2013 Mazda5 turbocharger installation

2013 Mazda5
GT2871R
Other stuff

Apologies if this doesn't "flow" coherently as a single post, I collected all the individual updates I've been giving into one post. I'm going to keep all the updates here going forward.

Started yesterday (July 12, 2014) morning with disassembly, things went smoothly, this car is put together very straightforward.

Lunch break. Haven't run into any unexpected problems yet, so morale is still high. The stock manifold and "downpipe" are quite large and difficult to get out. I'm going to need to unbolt and remove the cowl to get it out the rest of the way. I've got the RMM and PMM disconnected, the engine is down and forward, and I still don't have clearance. MS3 people never get to b**** about how hard it is to get a dp or manifold out, ever again, lol.



I got the manifold out in about 2 minutes after taking the cowl off. Should have just started with that, it was easy.

Done for the night, a solid 7am to 9pm workday (45min lunch).

Time consuming tasks accomplished today:
1. Manifold removal
2. Brake distribution block relocation / bracket modification
3. Shifter cable bracket relocation / modification
4. Oil feed source / oil filter housing removal and installation (this was the unexpected difficulty)

I used a Tee fitting on the oil pressure switch as planned. Removed the oil filter housing no problem. Had to loosen and rotate the oil filter cooler a few degrees (not to much such that it would leak) to get clearance to the front for the switch. But then I had to be mindful that the lower NPT to AN fitting had tight clearance to a protruding ear on the block casting.

Then the main issue was that the Tee fitting obscured the top right bolt on re-installation. I had to take the Tee fitting out (many times) and re-wrap with more Teflon tape so that the Tee fitting wouldn't screw in so far. Even so, clearance to that bolt was tight, and involved a combination of using a box wrench 5degrees at a time, and a 10mm 1/4" socket that still didn't quite grab the socket fully. All in all, I probably went back and forth between the car and workbench about 30 times test fitting and attempting to install the thing before finally getting it working.

If I had to do it again, I'd use a Tee fitting where the fitting connects to the housing (the male fitting) on the top of the "T", instead of the base. Basically, so that the switch and AN fitting were on the right and bottom, instead of the top and bottom like they are now.

Mazdaspeed3 guys need to stop bitching about how hard it is to get a down pipe out of their cars:



The cowl comes out easily and give tons of room:


Test fitting the intake:


Done for the night:



Sunday, July 13

Nearly 14 hours straight yesterday was too much, and I was unmotivated and lazy in the morning today. Didn't really get started until noon, then took a long break from 3pm to 6pm, so I didn't get much done today. IC mounting, IC piping finished, modified heater core hoses. IC mounting and heater core hose modification/routing required more trips to Home Depot and the auto parts store than I would have liked. Hose routing was one thing I couldn't be 100% prepared for without tearing into the car.

"Artisan" hand-hammered intercooler brackets for sale... Old-world craftsmanship, only $50 each!

(yes the middle one is supposed to be longer, due to the curvature of the bumper)


IC mounted:


Close up of the mounts I spent too long making. Double shear mounting and stainless hardware:


Heater core hoses viewed from the top. This took a while to find the exact routing I liked best. The "standard" routing for them in a NA FI build didn't work on my car b/c I have a brake line distribution block in the way of the normal path. Yes, they will get a shitload of heat shielding.


Heater core lines from passenger side.


From the drivers side:


More to come tomorrow...

Subscribed

The start of good things to come


OO ||| OO + O w O +

I'm in!

Step-by-step how-to and itemized parts list when done!

I'm so jelly.

Excellent to see you do it on a 2012+... will be watching your thread.

Subbed.

Very nice build.
What do you plan to do for tuning?
how much boost do you plan to run?
the 2.5L engine can take a good amount of abuse stock, and is quite strong. if you have a manual transmission I wouldn't be afraid of about 10-12psi.
however if you have an automatic transmission it's going to be toast above 4-5psi.

The stock ECU can actually be tuned for boost, PM me and I an give you details.

So far I've only had 1.5 hours to work today, I have a lunch date with the wife and a bunch of home improvement projects today.

AN lines are fun. Messy workbench at the moment:


Oil drain line is going to fit well. Nervous about tapping the oil pan, but it must be done...

Tonight was the part of the project I was most nervous/unsure about, tapping the oil pan for the oil return line.

The oil pan would not come out due to this engine mount bracket. I know you're thinking, "What? I can see that it is almost clear - you could force it out, you big pansy!" Trust me, I couldn't.



Maybe I could have filed down that corner while it was on the car, but instead I chose to use the handy dandy tripod stands to hold up the engine while unbolting the bracket



I marked the location for the return plug while in the car. This was as high as I could go, due to the radius curvature of the pan - I wanted to tap a flat surface.



