In for shredded hand pics...

He's a Turkish male. The definition of man-hands I'm sure.

Um, we have gloves over here. People use them.

Hahahaha!

I buttoned the car up, with fresh oil and a new filter, and fired up the engine.

It promptly dumped half the oil on the garage floor. Banjo bolt on the oil feed line for the large turbo was loose.
Could not get oil at that time of the night, locked up and went home.

Got oil today, went and topped up the engine, fired it up to back out of the garage and clean the engine bay.
The engine bay was sparkling clean after foaming and pressure washing.
Proceeded to start the engine to pull the car back in. Starts and then dies. Tried again. No start.

Turns out pressure from the washer had knocked the crank sensor towards the crank pulley, and when I started the engine, the the crank sawed into the sensor which was pretty much leaning on it.

FML.

^ Did that after pulling and putting my pully back on, bumped the sensor. Suuuuucks. :(

Ugh. sucks.

Sucks. Ugh.

I ordered two crank sensors from different vendors to be safe.
They will be delivered tomorrow. If they both work, one will go on the shelf as an emergency spare.

Oh, I just found out the Miata shares its crank and cam sensors with certain Mitsubishi models.
And, the price is lower if you buy them using the Mitsubishi part numbers.. Go figure.

Watch out that the Mitsu sensors are the correct sizes and such. I think someone checked a while ago and their may have been some small physical differences.

This is a turbo thread, but I have a brake question.

I have been using ceramic Raybestos pads for years now.
PGD635C (front)
PGD636C (rear)

I like them very much, and I am very much used to their response.
But, they are not available locally. So I was getting a couple sets whenever I could from the US. It's a pain.

Someone I trust suggested Akebono pads. They are available locally.
Have you guys used them, and would you recommend this brand?

I have never heard of that brake pad brand. They do sell them on TireRack so I would assume they are not bad. If available locally I would probably grab them just to get going. If you don't like them, you can always order the ones you do, and still drive the car while waiting for them to ship over.

Akebono is a large company that designs and manufactures brakes for OEM's including Nissan. They make racing parts too but I've not tried anything.

I never tried them on a Miata, but bought a set for my Tacoma when I put tundra brakes on it. I bought them on the advice that akebono makes the OEM pads for Toyota. They were excellent in that application. I put a set on my Prius too which I'm also impressed with.

I had a set of Akebonos on my Z32. Some sort of street sport. Not identical to the factory pads anyways. I had the same pads on it when I sold it a year later and they were still good to go. That was almost 10 years ago though, I don't really remember much else.

From memory the Akebono pads (or at least a model from that manufacturer) are what Mazda sell as OEM for NA/NB these days.(at least here from the Australian parts dept, not certain if they use different suppliers elsewhere)

Original factory fit was Sumitomo, but for whatever reason they changed brand at some stage.

Akebono produces the factory brake pads for RX8's (stamped on the back of the pad) and some other Mazda models. If I have an option of Akebono and other oe brands I'd choose Akebono.

So the turbos are rebuilt and installed, and are working correctly.
The car is not leaking any oil, anywhere, and I replaced the crank sensor I mangled.

Mangled:

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...c96ea7e02c.jpg


I went with the one on the right...

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...2d39212b17.jpg

I also got 4 new tires.
Falken Ziex ZE 310 215/40-16.
The car had a set of ZE 914 Falkens, and I was very happy with them. These are reportedly the improved version of the 914. We'll see.

Now that I corrected my wastegate mistake, the car runs incredibly well.
I can't even tell when the turbos are switching from the little one to the big K04. I roll on the throttle at any rpm (like 2000), and it instantly builds about 15 psi and shoots all the way to redline.

This new found, abundant boost made me realize I need to learn closed loop boost control ASAP.
The turbos are so eager, I keep getting boost spikes like crazy. Hitting the 20 psi overboost protection boost limit is like hitting a brick wall. I thought the engine was going to break first time it happened.

I tried to harness it as best as I can in my open loop boost map.

Please help me understand a few basics of closed loop control:

* EDIT: What is the point of getting the open boost table right (with duty cycle values) before switching over to closed loop boost control when you have to use target kpa values for the closed loop tables? (Duty cycle values for OL vs. target kpa values for CL)

* Would it be OK to turn the boost down (to, say, 8 psi) to keep things safe when I am experimenting with closed loop?

* CORRECTION: If I get closed loop working at low boost (8 psi), would it then be necessary to readjust the P, I and D values again if I want to raise boost to, say 16 psi?? (IOW, are PID values based on engine and inherent flow characteristics, or do they change with increased boost?)


--------------------------------------------------

Unrelated (OK, somewhat related) to boost control:

My large turbo has a 42 mm turbine wheel, and it comes on INSTANTLY, with a massive kick.
I also have a 44 mm turbine wheel and its housing on the shelf.

Do you think switching to the 44 mm turbine will relax things a little?

(I am thinking about exhaust restriction with the smaller turbine, higher EGTs, etc.. as well)


My goal is staying at 16 psi across the board (at least for now), and getting the boost level as flat as possible.
The gentleman who gave me this turbo setup said it is capable of 2 - 2.5 bar (30 - 37 psi) all the way to redline on my engine. It easily produces 32 psi on the MB OM651 2.1 liter diesel engine.

Is "underwhelming" a turbo by running it at less than half of its capacity detrimental at all?


This is what happens when a SC guy is converted into a Turbo maniac by a bunch of cat loving lunatics. You get a million questions.
I have seen the light.

Paging @Braineack, @sixshooter, @18psi...

MS2? I don’t recall. If it is, I don’t think I can add anything as I understand the EBC is different from MS3.

DNM