Alex's white NA8 build.

[smy0003]

Am bummed I can't clock it but that's another story.

A mx5 wedding would be super cool but may not be very practical for the bridal party.

Why can't the turbo be clocked, Speed. Isn't it a T25?

I'd love to get in on an MX5 wedding car convoy, too bad I'm all the way down in Melb.

[speed]

Am bummed I can't clock it but that's another story.

A mx5 wedding would be super cool but may not be very practical for the bridal party.

Why can't the turbo be clocked, Speed. Isn't it a T25?

I'd love to get in on an MX5 wedding car convoy, too bad I'm all the way down in Melb.

Is a t28.
With the begi manifold, clocking would hit the hard pipe from the bottom of radiator and the actuator would require new holes tapped in compressor to mount it. Means more time off road to modify a solution

[smy0003]

Ahhhh I get you, I'm currently having an awful time trying to get the compressor snap ring back in so if you can get the oil drain lined up without clocking then it's a win.

[Alex 2550]

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Few pics, first time using tapatalk and pics just from phone but gives a little idea

[speed]

Very nice!

[Alex 2550]

thanks Steve, its getting there. i have a full set of replacement water hoses coming. I went with a new full silicone kit in black i got for a bargain off a forum member. I prefer rubber as they tend to clamp better but ill see how they go, for the price im happy. Im hanging to do some mods but i'm just putting money aside for parts to fix the cosmetic stuff at the moment and maintenance items.
Rear numberplate panel for NA8 is a B**** to find so i have talked to Marc from carbon miata (very helpful guy, customer service so far is unreal) about rear panel in glass and a couple other goodies

[Alex 2550]

Few maintenance items arrived.

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[Alex 2550]

wanted to do something constructive the other night with the MX so cleaned the drain holes as i was told that i should check them. the last owner rarely took the hardtop off so i wasn't sure how they would be. turns out they were perfectly clear. I used a shotgun cleaning rod and brush to clean it (the soft style not wire style) and it went straight through with hardly any dirt on it.
another job ticked off.

[Alex 2550]

So been a little quiet of late on the build but have been doing stuff to the little mx so time for an update. Fist little thing that was driving me crazy was a couple rattles and droopy eye ball vents.
The first rattle was easy as it was just the glove box latch, I put some adhesive rubberised foam tabs at the back of the glove box and this holds just enough pressure to stop the rattle but isn't hard to close.
The next one was a pain in the backside.
It was coming from behind the tombstone so as most are aware a large portion of the interior came out ( yep upper shift boot was shagged as expected). The culprit was a wire connector hitting the plastic to the left of the drivers leg. Fortunately there was actually some foam on the wire to stop this but it had moved so I repositioned it and taped it.
For the droopy eyeballs I purchased some adhesive backed felt similar to OEM but thicker and basically re did the factory job, they are probably a little tight but they don't drop so "GREAT SUCCESS!!!".
The next thing to do was a cowl intake......


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[Alex 2550]

Now for the cowl intake I took photos along the way. I'm new to using tapatalk so please keep it in mind.
I would love a loch intake but they are a little slim now days and I do like the mania but don't really want the carbon and thought well I'll make my own and it will give me something to do.
So I went the way of the pvc pipe.
From the get go I wanted to have a 76mm hole like many other diy cowl intakes incase I didn't like it I could grab a mania one and wouldn't need to enlarge a smaller hole.
However what I did differently to others was instead of using 75mm pipe as the main intake then attach a adaptor to the usual Simota pod I used 100mm pipe. The reason for this was for larger volume of essentially the air box and I figured I could overcome a rattle associated there, more on this later.
The parts required from the plumbing supplies were:
*pvc 75-100mm adaptor $9
*pvc join $5
*pvc 100mm pipe. Free off cut. .

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I didn't want the intake to look like a dunny pipe so the adaptor in the photo has already had the threaded end cut off and been sanded as I was going to paint it.

