The Bogan

LOL, when one "money pit" is never enough Noice, and excellent work mate

I have more than enough digging, laying blocks, moving gravel, airrating, feeding and top soiling the grass, and setting up the veggie gardens growing some seedlings, and then removing all the unused rock to keep me busy for the next few months at least, hopefully the rain stops soon so I can get a few hours in this arvo, but, before that Sunday is washing day, is every body happy, you bet your life we are Nice country road day drives are a day off whenever I'm muscle sore from all the landscaping at the moment, but, more epic multiple day drives will start once the majority of the big jobs outside are completed

Seat of the pants assessment of the new intake: The car is way less "doughy" when hitting the loud pedal, especially off idle when stopped or in traffic, I did use a cheapo lazer thermal thingo to measure the temp around where the pod filter got its air, it was between 55 - 60°C, in saying this the car was shut off and not moving, so the OEM intake pipe was not supplying any fresh air to where the pod was when the car was at least moving A weird bonus was induction noise on the throttle in the cabin increased a bit, I was worried that I was actually going to lose some of that induction noise I love so much, outside though, when I got the daughter to do a WOT drive by pass for me, the induction noise has increased alot when on the throttle, not quite ITB doort, but well up there I'm extremely happy with the results and have been exploring the country roads in the region As for house mods: 1.New front fence is up and is awesome, it really upgraded how the joint looks from the street, and the added security is nice 2. Electricians have replace some interior lights, and with more lighting in the garage, a few new motion detecting lights out the front above the garage, front room, and at the front door, which I have already found heaps helpful coming and going, also now has fancy pants CCTV all round the house The only hold point for power though is the solar and batteries due to supply issues, although this will happen over the next few weeks 3. I have done a heap of landscaping out the front and I'm almost ready to do a new small retaining wall with some nice blocks to replace the brick and cemented in rocks around the raised garden beds cemented in river stone "was the fashion at the time" the house was built. I currently have a pallet of retaining wall blocks and 2 bulka bags of 20mm blue metal to replace the wood chip that is in the raised garden beds around the house 4. I now have 3 big raised garden beds for out the back to grow some vegetables, about 70cm high, 200cm long and 100cm wide 5. My 2 compost bins are already pretty full with brown, green and kitchen waste from the landscaping I'vedone so far, but they will probably take a few months to break down, so anything else that gets chopped, trimmed, and kitchen waste will just start filling the base of the raised garden beds to about 30cm before I start throwing 40cm of good compost, and stuff, for the vegetables to grow in, I'll need a few ton of compost and soil, but the local supplier can sent me bulka bags of the stuff Basically the logs, wood chips and a few strategically placed rocks for drainage, will give the beds some good organic materials down low to break down over time, and they will hold moisture during the warmer months to save the water in my big arse water tank if we don't get alot of rain So, all in all, the car and house mods are going well, and I'm really enjoying being retired, I sleep in too 0700 and slowly plod around inside until I feel like actually doing anything, and only work in the yard for as long as want, which has actually been alot over the last few weeks, although when you look at it, it seems that not a huge amount of work has been done, until I look at the before I started the work pics Happy days and good times indeed

LOL, all of the CAI like Craig I just need to put a hole saw through my bumper Done and dusted, the car runs, which is nice, I'll take it for a spin when the weather clears up Just need to put the bumper back on for good

Yeah, plenty of air flow, there is a dedicated path that feeds the air in to the OEM intake tube behind the bumper As for a "tangible effect", maybe, but getting the pod/intake air out of the hot engine bay is worth it psychologically to me, even if it gives no performance difference, so the tangible effect in my Lizard brain saysss yessss In the end, to me a tangible effect isn't always about performance, sometimes it a sound or a look, or even a...... feeling Ooga-Chaka Ooga-Ooga Ooga-Chaka Ooga-Ooga Ooga-Chaka Ooga-Ooga Ooga-Chaka Ooga-Ooga

