Ya thanks for the tips man, that's kind of what I was thinking too. Closer to the center of gravity and the center section is better than farther away. Ideally the brace would be on the turbine housing but it's a little too tight. It's interesting the MSM turbo miata uses a cast hole in the turbine housing for its brace. Nice when it's designed from the factory that way. Clearly Mazda thought it was necessary and the MSM turbo sits much closer to the block. Here's a shot I grabbed from the interweb. You can see the threaded boss cast into the turbine housing for support on the bottom. On the topic of downpipe bracing. Yours was quite fancy/elaborate. Is there any reason I can't just weld on the OEM downpipe bracket to the Kraken downpipe? I will get a picture of what I mean later.


Thx man. Ya I try to provide useful info to others who may go down the same path. I figure why not, glad it helped you out!

 

So I made some progress, not as much as I would've liked but steady moving along. Hopefully the car will be running in the next 2 weeks. So I got some wiring done. The old OEM map sensor by the passenger side was reused for the fuel pressure sensor. I cut off the wires and crimped on new pins and installed the corresponding plug for the Honeywell pressure sensor. I also extended the wires for the IAT and crimped new pins for the GM IAT plug. I'm sort of a rookie doing nice harnesses/wiring, but got nice unshielded crimp connectors with a ratcheting crimp tool, heatshrink w/ glue inside, and braided cover for the wiring. I didn't take pictures of it but maybe I will in another post for anyone who is new to wiring. I've crimped weather pack pins before (you need a specific crimper) but it's been a while. I wired up the kan gauge, switches, and water pressure light. Now it works and is easily turned off w/ the switch. Wiring is almost done, I just need to wire up the oil temp and oil pressure sensors and the configure everything in the ECU.




Also, I got the oil cooler mounted and almost done. I just need to shorten the lines and I'm waiting on a 90 for the -10an line for one connection to the cooler. I used 1/8" steel bar and I'm pretty happy how it turned out. I made two brackets (one you can't see on the bottom), and modified some brackets that came w/ the kit for 3 mounts total. It's rock solid. It's been a while since I've welded, and the first bracket was fugly because I didn't do a practice piece first, but it should hold fine. I usually have a larger piece of sheetmetal I put on my workbench to weld with but it walked off so I had a pretty pathetic welding station, but it worked. Yes, I probably should've rounded off the brackets but it's more time I don't have but I got em primed and painted.





For the turbo bracket to the block it's a pretty simple setup. I used 3/16" bar I had and made a bracket for the block. That's the bracket in the picture above. For the bracket off the turbo I'm using 1/8" steel bar, and I just ordered an adjustable rod with heim joints on the ends. The distance I measured from the bracket off the block to the turbo is 6". The welds ain't the prettiest but they should be strong. The MIG welder I have is only running off a 20amp circuit and thus didn't have settings for 3/16" (I think 8 gauge?). I just heated it up well with a heat gun before welding and looks like I got good penetration. I'm pretty happy with how this turned out and the brackets are almost inline with each other. I will round off the ends of these brackets with the band saw before painting them. Which brings me to the point about a band saw. Man I love that thing! I have always hated trying to make nice cuts with cutoff wheels and dare I say it's actually a joy cutting metal and fabbing things with the band saw. I have a cheap bauer portable one w/ a big stand that can be used like a chop saw or a stationary band saw.





With the R theory water neck piece there is plenty of room now around the turbo for the brace. I'm happy I opted to just take my time and make these pieces rather than just rushing it. I know I'd be kicking my own *** if I didn't just get it done right the first time. I still need to do some final trimming to the brackets but I'll probably wait till I get the adjustable rod just to be sure.




Now one question for anyone, is there any reason you can't just weld a simple L bracket onto the downpipe? I saw @Midtenn had some fancy brackets that went around the whole downpipe but I was just thinking of welding on some simple brackets. Here's a really bad picture of the oem bracket that bolts to the tranny. Heck I was thinking of just welding that to the dp.


