When I slapped the turbo on my car, I was trying to save dollars everywhere I could. That led me to the questionable decision of buying a $10ish air filter, which instead of being oiled cotton was basically just knockoff Scotch Brite tucked inside cheap plastic. It was starting to melt, and the plastic retainer was cracking. Oh yeah, and the whole thing was coming unglued from where it mounts.
Not learning my lesson, I bought the cheapest K&N filter, which cost a whopping $30 on eBay, plus a ludicrously cheap tube assembly with a ready-made hole for my valve cover vent. I had to relocate the power steering resevoir a couple inches and angle it slightly to shoehorn it in.

Before:
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...e224edcb8d.jpg

Power steering reservoir relocate:
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...a6ac76a162.jpg

After:
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...95031b854a.jpg

Note also the beautiful wrinkle black and flat grey lettering. I feel pretty damn good about that. Now people know for sure it's a Mazda, and that it has 16 valves.

I'll probably toss an oil separator on the hot side valve cover vent because it's kicking off a solid bit of oil... leaky valves maybe?

That valve cover looks amazing. I wanna do that to mine, the wrinkle with grey lettering looks really nice.

Thanks! I wanted something that looked good but wasn't really in-your-face. I used Testor's paint with a blunt-nosed syringe to fill in the letters.

I think I'll want to box in the intake. I saw your post from 2009 and it looks like you did a great job. What material did you use for the box (assuming aluminum, but what thickness) and how has it held up over the years?

When I built it, I used sheet metal, really thin stuff from Lowes. It was flimsy but otherwise worked well. If I made it again, I'd use a thicker metal for rigidity, and probably use aluminum as it's easier to work with. It held up great, never had a problem.

I picked up some thin aluminum sheet at Home Depot Racing, which I think I'll be able to cut with tin snips. If not, I'll at least be able to blast through it with a multi purpose cutting bit on the dremel instead of having to use cutting wheels.
I'm thinking about where the cold air will come from. There is a bit of a gap where air could come from the wheel well, but I don't think that's a high-pressure area. The hole behind the headlight is filled to almost a perfect seal with my IC piping, and the NB2 doesn't have anywhere to cut a big enough hole to pull air from the cowl area (which was my plan A).
Has anyone done an over the radiator duct to bring in high-pressure cold air? The opening a the front of the car is obviously too big for efficient IC and radiator-only air flow, which is why all the race cars block much of that area off. what if I did something like this to pull air over the top into the cold air box?
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...fec1be4c46.jpg

You can cut the whole behind the headlight a lot bigger, or put another one, and pull air from there, or even duct air to that area from the bumper opening.

Pat is chocked full of great ideas. I find that the headlight areas get some decent cold pressure around the radiator, just a little ducting.

Thanks Pat, I think that's a great idea. I just need to make 50cm^2 worth of holes in that area and I'll be good to go. I've got the Dremel charged up, so I'll have at 'er this week!

Wheel wells are high pressure, fwiw. Thus the upper fenderwell louvers on cars in classes that allow them.

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...0b9969d842.png

+1 for a tops looking valve cover :-)

I had the thought of routing the intake pipe into the bumper directly to sit on top of my sealed off ducting. I have a NA with the artech efr manifold that places the front plane of the turbo almost in line with the headlight motor.

That would be sweet, but my intercooler piping is already taking up the obvious route to in front of the radiator.

I threw together a little air box this morning. I think it came out pretty well. I didn't bother doing any extra ducting because there are already 3 places cold air is coming into that spot - around the radiator, through the wheel well, and the cracks around the IC piping. I think the area of those spaces combined is greater than the cross section of a 3 inch pipe, plus they are high pressure zones.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...b9dfa81988.jpgRough shape. All the pieces taped up together are because I subscribe to the don't measure and just keep cutting school of fab work.

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...38bd3a4972.jpgYeah, pretty janky.

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...d6a1022adc.jpgTraced out to fresh cardboard, and I grabbed the shape of the hood using the skewer method. I saw this in a post on this forum from like 2007. I wish I had made note of the poster so I could give credit for the idea.

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...45e89aeabf.jpgTraced out to aluminum. I had pulled out two skewers before taking this picture. Top tip - do one more step and trace from skewers onto fresh cardboard. I spent way too much time trimming the aluminum to fit.

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...778b1280c4.jpgI threw some edging all the way around, and used aluminum tape to seal off a couple spots.

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...69503b8f48.jpgFinal product. I think it turned out pretty well. I didn't bolt it in at all, just press fit, and then the filter, IC piping, and hood will keep it from moving around too much.

