Lokiel's "Gina" (2004 Titanium SE)

[ManiacLachy]

About time! And as always, very nice work. Still in progress completing the install of the manifold, or are further updates to come?

Do you think the removal of your power-steering allowed you the room to re-route the lower radiator hose? What about the OEM turbo location? I just find it hard to believe Mazda would have done it harder than necessary down there (though, it wouldn't be the first time), and suspect you've given yourself more room to work with your mods.

[Lokiel]

Many, many more updates to come. I planned to install the manifold and turbo too but Saturday morning was also spent running around trying to find oil line fittings.

The oil lines supplied in the TSE kit assume that there's no oil feed available on the hot-side of the engine block and provides an adapter to take it from the cold-side where the OEM oil pressure gauge sits. The oil line is over a metre long and must feed behind the engine to the top of the turbo.

The MSM has an oil-feed on the hot-side, which is what Dann used so I'm going to shorten the hose about 2/3 and use that - shorter lines are better.

The MSM's oil drain to the sump sits in a different location to where TSE recommends to tap the engine pan and the supplied drain hose is too long so that needs to be shortened too. No pint drilling a new hole in the oil pan when the existing one will work!
The TSE oil drain line uses an AN-10 hose which seems overkill since Borg-Warner recommend using an 8-AN oil drain hose - I guess that the AN-10 hose was used because that's what most track guy prefer for their oil coolers and TSE had plenty of that on hand, along with the fittings

I found some of the needed fittings but needed to order the others so there was no point spening more time on that.

It does look like the A/C hard-line plumbing is going to need to be re-routed though at the rear of the engine bay since it will foul the downpipe.
Anyone know what's involved in doing this and can I get a "mobile guy" to bring his van and re-route the hard-lines?

The hose sits below the P/S so I doubt that P/S mandated the convoluted radiator hose routing - I suspect that the steering shaft on LHD cars may have meant it was necessary. ROuting the hot-side intercooler pipes will be easier now, there's even more space available.

[Lokiel]

This weekend was spent shortening the TSE oil lines and fitting the TSE manifold, EFR6258, oil lines, TSE water lines and orienting the turbo so that the wastegate actuator functioned correctly - that last bit is EXTREMELY important for EFR6xxx turbochargers, there's only about 2* margin of error before wastegate valve binding occurs.

- and to make this an even more enjoyable experience, it was a stinking hot/humid weekend here in Brisbane!

Trial-mounting the manifold and turbo during the week immediately revealed one BIG problem that's unknown to LHDers:

- the lower A/C hose is right where the downpipe needs to go and the A/C cannister is in the way!


The A/C hose to the rear needed to be moved.

After removing the lower A/C hose and rear cannister, there looks to be enough room for the downpipe - hopefully I wont need to move that ABS hardline too:


For some reason, my new TurboSmart wastegate actuator and the original Borg-Warner actuators all seemed to have very short shafts, 120mm from the base of the actuator to the end; I could barely get the nut on to hold the wastegate shut.
My original one had a much longer shaft but is was bent in a couple of places to try and make my original installation work.
I straightened out the shaft in my vice and with a hammer but then couldn't find any nuts that would fit it so had to re-tap the shaft to an M6 thread to match those on the cannister.

I spent a lot of time ensuring that the wastegate was aligned correctly using Aiden Daly-Jensen's video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aaHB6t93sLg and Savington/Andrew' video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9rATOFgoVc.
If you don't get this right, your wastegate will NOT work correctly!
Once that was done, I tightened up the bolts holding the exhaust housing to the CHRA, marked the oil hoses to the length needed, removed the turbo+manifold, oil lines and tightened everything to spec.

These are the MSM/SE oil feed/drain and coolant ports:


The TSE kit assumes that users need to drill an oil drain port in the front of the oil pan so supply a 10-AN hose which is too long since the MSM/SE's oil drain is further back. Borg-Warner recommend AN-8 fittings so since I needed to shorten the hose anyway and had a few 8-AN fittings, I bought some AN-8 teflon hose+extra fittings and made it to the correct size:


The TSE kit's oil feed line assumes that there's no oil feed line on the hotside of the engine and provides an adapter for the OEM oil pressure sender on the coldside of the engine that reaches behing the engine to the top of the EFR turbo. I shortened this hose to run from the MSM/SE's AN-4 oil feed port to the turbo.

