Turbo Blackie
 

Time to start a simple build blog on my NA, which will be turbo'ed in the near future. Having finished up my NB LFX project last year, the need for dicking around in the garage got pretty strong, despite the $$ loss this usually entails. I haven't had an NA since around 2003, and always liked the hardtop shape, so I started looking for a potential project that would be in nice shape to start with, and already have the top. I found a high miles, 190K, but solid, clean '93, that had just received a JDM NB6 engine and 5-speed, had fresh T. belt, pump, seals, clutch, quality roll bar, and also came with the Elise seat, and a MSM2PNP installed. Fresh paint too, so that lets me out of the usual body work, and $$ for paint. This will be a street car, so at first I had no turbo plans, but enjoy the learning process, and mechanical bits a little too much to leave well enough alone, so started watching the FS section, and gradually have built up all the parts for a good quality install, with lightly used parts, for a pretty reasonable price. Things like a MSM Torsen 4.1 diff and axles have also been found. The plan is to install the turbo in the next month, but leave her in open waste gate, while a friend of mine with a dyno, and lots of Megasquirt experience gets time to re-tune her. I am a good welder / fabricator, but don't even own a laptop, so will be happy to watch that part. Here's a few photo's of where we start. and the LFX brother.
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Getting comfortable in the car, I needed to mod the seating position, and pedals a bit. I like the Elise seats, but they will numb my butt in about 40 min. of driving, so that needed attention. I had a local seat guy make a simple foam pad and Alcantera liner that I velcro'ed in place of the stock Elise back pad, which made a much more comfortable seat, but still didn't like the position with the floor slider in place. Ended up making a simple steel floor mount that bolts to the seat in a fixed position, and gets me where I am comfortable in my driving position. The steering wheel needed a 1 in. spacer to get closer for the now very rear mounted seat, and a small throttle pedal cover makes it easier to heel and toe.

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Next bit of prep was replacing the 190K stock fuel pump with a DW190. Once underway, I could see the new pump is too long to fit in the stock mount position, so I ended up cutting the tubing so it would fit. Also found a slightly used Odyssey PC680 battery, and did a simple mod to mount it in the stock location. Now hopefully won't have issues with the DW pump, as others are finding.

I couldn't be any more excited to see this thread. This is a great friend of mine's previous car. I never put it together that you were the person that bought it from him.

Super pumped that the turbo parts from my car will make their way onto this. Looking forward to seeing how it turns out.

Thanks Shibby, your parts look great; appreciated your help, and cool to know about my car's former life!

Just for grins, I swapped the 6UL's from the LFX onto Blackie; think I like the Darth Vader'ish look.
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...653dc6645c.jpg
15 by 8 UL's, with 205/50/15 Yoko S-drives
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...823a42128d.jpg

Turbo Install Progress
 

Started to install; I'd picked up a lightly used CSF rad, so that and the FM intercooler went on first, pulled the existing exhaust system, and installed the turbo today, ( thanks Shibby!). Not really happy with the FM method of bending the water-bypass line out of the way, I removed it, cut back about 3 in. and re-installed it. This gives me a lot more room to get the rubber line away from the turbo heat. I'll wrap the lines before I'm thru. Finally a question: The FM system has probably been installed a few thousand times, but I'v not read about the difficulty in tightening the rearmost lower manifold nut. I could tell the stock, shouldered not did not have enough clearance with the manifold to be used, so found a plain nut, but cannot get any to tighten it beyond finger tight; no socket will fit, and not room to move a wrench. Almost seems like the drivetrain would have to be out to get at this bolt. Any ideas?
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Nice to see some change by the end of the day!
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Bypass, before surgery.
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Short version.
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Final clearance.

I don't recall which tool I used to access that lower rear bolt, but these were so helpful during install in various ways: https://www.harborfreight.com/7-piec...set-93922.html

Problem is the casting shrouds the head stud so tight that even with a different, thinner -wall nut, I can't even fit a thin wall socket around it, let alone a box end wrench. The firewall, trans, other stuff doesnt let me move an open end wrench either. Odd, because so many of these are running around, I'm not the first guy to encounter this. I may grind down a custom, thin socket, and try to be gentile with my twisting. Thanks for the suggestion tho. For now, I'm ignoring it, and welding up an exhaust.

Progress
 

Engine bay work is finished; made up some heat shielding for the turbine, and around the compressor, and have the coolant tubes re-routed and finished. Just waiting on the Magnaflow to arrive, so I can finish up the exhaust, and get a date for some dyno time. To confirm: I need to put one-way flow check valves in both PVC line and brake booster vac. line, correct? I do have the Ford PVC installed, with vent-to-atmos. on the cold side, and plan on seeing how happy she is set up that way. Being a street car, I don't anticipate the need for a catch canister, but we will see.
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steel shield, with reflective heat tape inside.
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Stainless top cap.

Black roadsters look the best. :likecat:

Good luck, make it woosh real nice like!

I bet that hot side reroute was fun to plan around. Nice progress!

Yup, it's a pretty busy corner between the firewall and engine. Muffler comes today, so it shouldn't be too long before she's running again.

Exhaust progress
 

Hoping to get to my tuner friends place in near future, to set up the Megasquirt for the new turbo. Did finish up the 2 1/2in. exhaust, so she's all set to go. Chose the smaller diameter to match the 1.6, and street future of the build, and use up some SS bends I had from the LFX project.
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Your car is coming along nicely!

Thanks! Hope to have the turbo working in the next week.

Nicely done.

I know the hotside reroute was probably done originally because of the weird 180 intake setup, but any reason you kept it rather than do the more simple coldside routing?

