Selene - Nev's NB SE

[Nevyn72]

up, i again, half close the windblocker when reaching for the roof.... .and as it comes up, the window flicks the windblocker closed.....

Works like a charm, thanks for the suggestion mate!



I discovered two things this morning....

1) When going out to buy bitz, call the shop first to find out if they have stock!

2) The MX5+ roll bar appears to have an added benefit of significantly reducing cowl or scuttle shake in addition to greatly improving handling responsiveness.
Really, really happy with this purchase!

[Nevyn72]

.
I've come to the conclusion I've got far too many bits piling up waiting to be installed......
.



So it's time to pull the thumb out and start putting some of them on the car!
I've got a couple of days to myself so let's see how much I can get done.....

I'm also having a go at cleaning up the soft-top latches which were a bit sad and corroded.

[Lokiel]

The MX5+ roll bar appears to have an added benefit of significantly reducing cowl or scuttle shake in addition to greatly improving handling responsiveness.
Really, really happy with this purchase!

+1 - I still can't believe anyone disputes the benefit of an MX5 Plus roll bar with regard to chassis stiffness; a "MUST HAVE" on all NA/NBs as far as I'm concerned.

Looks like you'll have some spares Nev; the silver intercooler pipe on the left and the hose and intercooler pipe attached to the FM throttle body elbow;.

One "gotcha" for the FM throttle body elbow though: Where are you going to get your boost source for your MBC/EBC?
The OEM throttle body has a barb for this but the FM throttle body elbow doesn't have it; instead, FM provides a barb on the intercooler pipe from the turbo (it's the vertical chrome pipe in the bottom left - you can see the barb on the left hand side)


I have an ATP QuickTap installed on my intercooler hose prior to the throttle body elbow which I use as a boost source: http://www.atpturbo.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=ATP-FTG-010&Category_Code=BCS
See my solution here: http://mx5cartalk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=57&t=41091&start=89

You might want to hold off on the throttle body elbow install until you've sorted this out.

For a good discussion on where to take your boost source for a MBC (and even an EBC), see http://www.miataturbo.net/diy-turbo-discussion-14/boost-sag-no-you-dont-need-ebc-47532/.

[Nevyn72]

Looks like you'll have some spares Nev; the silver intercooler pipe on the left and the hose and intercooler pipe attached to the FM throttle body elbow;.

Close, there'll actually be a few more 'spares' than that (factory BOV x2, MAF sensor x2 after ECU install, misc hoses, inlet elbow tube for turbo) as I got got a few duplicates for factory items with the 2nd hand kit I purchased.
However the hose and intercooler pipe attached to the FM throttle inlet are actually required as they're sized specifically for the new, wider intercooler.
Also that 'silver intercooler pipe on the left' is going to die in the CAI custom build I'm planning, I need some 1.75" pipe for a join and that'll be a good source.

One "gotcha" for the FM throttle body elbow though: Where are you going to get your boost source for your MBC/EBC?

I was scratching my head about this as well for a bit until I realised that this whole kit had been installed on a car previously so it had to have been sorted out!

By laying the various bits around my engine bay and looking at the lengths of the sections of piping around I was able to work out what they had done.
There is a brass T-fitting that taps into the same vacuum source that connects to the top of the BOV. I assume this will work (and is what I will do) because that is what was installed in the car that I bought this kit from.....

Should all be interesting as I plan to put the car up on stands tomorrow to install the intercooler and inlet elbow (holding off on the CAI until I get some more parts for what I plan...).

[Nevyn72]

One "gotcha" for the FM throttle body elbow though: Where are you going to get your boost source for your MBC/EBC?
The OEM throttle body has a barb for this but the FM throttle body elbow doesn't have it; instead, FM provides a barb on the intercooler pipe from the turbo (it's the vertical chrome pipe in the bottom left - you can see the barb on the left hand side)


I have an ATP QuickTap installed on my intercooler hose prior to the throttle body elbow which I use as a boost source: http://www.atpturbo.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=ATP-FTG-010&Category_Code=BCS
See my solution here: http://mx5cartalk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=57&t=41091&start=89

You might want to hold off on the throttle body elbow install until you've sorted this out.