I could have used the MSM/SE's water ports too but the TSE kit has some beautiful stainless steel water lines so "BECAUSE SHINY", I used them and blocked off the MSM/SE ports (silicone hose sheath over OEM barb and fat rubber bung tightly fitted over it with spring clamp so it wont leak):


I tried fitting my new AN-8 oil drain line but no matter how much I tried, I could only get one fitting screwed in.
The fittings are aluminium so I was paranoid about cross threading them and when one end is secured, there's not enough flex in the hose to align the other end and, needless to say, you need to bend your arm/hand/wrist in ways it was never intended in a very confined space.
No wonder you see most of the EFR installations with pictures of everything installed while the motor's out!
I was also annoyed at how many fittings were need for the oil pan.
Speed Flow requires a flange, then another male-male fitting for that, then the hose fitting.
I think I'm just going to use push-on fitting for the oil drain where the lower flange has an integrated 45* barb.



I now have to figure out how to route the hotside intercooler plumbing.
The outlet barb can be rotated from where it sits now up to 10'o'clock.
I've ordered a 2" 180* silicone hose and 2" 135* silicone hose to see if that'll work but the A/C looks like it will be in the way.
Without it there, I could simply use a 45* silicone hose to the 2" pipe but in QLD, I need the A/C.

I still need to figure out the A/C, fit the downpipe and get someone to modify Dann's 3" exhaust to fit - I reckon I'm about 60% finished!

[ManiacLachy]

I was going to PM you today to see how progress was going. Looks like you're making good headway.

I didn't even think about the AC interference issues! I know the LHD guys have the brake MC right there, and they need to be weary of heat from the DP. I'm curious to see what you come up with as a solution. Not that you/Gina really need AC, you won't be driving in peak hour traffic to and from work, and when the car is in motion you get plenty of breeze, even on a hot summers day. The only time I use my AC is when I'm stuck in traffic in >30*. I say pull the AC and make life simple! (but also, don't, I'm going to need an AC solution in time and I appreciate your R&D )

Thank you so much for the photo with the oil and water ports! I have wanted to see something like that for a long time, I couldn't workout where everything went by looking in the engine bay.

I think most people resort to a push on fitting for the oil drain, even the TSE builds. It won't be under pressure, so it doesn't need AN adaptors.

I'm surprised the WG actuator rod is so short. Photos I've seen have shown plenty of length for the nut. Do you think the mounting plate was bent previously to assist with the WG issues you had with the old manifold?

[Lokiel]

Looking around at other installations, this is normal with the wastegate in the 11:30 position vs. the 10:00 position.

11:30 (Typical TSE manifold position):



10:00 (Custom manifold position):


I'm not comfortable without a double nut at the end of the wastegate actuator so the longer shaft is preferable.
I think my original TurboSmart actuator was a generic one that came out BEFORE the dedicated EFR6258 version so it's longer which works much better for the TSE manifold.

I'd recommend the longer, generic version and will ask TurboSmart about it since I think they'd agree.

Here's what the original one looked like AFTER it was bent (by a shop specialising in turbos) to try and work with Dann's manifold:

The biggest problem was that with a low mount, there was not enough room to clock the wastegate actuator into the correct position.

How the hell NitroDann managed to fit everything into a low mount (specified by me, Dann initially suggested a top mount) in the first place still amazes me - and I still had P/S back then.

[Daffy]

Great progress mate, not long now before you’re hitting the the winding roads

[Lokiel]

Sunday night I ordered a lot of 2" silicone hoses and aluminium pipes of various configurations (45*, 90*, 135*, 180*) to do the hotside plumbing but the only one that arrived during the week was a 135* silicone elbow and a black SAAS 32mm hose joiner (while the 34mm silver one I previously installed did fit, the smaller 32mm one was a better fit and looks better in black).

It turns out that the cut-down 135* silicone hose mated to a 45* aluminium pipe I already had was almost perfect (because the P/S has been deleted):


* the initial 135* bend is far from ideal but it's as good as I can get unless I want to route the intercooler plumbing like the MSM does (above the shelf and down, through it)
* I'm NOT a fan of that path because it means you end up with a hot pipe running through your Cold Air Box which is even worse.

It looks like I should be able to replace the intercooler's existing aluminium 2" J-pipe and short 45* silicone elbow with a 180* aluminium pipe and longer 45* silicone hose:




The 135* silicone elbow gives good access to the A/C compressor fittings which should help when making custom A/C lines (unfortunately even the A/C compressor hose that goes to the front needs to be modified too because there's an intercooler pipe in the way!):

- those bolts are sticking out about the depth of the A/C compressor's "peanut" fittings (I wanted some idea of how much space I needed around them).

[Lokiel]

Saturday I looked at moving the wastegate actuator into the 10:00 o'clock position since I have a new hood that may not accommodate it sitting so high.
I tried moving the bracket anti-clockwise to the next set of mount points but the shaft CANNOT slot into the rear wastegate valve's slot.
I made a few prototype mounting brackets from thin aluminium since it allowed me to easily bend it into whatever angle I needed but found that there was no way to ensure that the shaft moved back and forth smoothly - DAMNIT, will have to live with the wastegate actuator sitting high and no new hood!

