wait to see pics of everything installed.

[emily_mx5]

Working 6 days a week and all this rain means not a lot of installing going on

I have a set of 205/45/16 Bridgestone RE002 ready to go

[ED_MX5]

Oh you've already bought some have ya?
Yeah, I cant do much with mine co's of all this rain too. Havn't dríven it much recently either

[Rob]

This has been a really great thread to follow, through the three cars.

[emily_mx5]

Time for an update!

I spent a bit of time working on the engine bay, completing some servicing and just doing odd jobs like cleaning or fiddling and of course some mods.

First up was my Nopro washer bottle relocation, an OEM Suzuki Cappuccino item. New pvc lines too, which I flipped the routing to the USDM positioning just like on my NA.



The radiator was a very light chocolate brown, something I really couldn't put off replacing any longer.
I decided to get a genuine Koyo 37mm alloy replacement and re-use my ASI slim fans and shroud set up from my old NA.



Core size differences (note when it comes to a radiator, width is not everything, tube and fin density designs designs differed greatly)



Fans mounted



And of course new silicone coolant hoses and ss hose clamps.



All went very smoothly, no hardships to note. I saved myself some grief with the slim fans, the chunky stock SE ones would have been very difficult.

* Will update further along, car overheated with this set up *

MX5+ braided clutch line went in next, completely deleted the stupid gearbox double crossover lines and hard line coils at the slave. Surprisingly made a noticeable difference!



This freed up a threaded hole at the base of the firewall on the passenger side, so I decided to relocate the O2 sensor bracket, because it seems stupid to have it bolted to the turbo heatshield. Quick manipulation with pliers and a screwdriver and the wiring now sits perfectly.



And the most exciting piece yet, NitroDann SE Short Ram intake kit.
This arrived whilst I was fitting the radiator, so I ended up spending the whole day disassembling the engine bay haha.



I had a K&N pod filter that was 2.75” and fitted directly on the MAF, which I modified to hold the stock IAT sensor.



Here is the INSANE stock SE intake. I measured the lengths of the intake tracts and Dann's one is approximately 1/6th length of stock. Wow.



Very neat fitment, didn't even have to move the relay panel.



I hate it when people say this because it is so rarely true, but that single modification transformed the car. Noise of the spool, turbo flutter and bov release was finally audible. Power kicked in 1500rpm earlier! and felt so much better everywhere. The 4500rpm closed/open loop switch was now a definitely noticeable shift, but it certainly wasn't jerky or uncomfortable. If you have a stock SE, do this mod first, makes it truly wonderful to drive. Who doesn't love intake growl!

[Lokiel]

:
I hate it when people say this because it is so rarely true, but that single modification transformed the car. Noise of the spool, turbo flutter and bov release was finally audible. Power kicked in 1500rpm earlier! and felt so much better everywhere. The 4500rpm closed/open loop switch was now a definitely noticeable shift, but it certainly wasn't jerky or uncomfortable. If you have a stock SE, do this mod first, makes it truly wonderful to drive. Who doesn't love intake growl!

This was my experience too with the addittion of the CAI and "upping the boost" to 10psi.

When I started looking at SE's I wasn't impressed at all with their performance but I needed a "new" car. I came from a 1982 Mitsubishi JA Starion which was an awesome GT car and definitely got the adrenalin pumping when boosting. The stock SE had none of that boost rush and didn't even feel like the car was turbocharged. I ended up buying a car that the PO had installed the FM downpipe on because it felt a little more "urgent" than the others I drove - FM reckon it starts boosting 500rpm earlier which is why I suspect it felt more "urgent" than the other cars. It still didn't do much for me until I installed the AEM CAI and increased the boost from 7.25psi to 10psi - that really put a big smile on my face, I could now feel the car boosting and enjoy all the new whooshing noises that let me know something was really going on under the bonnet. These 2 modz alone bring the car up to around 135rwkw (stock is around 110rwkw) and if it had this performance from the factory I'm betting Mazda would have sold "a helluva lot of 'em" - unfortunately the MSM/SE's timing was wrong, a new model was on the horizon and a "proper MSM/SE" would have killed sales of the new NC model

The CAI and increasing boost are the best bang-for-buck power modz you can do to an SE ("Mr. Plod" will insist that the CAI should be enclosed though).

[emily_mx5]

The car has changed so much since I did the intake, just got really slack with updating the build thread haha.

Will be posting everything else in the next couple of days!

Yep a different intake and the jdm/usdm boost settings would have made them a far better car from factory.

[Roadrunner]

Looking forward to the rest of the updates!
Need pics of those 9inch wide wheels on too

[Mr Sexy]

:
I hate it when people say this because it is so rarely true, but that single modification transformed the car. Noise of the spool, turbo flutter and bov release was finally audible. Power kicked in 1500rpm earlier! and felt so much better everywhere. The 4500rpm closed/open loop switch was now a definitely noticeable shift, but it certainly wasn't jerky or uncomfortable. If you have a stock SE, do this mod first, makes it truly wonderful to drive. Who doesn't love intake growl!

This was my experience too with the addittion of the CAI and "upping the boost" to 10psi.

When I started looking at SE's I wasn't impressed at all with their performance but I needed a "new" car. I came from a 1982 Mitsubishi JA Starion which was an awesome GT car and definitely got the adrenalin pumping when boosting. The stock SE had none of that boost rush and didn't even feel like the car was turbocharged. I ended up buying a car that the PO had installed the FM downpipe on because it felt a little more "urgent" than the others I drove - FM reckon it starts boosting 500rpm earlier which is why I suspect it felt more "urgent" than the other cars. It still didn't do much for me until I installed the AEM CAI and increased the boost from 7.25psi to 10psi - that really put a big smile on my face, I could now feel the car boosting and enjoy all the new whooshing noises that let me know something was really going on under the bonnet. These 2 modz alone bring the car up to around 135rwkw (stock is around 110rwkw) and if it had this performance from the factory I'm betting Mazda would have sold "a helluva lot of 'em" - unfortunately the MSM/SE's timing was wrong, a new model was on the horizon and a "proper MSM/SE" would have killed sales of the new NC model

The CAI and increasing boost are the best bang-for-buck power modz you can do to an SE ("Mr. Plod" will insist that the CAI should be enclosed though).

So boost can safely be raised after upgrading the intake? Always seems to be a touching subject.

I was kicking my self for not doing the upgrade earlier, its definitely one of those must do mods!

[emily_mx5]

I learned from all other SE owners mistakes.
I didn't touch boost or exhaust till standalone ecu and tune. It's not worth it, the factory ecu gets confused and it just isn't smooth or nice to drive.

[Lokiel]

:
So boost can safely be raised after upgrading the intake? Always seems to be a touching subject.

I was kicking my self for not doing the upgrade earlier, its definitely one of those must do mods!

The CAI and bumping the boost to 10psi takes the car up to ~135rwkw which the stock ECU can handle.
A larger exhaust nets you another ~10kw (you should get larger injectors too otherwise you'll be running too lean) and takes you into territory that the stock ECU was never designed to accommodate.
So yes, you can safely do the CAI mod and bump the boost with no noticeable issues (except that stupid grin on your face).

[A.Chen89]

Nek minute you'll start installing a Borg, it never ends!

[emily_mx5]

Just you wait and see...
Hint hint Haltech Elite ;)