Clocked turbo and stuff...
 

Man, my car has been down for so long b/c a blown diff and other "troubles" that I felt at one point that it would never run again, but I am almost there....so I decided to take some pics and post...

Pic #1 - Tony's bigger DP with lower o2 sensor location. I could only test it out briefly, but made a noticable improvement in spool.

Pic #2 - Clocked turbo thanks to lots of help from Stripes. I couldn't bend my stock oil return flange enough so I ended up ordering a replacement flange and routing the oil return straight down to the tapped pan. Now the oil return line is less than 18 inches long.

Pic #3 - A teaser pic of Stripes' IC piping. Another reason to remove your AC/PS. Biggest bummer is that I haven't had a chance to test out the limits of the new IC b/c of other snafus related to the bigger DP/clocking/etc...

Looking Good.

how's everything coming along Tom? Get that oil drain fixed?

Oil drain problem solved. Will probably be running by the end of the week, and I'll get a chance to really see how the new DP and IC work...:bigtu:

I'll post more pics of the IC setup later.

my intercooler piping is routed like that WITH a/c and p/s, so ha! Looks good so far!

Oh yeah, well my car is about 30# lighter so HA! :gay:

I've actually been thinking about bagging my A/C, it's not blowing cold anymore anyways.

Im thinking about taking away my a/c also.... is it worth it, can you fit the pipe with only removing the A/C not the P/S?

actually can someone take a picture of how much more space you have when you take the a/c out? Anyone have before/after pics mainly because now that I have 2 cars the miata is just a weekend fun car so I dont really need ac and that would make my ic install a lot easier... im still tring to decide if its worth it, but i definately want to keep power steerting

Those ic pipes look good . Can I copy them J/K . What intercooler did you use on your car. Before you clocked the turbo is the wastegate actuator that far out or is that the stock location.

I don't have before pictures, but here are two shots from my '92 after last week's A/C removal.

On the left (exhaust) side, I have enough space to comfortably pass a 2.25" pipe between the fan and the power steering pump. I could probably have fit a 2.5" pipe in there if it weren't for the aftermarket sway bar, but I'm not giving that up.

On the other side, the space freed up by removing the two hardlines from the firewall to the condensor / drier will allow me to run a 2.5" pipe straight down from the throttle body and around the side of the radiator. (try to imagine the crossover pipe not being there).

I plan to leave the compressor housing in the stock orientation in order to simplify removing the I/C piping and re-installing the stock plastic pipe for the bi-annual smog inspection.

If you're a big time weight hater, then yes it's worth it. I've also thought about recharging my system... but then my wife said she hopes she never has to drive the Miata again because of the seats and steering wheel. :)

Anyone know where there may be pic-by-pic instructions on removing the AC ?
I've been thinking of ripping mine out for a while now and would like to seriously start researching it.
How does the car handle/feel without the PS by the way ?

There's really not much to it. Here's what I did:

1- Go to NAPA and buy a power steering belt.

2- Have a shop evacuate the system (they'll often do it for free since they can keep whatever freon they took out)

3- I removed the whole nose of the car. In case any of you were wondering why my avatar picture is of the nose of a Miata sitting on the ground, that's when I took that pic. You might be able to just remove the undertray and oval-shaped mouthpiece.

4- Disconnect the fittings at the drier (aluminum cylinder next to the horn) and then remove the drier

5- Disconnect the fittings to the condenser (the big radiator in front of the radiator) and remove the condenser.

6- Remove the PS/AC belt.

7- Disconnect the rubber hoses from the compressor and the hardline and remove them.

8- Detach the electrical wire that runs to the compressor. The other end of it is up near the headlight.

9- Remove the compressor by taking out the four long bolts run sideways through it.

10- Remove the compressor mounting block from the engine by removing the four or five short bolts holding it in.

11- Detach the wires from the pressure switch in the hardline behind the right headlight.

12- Disconnect the fittings at the firewall, remove a few clips, and pull out the hardline.

13- Plug the two pipes now hanging through the firewall.

That's pretty much it. Took me about three hours, of which a large portion involved the drinking of beer.

I can't say that I've really noticed any difference at all in the feel of the car. I did it to free up under-hood space.

