///M Roadster gets Ball Bearings

Roadster was in need of some maintenance so took the time apart to upgrade as well. After 2 years and 40k miles of the car requiring nothing other than regular oil changes, was time to replace some worn parts. The heat from the turbo being right on top of the plastic valve cover finally took it's toll and cracked it. While it was apart I replaced the valve cover and gasket, changed plugs, and new fluids. Removed the old Precision journal bearing PT74 and replaced it with a GT4094R, .82 a/r T4. The Garrett turbo sit's a little closer to the manifold and only had a 2.5" outlet vs 3" on the 74 so had to redo the hot side charge pipe. Also took the time to redo the upper portion of the downpipe to a little smoother flow and also to give the valve cover and engine cover a little more space. With the new turbo, it's a whole new car. Spool is significantly better as I anticipated and the car pulls harder and longer boost for boost with the old turbo. Car is tuned on the stock DME by Nick G., I was worried about the tune being off but a/f still seems spot on at all instances. One of these days when I get around to it I'll pay Nick a visit and have him touch up the tune. Maybe I'll bring him a built motor in it next time too =D

Until then, here's some pictures during the turbo swap and some pictures I took today after I got it cleaned up

Enjoy!

-Shawn-



























Oil change for the bike this weekend too

so $ick, bro

any videos?

Looks good.

you should have shown the exhaust on the R1 you fab'ed as well. that was real nice

Originally Posted by AAblown

you should have shown the exhaust on the R1 you fab'ed as well. that was real nice

Are you using solid engine mounts ?

Looks like the turbo has little room until it hits the chassis aswell, kinda the problem im having right now.

Nice car.

What's the status of Trevor's car?

Originally Posted by SweTurbo

Are you using solid engine mounts ?

Looks like the turbo has little room until it hits the chassis aswell, kinda the problem im having right now.

No, I replaced the mounts with new OEM ones when I built the turbo setup a few years ago. Don't have any issues as it is.

Originally Posted by AirFrcd

Nice car.

What's the status of Trevor's car?

Thanks. I posted an update last week in Trevor's thread. I do all the fabrication at Lutz, I'm not the only one here ... Andrew, one of the owners, is working with Alpha, the pro-efi tuner, and someone else in the business to iron out the changes needed to the stock DME. I know what's going on and give input to the steps from here till the end but I'm not the one putting in the time on it now, I'm just getting started on our next fabrication project, the E46 I posted the thread for this past week.

Thanks everyone for your comments!

-Shawn-

Originally Posted by AirFrcd

Nice car.

What's the status of Trevor's car?

As Shawn has posted, we are working very hard to get the Pro-efi to work with the factory DME, as we experienced very similar issues HPF had, with DSC faults among others.

However we are working with some very experienced minds on the factory DME side, and should have some results shortly. We will keep you guys updated as we can.

Thanks!

-Andrew

Amazing setup. You made that s52 into a wicked beast. I'm in the process of turbocharging mine and any tips would help. (I used to have several turbo Miatas that I built myself but BMWs are whole different ball game.

Oh, one more thing. I was referred here by aaBlown to PM "Shawn." But which Shawn? I did a member search and there are a bunch of Shawns. Thanks for the help.

By Shawn, he's referring to the OP.

Thanks!

Originally Posted by lutzperformance

By Shawn, he's referring to the OP.

Thanks!

Pardon my forum lingo ignorance, how might I contact Shawn the OP?

Thanks.

A4RingedONE8T,

I also noticed that your wheel wells are not the stock M Roadster ones, the ones with the brake ducts, as well as the intake tube on the driver's side (not needed in this application, obviously), but is there any particular reason you switched to different wheel wells? Just wondering.

See, I'm just looking for all the help and wisdom I can get with this turbo project. I used to be a Mazda guy with a couple of Miatas that I turbo'd myself, ground up, but those seem like a cakewalk compared to turboing an S52. Those engines (early Miata 1.6s) were made to be turbo, as they were in the 323 gtx. Piston oil squirters, sealed off oil feed and return points for the turbo, the lot. I ran TD04Hs on those, but I'm going with a T3/T4 on this car.

I'm not looking for the 500+ whp you pulled off, just a nice round 350, see how that feels and then maybe step up to 400.

Thanks ahead of time for the help!

