Frustration and much bad language in the shop this morning, but ultimately, progres...

Today's agenda was replacing the radiator and water pump with upgraded parts, and then continuing with the turbo install. First up was the water pump, which was pretty easy, as water pumps go. Three bolts on the pulley, three to fix it to the block. O-ring seal, so no gasket or silicone mess to deal with. The upgraded pump is from a Ford Ecoboost application, IIRC, and has a better impeller design than the factory Mazda part. Stock pump on the left, new pump on right with plastic impeller.



When researching, there was conflicting information on which Ford P/N was correct, so I punted and ordered it from a vendor. Here's the Gates info, for posterity...



Next was pulling the radiator. Not only did Mazda find a way to keep about a gallon of coolant in the system after draining, but it's all in places where it will dump out when you take things apart. Mostly on you. The biggest issue though, is the packaging. The radiator, fan and A/C condenser are stacked together tightly, and the only way to make any real room to remove the radiator is to discharge the A/C and remove the condenser first. Otherwise it's a game of trying to inch it out without damaging the condenser. I failed... I had the radiator within about an inch of being free and something scraped across the condenser and I got covered in a mist of oily refrigerant. Lots of bad language.... Anyway, it was out.



I took a break (and ordered a new condenser), got my blood pressure down and went back to it. The CSF radiator, just like their NA version is very nicely made, with all the factory mounting points and brackets accurately reproduced. Without the A/C condenser in the way, it was easy to install...



Then it was back to the FM manual... removed some coolant lines from the passenger side, and then removed the manifold. Still have one heater hose to get to on the driver's side rear of the block... I need to buy a pair of very long needle nose pliers to get to the hose clamp. It's not easy to reach.

 

Agreed on the factory cooling stack packaging. I'm very glad to have done my radiator swap after removing the AC haha. Sorry you got hit with the refrigerant from the condenser. That stuff is NASTY!

 

Short day in the shop today. Humidity is over 60%, which isn't bad for most places, but if you've lived most of your life in AZ it feels like it's time to build an ark... Once the sweat is running in my eyes, I'm done for the day, one more advantage of being retired. LOL

Picked up a long set of pliers so I was able to remove the last heater hose at the back of the cylinder head, and started in on the oil supply line for the turbo. This step is basically installing a 'T' fitting between the oil filter block and the stock oil pressure sender. Unfortunately, there's not enough clearance with the block to spin the fitting in so the oil filter block has to be unbolted from the engine block. Anyone who's done an NC oil change knows what a PITA the stock filter location is... oil drips onto the crossmember and goes everywhere. I made a tinfoil funnel to get the oil into a drain pan without making a mess.



FM now sells a very cool NC drain funnel that does a nicer job of directing the oil away from the crossmember, but IMHO at $40 it's a little too pricey for a 3D printed part. They sold out the first batch, so I might just be a cheapskate.

Once the filter was out of the way, I could pull the filter mounting block and get the 'T' fitting installed. Tedious... the bolts are easiest to access from the fenderwell, but you'll need a swivel socket for the rear bolts. FM includes a replacement gasket in the turbo kit, which is nice.



Then the feed line gets routed down from above and attached. FM includes a rubber hose to shroud the braided line, and zip ties to secure it... more thoughtful details.

 

Nice progress. There's no worse feeling than trying to save yourself a bit of time only to cost yourself hundreds of dollars and more time again. I've had my share of nicking radiators but never a condenser. Either way it sucks

 

Had a pistol match on Saturday, and a rifle match Friday, so finally got back to the NC today and made some progress. I'm at the point where more is getting put together than taken apart and that's encouraging.

First up was the coolant feed for the turbo, which is tapped off the block. Again FM comes through with the attention to detail, including heat sleeve and a mounting bracket for the line.



Next was the manifold. A couple of the nuts are much easier to access from beneath.



Next up was getting the turbo ready for mounting and here's where I ran into the first issue with the supplied parts. The bolts for the turbo drain were too long and interfered with the turbine inlet flange. I had to take about 1/8" off the bolt to get it threaded.



Other than that, the hard lines provided are nicely made and worked perfectly. That's not to say that the usual access issues didn't exist with the turbo mounting bolts...



Then I dropped a nordlock washer, and spent about 20 minutes looking for it. One of the drawbacks of my shop floor... if you're thinking about epoxy finishes for a shop/garage floor, I highly recommend a solid color!



