AN7's Mazda2 1.5 Turbo - Build Log -

AN7

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Mazda2 1.5T Sport
AN7's Mazda 2 1.5 Stock + 1.6 Forged Turbo --Build Log--

Hello fellas,
First of all happy new year to all of us.

Some of you might have seen my thread at lounge forum about building by my self a turbo kit for my Mazda 2 that i own for about 4 and a half years.

When i was thinking about starting this project my main concern was to keep the cost as low as possible. So to keep the cost down i had to do almost everything by myself. i.e making the manifold by myself, fit the i/c etc and of course most of the parts should be purchased over the ebay. The only used part that i bought was the turbine and the BOV that a friend gave to me.

First step was to gather the main parts of this puzzle.
The first part that it came was the turbine TD04L-13T(from ebay of course) that was from a 2001 Subaru WRX.
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Although the turbine was in very good condition and with normal shaft play, I decided to rebuild it any way.
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Next arrival was the intercooler with universal piping kit. Again from the ebay. The brand is TOYOSPORTS which is pretty descent with very good rate value/money.
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The next mayor part was the external wastegate and the BOV. The BOV was a gift from a friend and it is from a VAG 1.8T 20v engine.

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Next step was to check how the intercooler fits behind the bumper. Fortunately everything was ok as i was expecting it.
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Another job that i had to do is to relocate the battery from the engine bay to the trunk/boot in order to make some room in the engine bay for the piping.

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After all that then was the time for the manifold. First I had to go to a waterjet cutting and machining shop to cut out the flange of the exhaust manifold to the head.(the lower one was mine).

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Thankfully a friend of mine had a metal bandsaw that i could borrow in order to make the manifold. One mayor component of a manifold is the merge collector. So first i was practicing on pvc pipes with the same size.

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After the practice comes the real stuff...

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Getting ready...

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Next was the tubing from the flange to the merge collector. In order to make the turbine sit almost perpendicular i had to use a great angle from the flange to the collector

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Almost finished...

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Test fit..

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Tig welding.... the full welding was done by a friend of mine because he had a tig welder and I...didn't :p .. I only had a MIG welder and i wanted the manifold to be full TIG welded.

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Full welded...

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Before I take them on the car i had to figure out what I should do with the engine management... from the FB i found a man that was selling an E-Manage Ultimate with harness and MAP sensor in a very very good price...and of course i installed it by my self but these are A LOT of cables...

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In order to install all the parts to the car i took it to a friends workshop because in my backyard that would be a bit difficult...unfortunately i don't have a lot of images from there because we were working on the car all day..the only images that i have is from the i/c fitting :(

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After building and the downpipe i wrapped the manifold, the external exhaust and the downpipe with exhaust heat wrapping material.

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Because the clutch was slipping badly during fast gear shifts a friend of mine had a 6-puck clutch for sale with the flywheel from another mazda that is a direct fit :D

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How the engine bay looks like.... need lot of work :p

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I also changed the injectors with bigger ones because @ 0.4bar and 160hp i had ~90% duty cycle. -no image-




Unfortunately this is the best photo of the car that i have after the conversion...

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Tuned by me, it managed @ 0.38bar 160hp and 21kgm of torque at the flywheel. Before i change the injectors. Now the car runs up to 0.55bar.






Bonus videos






without downpipe.... the very first time that that the car was turboed on the streets...





The total cost of this project was about 2500$(~1900). I could save some money with some parts that i didn't need or for lower quality but i think the price is very fair :D




Update: From 09/19/13 and on
After 20k miles or so the connecting rod of the third cylinder just let go and did a big mess

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So I bought an Z6 engine from a Mazda 3 1.6 which was also cheaper :)

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After I bought the motor I started gathering parts for the build, clevite rod bearings, K1 rods, stock head gasket, crank seals etc

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As most of you know, no one makes pistons for our engines so I ended up making some custom made from a shop here in Greece called DP Engine Parts... for sure they are pretty

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Despite the engined seemed to have low mileage i decided to rebuild the head and the result is awesome

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After the head was back from the machine shop the assemble process was started

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The same night..... a wash after a looong loooooong time

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And the next day morning a trip to Poseidon temple at Sounio

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WOW. That is some serious dedication. Really impressive job! That car must be a LOT of fun!!!
 
this is what ill be doing im glad i have a guide now! i liked those videos awhile back glad to see they are yours. love the open turbo sound. thats how my friends turbo na miata sounds. love it.
 
Very nice job! I've seen a lot of turbo conversions that leave the engine bay looking like a mess, but looks like yours is clean and thorough.
 
Thanks guys :D

WOW. That is some serious dedication. Really impressive job! That car must be a LOT of fun!!!
Indeed the car is a lot of fun now. The chassis can handle the extra power and on a hill climb/track you dont have to work a lot with the stick between 2nd and 3rd gear you stay with 3rd :p..... and of course in a straight line......

this is what ill be doing im glad i have a guide now! i liked those videos awhile back glad to see they are yours. love the open turbo sound. thats how my friends turbo na miata sounds. love it.
I 'm glad that my build-log could be helpful to someone :)


Very nice job! I've seen a lot of turbo conversions that leave the engine bay looking like a mess, but looks like yours is clean and thorough.
There is some room for improvement but indeed, as it is I also believe that the engine bay looks decent :)
 
very clean. would love to see a dyno. how does the greeedy do with the vvt?
 
Love it man! That is dedication. I'm sure you saved a lot of money doing it yourself. So how much do you think it cost you? Where's that easy to install Turbo kit Dynotronics!? :)
 
So are you running both ecus? having the greddy handle just spark and fuel? Or are you tuning without vvt?

Greddy is a piggyback ecu, not a stand alone so I'm running both and I am turning without vvt
 
ah, i've always avoided the greddy emanages, for some reason i thought they were a full ecu.

the vvt is still controlled by the stock ecu tho?

any idea how much the maf can support? or did you add a map sensor with the emanage?
 
From my experience, the emanage ultimate is one of the easiest ECUs out there to program. Also it has abilities like an stand alone but you could have your car every day friendly because the stock ECU will handle idling, cold start and any other low load. In its era there was nothing else.

yes, vvt is still controlled by the stock ecu.


My maps are MAP based when the car is on boost but the stock MAF is not maxed out yet. Although my guess is that it will max out @ ~220-230ps
 
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