Lachstock and Four Turbo Charged Cylinders ['04 NB SE]

[ManiacLachy]

I know you guys are out there Sometimes there's just not much to say.

You didn't give your impression on the additional room they provide - please do

Well I've only been able to sit in it stationary at the moment, so I can't give a full review. I'm simulated going through the gears, heal-toeing, and turning the wheel, everything feels good. There's definitely more room, I can "manspread" and my knee isn't trapped between the door and the wheel. I do wonder how it'll be on commute style drives with nowhere for my elbow to rest. But for spirited drives it should be excellent.

When I installed the leather handbrake cover in my car I actually removed the plastic cover on the shaft.

This leaves the leather somewhat baggy and I actually think it works really well.
In all honesty I never even realised the plastic cover was meant to stay and believed the leather was a replacement, not an 'over-cover'.

I did the same thing when I got my first aftermarket boots, I think you suggested the vendor even, I like the soft look too. Then for years I kept the plastic covers in a box, and I think I only just threw them out during the move recently, but the way these boots are shaped they kind of want the plastic covers, they have an elastic pocket at the bottom that is meant to fit over the base of the plastic covers. I actually stole the plastic covers from the NA and put them on the SE. The old SE boots are now in the NA.

I’m here! Reading along!

I’ve been in the shed dremelling my eyeballs, counting imaginary fuel line fittings, trying to fit a round seat in a square floor pan and coating stuff near things I meant to paint in overspray. Reading other people’s efforts is inspiration to keep going.

I'm following along with your build too. I can't wait to hear how it all comes together, it should be a rocketship on the hill climbs. I'm very interested to hear how your gearbox solutions workout.

But here's the shocker... this car hasn't sparked joy in me. It's OK, it's fine. It's soft and comfortable, it's cute. But it just hasn't resonated with me. Maybe with new shocks, brakes and I/H/E mods it would be different, but I don't want to invest all that.

I've heard of this a few times. Once you've lived with a modified MX5 for a while, any stock one is a bit... meh.

Yeah, it was really unexpected. I thought I'd be smitten, I had grand plans swarming in my head. I'm happy to have the experience, but it's not the car for me.

[ManiacLachy]

You didn't give your impression on the additional room they provide - please do (I'm hoping it's very noticeable since I'd like to do this one day

I went down to the garage earlier and sat in the car and shut the door. I can now lift my knee up passed the steering wheel with room to spare, and I have pretty thick legs. This used to be impossible, on long drives I would want to lift my knee up just to get a stretch and get some blood flowing.

How much of this room is the door card and how much is the steering wheel is debateable, but I feel a lot of it is the door card.

[Daffy]

I’m here! Reading along!............ Reading other people’s efforts is inspiration to keep going.

Same here! This year is just a raving weirdo- It’s great to read up on how well we are all pushing forward though regardless

[ManiacLachy]

Well, it's been almost 2 months so it must be time for an update!

I started off by installing a Flyin' Miata crossflow radiator into the SE. Mostly straight forward, but required considerable trimming of the OEM fan shroud, mostly because of my throttle body inlet intercooler piping, the elbow to the throttle body has a large radius and pushes the hose towards the fans quite a way. Even before the thicker radiator there was light contact, now it was a disaster waiting to happen! So I did quite a bit of dremel work. It's still very tight but should only be temporary. I didn't think to take many photos of this


I need to trim around the inlet and outlets for the new rad, ensuring room for the hose to fit over the top


A lot of "meat" had to be cut out of this fan support to prevent rubbing on the intercooler hose

A short time later I was contacted on the forum by our old friend Ausboy! He's doing some work on JuicyHiC's built SE, and needed some OEM coils on short notice and asked to borrow mine. I quickly pulled mine off to have ready for him but he ran out of time to actually make use of them. But I had them off now, so it was a good opportunity to fit the Flow Force LS Coil kit


A bit of colour clashing going on in here, but function before form am I right?

This kit was really simple and straight forward, it's a really well thought out kit and went on without issue. I would prefer red or black wires, but hey it's never been a pretty engine bay!

Guardian Designs sent me out a new shift boot to fit the base adapter, it's much much better, and they included the retaining ring at the top. All of their goodies are now in place and look fantastic.


Like a glove!