Originally Posted by Mroadster2vegas

A4RingedONE8T, by the way, when going turbo, how is the mass airflow sensor issue handled? Do you extend the wiring and have it in place in front of the turbo intake, or is there some computer trickery involved?

And is there enough room to run a simple cast manifold, like the ones made by godspeed, which would place the turbo rearward?

Thanks for the info. I love your setup. Our roadsters are even the same color. And I too had dual front splitters like you, but Arizona claimed one of them on my drive from San Diego, CA to the F1 race in Austin, TX. It was the middle of the night and I didn't see a thing, the winding road was just a patchwork of black and grey and all I heard was a loud bang, then a little later the sound of the splitter finally giving up the ghost and passing underneath my car. All that was left was the central support bar hanging onto a little shred of carbon fiber. Whatever it was took out the brake ducting on that side too (passenger side).

Thanks.

MAF placement and if one is even retained will depend on what your plan is for tuning. None use the stock variant. Some tunes will require a draw through MAF, usually the 803 Porsche MAF. A few use a blow through MAF, typically a Ford MAF, but each tuner uses something a little different. My car was tuned by Nick G. using his own blow through MAF setup. It's on the cold side intercooler piping, you can just see it in a few of the pictures above.

There are a few different cast manifolds that are perfectly acceptable for a bottom mount setup. Not sure I'm familar with the one you mentioned, have a link?

Originally Posted by Mroadster2vegas

A4RingedONE8T,

I also noticed that your wheel wells are not the stock M Roadster ones, the ones with the brake ducts, as well as the intake tube on the driver's side (not needed in this application, obviously), but is there any particular reason you switched to different wheel wells? Just wondering.

See, I'm just looking for all the help and wisdom I can get with this turbo project. I used to be a Mazda guy with a couple of Miatas that I turbo'd myself, ground up, but those seem like a cakewalk compared to turboing an S52. Those engines (early Miata 1.6s) were made to be turbo, as they were in the 323 gtx. Piston oil squirters, sealed off oil feed and return points for the turbo, the lot. I ran TD04Hs on those, but I'm going with a T3/T4 on this car.

I'm not looking for the 500+ whp you pulled off, just a nice round 350, see how that feels and then maybe step up to 400.

Thanks ahead of time for the help!

Your car is S52 (98-00) or S54 (01-02)? S52 Roadsters and Coupes did not come with the brake cooling ducts from the factory, only the S54 cars. My fender liners are the original ones the car came with, they are trimmed up a little on the outer edges so they don't rub the wheels/tires but other than that are completely stock.

I wouldn't use a standard T3/T4 budget turbo. SC61 if you want to stay most budget friendly or a GT35R if you want ball bearing would be the smallest I'd use, even if you're looking for lower power goals to start.

Originally Posted by Mroadster2vegas

Pardon my forum lingo ignorance, how might I contact Shawn the OP?

Thanks.

You can post here, PM me, or email shawn@lutzperformance.com

Oh lawd

A4RingedONE8T, by the way, when going turbo, how is the mass airflow sensor issue handled? Do you extend the wiring and have it in place in front of the turbo intake, or is there some computer trickery involved?

And is there enough room to run a simple cast manifold, like the ones made by godspeed, which would place the turbo rearward?

Thanks for the info. I love your setup. Our roadsters are even the same color. And I too had dual front splitters like you, but Arizona claimed one of them on my drive from San Diego, CA to the F1 race in Austin, TX. It was the middle of the night and I didn't see a thing, the winding road was just a patchwork of black and grey and all I heard was a loud bang, then a little later the sound of the splitter finally giving up the ghost and passing underneath my car. All that was left was the central support bar hanging onto a little shred of carbon fiber. Whatever it was took out the brake ducting on that side too (passenger side).

Thanks.

Figured I should add some water lines too.





After 2 years and 35k miles boosted with the old turbo, it only took a week with the new quicker spooling turbo and my rear end FINALLY gave up it's first few spot welds





Getting married this weekend and will be out of town until the holidays but when I come back it's time for more upgrades! Randy Forbes subframe reinforcement, Ireland Engineering Urethane subframe bushings and rear trailing arm bushings, Ireland Engineering rear camber kit, Rogue dual ear diff cover, and I have a set of the newly redesigned Ground Control adjustable rear shocks to replace the old version adjustables I currently have. Once the rear end is beefed up it's time for some more power finally

Thanks for the comments everyone!

-Shawn-