I did finally find the washer, on top of the lower control arm.

But, the turbo is in.

 

Next was the downpipe... it's a complicated shape and has to be fed in from the bottom. At least the bolts were easier to get to.



Final step for the day was cutting apart the stock manifold to use the stock catalytic converter with the FM downpipe. First, I needed to rehab the midpipe mounting threads which were giving me issues after the last transmission R&R.



Next was separating the cat from the header by cutting around the edge of the factory weld and cleaning up the surface in preparation for welding on a V band flange.




Next step will be mounting everything up to tack the V band flange in place then removing it for welding.

 

Today started out hot in the shop... 84* at 0530. We normally get down to the low 70s overnight, but not last night. And 101* is forecast for today. Yuk.



Time to finish the modifications to the factory cat. The V-band is installed onto the downpipe, and then the cat is bolted into place using the factory support bracket, which was previously marked to make sure the mid-pipe end of the cat was in the proper location. I double checked fitment with the mid pipe before continuing. As you can see, the cat does not sit completely straight in the V-band cup, leaving a pretty big gap.




Next step was to tack weld the cat to the V-band... overhead welding is always fun. The tight quarters and big gap didn't improve things. Not my prettiest tack job, but good enough to hold it in place for welding.



Now it could be removed from the car and fully welded. Again, not my prettiest welds, but it fits and it's not coming apart.



Next, the heat shield is trimmed and re-installed, and the cat goes back in the car for good.



And the exhaust and bracing are back on the car... so the hot side is done.

 

My replacement A/C condenser showed up the other day, so that went in and the cooling stack is finished, ready for the intercooler...




Spent the rest of the morning working on some of the coolant/heater hoses and called it day. Turbo water and oil plumbing is now done.

 

Clean work as always. I'm amazed at how close that turbo and wastegate sit to the ABS module. That's a tight squeeze.

I sympathize on the lost washer. I was doing some work recently and found a couple washers in places that they didn't belong.

 

I enjoy doing jobs that require my splitter to be removed every so often because they usually yield showers of useful hardware that I thought was lost forever

Looking good man, I'm lowing following your install writeup. Kind of a PITA that you have to reweld the factory cat into the DP, but sure is better than spending an extra grand. The install didn't seem to faze you much.

Can't wait to hear your thoughts after the first drive. You didn't get a ride in one of the FM turbo NC's at FMSC did you?

 

No, I never did... guess this was a pretty big leap of faith. LOL

After building 2 exhausts and the cage in the NA, welding the cat for this wasn't too intimidating.

 

Plodding along...

First up today was relocating the power steering tank. Since the factory tank is plastic and gawdawful ugly, I picked up a Moroso aluminum tank to match the expansion tank.



The FM kit moves the PS tank a few inches towards the driver's side of the car. Old and new together.



New tank in place.



Next up was mounting the intercooler.



For the charge piping, the factory inlet opening is used on the driver's side, and a 3" hole needed to be drilled on the passenger side. FM includes both a template for the drilling, and trim pieces for both sides.




Next was completing the run to the throttle body using the FM supplied MAF tube.



Final step for today was the inlet piping, airbox and relocated battery box. Very nice components from FM here, all of the hoses are custom molded silicone to minimize connections, and they include a Turbosmart recirc valve.



Getting pretty close... still have some vacuum hoses, the injectors, MAP sensor and a few other things to go.

 

I was curious how FM got around the carb legality for CA on this kit... seeing that the catalyst and its location didn't change now makes sense on how they executed that. Clever for them re-use the existing cat to enable that (and save some costs on the kit even if it's some extra fab work on your side)

 

I wasn't too concerned about the CARB EO#, though it is good for resale down the road, but another piece of getting it approved was the OEM level calibration/tuning... and that was a BIG plus for me.

They offer the kit as a DIY cat job, or you can buy a pre-welded version with a brand new Mazda cat, but that adds significant expense. When they dropped the kit, they only had a few of the pre-welded cats and they sold out almost immediately. Those dozen or so were ALL of the new OEM Mazda NC cats in the US at the time!

It is kind of an issue for a DIY install if you can't weld, because it needs to be tacked in place to get the alignment correct... I'm pretty sure this kit has sold a few MIG welders, 'cause it's cheaper than buying the new cat!

 

Not much in the way of pics today, and an early stop because I have some errands to run...

