Or local turbo rebuilder won't touch the twins. Says it too hard to balance. How are you overcoming that?

The reason I ask is that I have accumulated 16 used OEM turbos and would someday like to see how many working sets I can recover from the stockpile.

Ratio is about 3:1 right now on a DIY basis.

 

I'm not sure why he's say that. They are not much different to other turbos I've rebuilt. Mine balanced up just fine and needed hardly anything doing to the turbine shafts. The comp wheels are in very good balance being mfs billet rather than cast like the OEM wheels so need very little material removing to balance

 

Todays daily update....Hope you're all not getting too bored of my drivel yet .

New and improved turbo bearings:



Building up the CHRA's:



Reused the original thrust plate and bearing as they seemed a better design than the replacements I could find:






All fittings plated for longevity:



Just needs the oil feed and returns fitting and these turbos are ready to go. Kind of regret not vapour blasting the compressor housings... Maybe I'll have a go on my other sets.




I've got five spare sets of N3G1's so I'll probably make a few more with billet wheels for spares and maybe sell a few as I really don't need 5 spare sets of turbos .

The Rotating assemblies have been balanced to 250k rpm. Quite keen to see what if any difference these billet wheels make in the real world. The hub diameter is significantly smaller, resulting a larger inducer in the same packaging. Also due to the billet being stronger than cast ally like the OEM wheel the blades can be thinner yet still stronger than oem, again creating more flow and efficient compression. So it's all far better aerodynamically, lighter and has a wider efficiency band. So all in all it should be more responsive and produce more power, the question is....How much sooner will I hit peak torque and how much more power will it make, for that I'll have to wait until the motor is ran in and I can dyno the car .

 

Man those look great! I’m really curious to see what power these make! I may be interested in a set of turbos

 

Had a bit of time this weekend to get the motor back in the car.



Stuck with another new Gates thermostat as I find they are more reliable and flow better than oem.



Loom fits perfectly which is a relief as there were no test fits during the making of this loom haha.



Can of inchs on the go, all jobs go better with a bit of lubrication .



Fitted the new Koyo rad and new oem hoses.



Banzai pedestal on with my oil temp sensor. I stupidly didn't fit the bungs until this point making a job that would have been super easy off the car to a bit of a fiddly one on the car!



Power loom in and mostly connected up. I haven't done the lower half and the starter is not in yet.







Bit of a miss matched pulley set but I like it! You might think I've installed my tensioner backwards but that is actually how they go on a late FD. Personally I'd think it was to reduce the cost of manufacture as this design uses just a collar behind the pulley and the nut on the end, so much simpler hardware. Personally I think the earlier pullet design might look better but decided to stick with late spec for this car. Ignore that random green wire, I need to crimp a ring terminal and connect it to ground, I just was unsure where I was going with it when I made the loom.

 

So I'm conscious that I'm asking a bit more of X-02 than it was designed for. I've relocated my fuel pump feed to the spare fuse slot and now am relocating the relay switched power feed to my coils to this location so X02 needs a small rejig to make the front bus more adequate.

So I've sourced the right bus terminal to populate all 5 fuse slots and wired it into a single ring terminal that has been hydraulically crimped to ensure a perfect connection. I could have got away with 3x 12 gauge wires but went with 4x because why not, after calculating the voltage drop it really doesn't need it but I'd always rather over spec wiring. So the fuses on my car being an S8 are AC @ 15A, ABS @ 20A, Power windows @ 30A, Fuel pump @ 20A and Coils @ 20A.

Here is the new bus next to the oem bus:




And test fit in my dummy X02, all the trims fit back in nicely so this mod is completely hidden:



The bus is not actually pushed right in for this pic as there was no need and it was easier to check fitment and then I'll seat it properly on the car later.

 

Waiting for the turbos to come back from VSR balancing so did some test fitting of the intercooler and a little more work the the electrical systems.

Bottom section of the intercooler duct in, fits nicely without rubbing anything.



The main duct then slots over the small bumper mouth duct.




Also popped the intake in to check for any fitment issues and it all clears fine. It'll be coming back out to fit the turbos then going back in for good. I wont miss having to remove the oem airbox to work on the car, I had to use so much silicone spray on the oem box each time I assembled the hoses to ensure it all came apart okay haha. Quite pleased with how all the plain weave carbon matches in together, the lip, spoiler, duct and intake are a perfect weave match.





The car is now on the level as I had to pop the PPF out. I've got a Mazdaspeed PPF to fit that should be arriving from Japan any day now. While under there I noticed the right driveshaft seal on the diff is leaking slightly, so I've ordered up a replacement. I checked the diff oil level and it has hardly dropped so that's a relief and it'll be a fairly straightforward seal replacement luckily! I think I'd rather remove the rear right hub than drop the diff so I'll go that route for the seal replacement. This car comes apart so nicely as it hasn't been together long and all the bolts are plated, it really is quite nice to work on now. As soon as you've broken the holding torque all the bolts and nuts wind off by hand .