The biggest flaw in this design (if you can call it that) is that there is a pretty big gap at the front edge by the radiator. I didn't want to put a front wall because I want the high-pressure cold air that gets around the side of the radiator, but I don't want it open a the top to the hot air from the engine. I had to trim back the front much more than I wanted to so that I could put down the hood prop rod, but I could have done a lot better. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Looks good! Should give you pretty good air temps.

The "skewer method" can be properly attributed to Hornetball.

What did you use for edging?

Thanks, and thanks for the idea @hornetball!

This stuff:
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...c7f5f1bfb3.jpg

I thought it was kind of crappy because it doesn't stay on. Then I realized that you need to squeeze it with pliers once it's in place and then it stays on really well. It's got metal inside. I got a couple projects out of it, and it only cost me $9!

I meant to route the intake for the turbo over the radiator like some people do intercooler pipes; shrouding like a box (like you see on Andrew's Rover but with a stock bumper) up to the radiator to allow room for the intake on top. Hoping to go through with it after I have an intercooler, post some photos in case anybody pulls ideas from it.

That's a really interesting idea. Even if there isn't really enough room, a 3-inch silicone tube could be squished a bit and still provide a lot of volume. I love what ThePass did, sticking the air filter right out in front of the well ducted radiator in a high pressure zone. I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with!

I just ordered new wheels and tires. I'm sticking with 17s both because I'm a stance bro at heart, and because I really liked the first ones. I just got the exact same wheels (TR FF10) but an inch wider at 17x8. They are flow formed and tip the scales at 17.1lbs in the wider format, which is really not too bad. I'm going with the Falken RT615K+. Wider and stickier, I can't wait!
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...1721e63850.jpg
Some of that real sticky icky icky. Ooh wee!

I made a PNP harness for my truck coils using a design Barton made. It's a prototype that we're working on bringing to production. The idea is you just unplug your stock coils, and use this PNP harness to plug into the GM harness that came with your junkyard truck coils. I should have it fired up this week!


https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...841229cef6.jpgLooks a bit like the plug on a NB2 coil doesn't it...

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...3352c6c4c5.jpgExcuse the jankiness, I just used wire I had laying around which was way too fat.

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...a56c487833.jpgNow I just need to toss these in a sadfab bracket which should be landing on my door step shortly and I'm good to go!

Woah woah woah.
In for details. I'd be all about hitting the easy button if you can still do sequential with this.

Looks great. Looking forward to seeing how it works out for ya.

Id be interested in pairing your harnesses with our bracket and wires if you are. Looks good so far Nigel.

Fuck yeah sadfab collab

This one's set up for batch, but we're designing it to be simple to switch it to squential.

On a scale of ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ to "obviously, idiot", how important is sequential support?

Totally in for a sabfab collab!

I think folks would shy away from it if it didn't have sequential. There's no reason not to since the ecu can support it imho.

Sequential will never be plug and play. You need extra wires from the ECU.

For a lot of builds a simple non-sequential plug and play solution would be awesome.

True. But then most builds don't need LS coils either.

This is something I'd be interested in as well.

If I just need to source coils in order to pair it with a sadfab collab plug-n-play kit, sign me up.

SADForce?
SADFlow?
SADForceFlow?

SADFlab?
SADFarce?

FabFlow, obviously.

Doubles as advertising for BPH medication.

Re: adding wires for sequential. Would it be possible to integrate that somewhat into the harness? That way there's a base kit that does batch and a small add on that can be all seq-xy?

Yeah, I'm thinking along these lines. Having an extra pigtail add-on. We'll probably call it seq-xy pigtails, because that name is awesome.

I like where this is headed. So much so, I went ahead and made us a logo:

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-W...2017-11-28.png

It's beautiful!

mad MSPaint skillz right there lol :giggle:

Nice!

While sequential would be good, most people won't require it and since you need to add extra wires back to the ecu it should be easy enough to splice into the PNP harness to add the 3rd and 4th trigger signals. The idea is to make a complete PNP patch harness which means sticking with batch fire ignition.

Please let this happen! My POS cobbled-together harness gives me nightmares every time I open the hood. And an easy, "seq-xy pigtail" change to sequential would make it even better.

What's everyone's thoughts on adding a connection point for sequential? It'll increase costs a bit due to the extra connects required.

I can add a connector inline to keep it batch but still allow it to be disconnected to add the two extra signals for sequential. An additional connector supplied to do this and a blanking connector to keep the unused connector water tight would also have to be included.

OR...keep the design as is and people can cut the wires and add the two extra signals themselves.