For a good discussion on where to take your boost source for a MBC (and even an EBC), see http://www.miataturbo.net/diy-turbo-discussion-14/boost-sag-no-you-dont-need-ebc-47532/.

Thanks a lot for this post and link Loki, I think you might have just saved my engine!

I've now had a chance to review the link (and other internal links in that thread) and can see that the setup I purchased was plumbed in exactly the worst place!
I can tell because each of hoses are still attached to the inlet elbow and by laying it all out in my engine bay you can see they plumbed the boost source into the inlet manifold after the throttle body on the same line as the BOV feed line......

It's interesting to see that the Flyinmiata kit also has the boost source plumbed in a less than ideal place (pre-intercooler) and makes you wonder why they didn't just put an extra barb on the inlet elbow like the OEM unit as this is the perfect place.

Oh well, I'll have to poke around for a solution and alternative source of the signal..... Hopefully I can still fit the intercooler and retain the OEM inlet elbow for the interim.

[Nevyn72]

Got the latches and catches for the soft top sitting out in the sun to help the paint cure for a while today before re-installing.....

Looks a lot better now than they did!

Before:



After:

[alexbwang]

Got the latches and catches for the soft top sitting out in the sun to help the paint cure for a while today before re-installing.....

Looks a lot better now than they did!

Hey, looks fantastic! Curious how did you go about getting it done?

[Okibi]

I agree, what paint did you use?

[Nevyn72]

Got the latches and catches for the soft top sitting out in the sun to help the paint cure for a while today before re-installing.....

Looks a lot better now than they did!

Hey, looks fantastic! Curious how did you go about getting it done?

I agree, what paint did you use?

Process was simple, drown the screws in WD40 the night before, then remove.
Hand sand using 240 grit sandpaper until you can't feel any irregularities anymore, then go over it again with 800 grit wet or dry sandpaper.
Then rub the whole thing down with turps for a clean surface ready for painting.....

Paint was 4 coats of VHT Satin Engine Black, followed by a single coat of VHT Exhaust clear satin (this paint because all the rest of their clear coats were gloss).
So theoretically these latches are good for 1100 degrees!! .... Though that would probably be conservative when these things sit in the sun for a while....

Interestingly the paint coats were very black but when overcoated with the clear it actually greyed quite dramatically.
This why I only gave it one coat of clear, I panicked and was afraid it would get even greyer with two coats...
The final result after drying, while still a little grey, is actually quite spectacular with an almost glistening 'sparkly' effect while still being satin.

Anyway, be back shortly with some pics of today's projects!

[Nevyn72]

Paint was 4 coats of VHT Satin Engine Black, followed by a single coat of VHT Exhaust clear satin (this paint because all the rest of their clear coats were gloss).
So theoretically these latches are good for 1100 degrees!! .... Though that would probably be conservative when these things sit in the sun for a while....

Oops!.... Forgot to mention the 2 coats of VHT primer before painting!

[Nevyn72]

So today, after getting home from picking up a NB8A airbox and intake duct for my CAI custom experirment (Thanks MLR) I set about the next couple of install jobs.....

The major project was to install the replacement intercooler. The kit that I have, being previously installed on another car, should be a straight changeout, just a few bolts and clamps right? I mean how hard could it be? Well I have a knack for finding a way to make life difficult for myself!
I remember reading somewhere that it is possible to replace the intercooler (if you had pre-cut fittings and pipes) without removing the front bumper.... I liked the sound of that!

So the first step was to lift the front of the car and remove all the underbody panels.
Ally-oop!



Now I thought removing the underbody panels would be fairly straightforward, errrr.... No.
So after removing the 6,247 bolts and clips that secure the three underbody panels I had access to the intercooler from underneath! Yeah.... I think....
(I also discovered why I've been getting occasional scraping since the 100K service, they hadn't reattached the underbody panels properly! They also hadn't tighened the nuts on one of the braces... Don't think I'll go back to that mechanic again.... )

Next was to remove the factory intercooler, which should have been easy, but wasn't, as all the spring clamps had somehow managed to weld themselves to the pipework.
After much aggravation and scraping of knuckles I finally had the old one out and the replacement pipework in. The MX5 Mania kit uses pre-cut factory tubes so it even uses the same mounting points.