The AN-8 push-on fittings oil-return hose I made was a little too long so needed to be shortened.
The AN-8 teflon hose I made earlier was impossible to fit and was about 50mm shorter so I figured I'd make it 25mm longer, maybe that was why it was so hard to fit - with the hose fitted to the turbo first when I installed it and the manifold, I was able to fit the the oil-pan end without too much hassle:


I got some more 2" silicone hoses and aluminium pipes during the week and completed the hotside plumbing:


I still need to bead the intercooler end and am really happy with how much clearance the plumbing has - the only thing I really hate is that initial 135* bend which I can't do anything about

Next up was installing the downpipe.

The ABS line noted in the earliear post was going to be in the way so moved by hand-bending the hard-line (was worried about using tools in case I snapped it). Bending theses lines by hand is really time consuming but you can feel if you're stressing the line:


The TSE instructions indicate that the water hose at the firewall needs to be removed during installation and the pipe bent because it's in the way of the downpipe so I removed it (circled in yellow):
It quickly became obvious that the rear shelf would need to be trimmed.
After multiple fittings+trims with a tungsten bit on my Dremel, I finally managed to fit the downpipe:


There's about 2mm of clearance (adjacent to yellow line) which isn't enough IMO so I'll trim it a little more before I re-paint the trimmed section.
The ABS line is ~45mm below the downpipe so it's safely out of the way.

Depending on how much I need to bend the water hose pipe, I may shorten the AN-4 oil line to route to the turbo on the engine side since it looks cleaner than going around the other side like I originally planned to.

I'd also like to re-angle the dispstick since my 3-point front strut brace makes it awkward to remove - still need to check if the brace fits with wastegate actuator sitting so high!

[bruce]

You don't have a hoist? Quickjacks?
If not u r doing a great job without them.

[Lokiel]

No hoist or QuickJacks unfortunately

Constantly getting under the car is a real pain in the arse and the knees! On the 2nd day you start feeling like a 70 year old and getting up takes forever because every muscle in your neck and torso is sore and you do anything to keep your weight off your sore knees.

I used to use a couple of foam mats to kneel down onto but even that starts getting painful so I ponied up for these GelFit kneepads from Bunnings:



They're friggin' awesome, worth every cent, no more knee pain so getting under the car and back up again is easy - whatever age you are, get them if you do any work under the car.

My crawler also comes in handy when doing exhaust work:

- it also transforms into a wicked AutoBot too (nah not really, it transforms into a small stool which comes in handy).

[greenMachine]

I have a Supercrap version of that bot, good value!

The other thing I have is a couple of sets of BIG axle stands - they are 3 or 4 tonne, and provide much more comfortable clearance under the car, they cost me around $130-140 for four and made a big difference for this old body

[Magpie]

I have some very thick/heavy mats made from recycled rubber that are put around in the shed where you walk the most. At the end of the day you appreciate these. Only issue is they are not hydrocarbon friendly, simply do not spill petrol/brake fluid etc on them.

[ManiacLachy]

Have you test fitted the new hood with the new manifold? Or are you only suspecting it's going to be tight. I honestly don't know which I'd choose if I had to decide between that hood and an EFR

Any worries about heat with the ABS line being that close to the dump? Heat shield sleeve over it maybe?

[Lokiel]

Have you test fitted the new hood with the new manifold? Or are you only suspecting it's going to be tight. I honestly don't know which I'd choose if I had to decide between that hood and an EFR

Any worries about heat with the ABS line being that close to the dump? Heat shield sleeve over it maybe?

The hood is a suspicion only at the moment but yeah, the Garage Vary hood is damn sexy - while I don't mind modding if for the AeroCatch hood pins which are a necessity, I won't cut a hole just to accomodate the wastegate actuator.

I'm fully committed to the EFR now so if one has to go, it's the hood.

The moved ABS line is far enough away now IMO for downpipe heat to be an issue but I might as well heat-tape it up since I have enough of that available.

I had a browse on the FullRace site this morning and spotted this:

- see https://www.full-race.com/store/borg-warner-efr/efr-components/borgwarner-efr-compressor-cover-w-90-outlet/
If I really get anal, or come to hating my 135* silicone elbow, I may buy this compressor cover to reduce the angles needed on the hotside intercooler plumbing (I bought another rear housing for the turbo since the new castings are much better than the original ones and allow the Stage 8 fasteners to be fitted so buying the front housing isn't completely insane - or is it?)

[ManiacLachy]

I'm fully committed to the EFR now so if one has to go, it's the hood.

Dibs!

I had a browse on the FullRace site this morning and spotted this:

That's interesting, not the best picture of it though, and the other one is a blurry mess.