​​​​​

I couldn't care less for seq. ignition. But as stated, a lot do. I think that's a good idea, or maybe even make it 2 separate harness options.

I've been toying with the idea of seq ignition, but the thought of taking that further step beyond the GM coils was terrifying (if you see my re-wiring attempts, you'd know why). Having a semi-PNP solution would help ease my transition to "Big Boy" ignition.

Small updates. I got a new pair of socks and shoes. Same wheels as I've had for the last 3 years, just an inch wider. Rubber is a 200tw Falken, and I'm really stoked on them already. It's a narrower sidewall (205/45/17 to 215/40/17), but surprisingly the tread width is actually narrower. That aside, it hugs the road really nicely and doesn't rub like the oversized monster truck tires did. I just booked a weekend at Laguna and I can't wait to see how they do.
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...41609cac81.jpg

Also, I'm getting ready to slap in the truck coils. The sadly fabbed bracket is lookin' so fine!
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...180ef2f913.jpg

Two questions for you all:

1. Iridium plugs with truck coils. yay or nay? I'm thinking gapped to .040 for silky smooth idle.
2. I'm eyeing new suspension. Right now I'm running Vmaxx adjustable with FM sways front and back. Current ride height is 5.5", although it was 5.25" before I changed wheels. I'd like to drop it down a little purely for appearance/vanity, but I also want to have a decent street ride quality. I've narrowed it down to 3 choices: better Bilseins (I hear there is a thread about it), Xida race, or Xida GS. Ride height-wise, I'm right between race and GS, so what's a guy to do?

Yay on the iridium plugs but I just left mine gapped as they came, .035 or .032 IIRC. My car idled fine even with an .025 gap, honestly couldn't tell the difference.

I could tell when I had spark blow out though, I think it is a very bad thing at high boost.

"...and now for something completely different."

I stopped using Iridiums when I was experiencing spark blowout. I went back to "plain vanilla" plugs gapped down to .025 and swapped from MBC to EBC. I think that the better control of the EBC solved the blowout, but I never went back to Iridium plugs. The regular plugs work very well, thank you very much.

I agree that the regular BKR7E's seem just as good for 20% of the cost, but I left my iridium's in.

Got the coils all set up. I tried to tuck the harness under the SADFab bracket, but it's too damn perfect of a fit. The options then are to space it out with a couple washers, or deal with the wires hanging around.
Also, for anyone who, like me, think you can save a few bucks making your own plug wires, just don't. It took way longer than expected, and I had to hack away quite a bit of material to get the NGK plugs to fit my VVT valve cover. Terminating the ends was no big deal, but making the boots fit the valve cover was a major PITA. Thecarpassionchannel made it look so easy!

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...7c11fbc50e.jpg
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...c18e6d3e85.jpg
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...03acff3354.jpg

Problem now though - with the bracket covering the intake cam side, how is anyone supposed to know it's a Mazda?

Make a coil cover out of sheet metal with a mazda sticker on it. Or get it lazer etched. That would be cool

God dammit. Back to the drawing board....

Took it for a spin today with the truck coils, and just wow. Drivability and smoothness are vastly improved. I'll need to retune, and make some adjustments to my EBC to hit the right boost level. It's really shocking how much of a difference it makes. For the relatively low cost, I'd recommend the LS coils as one of the first upgrades.

My MS3 is running firmware 1.2.3 so I don't have the option to run a dwell table. To get the closest match, I set the dwell to 3.6 and copied Andrew's voltage correction, and then set my rev limited to 6800. After hearing all the challenges folks are having updating the firmware I'm going to leave it for now.

You need to upgrade to at least 1.4.3 firmware.

Fine.

So go ahead and do 1.5.whatever

Reverant said I should only go to 1.4... just ignore that and go for broke?

1.4.1 here. Clean, safe, proven.

Is this back to the entire thing about engine states etc that I walked into by mistake. I still think I should downgrade lol.

I think the present choices are 1.4.1 or 1.5.1. I'm with Six on this one. 1.4.1.

Reverant prefers FW that has had code released, so I think that is 1.4.0 as latest, but I've found 1.4.1 to be good everywhere except Limp Mode Rev Limit. I think I may be one of one people who have even tried to use it.

Yeah, setting up the 1.5.ish was a royal pain in the ass. Aidan helped a ton when I was getting off the ground. I still think I should switch back because of how complicated so much of it is for the end user, but I'm scared I'll muck everything up if I do that haha.

1.4.3 is where you what you want to upgrade to. It is the latest stable on the 1.4 branch. There is nothing in 1.5 specific for the miata or that will make it "better" in any way.