Gregory the NA8 II: Project Apache Thunder-Fist

[smy0003]

Dann can

Hahahaha you've coined it, and forever it shall be named.

[Alex 2550]

Hahaha yer it's got a good ring to it.

[smy0003]

So I've been holding out on everyone while I thought of the best way to show you all Dann's build photos. I've tried to make them into loosely related collages to cut down on the photo dump. Anyway, here we go.

The exhaust:
It's a 3" system from the turbo all the way to the rear subframe where it steps down to 2.5" to dodge everything and meet up with my RS*R Power muffler.
It's quiet.
Like, really quiet. Quiet as in probably 40% more quiet than it was NA with just the RS*R Power muffler. This is something I really wanted Dann to achieve, and he pulled it off almost magically. It's quieter than a stock MX-5 at idle. Almost all you hear is wooshy turbo sounds which are actually quite soothing, like automotive Whale songs. The BOV only goes PSHHT when you're giving it some, at all other times it's very non-invasive.
The most interesting part of the exhaust is the manifold and dump, turns out it was one of the very first few manifolds that Dann ever made years ago. It's pretty cool that it travelled all the way down to VIC, then all the way back to Dann, now it lives in VIC. Full circle.


Moving on!

Intercooler Piping:

I gave Dann a challenge for this one. The NA8 is notoriously hard to build intercooler pipes for due to the TB and IACV orientation, so he went a bit freestyle:


Silicon joiners? Pfft, aluminium elbows welded to the cooler look absolutely fantastic, and keep joiners and clamps out of the mouth of the 5. No drift-spec intercooler set-ups for Gregory.

Hotside Plumbing

Here's some pics of how the turbo was packaged, in the bottom right pic the wastegate actuator location wasn't finalised. It sits on the back of the compressor housing as seen in the first two pics:



Blooper reel:

Here's some shots of things that I sent up to Dann to die, some of it was eBay junk like the clamp, however the oil block fitting and manifold stud were reputable brands bought locally from reputable shops. As Dann said, 'Welcome to Cars.'



I have more pictures handy, so I'm happy to post up more if anyone would like a closer look at anything

[speed]

Looking good. Especially liked the wastegate actuator mounting and its location.

I'd like to see a pic of the entire engine bay so I could take it all in

Ok so now I have a few questions. Does the Na8 require a hose from the IAC to the TB intercooler pipe? If so I'd like to see that too.

Is that your BOV mounted between the hotside intercooler pipe and air filter?

Lastly, t25 or t28 and how do you find the spool up and power band now with all the other work that Dann has done?

So wish mine was closer to complete.. but one day

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[smy0003]

Looking good. Especially liked the wastegate actuator mounting and its location.

I'd like to see a pic of the entire engine bay so I could take it all in
See below

Ok so now I have a few questions. Does the Na8 require a hose from the IAC to the TB intercooler pipe? If so I'd like to see that too.
It does, I'll try and get a pic of that but it hides under the TB intercooler pipe and upper rad hose.

Is that your BOV mounted between the hotside intercooler pipe and air filter?
Yep, it's the one that I bought in a big box of bits from Juffa which included the Mani/Dump and Wideband, no idea what it is but it seems to do the job. Bit of a weird place to put it when you look at it on the bench like that, but it hides it away nicely sort of upright next to the rad on the hot-side when fitted.

Lastly, t25 or t28 and how do you find the spool up and power band now with all the other work that Dann has done?
Well I still don't know for sure. The part number matches a Garret 2554R, but it was a Nissan built (Japan) turbo and Dann said it looked tiny with the compressor housing removed, smaller than a 2554R. It's quite possible that it's from a Skyline GTR (Twin turbo, so has to be tiny), but it's definitely ball bearing as it made 170-180hp on wastegate pressure and you can hear it spin for about 30-40 seconds after you shut the car down. It ran out of puff at 205whp with the EBC, but it suits what I wanted perfectly. I mostly putt about town to work and the shops, and it gets to full boost at half throttle according to my logs. I haven't floored it yet, not even close. So it's good that the little turbo can give me the boost without me having to really stick my foot in it, I'm a bit of a Grandma.

So wish mine was closer to complete.. but one day
It's worth the wait.

[speed]

Thanks for the extra pics.
It's a very neat setup.
Your turbo sits lower than mine and has more clearance which is nice.
I was going to make my IC piping before fitting the radiator but after seeing yours, think I'm best to fit the coolant reroute so I can see exactly how to do the hose for the IAC and then determine where to fit the BOV.
205whp is more than double stock power, so a very respectable result and I bet the extra torque is amazing.
You've given me a greater perspective for the order in which to do things and I'm grateful for that.
I don't drive particularly fast either. It's just not worth the risk.
Thanks again and I look forward to reading more as it happens.


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[smy0003]

In my eternal quest to add shiny bits to my car (my Mum's Mum was a quarter Magpie) I had a great idea about polishing the soft-top latches.
Proceeding without much research, I drove across town to visit Jan; the backyard MX-5 wrecker and nice guy, to pick up a tired set of latches for a bargain.

First step is to take the flappy bit off the mechanism (E-clips are annoying and end up under the work bench):


I tried to chemically strip the finish off using degreaser:


Then paint stripper (nasty stuff):


It was laughing at my efforts:


My tester/poker didn't fare so well, it once was a plastic credit card thing:


So I was forced to sand it off, after about two hours it looked like this:


Gave it another hour and a bit and now it looks like this:


That's more than enough for one day, and I still have one more to go! I have a new found respect for Bear's valve cover.

[bruce]

I wonder if they're factory powdercoated?
I reckon getting them chromed wouldn't be too costly (I've seen a chromer in Blackburn).

[smy0003]

I reckon they are. It's properly tough and I'm 99% sure it's not anodized. There's two layers of the stuff, the black outer layer (you probably guessed) and a layer of copper/brassy colour stuff on top of the alu.
They still manage to corrode because the underside isn't completely powdercoated.

I'm staring at the other one and wondering how much money I'd have to part with for it to be someone else's problem. I've seen plenty of chromers in blackburn, but none of the type I think you're talking about.
Where abouts? I thought cool places like that didn't exist until you got out to Bayswater or Springvale.

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[Okibi]

Keep going and you'll get better and it, let the sand paper do most of the work, don't try and buff out scraches that you could sand out.

Then polish it up.

[smy0003]

Thanks Okibi
I was surprised when the polished didn't get all the scratches out, then I thought why would it?
I'll spend some time youtubing some 'Aluminum' polishing vids, because doing research is usually helpful.

[bruce]

There's one in Cottage St (and a historic car restorer across the road).
They usually copper plate before chroming. That layer sound suspicious.

[smy0003]

Thanks Bruce, I'm fairly certain there's an auto trimmers around there too. Nice to have these things so close to home even if you only get to use them once in a while.

Got up at 7 and got stuck into it again, three hours of sanders running means that my neighbours probably didn't sleep in. Used the belt sander (something well below 100 grit) to strip the factory finish off the second latch (the copper coloured under-coat is tougher than the alu, whatever it is). Then knocked them both back to 100grit with the hand buzzer sander:


Then through 150, 240 dry and 340 wet:


Then through 800 wet and metal polish:



Not perfect, but not bloody bad if I don't say so myself. Okibi is on the money, if there's one sentence to remember when polishing it's 'If it hasn't come out with the coarse grit, it won't be coming out with a finer grit.'

[Okibi]

They look awesome!

Now you just need to find another item to polish .. and another .. and another ..

[bruce]

He will wear his fingers down to nubs!