New negative cable hydraulically crimped and fitted:



It's only a short cable and joins to the main engine earth under X-02.



New front power bus from my previous post fitted to X02 giving one extra fuse slot for my coil power feed. I haven't actually done the coil wiring in the horseshoe to accommodate this yet and am rapidly running out of time to get this car running so I'll do this later when she's running.



New power feed from X01 to X02 fitted. I used SCL on the ends to keep the corrosion out and just a bit of HFT for additional anti abrasion protection for the cable. I skipped the DR25 for this one as it does need to be quite flexible. I shaped the cable first before shrinking the SCL over the bends so there is no way it'll be bending back, SCL sets like rock when shrunk!

 

Made a few more... Going to make a very limited run of twin turbo billet N3G1 turbos to use up all my spare turbo packs, likely 4-5 sets total including two I'll be keeping, one for my car and one spare because apex seals.

 

I'd be very interested in following your progress with that'll.

Here's why:



This is half my collection.

 

Beautiful car, love your attention to detail

 

Haha, glad it's not just me with 10 or so sets of twins kicking about in the spares pile . I think I found your local guys issue with the rebuilds, apparently the H12's housings are an odd size so they'd need the right adapter to hook it up for balancing etc but a few places in the UK can do this, I imagine there are some places over there that can too!

Thanks! Appreciate it. I can't wait to have it on the road soon, the weather here is fantastic at the moment, perfect for an FD with AC .

 

Great thread, your FD is super clean. Keep it up!

 

Thanks!

Still waiting on the turbos so the FD isn't running yet.

Fitted the PCV system, stole this idea from Rich's BB FD, keeps things nice and simple.






Made a new battery terminal to replace the poor OEM one.

Rough shape made up:



And test fit:



Lines up nicely keeping the OEM fuse box position.



After much filing, sanding and wrapping in some super insular and thick Raychem shrink it now looks pretty OEM which is what I was going for .

 

I think you can get replacement stickers from bubbletech or similar aftermarket supplier.

 

May issue of Motorsport has a one page write up on the FD. "More rare than some Ferraris". Also mention Bathurst R as being even more rare.

(Lock your gates at night.)

 

The sticker in my last pic is a Bubble tech sticker .

Only issue is for x02 etc my fuse assignments are different to US spec on the stickers so not sure if I'll use those.

 

Do I have to scroll back to find out about that intercooler, or have you yet to explain? It liooks like a double deep set-up. with replacement top and bottom tanks.

 

Link here

It's a twin core from PWR in Aus. Having both connections on the top of the unit, it can be thicker and make full use of the space available for an SMIC while still clearing the water pump etc and keeping the provision for a full size battery. For what I want it seemed a good option as I wanted a full size battery, cold feed intake and an oem+ sort of appearance.

 

Do you currently have four FD or is that a history?

Pics please!

(Also of your parts pile.)


Also, also , how does one accumulate four N3G1 in the UK?

 

So, what do w call this build?

A:

- Restoration
- Preservation
- Resto-Modification
- OEM Plusification, or
- a, Ceylonification?

I.e., A CATEGORY OF ITS OWN?

 

How much mods will you need for the cross-over air pipe?

 

Ah that's history and in date order, I only own this FD currently. I import a lot of parts from Japan, all my turbos came from Japan or off my cars.

Haha, I'd guess it'd be oem plus? Ish.

None, the oem crossover pipe bolts up as stock .

Air pump hardware plated and new bearing installed:



Pulley mounted:



Electromagnet rewired due to crispiness and wrapped in Raychem DR-25 with SCL to seal:





Looks pretty tasty for an air pump I'd say! I had this one apart for cleaning and servicing, they are quite cool inside. I've got a spare I'll split down and get vapour blasted, if it looks good I'll swap the plated hardware over to the vapour blasted ally body at a later date to have an even more bling air pump .

 

Really enjoying following along with your project, beautiful car :-).

Vapor blasting and plating is a disease I tell you! Once you start, you just can't stop!

 

Awesome!

 

Done a little more on the car earlier in the week, things might slow up a bit now as my daughter was born on Sunday .

Mazdaspeed PPF, needs a bit of a touch up in places, I was running out of time so I'll do this on the car at a later date.



Autoexe rear braces, I'll fit the front later when the downpipe is back from ceramic coating.



Swapped out the oil in the diff and box for Royal Purple as I wasn't overly impressed with the Millers I put in last time.



Braces and PPF in. You might notice all the rags.... I drained the box oil tidily into a container but stupidly didn't move it straight away after... Knocked it over removing the PPF and made a right mess.. Haha.



Rear covers trimmed to clear the braces and refitted: