2013 Mazda5 turbocharger installation

Nice job, thanks for all the pictures. I'm living vicariously through you :). It must be nice to be in a place where you don't have to smog checks.
 
Nice job, thanks for all the pictures. I'm living vicariously through you :). It must be nice to be in a place where you don't have to smog checks.

100% agree...this is what I wish I could have done to my 2006. The one Car and Driver did was cool, but I want a daily driver like this.
 
Exhausted. Pictures. Few words...

psssh... psssh...
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Detail of heater hose routing. Boring... Next!
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Oil pan oil return fitting.
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Oil pan oil return fitting and line.
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Down pipe fitted, but not torqued yet.
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OK, some words:
I wasted about 1.5 hours tonight re-re-installing the oil pan. I followed the Mazda service manual meticuously (loosen the transaxle bolts so that the bottom of the trans swings away from the engine block, this gives the pan clearance to be installed without having the actual act of installation scraping off all your RTV on the timing cover side).

I moved onto something else, and about an hour later, I was sifting through my remaining bolt baggies, and ran across "Oil pan baffle".

FFFFUUUUUUUUUCCCCCKKKKKKKK.........

I didn't put the baffle back in the pan before installing the pan. Had to take it off again, install the baffle, scrape the "old" (3 hours) gasket off, and go through the whole installation and torquing all over. NOT what I wanted to do at 11pm.
 
July 18.

Basically the only thing left before it is ready to start is installation of the intake pipe (easy), and fabrication of a battery tray for the smaller battery I decided to buy today.

Other than that, it's just putting the car back together (cowl, bumper cover, fender liners).

Today's pics:


This trapezoidal shaped protrusion on the driver's side of the radiator support has been a royal pain in my ass. The corners at first had flash from molding that were cutting my forearm - now that I've sanded them smooth, it's just the pointy corners of it that press into my forearm every time I reach into the driver's side of the engine compartment. I have this nice bruise that hurts like hell - the outer ring is bruised, but the inside is hard as a rock, and exquisitely tender and painful. If I were a smart man, I would have taped some foam to this thing days ago. I am not a smart man.
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3" cutoff wheel has been stationed here next to the vice pretty much the entire time. I have used it WAY more than I expected for this project.
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Getting setup to extend the wiring for the O2 sensor.
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Finished product:
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Here's the routing on the passenger's side:
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And here's the routing on the driver's side. Looks like a good stock wire routing job, if I do say so myself. (if you're having trouble seeing the wire, look for the corrugated tube running down the length of the fuel rail, then under the vacuum hoses, behind the coolant hoses, and connecting to the black and grey connectors at the bottom of the pic.)
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Here is some detail/insight on why this is taking so long. Take this wire run for example. This green wire is from some sensor in the transaxle (reverse switch? temp? speed? I don't realy care...), and connects into the wire harness on top of the transaxle. But as you can see in this picture, I've run a water line for the turbo in this vicinity, and it is both physically touching the wire, and putting some stress on the wire by forcing the wire out of its natural routing.
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So we add corrugated tubing as a protector.
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We also move this clip position a few mm to get a bit of slack in the wire. (You can see the indentions on the foam where the clip was positioned previously)
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And VUALA! A wire routing that won't burn down your pride and joy - because it does not have any stress in the wires, is not actively touching any other parts, and is protected in areas that have potential for touching. (there's actually about 10mm of clearance between the wire and the metal bracket at the bottom of the picture, it's just the angle that makes it look like it's touching.)

Also note the 5/8" heater hose wrapped around the 3/8 water hose, as a protector where the water hose touches the aforementioned metal bracket.
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Fluids in, battery connected, ready to start...

It's going to be loud - I have no exhaust behind the downpipe at the moment, lol.

No vids of the first start, I'll be on alert for any leaks or other abnormalities. Maybe the second start...
 
Pictures first, status update second...


With a sharp drill bit and a steady hand, you can make some decent chips. But damn I wish I had a drill press.
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One issue I have with this car is the wimpy horn. So I added a second "low tone" horn I bought on Amazon for 20 bucks. Makes a huge difference.
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I made a battery tray out of some scrap aluminum I had laying around, I need to make it thicker though. I made the battery tray because I decided at the last minute to get a smaller battery. The intake fit with the stock battery, but it was cramped, and things were rubbing, and it was altogether not ideal.
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Fluids ready to go in the car.
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So.... the status update.

I'm not drinking the celebration beer I bought yet, let's put it that way.

When I first started the engine, it ran rough (very rough) for about a minute - it would stumble and almost die, then surge up to 2k rpm, backfire, etc. Eventually after about a minute it did die. I restarted it a second time and it only ran for maybe 15 seconds.

Then I turned on the data logger and tried to start it a few more times. It would only run (poorly) for a few seconds at a time.

So I'm looking at scraps of data for three failed starts, trying to figure out what the issue is.

But I am paying for a tune, so I'll try to talk to my tuner tomorrow (even though it's Sunday) and see if he has any insight.

I should note - I was running the car without an exhaust after the downpipe. I wouldn't think that the missing rear section of exhaust would cause such issues, but I've been wrong before.
 
Ok wait a second. You are having your victory beer but you didnt explain the resolution to the issues described above. Is it running correctly now? Wha hoppen? You have also failed to mention your victory hot dogs lol :p
 
The implication was that I did get the issues sorted.


Pleased to say it was NOT my issue. It was the tune. Tuner screwed up and wrote the file using 440cc injectors, I'm using stock (242cc) for now while running zero boost, then going to 550cc when I start adding boost.
 
Tuner got me a new file this afternoon with the correct injector sizes, and the car is running well. On the one hand, it bugs me that he was late delivering the file, and that it was incorrect. But on the other hand, he did go into the "office" on Sunday to address my issues.

No videos yet, sorry.

I cut and welded up a dump pipe on the exhaust - it's not any quieter, but at least it's not going to melt my floorboard out from under me. I'm going to stop by the muffler shop tomorrow and get them to make a mid-pipe.


The pile of parts begins to get smaller, as they go back on the car.
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Loading tunes and logging data.
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You gotta look close to tell it isn't stock.
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I don't know if Mazda put this cutout here on purpose for a hand-hold, but it sure is convenient when installing the bumper cover.
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A couple shots of the suspension, because why should the engine get all the glory?
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Everything back together. "Hey kid, you wanna race?"
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Thats awesome! Very sleeper, that thing is gonna sneak up on a lot of people. Glad the initial issues were easily resolved.
 
... for now while running zero boost, ...

You might be surprised. I ran with my wastegate cracked like that and was still making 2-3psi by 3500rpms.


Good job. Looks nice. If I had kept my 2008 model instead (5 speed) I would probably still be in this project. It's gotta be more fun to drive.
 
Congrats on finishing the installation! Looking forward to the video once you get everything dialed in. Thank you for sharing this. While it looks like there are some complicated bits I am seriously considering this for next summer. Might have to start a separate piggy bank to get all the components.
 
You might be surprised. I ran with my wastegate cracked like that and was still making 2-3psi by 3500rpms.


Good job. Looks nice. If I had kept my 2008 model instead (5 speed) I would probably still be in this project. It's gotta be more fun to drive.

Thanks. Did you have your WG "cracked" or fully open when making 2-3psi? I ask b/c the original WG actuator rod only let me crack the WG flapper to about 20degrees or so (see post #15) so I made a new rod that allows it to be fully open at all times.

But:

1. I could see it making some level of boost, just because that WG oriface is a small hole to route ALL the exhaust gas through, and
2. I've only driven it around the block at low rpm so far, so I can't say for sure what is happening at higher rpm.
 
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