IC was off ebay. Because I removed my AC dryer, I could fit a huge IC. Probably bigger than I really need. IIRC it is 3" deep and 25" long and 12" high. Can you say bling, bling...:gay:

The wastegate actuator got pushed out when I clocked the turbo and had to relocate the wastegate with a bracket extender. I guess it could be pulled in a little.

The car is a third car that only comes out for fun so I didn't mind removing the AC and PS for weight/performance reasons. If it was a daily driver, it would probably be a different story. For a fun only/performance car, it was worth it for me in terms of weight reduction (around 40+ pounds), steering feedback (from removing the PS), and room to work (not necessary, but it made lots of jobs such as tapping the oil pan, routing IC piping, etc... much easier. YMMV.

so you have to remove PS when you remove the AC? I dont mind the a/c, like brgracer my miata it just a car i take out ocasionally and have some fun in. Being that that is what I use the car for, how do you guys feel about PS? I mean how does the car feel without it? brgracer, and others what are the pros and cons of doing it? ---sorry for the hijack---

You do not have to remove the PS when you remove the AC, you just need to get the PS only pulley bracket to keep the PS.

As for the PS, it's a matter of taste. I love the extra steering feedback, and anything over 5 mph there is not much difference in steering effort compared to PS. Some people don't like it. (*cough* Stripes *cough* :) ) What made me consider it was that my PS/AC belt was looking pretty ragged so I decided to cut if off and see what life without AC/PS was like. Two weeks later, I realized that I didn't miss either so I just took the rest out and sold a bunch of the parts. Still don't miss them. You could always just remove the belt to get a taste of what it is like. YMMV.

okay if i remove the ac, i have to get a new belt for just the ps right? if I do then I will cut it and see what its like because I will definately be removing my ac

You only need a new PS-only belt to remove A/C and keep PS.

If you were going the other way (remove PS, keep A/C) then you would need an idler pulley (which is what I think bgracer was trying to say). The reason is that the tension adjustment for the belt is all in the P/S pulley, so if you were to remove that altogether there would be no way to tension the A/C belt. Miata with A/C only actually use the same belt as A/C & PS miatas, because of the idler pulley which takes up the same space as the PS pump.

But in your case, you'll be just fine.

yeah ok
i am going to drive the car without using ac for about a week and see how i like it, then probally cut the belt and see if i like it without ps

Yup, that's what I meant....oops...:)

Simply removing the belt is going to render your steering pretty much worthless, since you’ll now be using the steering rack to push fluid through the valve, pump and lines, as opposed to the other way around. If you truly want to experience manual steering, you will either need to acquire and install a proper manual steering rack, or open and modify your existing rack as in this tutorial: http://www.flyinmiata.com/tech/depower.php

Note that the stock manual steering rack has a slightly longer ratio then the P.S. rack, so doing the FM modification will result in a slightly heavier-feeling wheel than a true manual rack. I've never driven a "de-powered" rack so I can't say how pronounced this effect will be. One thing is for sure however- if you simply remove the belt and leave everything else along, your car will be nearly undriveable.

I've done it and it is definitely driveable. Granted I would not want to have a daily driver or do a ton of city driving, but like I mentioned, over 5 mph there is barely a difference in steering effort. There are a few ways to go about switching to manual steering and pulling th belt will give you an idea of what it would be like. If you like it then you can remove the PS and drain the rack of fluid and cap or loop the lines which makes steering effort a little easier, but not by a huge amount. Other option is to take the PS rack apart a "properly" depower it a la FM. Or as mentioned, replace with a manual rack. Just an FYI, the PS and manual rack have different steering ratios so the difference between removing the belt on a PS rack and a true manual rack can be significant so if you were set on going with a manual steering rack, I'd try one out first as it will be different than a depowered rack.

That being said, getting used to a depowered rack is pretty darn easy. You just have to get going a little before turning the wheel. If you do a lot of city driving, parallel parking, or less than 5 mph driving/turning, then I don't think you'll like it, but that doesn't sound like too many miata drivers to me. Like I said, it is just a matter of preference. Just to play devil's advocate for a second, the miata was designed with a PS rack and the manual rack was an afterthought so some people believe that the manual rack is inferior. YMMV.

are Stripes' IC pipes 2.5'' just so I can relate what size IC piping i can run with the ac out

In most cases it's the size of the intercooler that dictates whether or not you have to remove your ac. I run 2.5 inches on both sides of the intercooler and 2.0 inches from the turbo compressor.