It just fits so much better now

I laid my hands on some Turbosmart goodies to accessorise the EFR6258. The Borg Warner supplied BOV is known to chirp quite annoyingly and has a soft spring, the Turbosmart one fixes both issues. The wastegate actuator on the Borg Warner comes with their "medium" spring setup which is around 14psi, too much for me on stock rods. You can't change the spring pressure in the actuator only replace it with their "soft" one, or go aftermarket. The Turbosmart IWG75 comes fitted with two 7psi springs that combine to give you 14psi, but they are removable and replaceable. I bought and fit a 5psi spring to begin with which should give a base of 6-7psi when you apply a little pre-load. This should be perfect to start out with and I can add pressure as needed, especially when I eventually build the motor.


Sexy boosty goodness, now with added Turbosmart!

I opted to go with the traditional single port actuator over the dual port option (see Lokiel's epic build), the single port should offer more granular control, but it will be limited to the amount of boost it can control. A single port can typically control around double the spring pressure, so 7psi base should be controllable up to ~14psi. But the dual port can do much more, allowing you to run a much wider range of boost. I'm not going to need that wide range on my build.

As far as the NA goes, I picked up a used but functional soft top from a local selling on FaceBook. $500, even though it's a little old it's not overly worn and there are no tears. It's cheaper than a new skin and being already on the frame it bolts straight in, and I don't have to wrestle with it to fit on the frame!


Fitting the new to me top - this is getting easy for me now


Freshly cleaned, it's a decent 10 footer

[ManiacLachy]

And finally, after waiting patiently for ages my car is finally at Daffy's wizard-like mechanic Darren at I&L Motors on the Gold Coast. I had to get the car towed down and I followed in the Liberty with a trunk full of fun things.


Go fast bits

Darren's workshop is a tightly packed space, on a tightly packed road! He has a variety of different vehicles in the shop, including an out of control WRX STI build that's running a huge Borg Warner B2 turbo, expected to put out ~700whp.


The workshop - Guest starring Hobbes

I took Darren through the car and the parts and had a good chin wag. I explained the leak issue to him. I've realised that the leak flows only when the engine is running, ie oil pressure. So I thought, maybe it was the turbo oil drain? And not the sump seal as I first thought... Within a few moments of poking around Darren found it was the exhaust cam seal. Dammnit! That means I managed to a) poorly install the seal the first time, and b) overlook it at least once. And it would have been an easy fix, my car wouldn't have had to have been off the road this past 9 - 10 months! Argh! You can't buy experience though, and Darren knows what he's looking at.


Time for the professionals to take over!

So,what am I having Darren do for me?
* Fix oil leak
* Install Kraken EFR turbo setup, w/ EFR6258 and full 3" exhaust
* Fabricate new intercooler and intake piping, with Fab9 350hp intercooler
* Install Flyin' Miata coolant reroute, using the turbo coolant feed and return fittings on the re-route rather than the SE's block
* Swap to a square top intake manifold, matched to a Skunk2 Throttle Body
* Install some new ID1050x injectors
* Fix snapped battery tie down bolt

For now I'll run the turbo on the stock block at low boost. It should get me back on the road and enjoying the car the fastest and I can get a feel for this new turbo on the stock motor for a direct comparison to the OEM IHI turbo. I'll learn a little bit of boost tuning along the way, which will be frustrating and fun I'm sure.

Then maybe in 12 months time I'll go back to him and have the engine built, hopefully before I put a rod through the block


Three cars might be too many? This will probably be the only time I get all 3 together in one photo

Now I'll focus on the NA, get it tidied up and out the door. Hopefully capitalize on the current bubble in NA prices, I don't think I'll make any money on the ordeal but if I come close to breaking even I'll consider it a win! I could use those funds back in my bank account

[The American]

Hooray!

Looking forward to pic heavy updates!

[ManiacLachy]

Well Darren wasted no time in getting to work on Friday! First, he had that leak all sealed up properly.


No more leaks!

Then he ripped off the old exhaust, intercooler and intercooler piping and fit the back half of the new exhaust and the new Fab9 intercooler.


A lift is a wonderful tool. The new exhaust tip poking out the back


Kraken's exhaust is V-band throughout!


High-flow cat just waiting for the downpipe. Kraken also provide a straight test-pipe, but I though I should be kind to the environment (and legal)


Fab9's 350HP FMIC, bolts up to the factory tow hooks for a clean solid mount

Also prepped a few pieces to send out for ceramic coating this week, the hotside components of the turbo setup, the manifold, turbine housing, dump elbow and dump pipe. Heat management is important, hopefully this will better control engine bay temps, and keep the trans tunnel a little cooler.


