Yeah only waiting on axles and then I have everything I need to finish it!
Nah, but I'm from a family of sparky's, my brother and dad are/were sparky's. I've worked with them enough to know what I'm doing though and previously studied electronics and Electrical engineering at college and Uni.
haha when I first saw that word filter it did make me chuckle so I just left it
Excellent, can't wait to hear this thing running, wow! Are you going to have it corner weighted after its all done? It would be interesting to see how much it weighs and the distribution post swap
Ahh, that makes sense then, wiring and electronics really is a proper skill, I'm happy turning wrenches but it all tends to fall apart when I have to to anything related to wires. I recently fitted the oem fog light switch and ripped out badly done fog light switch and a 90s immobiliser that was tied into the harness and had all sorts of dummy wires scotch locked everywhere to trick a theif, it was pretty awful stuff. I'm still left with a constant cig lighter fuse blowing so I know theres a dodgy ground somewhere but don't really need either of those so it can wait.
Lol, you should leave the indicators unwired to pay homage
Excellent, can't wait to hear this thing running, wow! Are you going to have it corner weighted after its all done? It would be interesting to see how much it weighs and the distribution post swap
Ahh, that makes sense then, wiring and electronics really is a proper skill, I'm happy turning wrenches but it all tends to fall apart when I have to to anything related to wires. I recently fitted the oem fog light switch and ripped out badly done fog light switch and a 90s immobiliser that was tied into the harness and had all sorts of dummy wires scotch locked everywhere to trick a theif, it was pretty awful stuff. I'm still left with a constant cig lighter fuse blowing so I know theres a dodgy ground somewhere but don't really need either of those so it can wait.
Lol, you should leave the indicators unwired to pay homage
At some point I'll get it corner weighted but probably not until after I've changed the coilovers and got the suspension properly setup.
I swear aftermarket alarms & immobilisers are always sketchy as Canoe, way to much wire splicing and questionable soldering. My car still had an alarm/immobiliser box under the dash with all of the wiring but one of the previous owners had bypassed it and just installed a switch under the dash that you have to hold whilst cranking. I also found an old insurance black box spliced into the loom under the dash, also proper sketchy.
At some point in the future I do plan on changing the ECU to an ECUMaster EMU Black and Programable PDU so when I do that I will likely rewire the whole car to get rid of all the shady wire splicing.
Yeah not worth doing until you have all the bits of course, I think the M52TUB25 + gearbox is roughly about 45kg more than a BP motor and all the bits and then theres the turbo of course but you could probably guestimate somewhat. The weight won't really be noticable with the torque of that lump but wondering if theres some clever stuff you can do to re-distrubute some rearward (hello dry sump setup wit rear mounted tank/swirl pot)
Yeah, absoutely horrible stuff, they seem to have created a loop that links the cig lighter/radio/rear fog light/dash illumination when it should just be cig/radio on its own so this is causing me a bit of a headache to put right. Will probably look at this post MOT in Sept as it will pass as is right now.
Please DM me about any suplus to requirements JDM parts for sale arigatōgozaimasu. Project Thread - ユーノスロードスターSスペシャル。
Well I've solved my idling issue, it now starts and stays running.
After doing some research and reviewing logs I took a punt on there being a lack of fuel for cold start so I bumped the Acceleration enrichment from 7% at 20 degrees C to 60% and then it started and idled until the acceleration enrichment started dialing down and then the AFR started hitting 18 and I turned it off. Out of the 30 seconds or so it ran only about 10 seconds of the log was useful as the wideband didn't finish heating and start outputting until after the first 20 seconds. However it was long enough to realise that the base map I have will not run my setup and that the VE table is way off. I'm not yet sure why the base map is so off, It could be the turbo/intake setup I have, The drop in compression ratio from 10.5 to 8.5 or it could be the 875cc injectors.
at present this is my VE table with the Idle section bumped by probably 80% over how it started.
you can see how out of scale the Idle section is with the rest of the table. After some time reviewing the setup I realised that my injector/battery voltage compensation was off. So the battery in the car is pretty much dead and at present with the engine running it sits at about 11v and with the injector voltage corrections that were setup it would have been extending the injector open pulse by about 5-10% when it should have been extending it by about 40-50% according to the data on the injectors I'm using. Hopefully with the correct injector correction curves inputted the VE table will be slightly better (although I didn't get chance to test).
So I've put the VE table back to how it was before then bumped the fuel up my 20% over all just to be safe for the time being. Hopefully I'll be able to get a new battery as well and I can continue tweaking the tune to a point where I'm comfortable driving it (when I've got the rest of the outstanding issues finished).
Injector correction and deadtimes will probably help. Is that bump to get it idling when hot? Otherwise you could just go with afterstart enrichment and a slow taper until the engine is hot enough.