Ghetto machine shop 101: If you can't clamp the workpiece in the vice, bolt it to a 2x4 and clamp that in your vice.



No going back now.



Unfortunately I didn't finish tapping the hole to install the plug. So, I have a couple tap handles that can accommodate various tap sizes. One of them is 1/4" to 3/4" - should be fine for 1/2" NPT right? Wrong, I forgot pipe sizes are stupid. So I need a bigger tap handle.

Anyway, instead of tapping the hole, I scraped old gasket material off the pan and underside of the block for an hour. Yay.

You actually can get the pan off without removing / unbolting the mount. I've done it, it's just a serious pain in the ass and you gotta angle it just right.

that being said.. I shaved that area of my pan down lol

Nice garage, jealous of the tall ceiling! This thread interests me, a second MZ5 Sport 6MT might make a good DD for me. Great prices to be had on these from time to time as this area seems to hate manuals.

As I mentioned, I'm nervous about taping into the oil pan - I've never done it before, and I don't have a TIG to fix any screwups. So I'm proceeding slowly.

When you need a larger tap wrench, but the size you need is $100 at the local Grainger/MSC/Fastenal, you build a makeshift one yourself. It looks unequaled in the pic, but it is nice and square.



The wall thickness of the pan was about 0.20 inches, I decided I didn't like that because it would give less than 3 full threads of engagement with 1/2" NPT (14 TPI). So I'm adding JB Weld to thicken either side of the case. This should give at least 8 threads engagement, which should be plenty. I trust JB Weld for this application, I've used it successfully in more stressful applications.

This is fun to watch, I appreciate the documentation efforts!

Super fun to see this thread! Inspiring!

Tonight's update:

The pan is waiting for the JB Weld to fully cure (24 hrs) before I tap the oil return.

My tuner (Dynotronics) wants there to be zero boost initially. The rod that came with the IWG actuator will only open the WG about 20 degrees when it is at its max extension.

Here's the stock actuator, and the resulting flapper opening. I was worried that this "not full" opening might result in a few PSI of boost pressure.




So I made a longer arm. I had to buy a 1/4-28 tap. :/
Gave it a quick shot of hi-temp rustoleum since it's just mild steel and I didn't want it to insta-rust with the exhaust temps from the turbine, even if it's not boosting. Probably won't help, but the DIY arm won't be on there long anyway.



When I was prepping for the install, I was worried about this brake distribution block:



I was able to modify the bracket, and then mount the distribution block both higher, and on the back side of the bracket. It gives me the clearance I need, but only just - there's only about 20mm clearance behind the WG actuator.



Heatshield on lines that were deemed worthy (I also relocated the cowl drain hose to the drivers side)



I'm also doing a heatshield barrier in addition to wrapping individual lines. I used aluminum foil (two layers, and packing tape in areas to make it durable enough) to make a pattern.



Final attachment of the lines on the turbo, now that I've figured out where all the lines will route and what fittings to use. Turbo will be going in tomorrow.



Every nut and bolt bagged & tagged. I started with a fresh bag of 40 zip-locks; I have 4 left.

Excellent Build Thread Status! Great detail, love it...I'm definitely looking forward to your updates and thanks for posting!

Tonight's update might not have a lot of good visual updates, because I've already shown you the money shot of the turbo in the car (even though it was a preliminary mock up to determine clearances and route lines and such). But in actuality, I made really good progress today - actually, WE made good progress - thanks again to @stevenlapensee; for the help.

Heatshield being cut to size and put in place. This was tedious, to put it gently. I'm probably going to replace the standard size washers I used with larger fender washers eventually, though the heatshield is much more durable than I originally thought.




Wire routing for the ECU, MAF, and battery cables. (the perspective on these two pics is with the camera above the battery tray, looking forward and down at the wires) I added a second layer for protective corrugate tubing (first pic) because I was going to clamp the wire harness branch directly to a hard metal surface, and there is the potential for relative motion between the two. The second pic shows the zip ties connecting the wire harness to the tube. Don't laugh at the zip ties - if you've ever been around real race cars, you know they are held together pretty much exclusively by zip ties.




So here is the overall status picture. The manifold and turbo are officially in for the last time, and torqued in place.



OH! Tapping the oil pan went just fine. Sorry no pic of that, I'll get one of the finished product tomorrow.

This is an awesome build! What part of Tx are you in?

San Antonio

Nice. Thank you for all the detailed pics and explanations. You are being very thorough on this install, doing it right. I appreciate you allowing the community to follow you during the installation. Oh and no worries on the zip ties, most manufacturers use them because they work.