Next was to fit the replacement intercooler which had a top bracket that used the same top mountings as the old intercooler, easy.
Getting the silicone expanders in place wasn't so easy though, very hard to get on and the clamps had to be re-orientated multiple times before I could get clearance to replace the under trays.
Anyway, eventually I got it all in there and secured, although it required some major contortionist impersonations on occasion.... At this point in time I was seriously thinking I should have taken the front bumper off after all....



The last couple of jobs was to replace the horrid front number plate holder with the MX5+ low-mount unit and re-install the soft top latches and catches.
Here's how it all looks now.....





Now I know having the silver intercooler doesn't look like it fits very well with my OEM theme, and I did seriously consider painting it black, but the factory one is actually silver too and a new CX5 that was following me this morning had a silver one as well. Besides the other theme I have with this car is chrome and it fits well in that context. I'm happy with the result and overall effect and as far as I'm concerned that's all that matters....

Almost forgot, I also installed the Nopro windscreen washer relocation kit yesterday too.
Makes for quite a bit of free space beside the turbo!


So what's next?
Well tomorrow I've got to head out and try and source a vacuum barb to plum into the inlet tract like the one Lokiel posted earlier. Until I have that I can't install the FM inlet elbow I have....
I will also have a go at fitting and wiring the cheapie eBay DRLs I have, should be interesting!

[Lokiel]

:
I remember reading somewhere that it is possible to replace the intercooler (if you had pre-cut fittings and pipes) without removing the front bumper.... I liked the sound of that!
:

You must have forgotten the part where the guy added "In hindsight, it would have been MUCH easier if I removed the bumper!".

I really don't know how the hell you even got it in there with the bumper in place!

My experience with this car has taught me that it's always worth the time to remove "stuff that's in the way" if it's recommended rather than trying to work around it.

Looking forward to your DRL implementation - I still haven't seen any that I like but after your windblocker solution I'm hoping you'll come up with something functional that even looks good.

[Nevyn72]

Looking forward to your DRL implementation - I still haven't seen any that I like but after your windblocker solution I'm hoping you'll come up with something functional that even looks good.

Don't get your hopes up too high mate! There's only one real location for them to go and it's the same one that everyone else uses....

The lights I have are only ~$5 eBay cheapies (will spend some time sealing and 'weather proofing' before installing them) and are more to prove the concept.
The controller module is better quality so if I decide I like the result I only need to replace the lights themselves down the track with better quality units.

It will end up being very similar to MINX's setup but the lights will (I hope) be slightly lower down and set further back in.
The lights themselves are also slimmer at around half the height of the ones he used.

Here's a picture of MINX's install for those that haven't seen it.....

[Nevyn72]

......I've got to head out and try and source a vacuum barb to plum into the inlet tract like the one Lokiel posted earlier. Until I have that I can't install the FM inlet elbow I have....

After sleeping on this I had a thought..... Is there any reason I couldn't use a tyre valve stem from an old tube for the job?

It should be able to handle the pressure, as at less than 14 PSI, that is much less than a tyre normally holds.
The size is about right ~7.5mm for the stem, the barb off the factory inlet elbow is ~7.6mm.
Fitting is easy, just drill a hole in the rubber hose, thread the valve stem (with valve removed of course) through from the inside. You would leave a 'foot' of old tyre tube at the base of the stem to be glued to the inside of the hose. Pressure + glue + rubber on rubber + tapered fit should = a good seal.

I know it sounds a bit ghetto but I actually think it'll look and work fine, a black rubber barb coming out of a black rubber hose....
If it doesn't work out, no sweat, I've actually got two of the relevant sections of hose to play with so can go for something more conventional later on!


Thoughts anyone? Before I start making a mess......

[Lokiel]

Maybe consider something like this:



There's an amazing array of silicon hose combinations available, one may be suitable.