Jono's KLZE Project - Turbo Build Begins
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So thought I would give an update on progress:
The car is very very nearly ready for an MOT to get it back on the road!
Here is the bay at present: (not much change from before)
Couple of things that have been done include temporarily sealing up the inlet accordion pipe which has cracked and split to hell, thank god that thing is going soon!
A new bracket has been made to hold the relocated oil filter (which is moving again soon)
Measurements have been made for new Magnecor HT leads, once I get the quote they will be on order, hopefully getting here before the end of March.
I broke a couple of bolts on the bumper when removing that, the new ones need to go in and its all good :)
Something un-expected is the power steering oil resevoir, it seems to be leaking from were the two halves of the bottle join in the middle, I have a spare one so hopefully that will work when I swap it over, at the same time I have a brand new from Mazda PS cooler pipe, that will be going in to replace the really badly rusted one.
General plan is to get the car back on the road this month, then I can start the turbo additionsā¦ finally... YAY!
On another note, I'm really keen to upgrade the brakes, starting with the fronts, however as you all know getting stuff for these cars is hard as hell now, any suggestions for big brake upgrades? K-Sport may be an option but I would like to keep the costs down if possible!
Jono
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So the turbo build has actually, really, really started... after so many many years!
Pictures to be uploaded at some point, once there is something worth looking at :)
At present I'm building a new support bracket to replace the front to back cross-member, this is essentially a bar that runs across the front of the engine bay, which has a bracket that the front mount connects to - hopefully this will work fine.. we will see!
It's all mocked up and just needs welding together which should happen this week.The rear gearbox support is still in the design phase, but I have an idea for that. And once the exhaust pipes are in, I will be adding additional front to back supports.
After the cross-member is replaced, I can get the exhaust pipework in and maybe even the turbo itself!! - I'm so crazy excited to get this in (can you tell?)!
I'm not sure if the exhaust tubes require much modification, time will tell.
Once that's in there are a whole load of other things that need doing. I will try to take as many pictures and document as much as I can!
Jono
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Turbo build update - #1
The new front support bracket is built and installed, seems to be working fine but time will tell if it can handle things under load, I need to build something similar for the rear mount but I'm not in a rush to do that.
Hot pipes from the headers are installed - that was more difficult then I was expecting, they are slightly off alignment with the headers, luckily I use 10mm spacers between the flanges - without this I don't think they would clear the gearbox!
The gearbox is probably going to need some grinding to let it fit perfect, and so I can fit some heatwrap there.I have been waiting on a couple gaskets, spacers, studs and bolts to get the turbo fitted for good. Only a couple bits left to arrive this week hopefully.
The exhaust downpipe is shorter then my old pipes so some exhaust fabrication will be needed when I get to that bit, I will probably make a crappy spacer for now to fill the gap, then get the exhaust shop to do the rest of the system when were allowed out!
Clearance on the turbo is extremely tight, the air inlet pretty much sits aligned to the bodywork, I might just be able to get a flexible silicone pipe to fit, bit I might need to 'adjust with a hammer', that bit of body.
I trial fitted the intercooler just in front of the radiator, it won't properly fit there, so I'm going to need to fabricate some mounting brackets so it can sit behind the bumper.
That's all for now.
Jono
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Sounding good fella! I'm also waiting on gaskets now so I feel your pain as this seems to be the major hold up at the moment. Do you still have the wiseco pistons or did you sell them eventually?
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@mazdax3 I do still have the pistons, are you interested in them?
Turbo build update - #2 (Mini update)
I have been back and forth with the hot pipes, they just wasn't right, after many different combinations of old and new manifolds I eventually found a fitment that was much better. This still hits the gearbox, so I have now ground this back and the fitment is perfect!
Still waiting on a load of parts, seem's that royal mail have slowed right down, hopefully they will arrive any day now!
On a positive note, using a silicone hose I can connect up to the turbo inlet so no need to bash the bodywork there :D
I will try to get some pictures up soon, will probably still use photobucket but they are putting an annoying watermark over the pictures now.
Jono
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@jono definitely want to see some pictures.
I am interested in the pistons but obviously depends how much you want for them, I did look a while ago on their site and nearly fell over when I see the prices š¤£
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Turbo Build update - #3
As ever, I'm still waiting on parts, partly because I messed up and ordered the wrong size gaskets for the manifolds to turbo up pipe, so I'm still waiting. I also have some heat wrap on route, so all going well that bit of the turbo pipes will actually get completed this weekend.
I have now managed to get some pictures up, so here they are:
Here is the new front engine mount support, my welding needs work lol but I think it will hold:
Close up of the mount and it's mounting bracket, there is just enough room around the tube to get a socket to fit/remove the nuts so it's all easy to install and remove:
Because I am using some existing mounting holes for the support, I needed some longer bolts, and I came across a titanium alternative, which are crazy light but should be much stronger, here they are freshly delivered lol, and a size comparision:
While I have been waiting for parts, I got the oil pan off and fitted the turbo oil return bung, I went with a compression fitting for now, I will see how it goes, I might need to weld this on in the future (sorry about the dirtyness of the pan!):
And it fitted:
Also, as my progress with the hot pipes has been delayed a bit, I started getting the coilpack installed, this needed a custom bracket, so I made that from a bit of spare sheet steel I had laying about:
Detailed design plan and super accurate measurements haha:
Cut and bent:
Finished up and painted:
With the coilpack on it:
Now that the coilpack is in place, I thought I would dry fit the custom HT leads I had made, not a bad fit considering I had them made 3 years ago!
And that's it for now, once I get the hot pipes installed I will drop another update.
Jono
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It's been a while since I last updated.. a lot of work has happened on the car.
As of yesterday, it started for the first time as a 2.5L V6 Turbo :D
A couple of things that need dealing with:
- I have a major ground issue, I'm not sure why this has changed, but somehow I have a poor ground now :(
- Megasquirt needs tuning, I've made a few changes to get the car running with the Wideband etc, but its rough and needs some serious time spent with it - i'm new to this side of it, so reading and watching lots of youtube haha
- Something is wrong with my clutch, I think the spring has failed, and I'm a little concerned about the clearance to the downpipe.. more investigation needed here.
- I think it might be missing on one or more cylinders, so I need to check the coilpack feeds and sparkplugs.
But I'm super happy that it all actually works! I can't tell you how relieved I was when it actually started...
Now time to do more megasquirt research :)
Jono
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@jono Excellent work! You can have my turbo base map if you want :)
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@marco that would be great, thank you :)
Minor update:
I found and fixed the ground issue, I need better grounding, but it will do for now.
Clutch is fixed, had to remove pretty much everything I just put in to get to the issue, somehow the clutch fork came away from the pin it sit's on, the spring clip seems ok so just put it back and will see how it goes!
Everything back on again, and it's running again. Just needs tuning now.One issue I have noticed is clearance between the turbo downpipe and the clutch fork, I've ground a little off it, but it's still hitting the exhaust, which is annoying! Anyone had similar issues?
Jono
