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Looking good, I'm surprised you aren't installing LS1 style coils while you are upgrading everything else.
yeah, it’s summer and speed is of the essence. I want to enjoy driving the car as much as possBike. Future upgrades include flex fuel, direct fire ignition etc. this project has been going on a long time. I need some time behind the wheel because I’ve sank a lot into it and haven’t really been able to enjoy it.
I’m trying to stay on a schedule. I don’t want this turning into a Jimlab project.
I’m glad I am closing in on the finish line. The bad part is I put the intercooler and radiator in before putting the PS and A/C compressor on. Now I get to remove at least the IC before being able to get to the fasteners for the PS bracket and AC.
Me installing accessories...
What it may like when I do it right today after work... Right now AC Compressor is not secured lol. I did fight with it for a while but it’s not helping...
Will revisit this but at least it can be driven.
So we made our own midpipe fit the short Downpipe from
Addicted.
Fourtyounce came down for Cars and Coffee and then we went to my garage and he cut and welded in a new piece of pipe on the midpipe to fit.
After I took this I clocked the Vband on the compressor to get it out the line of sight.
Catch can installed, Vband on Turbo clocked. Replaced heat shields and bracing under the car but didn’t take a photo.
After he left I continued assembly.
Only a few items left. Waiting for a bolt from Mazda. It will be here Monday.
I did ceramic coating on the turbine housing and nothing on the down pipe and man that thing was warm. I’m sure you’ll figure something out and I’m sure it’ll look awesome with your attention to detail.
I’m bummed about the whole APU thing(hopefully an isolated incident). It seems good shops are harder and harder to find these days. Once I found one I like, I’m staying loyal ya know. Like my wife with her hairdresser.
Correct configuration for fittings in trans. Fill on right (square fitting) Inspection on left (Torx T55)
Torx size is T55. These fittings are backwards in this shot.
Permatex high temp thread sealant.
Somehow my inspection and fill holes got switched up between the Torx and the other threaded pipe fitting. I swapped them out and made sure I didn’t over fill the trans.
Use Permatex or another high temp thread sealant on these.
Dont overtighten and crack the case. Threads will be showing. That’s what thread sealer is for.
Last edited by ZoomZoom; Jun 12, 2018 at 09:42 AM.
Reason: Torx T55 is correct size
New Mazda Ignition harness now comes with internal ground.
Alternator mount bolts that threads into water pump housing.
For some reason I couldnt find the bolt that went to the bottom alternator bracket. Luckily it is still available from Mazda. The other alternator bolt is NLA though.
Aslo GoodfellaFD3S was helping with some assembly and the mentioned the old Ignition harness had an external ground ringlet. The newest ones from Mazda supersedes this part with an internal ground which is preferable.
Move had issues with some grounds due to all the powder coating I’ve done. This seemed like a no brainer.
Old ignition harness had a ringlet ground. New harness has an internal ground.
I just realized Addicted forgot to weld in an O2 bung into my Downpipe as well. Add that to the list. going to weld one into the Midpipe. I’m a bit behind on my timeline as I am due to tune on the 23rd of June and the car hasn’t been started yet.
1CleanCYM is coming down Friday for a couple hours to weld in the o2 sensor bung and for us to roll it out and fire it up. 🤞
btw here is a photo showing the old ignition harness and the updated one.
1cleanCYM arrived and figured out a wiring issue I had lol.
Oops.
He also welded an O2 Bung on my midpipe.
We fired it up! It’s almost ready to tune. IC pipe arrives tomorrow and I can put some miles on it next few days. Tuning Saturday at IRP.
Before with the 45 degree pipe off turbo. It was also a bit short and wasn’t much silicone holding it on. Glad I ordered the 90.
It’s almost done. Going to add a new knock sensor and finish Haltech install and I can hit the road finally for engine break-in.