Big project for this morning was replacing the stock MAP sensor with a 3 bar MAP sensor provided with the kit. This is the part of the install that everyone is complaining about, and it's a bitch. Mazda/Ford put the MAP sensor on the back of the intake manifold, which is probably fine when the engine is transverse in a FWD application. In the Miata, it's right up against the firewall on the driver's side and access is extremely limited. It's completely blind, and mostly working with your fingertips, while trying not to shred the back of your hand on the firewall sheet metal. All in all, about 2 hours just to swap this little bugger.



I jumped a little out of order from the instructions and removed the fuel rail/injectors to gain a little more room and went in from the top, basically laying across the passenger fender and engine. Stubby 1/4" ratchet, short extension and T25 socket. Lots of fun.

Other tasks this morning were swapping the injectors and running vacuum line to the recirc valve and wastegate.

 

Holy ****. 2 hrs? Might be quicker to just pull the damn manifold at that point.

 

I seriously considered it, but there are multiple coolant/egr etc connections, and it has it's own access issues. Also didn't want to deal with sourcing gaskets. Ultimately decided it was easier not to pull the manifold.

I've seen a couple of aftermarket turbo installs on NCs where a firewall mounted MAP sensor was used. Stock one is just unplugged and left in place, with a jumper cable to the new one. Tee off a vacuum line to the new sensor. That would be the easy button, IMHO.

 

If it weren't for the EGR tube, manifold removal would be easier for sure. The EGR tube is just as much of a b*tch to remove as the MAP sensor, though lol. I removed my intake manifold in the car yesterday and it was still quite a task even though I've deleted all the EGR components.

If the Fab9 intake manifold weren't so expensive and didn't require the use of a throttle body prone to failure, I'd consider swapping one in for ease of access alone. The OEM manifold is an absolute hog lol.

 

Today the only turbo-install related steps were re-gapping the plugs and refilling the new PS tank... both of which required a trip to the local auto parts store since I couldn't find my plug gap tool and I didn't have enough of the proper fluid on-hand. I'm at the point where it's time to do the software flash, and I'm going to wait until Monday morning so tech support should be available if necessary during the process.

I did complete a couple of 'while I'm in there' projects that I've had planned for some time, but was waiting for the bumper cover to be off for this install. First was replacing the ridiculous 'meep-meep' OEM horn with a Stebel Nautilus type air horn. I've used these in the past and they're far superior at waking the inattentive. Mounted easily on the stock horn hanger, and there was plenty of room for the relay where the stock airbox used to reside.



Next up was headlights... the car had some typical UV oxidation when we bought it and it was time to correct it. I've used 3M and Sylvania kits in the past with decent success, this time I decided to try the Cerakote version.



The UV protectant applied easier than other brands I've used... it was thinner and less 'paint like', so it went on without piling up or running. These headlights weren't terrible to begin with, but I'm pleased with the results. We'll see how it holds up.



Close to wrapped up now... just need to refill oil and water, load the software and tune and then it will be time for the first start. After checking for leaks, I'll reinstall the bumper cover and it will be time for a test drive.

 

This morning I started with the part I generally dread the most... the computer stuff. FM is using Versatuner through an OBD plug in link... it's funny, but a standalone doesn't really bother me, but I'm always apprehensive screwing around with a factory ECU. In this case, everything went fine between downloading and installing the software, then loading the software and tune to the car. Only hitch in the works was needing to update some drivers for the OBD link and that wasn't a big deal.

First start went fine, I let it get up to operating temps while monitoring live via the Versatune software and checking for leaks. Everything looked good, and no leaks observed, so I reinstalled the bumper cover, undertray and splash guards and reinstalled the wheels. I put all the cowl parts, wipers and trim panel back on, and it was time for a drive.



The first drive was really just another heat cycle to check for leaks, and some mild driving to listen for any unexpected problems. With the laptop on the passenger seat, I was able to look at some data to see how things were going and everything looked great. I didn't want to put a lot of heat into it, as I haven't installed the turbo blanket yet, but I did three pulls to determine max boost so I can adjust the wastegate. I was paying most of my attention to getting the pulls that I wanted and listening for problems, so I'll give some driving impressions later.

When I got back to the shop, I pulled out my laser thermometer and took readings on the downpipe, turbine housing and compressor housing... for science. This was after several minutes of residential speeds and being turned off for a couple of minutes. Doesn't really mean much, but I can see why FM is using a blanket for this application. I'll take the readings again once the blanket is installed to see the delta.