So here's how the car sits as of today:

~95000 miles
15x8 Konig Wideopens w/all seasons for the street
15x8 6ULs in need of RS3s for autox
FM frame rails
Megan 8k/6k coilovers

Waiting to be installed:
Godspeed SR20 T25
BEGI Mani/downpipe
RX7 550cc injectors flowtested by Deatschwerks(Thanks for the forum special!)
FM Stage 1 Clutch
EGay intercooler and radiator
AEM UEGO
Mazdaspeed Motor Mounts/SS clutch line
Custom 3" exhaust

I'm planning on pulling the motor to make the process a little easier. With the help I have, I'm hoping to get this knocked out in a weekend. Now, I'm just waiting for the Reverent built MS to get here to put her under the knife.

I know this isn't the perfect setup, but being a broke-*** college student, I'm doing the best I can and it should be a lot of fun

 

You're probably gonna wanna clock that turbo differently. Do you have all the coolant/oil lines you'll need (plus adapters)? Also, be thinking about a heatshield for brakes/heater hose lines

 

I clocked the turbo to that orientation because I plan on running a 90 out of the compressor outlet to behind the headlight(requiring some enlargement of the hole) as seen on a few NBs. I also didn't want to make another wastegate bracket.

I am in the process of getting coolant/oil lines.

I got this for the brake/heater hose lines

 

Also, I have to assume this is your only vehicle and you are attempting to minimize downtime for the turbo install? If so, my only advice would be install the injectors and Megasquirt before anything else and get the car running/driving first before going under the knife. Just one less thing to mess with once you're putting the turbo on. Other than that, good luck!

 

Okay sweet, thanks for the advice. That's what I was originally thinking, but I've sourced a daily driver, so I have some time to work the kinks out.

 

Progress:

FMIC Mount





Getting the car prepped to pull the motor:


Mock up

 

Another piece of the puzzle arrived today!

Thanks Reverant!
I hope to pull the motor by the end of next week and give it some much needed TLC.

 

Motor = out.

 

Update!



Motor is out!

Just cleaned it up a bit. I have some misc. stuff to do like get the oil return bung welded on and get the ait sensor welded on the FMIC endtank. Then it'll be time to put the motor back in. It was a great experience

 

Well, I haven't updated in forever, but the car is running!

The only real problem I had on the install was the BEGI-s downpipe I had acquired had quite a few issues. A) The **** rubbed hard against my steering rack B) The location of the wideband bung caused the wideband to rub against the steering rack C) My wastegate flapper would not open more than 45 degrees (after research I noticed this was a known problem)
Solution:
I decided to go big and get the downpipe I really wanted so I called Abe at ARTech, and here is the result:



Compared to the BEGI-s DP


I gotta say though, the pictures do not do it justice, Abe's work is art! He is also in the process of fabricating my full 3" exhaust which I cannot wait for

The next slight issue I had was my Reverent built MS was not getting power. I have to give a huge shout out to Reverent for his phenomenal support, and after 40+ emails back and forth it turns out my factory ecu harness is similar to the mazdaspeed's and I just had to ground out one of the wires and the car started right up.

Tuning the megasquirt definitely has a learning curve to it, but I think I'm getting the hang of it and VEAnalyze live is amazing. Car is definitely not perfect now. I'm still having a few small problems I am looking into now:
1)My fans are turning on immediately when the car is started. I have not explored this problem much.
2) Idle is being weird. When the car is on the warmup cycle, it is perfect. I have messed with the idle duty % and it seems to be getting better, but when I put the car in neutral while moving, the rpms will drop so low, the car will stall out. Now the weird thing is, this only happens some times, other times it settles back down to a nice idle.
3) I am not getting a reading from my IAT sensor. I installed the GM sensor using diyautotune's kit on the cold side intercooler tank. I am assuming that "MAT" stands for manifold air temperature and that should be reading what is coming off of the IAT sensor?

Anyways, I'll post a datalog later on, but the car pulls hard. Definitely a blast to drive. I'm hooked to say the least, but at the moment I'm just going to enjoy my car. I think I reached my 200-225 whp goal and will hopefully hop on a dyno in the next month or two. Anyone in the dallas area want to get a dyno day organized?

So here are some pics of the car as it sits now (sorry for the crappy cell phone pics):



How I mounted my MS. Velcro FTW!

 

I hate my life...

This happened at 1:30am yesterday while I was out being a dumbass and attempting to tune my car. I'm honestly not exactly sure why this happened. I was at 9.7 psi and my afr was around 12.5-13 in 3rd gear at ~5000 rpm. Worst part is, I didn't have my phone on me(but I had my laptop!), and my car blew up in a place where there were no gas stations or anything around for me to go borrow a phone. So I had to jog the 6 miles back to my house in the 32 degree weather(cold for Texas). Man I am such a noob...

Luckily I was logging and I'm trying to attach the .msl for some helpful insight and it is less than the 2.9 mb max, but for some reason the upload keeps failing. Advice?

Also, moving forward, I am looking at going ahead and getting a built motor. I don't feel comfortable building it myself so I was looking at trackspeed's motor ~$4k shipped with the core charge. Then I'll also probably go ahead and get a proper turbo most likely a disco potato, 6 speed, and ARTech external wastegate mani and have a fun, reliable ~300 whp daily. I know that's a huge leap, but I really don't want to spend ~$1k on a used vvt motor only to have it pop again. I'm sure if I was able to get on a dyno and get a proper tune, this would not have happened. I feel so retarded for pushing the car so hard on a base map. I guess I learned my lesson...

 

Attached it as a .zip

Any insight into the cause would be greatly appreciated! I'm here to learn

 

Yes, you were running too lean in boost. What troubles me is that when I see you cranking again in boost, I don't see an RPM signal.