So, went shopping at Just Jap for things that might work for the intake After some trial fitting there I ended up with a 3" x 45° silicone bend, a 3" x 300mm alloy straight, and a humped joiner, some minor trimming will be required to shorten some of the stuff, but nothing that is beyond my "ham fisted" skills The guy at Just Jap was most helpful as we had all sorts of joiners, bends and stuff out trial fitting Laying it out above the stuff in there it seems everything will fit nicely, and looking at it, it is probably the way I should have been looking at doing it from the beginning, probably..... In the end it is a front bar off job anyway to remove the original stuff behind the front bar that is taking up the required realestate needed, so maybe a Thursday or Friday job And because I'm a hopeless consumer, I grabbed some new steel wheel nuts, the current ones are a spline drive type with a "security" socket, that somehow someone keeps misplacing, the new ones are a basic black steel 17mm hex socket In other news: I just did my "final" tax return, I am now officially a old retired veteran pensioner, and I'm milking the system for all it's worth, life is good

Question for people who "know stuff" I am looking at doing the new intake like the one in the picture (the pictured is designed for the OEM TB and intake plenum), this design has the filter behind the front bar, but, the filter sits where the OEM duct heads into the front bar, and the standard aperture when the OEM ducting is removed allows the filter to pulled back out of the front bar into the engine bay for servicing, a simple blanking plate is used to seal the aperture behind the filter This will require a 45° silicone hose from the TB, like the alloy pipe that is currently there, to another 45° silicone hose to get a straight run to the aperture in the front bar Question: how will it effect the tune if I move the MAF about 100-150mm forward, the red is around where my MAF is currently, and the green would be where it would end up Like this This is the hole the filter goes through Ends up like this LOL..Cheers

Funny story Heading to Sydney this morning on the HWY there was some slow traffic, so I gave it the beans and midway through my overtaking "power run" I lost all power It seems that I missed a hose clamp, and the MAF and filter went WiFi To make this more problematic, the little tool kit that lives in the boot, is sitting in the sun room at Goulburn......LOL Luckily for me I found a bit of steel on the side of the road that could be used like a rusty and bent flat head screw driver to tighten it up enough that it got me into Sydney, it is now all tight like a tiger with the aid of a 8mm socket Note to self: Use my brain and double check stuff, and always keep that little tool kit in the car for when I have a brain fart

Version 1 aluminium airbox is.......not acceptable No pics as I "didn't like the look.....alot" Even after all my "CAD", and measurements, the leg near the fusebox just didn't sit right as it ended up about 10mm long and made the angle of the dangle look wrong, the height was a little short as well, meh, I wasn't that confident that Version 1 was going to be an instant winner I might give Version 2 another go, there's plenty of aluminium at work, but, after having in on and off a few times, and laying in the old OEM airbox without the new pod filter and MAF, there may be an option to modify the OEM air box and still use the Autoexe front cover and filter.... maybe This > Needs to fit in here, but using the panel, and not the pod, the MAF will need to fit in the airbox though> I'm thinking as the old OEM box and Autoexe cover that is sitting in the shed is just sitting around doing nothing, and they are relatively abundant and cheap to replace if I mess it up and need another, it may well fit with some modifications to how the Autoexe brackets mounts to the rad support, and some dremiling to move it get in there, should give me some more room for activities, as I don't want to move the MAF and affect the tune Sealing the hole it requires to stick it in the air box is simple, a tight fit and some pinch weld will seal it up tight I am calling this a later problem though

From your link See bold text, is this referring to damper settings, if so that may a issue for "some" inspectors, I cannot see aftermarket coilovers having the evidence that "must be available that its functional performance is equivalent to the original" Maybe just remove the adjustment knows and hope for the best???? Meh 5.2 Suspension travel In all instances, modifications to a vehicle’s suspension must ensure the integrity of the system and not compromise the ride quality. At least two thirds of the original suspension travel should be maintained in both directions (rebound (i.e. extension) and bump (i.e. compression)), and rebound must be limited by the same method used by the vehicle manufacturer or if this is not practicable due to the nature of the modification, an equivalent method. If an alternative method is used, evidence must be available that its functional performance is equivalent to the original.

