From Mexie ... to MXSE ...

Lokiel · Postby **Lokiel** » Sat Oct 24, 2015 8:19 am

KevGoat wrote:I'd owned the SE for around six months now and was thoroughly enjoying driving it and getting use to the turbo. I'd never dríven a turbo'd car before! I know that many aren't happy with the way an SE feels stock, but I was. I have never been a big engine power person and don't tend to get anywhere near most car's limits. I like enough power to get me out of trouble if I need it, but not so much it hardly (if ever) gets used. There had been a few times in the NA6 and NB8A when more power would have been nice, now I had it.
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At the risk of turning you to the darkside (quest for "MOAR POWA"), I'd still recommend you install the AEM CAI, MBC and bump the boost to ~10psi, this really transforms the MSM into feeling like a turbocharged car and will give you an additional ~25rwkw. The added bonus is that it really cleans up your engine bay (also recommend the Suzuki/NoPro Cappucino washer bottle to help clean up the engine bay - expensive but you'll never regret it, and it looks OEM).

ManiacLachy · Postby **ManiacLachy** » Sat Oct 24, 2015 8:51 am

ManiacLachy wrote:I love it when a car comes together! Yours is taking great shape. I've got one of those blox knobs, they're good. What did you set the body to?

"Body" meant to be "boost"

Lokiel, he's got the MBC now, I reckon that (set to 10psi as you say) with either exhaust or intake would be a good mix, but not both. Otherwise, as you know, the ECU short comings become really pronounced, and then your looking at an expensive aftermarket unit.

Personally, I'd opt for the exhaust, better sound but less of a power bump.

ManiacLachy · Postby **ManiacLachy** » Sat Oct 24, 2015 8:52 am

Sorry mate, thought you recommended the exhaust as well, reading comprehension fail on my part. Still exhaust would be my choice.

KevGoat · Postby **KevGoat** » Sat Oct 24, 2015 10:16 am

Thanks guys ...

To answer Maniac's question, the MBC was just left on it's base setting for a while, so stock boost. But I was surprised at how the power felt somehow smoother after fitting it! After that I started playing with it and using the 5th gear wot up a hill method had it set around 9psi. So not a big lift but certainly noticeable.

As for the rest .... stay tuned ... :roll:

Sent from my GT-I9100T using Tapatalk

smy0003 · Postby **smy0003** » Sat Oct 24, 2015 10:32 am

The Boost gauge in the cluster looks like it was always there. Great idea and I'm sure the extra functionality is awesome.

KevGoat · Postby **KevGoat** » Sat Oct 24, 2015 2:06 pm

Time for another holiday ... so, ummm, more holiday snaps :roll:

This time it was up to my Sister's place for a few days in Canberra. We decided to head through Pinnaroo to Swan Hill, then follow the river across to Albury. Head through Corryong, then across the mountains to Jindabyne, Cooma and up to Canberra.

Idea was to do the whole trip top down, especially across the mountains. However, this was late May, so the forecast temps around the mountains were kind of coolish.

Experts at packing the 5 for trips now ...

Wellington Ferry

First issue we had with continuing top down was ...

Hit this dust storm around Pinnaroo. We thought it was smoke at first. When we realised what it was we had to suddenly pull over and get the roof up and close all the vents - just before it hit us!

Survived that and pulled in to Swan Hill for the night.

Next day, morning coffee in Echuca

Then onwards through Wodonga and Old Talangatta to Corryong for the night.

KevGoat · Postby **KevGoat** » Sat Oct 24, 2015 2:31 pm

Next morning, leave Corryong for the journey across the mountains to Jindabyne. Temp leaving Corryong 2°!! Forecast temps over the hills -3° up to +1° .... and it's drizzling .... :shock:

OK ... rugged ourselves up ... dropped the top ... let's have some fun :twisted:

... and yeah ... this was going to happen :roll:

There's snow on them thar hills ...

Dead Horse Gap and the temperature here is -1° !!!