Once this last order from summit comes I should have everything I need to get the car running.

 

"Some progress but not as much as I would have liked"
Dude, you got some serious sh*t done here! The wiring looks great and I love how your turbo support brace is coming out. Really excited to see how it affects the turbo to manifold hardware backing out. It's been a while and I can't remember, you were gonna run Stage 8 hardware on it too, right?

 

Are you sealing the oil cooler so the air has to go through the cooler as it exits the radiator? That is how I did mine, used hardware store weather strip on the perimiter of the oil cooler.

 

Two reasons I went with a clamp instead of welding a bracket to the downpipe. First was allowing more misalignment of the parts and some room to grow as parts heat up. The clamp also puts the load over a larger surface area, instead of concentrating it in the weld(s). Second, I don't have a welder at home. So I was stuck with whatever I could come up with that would bolt together.

 

Thx.. ya running stage 8 locking hw. I will check them after a few heat cycles to check if the studs stretch (thx for that tip).

Yep, on my to do list towards the end. Appreciate you double checking on me.

Gotcha that makes sense.. I think I'm gonna do a quick and dirty bracket (like welding a tab onto the dp) and bolting it to a tranny bolt. Hopefully it'll suffice. The downpipe is pretty light so the bracket isn't doing a whole lot, and hopefully with the turbo braced things won't be vibrating/moving as much.

 

Seriously! Having the right tools takes a job from being a stressful sweat show to being an exhibition of mechanical dominance.

 

Its less about the weight of the down pipe, its more about the torque the rest of the exhaust puts on the system. Without a DP brace, all that torque acts on the turbo studs. When you add a brace, that torque is now applied through the brace. Anything is better than nothing, but I would make sure there is a lot of surface area on whatever attaches to the downpipe to spread the load.

 

Amen to that. My brother likes to poke fun with the old quote "a poor carpenter blames his tools" but it's somewhere in between the two.

That's what the flex section is for, to take up the slop/movement of the exhaust for the most part. The DP brace is supposed to hold the weight/support the downpipe so it's held up somewhere besides just the ends.

 

So I forgot to post some pictures of my new toy. The bandsaw and stand were quite affordable from HF and do a helluva job cutting metal. It can be operated as a chop saw and converted to a stationary saw. You do need to swap the "plate" so going back and forth between a chop saw and stationary saw is not completely painless. For straight cuts, it's best used in the chop saw orientation. Also a quick test fit of the extendable rod w/ heim joints on the end.





I figured I'd snap some pics of doing some work.. why not. I'm drilling some holes and trimming the brackets.Here's the bandsaw in the vertical orientation. It's quite stable and I don't even bolt it to the workbench to make some cuts.




Off to the paint booth for the brackets. I welded a small piece in where the tow hook will go, figure i'll give it a little more support, probably not needed. Also the weatherstripping on the oil cooler.




Next I have to cut the braided hoses and get the sandwich plate, oil lines, etc. done and installed. I think the manifold/turbo can go on next time and hopefully it won't need to come back off.

 

Looking good so far! I'm in agreeance with you. I'd be much more stoked to do fabrication projects if I had all the proper equipment for the job. I really should invest in a band saw.

 

Looking good! Not too far off from a first start, are you?

 

Ya the bandsaw is such a big leap in terms of ease of cutting metal honestly. A cutoff wheel is like using a jigsaw to cut 2x4's and plywood and the bandsaw is like using a miter saw or table saw to cut wood pieces. I will find more uses for it now that I have it.

Ya true.. I think the goal in my head is get it running by next weekend. Ducting around the radiator/intercooler, heatshielding around the turbo and hood vents should be doable after the car is running.

 

That will probably turn up here in one or other of the tool shops here. I have been on the lookout for a small bandsaw for a while.

I will throw another adage on the bbq - 'the right tool for the job'.

 

That bandsaw setup is awesome! Thanks for making me aware of a new thing. I've seen some bench mount bandsaw adapters, but nothing that turned it into the machine shop style of slow drop bandsaw.