Soon to be ceramic coated

And he also prepped the Skunk2 throttle body, it needs a new hole drilled for the throttle cable return spring. At it's default location a lot people complain of the throttle plate sticking open, moving it back slightly increases the tension to close more forcefully. The Flattop manifold was ported to match the larger diameter of the Skunk2 TB. The manifold will go out this week for cleaning and bead blasting to ensure it's ready for use.

So yeah, things are happening quickly, which is great. There will be a few hurdles yet to come which will slow it down. I don't expect to get the car back until late January or early February. Intercooler piping will need to be fabbed up. The AC drier and hoses need to be re-routed (see Lokiel's thread for more details). But this week should see the coolant re-route go in. A test fit of the turbo will have to wait until the parts get back from coating, which might be Friday? We'll see.

[Lokiel]

Please ask Darren on his thoughts of whether you'll have enough air flow to the radiator, the Fab9 intercooler sits further forward than many intercoolers so most air needs to pass through it to the radiator.

Point him at my solution (https://mx5cartalk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=57&t=76716&start=304), he may have some better/less-drastic ideas, or tell you that you have nothing to worry about.

I have a "spare" MT.net's matrussell122 Radiator Support Bar (see https://www.miataturbo.net/miata-parts-sale-trade-5/radiator-support-bars-more-airflow-cooling-99508/) if you want - I bought 2 since the S&H charges were similar for one or 2 and I'd planned to split the shipping cost with another buyer.

[ManiacLachy]

You might be right, I'll ask him next time I talk to him. I have been re-considering that support bar recently so it's good to know you have a spare. matrussell122 was even looking at developing an airflow kit I think.

[Lokiel]

The ducting at the end of the thread I posted didn't deal with an intercooler and I doubt that there's a generic solution possible

A custom solution will be needed and work better - lots of cardboard templates and creativity needed.

[Daffy]

Onwards and upwards mate

[bootz]

Love reading about this car.

I have a similar need to remove the old softop because hardtop. Is it really a PITA and have you any tips??

[ManiacLachy]

Love reading about this car.

I have a similar need to remove the old softop because hardtop. Is it really a PITA and have you any tips??

Thanks, I appreciate that

Do you have a roll bar? That makes it a little tricky, you have to reach through and around the bars, but no biggie.

My tips:
* Remove both seats, it doesn't take long to do and you'll have so much more room to maneuver
* Try to do it somewhere with air flow, you'll be working with the roof up to unbolt the retainers along the back and it can get stuffy
* Try to not be facing into the sun! Sometimes this isn't avoidable, but it makes it really hard to see what you're doing
* You need to remove the plastic trim on the sides, next to the seatbelt towers, be careful twisting out the caps at the top, they can tear the rubber
* There is a webbing strap on either side that goes from one of the ST bars to a retaining stud. Take a photo of these studs so you know where it goes if you ever want to re-install
* Take note of the orientation of the retaining bars, there's 3 of them and it can be confusing which way up they go, but you'll work it out
* Do not over-tighten the retaining bars when you re-install after removing the roof, the studs aren't strong
* The retaining bars can bind a little against each other, loosen them all before removing. And only loosely attach at first when re-installing, once they're in place you can nip them up (again, not too tight, don't crank them)
* It's a one person job. Sure 2 can make it go faster but definitely not necessary

[bootz]

Thks,

I was thinking I had to remove the rain rail from the roof, with all 50 bolts.
Good to know I can do it without touching the rain rail.

[ManiacLachy]

Progress has been a bit slower this week, but that was to be expected when 3rd parties are required. Darren might have done more, but this is all that's been reported to me since the last update, so I have to show today is that the hotside components are back from ceramic coating.


Blaaaaack

This should help to trap the heat within the components, which should help keep under-hood temps down, increase turbo efficiency (hotter air moves faster), and keep near by things from getting too hot, such as the transmission tunnel.

Another option would have been titanium wrap around the downpipe and a turbo blanket on the turbine, but the manifold un-protected still, and wrap and blankets have their own downsides. Ceramic coating is a little more expensive, but simpler.

I think we're at the stage things can start to be bolted on, and dealing with whatever curve balls the install throws up from here. Of course, Christmas is imminent and things will likely wait until the New Year.

I took the NA for a spin to breakfast on Monday at 6am, it was a fun little top down blast. Of course, by the time I went home shortly about 730 it was too hot to have the roof down any longer!