 

You mean a sync loss?
That could put a spark anywhere...
And cause a lean condition.

 

Well, it's about time I resurrect my build thread.

So I decided to just pick up another VVT motor as this car is now my only vehicle, and got this one from a junkyard with ~50k miles on it.



Blown motor out




I'm pretty sure I blew my motor because I never calibrated my IAT sensor in TS and so it was reading a static 70 degrees. Fail.

I also found out my EGR block off plate was mysteriously gone from my old motor... So instead of spending more money for an overpriced one from begi (and trackspeeds wasn't available at the time). I made one.


I probably didn't have to cut it in the shape of the gasket, but whatevs...

Didn't take too many pictures as my goal was to just get the car running again.

I did get my exhaust from ARTech. Looks and sounds super sexy! I'll post up a vid once I get my idle unfuxored. Thanks Abe!




Shout out to Hustler for helping me out today with my tune. I definitely learned a lot and my car is running much better. The help was much appreciated.

As the car sits today, here are my current issues:
- Idle is still very high and after Hustler confirmed my MS is set up right, it is for sure a vacuum leak. I will be tracking that down ASAP.
- My MS is getting constant power with the key out, ignition off. I have to unplug my battery every time I get out of the car so it won't die. I am currently trouble shooting this with Reverent. But a 60 work week has not been very helpful to my available time for trouble shooting.
- The car is running hot as *****. Between 200 and 205. It is also overheating every time it heats up for the first time of the day. Coolant temp will get up to 212 on warmup, then simmer down to 190-195 then settle down between 200 and 205. I should have gone ahead and done the timing belt/water pump and stuff on the junkyard motor, but as I said, I just wanted to get the bitch running (famous last words). So, I think I should go ahead and order this http://parts.arlingtonmazda.com/prod...MK0017%29.html
- My A/C compressor is being weird. It was getting constant power with the car on. As in, when I turned the air on cold, the A/C compressor was running even when the A/C compressor button was not pressed. I have not been able to trouble shoot this problem...

Anyways, other than all those fails, the car is running great!

 

So quick update. Got a few problems solved:
- Vacuum leak: none of my injectors had the little grommets that are supposed to go in the head... FAAAIIIL. Thank you Abe for helping me with that!
- ECU getting constant power. It was a weird quirk for 04-05 ECU harnesses that required me to wire in a relay to get it to only switch on with the ignition.
- My A/C compressor is fried... Anyone have one compatible with a NB2?? Already looked at one from a 99-00 and they're different.

I'll post pics later.

Still to fix:
- Car running too hot. Will order the rosenthal water pump/timing belt kit shortly.

 

So I know nobody really gives a ----, but for my own personal log:

The car is will not start now. When I wired the relay in, everything started getting weird. The car started acting as if the alternator was no longer charging and it was running just off the battery which was causing me to run lean. My battery voltage would start around 12 and slowly decrease until it the battery was dead. Now the ECU won't even get power even when I put the harness back to the way I had it. I am actively working with Reverent to trouble shoot this issue, but if anything, I am learning the hard way not to rely on this car for transportation when I work 60+ hours a week lolol. Woot for living with the my parents!

Just to reiterate: THANK YOU REVERANT. He is a true honey badger. He supports his badass product from half way across the world like a boss.

Hopefully, the car will be reliable once i work out all the kinks, but damn it is frustrating...

I should probably start looking for a DD... lol but it's not like my car is a super badass track car or anything so it kind of feels like a fail... but I am learning a lot. I guess that counts for something.

 

You'll get it figured out. I had some trouble getting my MS3 working in the beginning as well. There just isn't as much tribal knowledge for VVT motors and MS3 since they are both newer. I ended up sending my MS away to y8s after I fried the second daughter board, and he fixed it for me, then helped me in the same way Reverent is helping you.

Now my car has been turbo'd for a year and hasn't left me stranded since.

I was having weind voltage issues with my car when I forgot to build an alternator control circuit. I didn't need one on my '94 so I guess I kind of let it slip my mind until my battery died and I had to have the car towed home. Stupid unregulated alternators.

 

Thanks man! I appreciate the words of encouragement.

Made a little progress in terms of diagnosing the problem. I returned my factory harness back to stock and plugged my stock ecu in to see if the battery light and CEL would turn on, but they do not. So that must mean the problem is wiring related in the car and not ecu related.

I don't think it is a ground issue since the car was running just fine until I wired in the relay. Also, all of my fuses seem to be in tact. I just wish Reverent was in the DFW and could come fix my ---- because I am getting very disheartened. I really hope it is just a stupid simple problem that my lack of experience is missing.

Anyone in the DFW with knowledge of NB2s and megasquirt want to come give me a hand?

 

Okay so I figured out the one problem. After studying the wiring diagram and pinning out the ecu harness, I found out I blew the engine fuse. I replaced it and voila, the car turns on. Then things got weird:
1) When I initially replaced the fuse, the CEL and battery light came on, the car started up, and idled well in warm up mode.
2) I drove it around the block, and my enrichment was not doing it's job, I was running lean in boost.
3) I came back home, plugged the laptop in and my TPS was reading 60% at WOT. So I adjusted the settings in TS. I then noticed the signal was fluctuating. At WOT, it would bounce from 100% to 110% repeatedly over and over again.
4) I switched the ignition to the on position and the CEL and battery light did not come on. WTF!?!? But my laptop was still hooked up to the ECU and was getting a signal.
5) The car would turn on, idle for a second, then turn off. If I used some throttle, I could keep it alive (my throttle body is adjusted properly)
6) I took it for a quick spin just to see if maybe now that the TPS is configured, it would run rich in boost, but it doesn't.

So I'm stumped yet again. Time to sleep and hopefully get this bitch fixed tomorrow.