Next part required was a silicone joiner 3 inch internal diameter.
I picked up one from super cheap for $10 (other colours available I wanted black)

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So now we have this.

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Trial fit
As stated I didn't want a dunny intake so I cut down the join to 50mm (25mm either side of internal seat in the joiner)
Sanded all casting marks, pn lips ect and now have this.

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So time to join it all together, do not use plumbers glue.... I say again do not use plumber glue. I hate to think what it would do to sensors ect I used this as I had it laying around

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Join it all up..... More to come





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[Alex 2550]

Starting at the cowl end.

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Small smear around join and then slide into 75mm end of adaptor this is a tight fit but doable and will seat perfectly.

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Next around joiner
So you should have this, wipe off excess.

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Now let it all dry overnight. Beer time the beer is for the courage to drill a 75mm hole in your car. I then cleaned it up and slightly enlarged it with a dremmel, no pics sorry but I taped the area right up to save any paint chipping and used a hole there as a guide between the two washer bottle holes. I also made a 3 inch template to check location and size and stuck it there as a guide.
More to come.


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[Alex 2550]

Ok so that's the hard bit done and past the point of no return. I should also mention I cleaned up all metal shavings and actually had a bloody large magnet under the hole saw to catch them then painted the hole with colour coded touch up paint and let it dry overnight. I also had to cut a small piece of the plastic trim that sits over the fresh air vent basically I marked it out through the hole and trimmed it back a couple mm. It isn't noticeable with the black silicone and looks factory. I believe black penguin had a photo on his build of doing that with his mania intake, thanks for the heads up pete.
Next night time for a trial fit.
Now this is where that little silicone join plays a major part as this is what goes through the fire wall and because of this there is no metal on plastic, fibreglass, carbon ect rattle associated with these intakes. But it is a very tight fit so easiest is to bend a corner down feed it in then reach into cowl and pop corner up. Trust me it's tight!!

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At this time I took a measurement from the lip inside the join to the start of the tapered section of my simota filter to get the pipe length required.
Cut it and trial fit.

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Now I should mention here that the 100mm pipe WILL NOT fit over the simota filter now there is two ways around this. One is buy another adaptor but it's pretty ugly and I didn't like using one to be honest. Or two sand down a lip internally of the 100mm pipe.
I used 100mm storm water so not sure if drain pipe would have as thick a wall but essentially what I have has pvc, some blue plastic, then Pvc again.
I used the blue as a guide and when I had a nice blue ring inside the pipe it slid onto the simota fine tight but on easy. (I also chamfered all edges on this build except filter to help assembly and make the finish neater)

Now my car does not have extractors but will be seeing a full nitrodann system shortly so I have kept this in mind. Many people criticise these intakes for heat soak when running past extractors and I looked at ways to perhaps reduce this including shields however I found the best to be this stuff.

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It is aluminised fibreglass tape with a reflective back. So not only reflects but insulates. You can get it in gold which would work better (reflects better) but I didn't want a fully sick gold intake and on the mx we may be talking 0.000001hp difference.
For what it's worth this stuff in gold is used to shield the intakes in F1 so yes it works.
Now applying this I figured I would wrap it however with the diameter size change ect it was going to look ordinary from folds ect. I instead cut strips and went length ways.
The adhesive is very good but over time I'm sure would lift so I fitted a stainless hose clamp each end for this and to hide the ugly frays and uneven cuts.
So you should have something now like this

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After a test fit I also did the side and underneath of the filter shield close to the exhaust but didn't worry about the rest because...... It's pretty and shiny. Lol.
So now that it was done I fitted it up and rotated the afm 180 degrees to move plug to other side just to neaten the wiring and keep it away from heat.
It also allowed me to make a bracket to go from old airbox mount to afm. This isn't really needed but thought it couldn't hurt and also made up a bracket for the washer bottle. (Only temporary as I'm getting a nopro bottle.
So all done.

