A NB8B Turbo progress.

[IanR]

Test drive with bigger radiator shows no change in coolant temps, 95-100 degrees. Its 15 deg outside, normal street driving.

What have other folk done to get better cooling, the coolant temps only drop when the fans kick in at 95, seems like there is hardly any air getting past the IC and the AC rad so does it need venting somehow?

[Magpie]

Undertray installed?

[IanR]

Undertray installed?

Yes the plastic undertray is there...please explain.

[luzinit]

Nice progress! What front lip have you got there? Looks like some generic black rubber lip but looks good

[Magpie]

Cooling is achieved by forcing the max air possible through the radiator. The more air that goes around the radiator the less cooling. The undertray forms part of the cars OEM cooling system, some people remove them and not put them back on.

[IanR]

Cooling is achieved by forcing the max air possible through the radiator. The more air that goes around the radiator the less cooling. The undertray forms part of the cars OEM cooling system, some people remove them and not put them back on.

Right yes, last night i got myself up to speed on the cooling system and issues and supports for the mx5...

I burped the system again this am and am pretty sure I am doing better with idle now at 92deg w out fans... Big air bubble and 2L water later...I have clearly not done it right first time.

Next step perhaps a high flow theromstat and have some shroud material to force air from fans through Rad.

[Magpie]

This is a handy tool
http://www.lislecorp.com/divisions/products/?product=606
http://www.transquip.com.au/products/24680-LISLE-SPILL-FREE-FUNNEL.html

[IanR]

This is a handy tool
http://www.lislecorp.com/divisions/products/?product=606
http://www.transquip.com.au/products/24680-LISLE-SPILL-FREE-FUNNEL.html

wow!

[Magpie]

People have made the same out of a soft drink bottle. Cut the base off, stick the top in the radiator, seal with tape (gaffa/silver/masking/electrical) BUT the soft drink bottle may not take boiling water!

http://mx5cartalk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=825232#p825232

[IanR]

Cheers!

[IanR]

So fair bit has happened...good and bad, it goes like this.

With all the 3" exhaust parts are ready to build with Joel's guidance, and the 2860rs ready to install, the dyno tune was booked for 2 days after the weekend allocated to install the new parts (inc new Tridon thermostat haha) and build the exhaust...

Life got busy and I was away with work for 5 days leading up to when the dyno time was booked, so I outsourced the job of fitting the turbo and building the exhaust.

Get the car back and sounds the business now with a high flow 3" system, plug in tuner studio and autotune the partial throttle fuel map and just drive it easy for two days ( gave her some juice after seeing the logs showing a good 11.7 at full boost up top ).

Off for the dyno tune Tuesday night. BUT after 2 minutes of preparing the boost, spark and fuel tables all done at low rpm and light throttle, even before one run something broke loose and the motor was turned off sounding like a bag of bolts was inside.

So, now the car is off the road, motor is being pulled and dismantled to find what let go...once we know what it was then that will be fixed and at least oil and water pump will be replaced plus forged rods and maybe pistons depending again on what was damaged...maybe bloody a whole bunch of things...

I was hoping one day to build the motor so the turbo can be allowed to do its thing in the mid range but I was hoping for more than two days before it broke...

2 minutes before.


Thanks goes to NitroDann for organising the engine rebuild at short notice.

[Roadrunner]

People have made the same out of a soft drink bottle. Cut the base off, stick the top in the radiator, seal with tape (gaffa/silver/masking/electrical) BUT the soft drink bottle may not take boiling water!

http://mx5cartalk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=825232#p825232

Haha yeah that was me. Don't do this! Melting plastic fumes are not good. I redid my coolant again recently and just jacked the front up reeeealy high and only filled the radiator to just the top of the core. Plenty of room in the top tank to expand without overflowing (well maybe just a little bit )
It sounds like your car is cooling about as good as mine was. A new thermostat fixed that right up ;)

Sad news about the engine though. Fingers crossed it's not too bad

[IanR]

progress update...

The motor has been pulled out and stripped down to inspect these..



This was found floating in the bottom end...



Causing a bit of this...



plus a bucket of parts,



Seems like at some point in the cars life a nut has fallen into the air intake and worked its way into and through the head (a score was found on one valve ), been then smashed about with some shards gouging into the bottom end bearing.

Don't know what the moral of the story is yet other than "cover all openings when working on your car", there has been a few different hands under the bonnet ( including my left and right ones) the last few months so no idea when the bolt got dropped but take it as the blessing that it is...a perfect time to check, freshen up and rebuild the motor with forged rods, arp bolts and a billet oil pump!

The top end has been assessed and given new stem seals and a tidy up, so basically a refurbished head, rebuilt bottom end, new oil and water pump, arp bolts, forged rods, a few bearings and bushes, engine mount, and replaced worn flywheel later... I dont want to know the bill.

[The American]

Any idea where the nut is missing from?

[IanR]

Any idea where the nut is missing from?

Looks to be a std m10 nut... could be off any thing really, but not anything inside the motor.

I cannot come up with anything other than blaming someone else or myself, so just moving forwards.