Down the other side and slowly the weather started to clear up as we closed in on Jindabyne

Couple of MX-5 fans came out to cheer us on as we passed ...

Jindabyne ...

Had nice weather the rest of the way in to Canberra

KevGoat · Postby **KevGoat** » Sat Oct 24, 2015 2:39 pm

So some Canberra happy snaps ...

KevGoat · Postby **KevGoat** » Sat Oct 24, 2015 2:51 pm

Left Canberra and headed through the mountains from Cooma via Snowy Mountains Hwy to Kiandra, then turned down The Link Rd, Goat Ridge Rd, Swampy Plains Creek Rd to the Alpine Way. Great drive!

Yeah, not mine, but wished I'd thought to turn the car around at the end of the dam, come back and take that photo looking behind the car :wink:

KevGoat · Postby **KevGoat** » Sat Oct 24, 2015 3:00 pm

Stopped off in Echuca for a few days ...

There's a really good private Holden Museum in Echuca. Worth a look around ...

and the obligatory steam boat cruise ...

... and fittingly, as this steamer was the actual one used in the TV series "All The Rivers Run", we had the pleasure of meeting and chatting with this bloke on board!!

KevGoat · Postby **KevGoat** » Sat Oct 24, 2015 3:16 pm

Leaving Echuca ...

So that looks real promising to keep the top down. We hadn't had it up whole trip yet! As it turned out, there wasn't much rain in it and we were able to continue top down through to home.

Just under 3000 kms, avge 7.3L/100 fuel usage which really impressed me, found the fuel/boost cut a "few" times and the limit of the Dunlop Sports in the wet ... :roll:

The rain on the last day helped keep the mess down ...

The only damage for the trip was a few stone chips to the front bumper, a 10mm scratch from something on the driver side front fender, cracked front number plate protector and the SpeedHut boost gauge lighting failed on the last morning (was the beginning of a run of issues with that gauge) ...

KevGoat · Postby **KevGoat** » Sat Oct 24, 2015 4:14 pm

So, after we got back, our oldest son and his fiance were given a 1990 Civic from a friend of theirs heading OS. It was in a mess! So I offered to clean it up and get it running for them. Kept me busy for a few weeks, during which I ordered some parts for the SE that I wanted to upgrade.

Moss Europe had TrackDog splitters on a really good special showing one left in stock!! Grabbed it real quick at over $100 saving to the US sights!

A lucky find on eBay USA were these MSM Miata "MazdaSpeed" side sills ... very cool

KevGoat · Postby **KevGoat** » Sat Oct 24, 2015 5:22 pm

Then during August, I started having a strange issue with the factory gauges. The rev gauge would start bouncing to zero and back to revs quickly for a few seconds, then the rev gauge, speedo and odo would all cut out completely!

Spent quite a while trying to solve the issue, during which time I removed the ECU cover to inspect the ECU for any moisture intrusion. Found out what a b@$tard of a job the cover is to get off!

Have to grind off the two outer bolts...

No moisture problem here...

Decided to just fix the couple of little bits of rust and take the cover to my spray booth for some KillRust

I nailed the issue down to something in the speed circuit, so started changing items. I was lucky to get hold of an SE instrument panel off a forum member and also managed to grab a gearbox speed sensor at the same time. Changed both of these and problem solved. Turned out to be in the instrument panel microcomputer thingy.

I'd been having intermittent issues with my SpeedHut boost gauge pretty much since new. SpeedHut's support is great, but it had been taking quite a while for them to get back to my enquiries. As this was taking so long to get sorted and the instruments were now out of the car, I decided to purchase a VDO mechanical gauge and fit that. Eventually, SpeedHut had me do some tests on the gauge and sensor, following which they sent me a brand new gauge plus sensor at no cost!! I've decided to leave my instrument panel stock after the issues I'd had, so probably won't use the new SpeedHut gauge. Might put it for sale sometime (with the old gauge which has the cut case etc to fit in the instrument panel!!)