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[Alex 2550]

So final thoughts.
IT IS VERY LOUD!!! But I like it.
There is definitely a crisper throttle everywhere and power increase (by butt dyno) is only mild and only noticed it over 5,000rpm which was probably the snorkel and bends before acting as a restriction. I had a k&n panel in my airbox before.
Would I do it again yer I probably would.
Cost was:
*plumbing supplies $9.
*silicone join $10.
*simota filter $55 delivered.
*heat tape $50 delivered.
* blue sensor safe silicone, clamps, metal for brackets all Free as I had it laying around.
* time about 5 hours.
So cost me $124 but call it $150 if you had to buy silicone clamps ect.

Now the down side I did develop a rattle from it.
My A/C lines are not touching and I searched for ages because it was bad enough to want to remove the intake. It turned out to be the flap for fresh air rattling when on full recirc if I slide knob back 10mm it goes away so all in all I'm happy.
it also only rattled at 3/4 to full WOT.
i have the brass monkey run in a couple weeks so ill mention any improvements to fuel consumption, at the moment its worse because i use more throttle so i can listen to it lol



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[Alex 2550]

Next project was the cooling system.
As seen on page 2 I got a full brand new silicone hose kit off a member on here.
It is badged samco but I think they could be fakes however a sticker on the packet (like a small pricing label sticker) has a samco number on it so who knows. I will say I have seen many cheap Chinese hoses that have some of the reinforcement webbing sticking out the inside of the hose causing wicking and being very ordinary in construction. The ones I have seen also have only had one level of reinforcement where these have between 3 and 5 depending on hose. so if these are Chinese they are certainly well made and actually have part numbers Moulded internally (my wrx samco intake had this) so who knows I believe they are fakes but good Chinese quality not poor Chinese quality.
Anyway because if this I figured time for full cooling system overhaul.
The radiator in the car is genuine and not very old so that was kept.
I purchased:
*nulon flush.
*nulon green coolant.
* the mentioned hoses.
*tridon high flow thermostat, standard temp.
*thermostat gasket.
*tridon locking radiator cap, with red lever standard pressure.
*all new ryco stainless clamps.
So I drained some coolant dropped in flush and went for a 30 minute drive, came back put car on ramps, took off underbody tray, looked up and saw two brass outlets looking at me. My car has an auto genuine radiator fitted, apparently it is a mild upgrade so first little win.
Anyway I replaced all hoses, yep even the ones under the manifold which were a bastard. Easier after I removed that big manifold brace and after research left it off. Put in the new parts, tried to clean inside overflow and mixed coolant in system at around 35%.
Now having researched this for a couple weeks checking out simple upgrades it has been mentioned that, the highflow thermostat, auto radiator and filling gaps around radiator is a worthwhile improvement (no brainer that one).
For record check out the size difference in the opening of the highflow and standard thermostat.

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So two out of three ticked I started on the third.
Now everyone has seen the panels for blocking the top of the radiator. I have a diy one that I cleaned up, improved and fitted but still had a gap between radiator and top radiator support so out came the rubberised foam and filled it nicely.

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Next which according to some Americans is more important was the gap between the radiator and the bottom/sides of underbody tray.
Again I used the rubberised foam which is adhesive on one side, it is a very strong glue so make sure it's in the right place if you use it.
I had to layer it to get it right but filled the gap nicely and holds a slight pressure on the screws at the front of the tray acting a little like a spring washer.

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Once all back together and air removed from system I took the car for a drive and noticed..... Nothing as I expected but with the big run coming up I have piece of mind knowing it's done and some hoses were way past there use by and those sprung steel clamps are crap especially after 21 years.
If I do a track day soon that will be the real test for this setup but come summer there will be a coolant reroute fitted. I believe the current setup would be fine at the track this time of year and any street work.
An extra thing I did as I will have extractors was use the left over heat tape from the intake on the heater hoses to shield them a little.
I'll try get a photo up.


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[bruce]

Very neatly done.
I guess the Thermotec tape would've been the dearest part of the build?