That idea has crossed my mind, I do a 5km walk everyday, this does take me past some bushland......I think you may be onto something 😉 That, plus 1 rock on every bin night might do the trick, it may take a year, but it could save me a couple of grand The only issue is the big 'Boonies", I have a few that weigh around 30-40kg, maybe they should be the first to go into the raised garden bed, and then let the next owner deal with them....my daughter gets the joint when I kick the bucket, mums the word mate......LOL Noice......

No chop chop of anything mate, it is what it is, plus, I don't want any air that isn't either going through the cooling stack or intake getting into the engine compartment increasing under bonnet pressure Yeah, the Mazda Speed aftermarket intake above is less than ideal for multiple reasons, the requirement to remove the bumper every time you need to service the filter, and also smaller in diameter than the NC1 OEM one Weirdly, Mazda Speed is part of the Mazda motorsport division, "form over function" and $$$$$ for Mazda from unsuspecting punters I suspect After some googling about them it seems they added no power, but do increase some induction noise Meh In other news, the electricians have been busy today at the house, and are back tomorrow finishing up all the security stuff and exterior lighting, they also added some lighting on the garage ceiling, which will come in handy when working in the garage when it's not freezing out there My Birdies raised garden bed also arrived today as well, which I'll put together and place tomorrow, it's a big tall Bessie, 74cm high, 92cm wide and 214cm long, this will come in handy as I am starting to get "stockpiles" of good soils from doing landscaping, some of the clean rock, namely the river stone, will go into the bottom of the bed for drainage, as well as the old Apricot tree that was out the back, and when it's full, I'll grab another one, I will be growing enough veggies to keep me both busy as well as supplementing the shopping list I'm also awaiting another quote for a new Colourbond front fence, as the "1980 style cemented in rock edging" that was there and "fashionable at the time" looked arse, and my god, the amount of cement used to fix the rock was insane, it took 1.5 days for me to break out 12 meters of the stuff by hand, trim the bushes back to the fence line and dump it out the back of the joint to deal with at a later date,I will soon need a skip bin to tip it all Unfortunately they did alot of the cemented in rock around the joint, which I hate, so a few pallets of retaining wall blocks for around the front and back where the cemented in rock is will be required to bring it up to a standard, and look, that I will be happy with 12 meters worth of rock and cement Finished smashing the fence line and ready for a fence to be installed, yes, the lawns need some TLC and thickness, the previous owner trimmed the grass to the roots 😢, the TLC I can provide, and nature over time will do the rest And there's probably about another 40 meters worth of this landscaping abomination left to do around the front and back gardens, I'm guessing maybe 3 or 4 tons worth, tip fees for this will be a killer Meh, all in all I'm having fun and keeping busy, plus, it's good PT

Like I said, "black magic" LOL In the end, it is what it is, and hopefully, what this here knuckle head has done is an improvement and not a hindrance Not that I actually notice any negatives now, or that I will get any seat of the pants benefits when all is said and done, but best practice says I shouldn't be pulling intake air from the hot engine bay Famous last words: I cannot see it being any worse than what it is at the moment 🤔