My buddy would just clamp the handle in his vice and tie the trigger down. Not exactly the safest or most robust solution, but he got a lot of work done like that.

 

Ya I love this thing. It got some more use and it's a piece of cake cutting metal. Much like a table saw for cutting wood but the blade can bend a bit so you can put a little bit of curvature on the piece you're cutting. Here's the link to the two parts of it at HF: https://www.harborfreight.com/10-amp...saw-64194.html and https://www.harborfreight.com/univer...and-59640.html The stand is what's part of the magic as you can flip between a chop saw and stationary blade. There are a bunch of reviews on youtube. They are awesome tools. For $2-250 for both depending on if they're on sale, it's a lot of tool for the $.

Ok so made some more progress. I finally finished the basement drywall repair. Not something that's "hard" per say but just top of the list in terms of shitty jobs. I sanded it all with a sanding block as when I installed the blocking for the drywall I didn't quite get it level w/ the existing 2x4's so had to float out some edges quite a bit and had >1/4" gap in spots I had to build up. Doing it w/ a palm sander or machine would've taken off too much material. Anyway, got it done, primed, painted, and cleaned up. Glad to have that behind me.


Goal is to get the miata running by the end of this week. First step was getting the new water neck on. In order to do that you must clean the mating surfaces well. I'm not sure I went over this in detail on my previous posts, but I like using a razor, then a brillo pad, and some very fine sandpaper to finish it off (400grit or something fine). Mixed in between those steps I use brake cleaner on a rag (the brake cleaner softens and removes silicone and gasket material). Just be patient and don't try to go too fast to gouge the metal or you'll have to sand it down so it's smooth. I also ALWAYS hit any mating surfaces that will see rtv with a rag with brake cleaner. This removes any oils and allows the rtv to stick/bond to the surface much better. Try not to put your dirty/oily fingers on the mating surfaces after you hit them with brake cleaner. The R theory water neck came w/ a gasket and I used a small layer of rtv on each side of the gasket and flanges just to help with adhesion/sealing. If you want to be super an*l, I apply the rtv on both surfaces with my finger (not very much) to make sure it has good contact/adhesion. Much like when installing tile, you apply thinset to the surface, but you also backbutter the tile so the thinset has good adhesion to the tile. I use the same concept whenever applying rtv. Sorry that explanation is a little long but figured I'd help out any folks who are new at wrenching.

The water neck came w/ a straight fitting for the water line but I got a 90 so the coolant outlet from the turbo will go directly to this port.




Here the new heater hose line is run and I used a 3/4" barbed 90 to connect the heater hose and keep it a little farther away from the hot parts. The radiator hose is also nicely out of the way of things.




Since I ordered the wrong Kraken kit and changed the orientation of the turbo the charge pipe didn't fit. I had to modify it, so in came the handy bandsaw again. I just needed to put a slight angle on it and chopped a straight section off another pipe to weld to this one to make it one pipe. 2 pipes would've been sloppy. I also mounted the nice tow hook I got and used some scrap 3/16" as a spacer for the other side of the intercooler.

 

Also, one of the last things I needed to "fab" was a bracket for the downpipe. I'm glad I made it. There's a fair bit of weight on the front of the exhaust as the first hanger for the exhaust isn't till just forward of the diff, so that's a fair bit of weight on the v-band flange w/o a brace. So, how did I do it? I used the OEM bracket that bolts to the 2 tranny bolts. I just cut off the part I didn't need and added another piece. First step was scribing the curve of the dp onto a piece of cardboard. Then cutting a piece of cardboard, then cutting a piece of metal, then tacking it in place on the car. Everything must be bolted up in place and snug while doing this of course so nothing is misaligned.