The plug and play Haltech Elite 2500 is pretty straight forward to install. You have to run a vacuum line thru the firewall to the ECU. The ECU has an integrated 3 bar map sensor right on the ECU itself. With the engine already in and the fact I still have ABS; it was a bit tricky trying to run the Vacuum line thru the firewall.
I also had to reroute the Wideband that was going thru the firewall and run it through the trans tunnel and through the shifter hole.
I have the vacuum line routed the same as the Wideband.
Probably not ideal and it also makes the vacuum line 3x as long than running it thru the firewall. But right now time is critical and I still have a lot of little things im doing and I tune in 3 days.
I tried a 90 degree pipe off the turbo. It seems to fit better than the 45 and now that I’ve cut it to fit it looks like the way I will go for now. I’m not pleased with running the IC pipe this way but for now it will have to do. Long term I’d like to put a Vband or Wiggans type clamp and run it more direct with some custom piping.
It also doesnt look look like my Turbo Jeff PFC Mount is going to work with the Haltech. Maybe with some creative use of the mount and some Zip ties?
Its my wife and I’s 9th wedding anniversary today.. so I won’t be working on the car after work... leaves me Thursday to finish up the ECU install to start putting miles on this new motor before my tune on saturday.
Im tempted to push back the tune so I can get the AC lines made and put more miles on the motor before tuning. I’m just sick of seeing it sit here and not be able to enjoy it. Next month will make 3 years since I started the build. I’m ready to get it tuned for at least low boost and enjoy it for the summer.
Looking sharp. If you've waited 3 years, might as well take a couple more weeks and get it where you want it before tuning. Bad things can happen on the dyno when you rush.
Well I didn’t get the car tuned. After taking it for a drive I realized my rear brakes I just installed are grinding on the backing plates.
Need to throw some stock rears on for now but didn’t have any. Also need to finish a bunch of small things...
Then it’s come to my attention that my turbo is just too close to the lower intake manifold and will transfer way too much heat. A friend blew a motor at 12 psi on the Dyno and the front rotor let go. His EFR turbo is also very close to the front runner and was cherry red. He is fairly convinced it happened due to heat transfer from the close proximity to the turbo hot side.
So I bought a JDM lower and am going to get it ceramic coated and install it in hopes it moves the front runner away from the turbo enough to put a blanket on the turbo and possibly the heat shield on the lower intake.
Ideally i I wanted an equal length lower for more equal air to each rotor. Looks like I may be taking a step backwards on that front. Not much I can do about it unless I completely change my turbo manifold... Which isn’t what I want to do.
Meanwhile my analog inputs from my Wideband are now Pinned into the Haltech Elite Plug And Play harness.
Yellow and Black are Wideband analog Inputs into the Haltech. The Haltech ESP software will self tune using the Wideband and other inputs including knock, IAT, and many other inputs. I may use it for just idle and cruising. Boost pulls I will have tuned on a Dyno by an actual tuner that knows what they are doing.
Replaced the rear brakes yet again, I had some issues with rubbing on the backing plates. These Work Meister wheels look great but have issues with big brake fitment.
I am back to stock rear brakes for now.
Backing plate spun from rubbing on rotor and pinched in caliper.
PowerStop Rotors from Rock auto.
Backing plate rubbing where you can’t bend it out of the way. These are 99 spec backing plates. Would need to pull the axle to change these. Not planning on doing that.
My rear caliper rebuild lasted all of about 200 miles and it’s leaking again.
Titanium Lig nuts. Lighter, stronger, won’t rust. Keeps with my Titanium hardware replacement.
Rusty Muteki open ended lug nuts. These have less than 600 miles on them and about 8 months of garage kept use... unacceptable.
My open ended lug nuts seem to be prone to rust. I read about it on some of the reviews when I bought them. I figured it would be fine with the longer studs because the lug nuts threads are not fully exposed. It doesn’t seem to have been a proper assumption. It’s also concerned me with how hard they are going on and coming off. I dont want to screw up my ARP extended studs so I ordered some Titanium lug nuts.
Got the ball rolling on mine and dove in a little deeper - what else is new Lol