Nah, the OEM CAI pipe is still installed behind the bumper, it is about 5" x 3" oval at the engine side, tapering down to a 3" pipe behind the bumper where it gets all the ambient air it needs Engine side of radiator support OEM intake pipe "oval hole" that is right in front of the filter My OEM NC1 CAI pipe: From NC2 onwards, below pic, they come slightly smaller at 2.75" diameter with corrugations and a resonance chamber to reduce intake noise, lucky for me my NC1 has the bigger noisy one, LOL Basically, the "sealed" airbox will just get ambient air from a 3" pre filter intake tube that is the same size, 3" as the rest of the intake pipe post filter, and if a 3" intake isn't big enough to flow enough air for 150 killerwasps then there are other issues The whole intake is basically the same length as OEM, but it is now about 30% bigger from the airbox back through to the new intake plenum than OEM, and the intake plenum is port matched to the head And the intake is now about 30% bigger than my 2.5" exhaust, so the suck, squeeze, bang and blow black magic should be fine, well, to my uneducated understanding of fluid dynamics anyway Talking the the guys at MX5 Mania, it may even make a few more killerwasps as the intake isn't sucking hot air, especially off idle or when in slow traffic when it would be sucking hot air As for the difference in IAT, I haven't logged IAT yet, as I don't currently have a OBD2 reader, but I will have a play with my thermal lazer thingie next time I take the car out to sèe how hot stuff gets under the bonnet near the intake filter prior to installing the air box, my "assumption is it has to be much better after the air box is in and sealed up compared to what it is now The aftermarket "performance" CAI elephant in the room: Aftermarket CAI intakes typically have the air filter tucked up behind the bumper, with a 2.5" intake tube (the OEM intake pipe is actually about 30% bigger than the fancy pants "aftermarket" version.....WTF), and you need to remove the bumper to service the filter, which is a PITA Like dis:

1.5mm alloy folded up, it will need a tweek, as the angled bend only got to around 45° as that was the max that the break press would get with the other bends, and I needed a fair bit more, but and the alloy is easy to bend too my will by hand once I trim the lower section out I'll Dremel out and form the angle and mounting point on the lower section when time permits As for the lid, I'm looking at going a "cap", instead of a flat lid to hide the fixtures a bit

Not alot here, just a random snow flake now and then, in saying this I didn't spend alot of time outside today, played in the garage for a bit, then spent most of the day pottering around inside Did you get a bit?

"CAD" version 1.0 It will have a 15mm lip around the top for 6 × 5 or 6mm nutserts and fixtures (two on each of the three straight edges), and some pinch weld on any exposed edges, it has three mounting points, one of the power steering reservoir bolts, and two on the rad support, my 120mm hole saw will make short work of hole for the silicone joiner, with ample room for some pinch weld I've also got enough Carbuilders "peel and stick" heat shield to cover the outside of it at the coolant expansion tank and on the engine side, as pictured, and internally on the lid and where the fuse box is, I've also got some thin, about 3mm, black 3M single sided sticky foam stuff that was left over after sealing some door drafts at home to help seal the lid As for the shape, it "sort of" matches the shape of the fuse box, so shouldn't look to "out of place" The lower area and hole for the intake will need pinch weld with a balloon on it to fully seal the hole and bottom of it, that will happen after it has been fabricated so I know exactly what size is required Filter service has been trialed, and so far it was a simple process Just need to get some alloy, and then head into work to use the guillotine and break press in the workshop Hopefully it should be sorted in a week or two Guestimated outlay will be under a $50 for the stuff I don't have on hand (alloy, 6mm nutserts, the pinch weld, and wrinkle paint) Disclaimer: That's what the "voices in my head" are telling me how the filter box should end up getting done......lets see if they know what they are talking about

Yeap, not as doorty as ITB's, but alot more doorty than before, induction sound great when I'm up it 🤗