The area behind the head is so tight, I was loath to mess with the routing; the car came to me with the cooling re-route on the hot side, so it was pretty simple to make the changes. I'm not a fan of the long hose on the cold side, so would have had to make up aluminum lines to change to the that side, so just kept it simple. I admit, it is a little cluttered looking going over the turbo, and adds more heat up there as well. If the engine had to come out, it may get changed.

It lives!
 

I was able to get together with my buddy, Cody Loveland yesterday at his shop, and wake up the turbo. I'd been driving around for a few weeks with the waste gate wired open, waiting till he could get some time. After a struggle to get his old laptop happy with the MS2 program, and my fuck-up of getting the plug wires off on 2 cya's, after pulling the coil to check it, we were able to get Blackie tuned. I opted for a safe 9-10 lbs. boost, and was surprised to see 184HP out of the 1.6. I'll enjoy her at this level before adding any more boost. Here's what the build is:
JDM NB6, stock, unopened, with fresh timing belt, seals, etc., coolant re-route, uprated rad, NB 5-speed.
FM kit with Garrett 2560R, 640 Flowforce injector's, plugs, vent to atoms. BOV, and 2 1/2 in. downpipe, and 2 1/2 in. pipe with smaller Magnaflow muffler.
MisterR coilovers, 8 by 15 949 wheels, Smaller Wilwood kit on fronts, GarageStar frame rails, and Racing beat front sway bar, stock rear.

Next Winter, she will get all new A-arms, with mostly stock rubber bushings, a 4.1 Torsen diff from a '05 MSM, and newer rear uprights/hubs. For now, it will be fun seeing what she's like with the boost. Really surprised how quick the boost comes on! Shot of one of the dyno runs: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...type=3&theaterhttps://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...5d1a9f68a6.jpg

Yes I'm liking the black on black. It's funny I already own a black hardtop that's sitting on NB. I could swap and you'd almost not tell us apart.

It's been snowing for a couple of weeks, so time to get Blackie up in the air, and swap on the fresh suspension bits. Because it's a street car, I have gone with stock rubber for the bushings, wanting to keep a quiet, hopefully supple feel for the car. The steering rack had been de-powered by the PO, but the pinion was not welded, so I'v sent that off to a guy in Pa., who tig welds the pinion, while set up on a lathe, so he can keep it true, and un-warped. New Le tie rod ends will go back on, and rack spacers to help with the bump steer. Stock rubber bushings are so damn expensive, I kept searching, and figured out it was cheaper to buy all new A-arms, with bushings and ball joints installed, than just getting the bushings, so other than the rear lower arms, she will have all new suspension. Swapped out the front hubs for a set of the Mazda Sport hubs, which seem not to be the great solution they were hoped for by the track guys, but are beautifully made, and will be fine for my street car. And I got them new, for a great price from a MT member who elected to go with stronger hubs. Also had a chance to get a set of used Paco cowl brace arms (thanks devious!) on MT, so those are now on. Front half of the car is finished, other than the rack install, so I can start in on the rear.

Blackie gets new diff, fresh suspension, and brake booster/MC
 

In the last few weeks all the A-arms have been replaced, along with the rubber bushings, (cuz she's a street car). A low miles MSM 4.1 Torsen, axles and driveshaft have been swapped in place of the original 4.3, and I'm installing a 15/16ths MC, and booster from a '05 MSM to get a little better brake feel.
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Out with the old viscous 4.3, and in with the much fresher MSM 4.1 Torsen
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The original '93 standard MC, and booster.
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Slight issue in swap, is the lack of two front MC ports on the bigger MC.
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Bigger MC and booster installed; just lacking a line to feed the "T".

One odd thing in this swap is that this is the first "metric" car I'v worked on that has metric brake line fittings, but with inverted flare line ends. I'v only ever seen the bubble flare metric lines. Is this a kind of one-off for Mazda's, or have I been leading a sheltered automotive life? Pretty sure the Mazda 10mm 1.0M fittings are identical to a SAE 3/8's-24 fitting. I'm thinking to get the inverted flare ends I need, I will end up asking for a US spec, SAE 3/8's-24, which seems somehow wrong, a forboading vibe. Guess I'll learn more at the parts store, but welcome being enlightened by you guy's! Anyway, one the brakes are blead, she's pretty much ready for next Summer.

Inverted flare is pretty normal around the world.

From my 99 MX5, to my 82 Mazda 626, even to the 79 Holden Kingswood my fiancee owned for a while.

All had inverted flare. (the kingswood was one of those annoying ones built at the crossover, so some bolts were metric, and some imperial)



I've never seen a bubble flare in person

Pretty sure they wont fit, or at least they'll fit but the threads will be different and gall.

Are metric fittings not available locally?

I'll go to the parts store tomorrow and find out. Lots of past projects were Porsche's, and they all have bubble flare ends, as well as the VW stuff I'v messed with. Possibly it's a German thing, that I have mistakenly assumed was all metric. M10 brake fittings and 3/8's-24 do have the same thread size and count. Or damn near, as M10 has 24.5 threads per in. vs. the SAE at 24. Tomorrow will tell.

Euro cars, especially Vw/BMW/Mercedes often seem to do things strangely compared to the rest of the Metric world.

I had the misfortune of owning an MG for a while (2002 MG ZT), which was built when they were owned by BMW.

While all the threads were metric, it was full of annoying proprietary bolt heads and fittings (granted, I never needed to to brake work on that, in typical MG fashion is broke and I sold it for just above scrap value)

Well, right your were, so that made it easy, but had to ditch the stock banjo fitting I'd retained; there is not enough surface on the 15/16's MC for crush washers to seal against, so will have to back and get another new line tomorrow.