Righto so some more progress. I tightened up all of the suspension bolts (will need to roughly align it later) but at least now nothing is going to shake lose when I can take it for a test. After that I got the fans wired on configured the ECU to turn the relay on at the right temperatures, installed a new battery and started tuning again to try and get the idle right.
Well I was on the right track with the Injector compensation, but something else I had done in the tune was throwing it off. So I loaded in the base map again, reconfigured the engine settings, reconfigured the injector compensation, changed the idle mode and then locked the ignition advance to 16 degrees whilst I set the idle. Initially it fired up and then died so I had a look at the ASE settings and bumped it by 30% across the board (I bumped the ASE as once the ASE turns off after 30 seconds I can see how far out the initial VE table is). Well with the ASE up 30% it was about the right AFR for idle and once the ASE was disabled it leaned out. With that in mind I bumped the entire VE table by 30% and then started changing the idle duty cycle to get it to idle at the right RPM. It now idles pretty nicely with a good safe AFR so I'm happy with it for the moment, I also had it fully up to temp and didn't spring any leaks so that's a bonus.
Now I'm kind of at the point where I need to be able to drive the car to tune any further but obviously I don't have any axles yet. So over the next few days I'll probably tidy up some of the last wiring bits and get the suspension roughly aligned after that it's probably gonna have to go on hold until I get the axles.
Hopefully they come in soon, stay tuned
I did manage to get a little video of it running, with a few little revs (it wasn't warmed up yet).
Over the past few weeks I've been having a bit of a job trying to get the correct CV joints for an MX5. I ordered a set and was sent the wrong part, the supplier exchanged it and sent the exact same wrong part the second time even after I told the exact number of splines in should have inside and out. Thankfully the third time they listened to me and sent the right part. I checked 3 different suppliers/manufacturers and they all listed the wrong outer cv joint for an MX5 so who knows what the hell is going on there. 3 separate companies list the outer CV joint as being 28 spline outer and a 32 spline inner when it should be 26 spline outer and 22 spline inner. Well I got all of that resolved last week and then earlier this week a very exciting parcel showed up on my doorstep containing the custom axles.
As I'd had such a pain with getting the CV joints I wanted to check everything fit ok so I test fit everything together and it fits like a glove.
over the last few days I've been prepping and painting the axle parts and I had some left over I figured I might as well paint the axles shafts in the colour that matches the rest of the car.
They went into the car without much of a fight and I loctited and torqued all of the bolts to make sure that they don't work there way loose.
With the axles in and a little bit of tidying up under the dash there was nothing stopping me from taking the car out for a little test up and down the industrial estate. The alignment is absolutely Canoeed so it handles like prarrie canoe but I was happy enough to take it for a proper drive and I desperately need to put some fuel in it as it was once again running on fumes. So I took it on about a 4 mile round trip to get some 99. About half way there I realised my speedo wasn't working as I hadn't yet configured the controller to generate a speedo output based on the input from the front wheel speed sensor. I also noticed on the way back that the temp were a little warmer than I would have liked.
This thing is wild even without getting properly into boost it just wants to get going and sounds insane.
I'm not entirely sure if it is running too warm or not as the OEM Tailgate McNoIndicate thermostats don't open until 97 degrees and the ECU was only reading the temp at 99. However I'm not gonna take the risk so I've picked up a new thermostat and water pump as in my infinite wisdom I decided not to change them when I had the engine out despite the fact that they are both notorious for failing, the thermostat especially when its been sat for long periods of time.
so hopefully tonight I can change the thermostat and water pump out and try and do something about the terrible alignment. Stay tuned
I did manage to get a little video of it running, with a few little revs (it wasn't warmed up yet).
there is somethign about straight 6s that sounds right. V6 and straight 6 is the sweet spot for 5s. V8s are hilarious, but just don't feel right to me in these cars.
So last night I changed out the thermostat and water pump which was surprisingly easy, I didn't even have to take the radiator or fans out. However it didn't resolve my issue. I know that these engines are an absolute nightmare to bleed when they are in a stock configuration as the water channels in the head and the heater matrix sit slightly higher than the water neck and bleeder.
In my setup I made the water neck and reservoir higher than the bleeder which makes the bleeder pretty useless once the rad is filled (didn't think about that when I built it). I'm also fairly sure that the water channels in the head are still slightly higher than the water neck so I think there is just an airlock somewhere in the head that is stopping coolant from flowing properly (which is pretty common for this engine). I did try jacking up the front end last night but it didn't seem to help.
I also remembered that the thermostat on these engines can be electronically overridden to force the stat open earlier than the mechanical open temp (I'm pretty sure it just uses a heating element to heat it earlier). So I did change the settings to force it open at about 88 degrees instead of 95 but alas it made no difference.There are a few other things I want to try today to get it bleed so we'll see how that goes.