The clearances to the steering shaft is a little close but should be ok. I wanna say 1/2" of space? I will header wrap the downpipe from the top to the flex section to cut down on heat. My welds are particularly shitty and I have a basket of excuses, but the welds seem strong and should hold which is ultimately all that matters. I don't know how the hell you guys make whole exhausts or serious fab work, it takes a lot of time. I was rushing, couldn't see for **** through the helmet, didn't setup a good workspace, so the welds are ugly. The downpipe is stainless and I'm just using whatever steel wire I have with the mig.





Downpipe's read to go back on and did some ghetto attachment for the heater hose.




Of course with stuff everywhere I spend way too long looking for things but **** is everywhere in the garage and it's hard to be super neat. The o ring for the 3 bolt flange outlet on the comp housing disappeared and I'm pretty sure I put it somewhere where it wouldn't get lost, but now I can't find it.. Drives me nuts but it happens. I want to get it back together so I'm just going to use rtv to seal it. Hopefully have this thing running soon.

 

Nice dude! You’re staying busy haha.

Really appreciate the time and thought you’re putting into the turbo install. In my infinite wisdom, I received my Kraken kit on a Thursday night and had it slammed in by Friday Ziptied the intercooler in place for a few days because mine had the wrong mounts and I didn’t want to wait any longer.

The water neck and accompanying ports look really good! Was never aware that R theory neck was available but it looks like a really nice piece of kit.

Stoked to see if you get to fire it up this weekend!

 

There's something to be said about "just git er done." I can respect that. I spend too much time thinking and not enough time doing at times. I think the desire to take my time and be patient comes with age. I'm 43 and when I was in my 20's I was the same way. I pop on over to Roda's thread and am like "damn that's nice," and am trying to be somewhere in the middle (I couldn't do things as nicely as him if I tried). I forgot to order embossed aluminum ahead of time and just ordered some. It looks like I need to make a piece of heatshielding that bolts to the framerail area and it's MUCH easier w the turbo off, so it likely won't be till next week till I fire it up. The driver's side brake line need some heat protection for sure. I'll just keep chugging along, there's plenty to do.

 

So continue to plod along. I finally replaced the homedepot bolt for the caliper bridge bolt. I remember the instructions saying to tighten the bolt down till the spacer no longer spins but I'm putting a good deal of torque on this little bolt and I don't think it can safely without snapping the bolt. Oh well. Looks like I also had a bit of rubbing (probably from the track weekend). The karousel is particularly rough on cars and a lot of cars bottom out, and I'm sure this is where it was happening. This is the passenger front. Not too surprising.



I did one more test fit of the downpipe and whole exhaust and everything fits. I am planning to header wrap the downpipe, make a heatshield around the chassis by the turbo, and put a turbo blanket around the turbine housing to cut down on heat issues for the surrounding parts. Does anyone know if there's some kind of heatshielding like a turbo blanket for the small pipe that comes off the turbo and connects to the downpipe? It's a little small and an odd shape to wrap with header wrap. Hopefully the turbo will come off only one last time. I didn't like how close the orange brake soft line was to the hot parts so I repositioned the line going to the prop valve. Ideally I should reposition the driver's front hard line a bit farther away as well but that will have to wait. I plan on having a heatshield separating the hot parts so I think that should suffice for now.


I got a lot of the little small stuff done. Oil cooler lines cut and mounted, made a -4an oil feed line for the turbo, hooked up the charge piping, remounted the catch can, coolant lines connected and made a few simple brackets. I think it came out nicely and is pretty clean. The NB subframe makes it a huge pita to reach the oil feed spot on the block but it's just doable. I will note you pretty much need to remove the intake manifold brace to access/remove the oil filter now, but it's only 3 bolts so not bad. I need to tie up the oil cooler lines just to keep them tidy but they are pretty secure. For the BOV, I just ziptied it to the silicone tubing, not sure what most folks do but I don't want it bouncing around.





Looking ahead, the big things to do are heatshielding and there are a ton of gaps to fill around the radiator/intercooler. I plan to use the metal hvac tape where possible, but I'll have to get some sheetmetal to cover up the gaps. Any tips or suggestions I'm all ears but it seems like it'll be a tedious process.