I did however get my speedo sorted and working, I'd connected the wheel speed sensor incorrectly so after connected it up the right way it seems to work correctly. Just an the alignment to fix once the cooling system is working
So I realised that I hadn't actually calibrated the Temperature sensors in tuner studio. I spent some time digging around online and found the correct values and input them. I also re-bled the cooling system again and this time I jacked the front of the car as high as I could get it and with the engine running the coolant level dropped a fair bit pretty quickly. So I think its safe to say that there was indeed an airlock somewhere in the head (which happens to be where the coolant temp sensor is). I got it all bleed and left it to idle for a while and it all looked good so took for another spin. when driving normally at 30-40MPH temps were around about 88-91 degrees, when constantly cruising on the dual carriage way at 75MPH temps were around 94-95 degrees so much improved over the previous temps.
I think I'll have a look at adding in an aftermarket gauge in as well so that I don't have to have my laptop plugged in constantly just to monitor temps. I'll probably also wire in the secondary Tailgate McNoIndicate coolant temp sensor to the Mazda gauge just so that it somewhat works (I have no idea if the resistance curves are the same but I don't like having a gauge that doesn't work)
There are also a couple of other issues I need to work on but nothing major, hopefully over the next few weeks I can get everything dialled in nicely.
I made a couple of further changes to the cooling system over the weekend, so I tweaked the E-Stat settings. I can't remember if I said but the M52TU has an electronically assisted thermostat, it has a mechanical thermostat but it also has a heating element in it that can open the stat early. I configured the ECU to open the E-stat at 88 degrees regardless of engine load which has made such a huge difference to the coolant temps. I've not seen it idle warmer than about 92 degrees even when sat in traffic and just overall, temps in every scenario have dropped. I may need to tweak this slightly to get the ideal operating temperature but for now I'm happy.
I threw the car on the lift today as well to take a look at what the exhaust was contacting on and it wasn't what I thought it was. It clears the gearbox crossmember fine but once the exhaust warms up and the hangers soften the rear end has enough movement to contact the diff. When I installed the exhaust I used a mixture of poly mounts and rubber mounts not for any reason other than I ran out of poly mounts and had to order more last minute and I could only get rubber ones in time. So the easiest solution is probably to replace the rear 2 exhaust mounts with poly mounts and while I'm at I might throw in another mount just to be safe.
Whilst the car was in the air I also noticed that there was oil dripping front the intake side of the oil sump, Initially I assumed that it was coming from the join between the block and sump but it wasn't as there was oil on the lines and cables above it. It looks like oil is actually blowing out of the seal where the dipstick goes into the sump. The dipstick tube also links to the crank case ventilation system so I immediately thought that boost was getting into the tube and forcing the oil out of it.
So I did a little searching on the Tailgate McNoIndicate forums found that this is pretty common when turboing these engines as the CCV system doesn't like boost at all. It turns out that it doesn't have any kind of check valve its just an air oil separator that allows the oil to drain back into the sump. The solution is to delete the OEM the CCV system and replace it with a catch can. So that is another thing on my to list and this one is pretty urgent as I can't really drive it on boost until its done.
Well despite that I also chucked the 10PSI spring in the wastegate, scaled the tables and then input some safe values ready to start tuning when I can boost the car again.
So that's 2 things off my to-do list and 2 more immediately back on. Hopefully I can get them sorted quickly, stay tuned
So the car has been pretty much finished for the last couple of weeks, there are still a few things I need to tie up and a few snags I need to sort out but overall its in a good state. As such I thought I'd throw together a bit of a summary since its going to be a while before I'll be making any major changes.
Whenever anyone suggests an unusual swap on the internet , you tend to get 3 main response types, supportive people, Idiots that lack skill and imagination that insist its impossible and then muppets that insist it'll cost "£1700000" and "22 years" to complete it.
So to address the question of much it all actually cost and how long it all took
This includes anything that I've had to buy specifically for this project so, it doesn't include the cost of sheet metal, bolts or fittings I had in the workshop already. It does include any tools that I had to buy specifically for the project like the Tailgate McNoIndicate specific tools and the kit to re-thread the head studs into the block. It also doesn't include any labour costs as I did all the work myself (If I was to estimate the labour costs at the rate we charge in the workshop then yes the costs would be astronomical)
The final cost came to £5577.90
I'm not gonna do a full breakdown as that would be boring and no one wants to read through that, but here are some of the most expensive things I ended up buying. £462.40 - Time-cert head stud re-threading kit £440.23 - Custom driveshafts £328.60 - DIY-EFI Speeduino ECU £315.00 - GFB EX44 External Wastegate £270.00 - M52TU Engine, Gearbox and Harness £257.20 - ARP Head studs £250.00 - GT3071 Turbo (Legit Wuhan Whirly Boy) £202.49 - Siemens 875cc Injectors £152.97 - E46 Alloy Radiator £150.00 - M52TU Decompression plate and head gasket
All in all this project took about 7-8 months of evenings and weekends but this includes time to fix the rusty chassis legs as well as some time waiting on parts so It could probably be done quicker If I'd been able to order all of the parts at the beginning of the project.
Would I recommend this swap to someone else? Yes I would as its an awesome engine and with a turbo its pretty nuts, the caveat is that its not for everyone, there are definitely easier swaps but if you love a straight 6, don't mind pissing off the JDM purists and have the skills to do it then Yes.
What would I do differently if I was to do this again? Well first things first the biggest Issues I had was clearance for the exhaust and turbo and how to run the turbo oil return, so I would definitely try everything possible to to top mount the turbo even if it meant notching the chassis legs or tube framing the front end. I would also try and see if it's possible to run the downpipe forward slightly and under the front section of the oil pan so that I could run it down the passenger side of the tunnel as there is so much more room on that side. With the turbo low mounted there wasn't enough room to do this due to the position of the engine mount and subframe.
I would also use a 6 speed gearbox from the beginning as they have better ratios (they actually have an overdrive gear! 6th is 0.83 whereas the 5 speed does not, 5th is 1.0) meaning I could use one of the oem Tailgate McNoIndicate lsd options (all of which are like 3.9-4.3 ratios) and still keep a comfortable RPM when cruising. Obviously I can change this on my car in the future but it requires a different clutch, different mount and different prop shaft that in my case will need modifying again.
Use a pedal box! so the modified clutch pedal I made works just fine however it was such a pain to make and even more of a pain to get the feed plumbed in. I did consider doing this as I had a spare OBP pedal box in storage that I bought for S14 but I wanted to retain the brake booster as this is technically my daily
I'm adding this even though It's something that I still may do going forward, but use the oem E36 Tailgate McNoIndicate axles. The Tailgate McNoIndicate axles are pretty much the perfect length to go in the back on an MX5 and it should be possible to get a set of MX5 hubs re-splined to take the Tailgate McNoIndicate axles. Another option is to get a set Tailgate McNoIndicate hubs turned down to fit in the MX5 uprights (this would require switching to a Tailgate McNoIndicate 5x120 stud pattern on the rear though)
So what's Next? So aside from the snagging issues, I'm currently running at about 8-9PSI of boost on a very safe tune and this thing is already mad as hell and is considerably faster than my old turbo setup. As such the next thing on my list is Brakes. The car is in dire need of a brake upgrade before I start adding any more power. I haven't 100% decided on a course of action but I do have a couple of things in mind that I want to try out.
After the brakes are done It'll likely be, FIX MORE GODMANN RUST!, LSD Upgrade, Wheels, Tyres, Suspension, MO POWAH, Exterior
I'll likely post some other updates as I get chance to work through the snagging list but until my finances recover that is this project pretty much done
Last Edit: Sept 3, 2021 15:31:11 GMT by nix: Added more Info
Simon: 600 quid to get through an MOT 2 weeks ago and now my crank pulley has decided it would like to be Bluetooth le sigh
Jul 15, 2023 20:03:52 GMT
atlex: at least you can get new crank pulleys!! :-)
Jul 18, 2023 10:29:14 GMT
Simon: Alas! turns out the keyway in the crank is knackered!
Jul 18, 2023 15:45:49 GMT
Zed.: there are other ways to repair, how bad is it?
Jul 25, 2023 15:55:37 GMT
atlex: And a murray murray crimbo to you all :-)
Dec 24, 2023 22:20:35 GMT
Zed.: condiments of the seasoning?
Dec 26, 2023 11:10:41 GMT
queenie: Hiya fellas and fellettes. My name is Gary, I am 72, live in rural Victoria (Australia), am an unashamed Anglophile and own a gold 1998 NB. I bought her in 2016, reflecting at the time that I had wanted a car like this since age 15. Yep, took me 50 years!
Dec 31, 2023 5:58:34 GMT
Deleted: Hey guys, I’m 49 & from the UK here! Currently restoring/upgrading a Mazda MX5 Eunos Roadster. Got a lot of work to do 🤯😩🫣🤣
Jun 30, 2024 16:21:03 GMT
Simon: Nice and quiet in here, but I'm back with vengance! Car with a knackered crank is now having a full rust and engine resto at Basset Down! Will be spenny, but excited to have a 'good' car again.
Jul 2, 2024 16:29:20 GMT
le sigh