Just got the car back and gave it a good run back home Power wise, whilst it only made a extra 5 killerwasps up top at 7200 rpm, it made more power everywhere from 2500 rpm and kept pulling much harder all the way, to the point of me relearning when to shift so I don't hit the 7200 limiter, with the old intake it seemed to take alot more time to rev out, and, throttle response is also much improved As I didn't want to remove the bumper every time I serviced the air filter (basically every aftermarket and fabricated CAI has the filter behind the bumper) it currently has a hektic exposed pod in the engine bay sucking in hot air, this will be rectified shortly after some some of my CAD (cardboard assisted design) for a alloy heat shield feed by the OEM intake tube behind the bumper, this will cop some wrinkle black paint, as well as the intake pipe for that totally OEM look... The only fly in the ointment was that the OEM "strut" brace doesn't fit over the rear runner of the new intake with the 2.5 engine is in the engine bay, as the 2.5 raises the engine up by 20mm, it's not a war stopper, and I didn't notice any difference without it in some twisties, but....... MX5 Mania is bringing in some GWR "fancy pants" braces that apparently do fit, if it bolts up I'll grab it, it is also stiffer than the OEM one, which is a bonus All in all I'm happy with the outcome Fancy pants "strut" brace that gives the required clearance This is where the clearance issue was, the GWR extends out past this

I love the early SL500's, they look sleek Give it a good service, throw on a exhaust, and roll like a boss I'd get a nice old SL500 before a 25GT

Just dropped the car off at MX5 Mania to install the intake plenum and give it a little retune My impatience hates the waiting game

Goon of fortune....go on.....spin to win

Cheers for the tips, I'll go with 50 mm around the side, I'm used to digging with hand tools, my prior occupation had me going well with hand tools and there's nothing that a breaker bar and a pair of gloves to protect my delicate hands can't fix, hopefully... As my time now is free, if it takes a week to excavate that's not a issue

Got keys and did a walk around the yard planning the landscaping works with the family that I will be doing Main effort: remove all the woodchip in the gardens that are around (attached) to the outside of the house and replace with 10mm blue metal, having woodchip close to the house is a recipe for inviting white ants, currently there are no white ants within the block and I would like to keep it that way I'll be buying some large raised garden beds to grow veggies and stuff, and the woodchip will be mulched with everything else that gets dug up, pulled out, or cut down during works Next will some minor drainage and landscaping maintenance up one side of the house, where the fuse box, AC, and solar stuff will go, about 12 mtrs long by 2 meters wide, I'll break up the soil, add gypsum and then I'll dig in a French drains about 300mm deep x 300mm wide and fill it with agg pipe and blue metal, then level out the whole area with a 50mm layer of blue metal, the soil, whilst currently pretty compacted, will break up well with the gypsum to aid in drainage, I'll then cover the area with a 50mm layer of more blue metal In saying this, the drainage issue is minor, but that little hidden away area down the side is untidy and weedy, and as all of the main elec stuff is there I want it neat and tidy to appease my OCD Again, the material excavated from the French drains with be added to the garden bed mulch, as will some rose bushes and some other crap looking garden plants, and a old apricot tree that is looking worse for wear The apricot tree is currently in a little roundish garden bed that is in the middle of the back yard with few other crappy looking plants around it, that will all be removed, levelled, re-turfed, and is a perfect spot for a hills hoist There is also a area about 3m x 2m between the rear fence and shed that will get some attention, it looks like some stuff was stored there and the grass is dead, that will also get broken up and mulched, and is a prime spot for a pumpkin patch I've guestimated that I'll need: 3 tonnes of blue metal, 12 meters of agg pipe, 5kg of Gypsum, and a hills hoist, so a few bags of concrete as well to set it in place (the house currently has one of those pull out 4 line jobs, whilst it works, I want a retro old school hills hoist), I am also going to run some chickens, there's a great spot for a coop, so a chicken coop to suit 4 of those lovely egg laying bitches will also be on the job card That should keep me busy for a while, and will finish off the back yard ready for a early spring planting of some veggies and berries Once the main effort is done I'll start out the front, there's a large rock garden that could use some TLC, but that is only minor works Should be fully moved in within 2 weeks, the landscaping works will start then Fun times, retirement is good

When the power is on and the AC heat is warming the house...LOL Jackie keeps me updated with the Goulburn temps, I think she is scared she will freeze, me, I'm fine with the cold, I'm use to acclimatising Jackie is the main reason for getting solar, as she "requires" the AC to keep things civil year round, night and day, and me telling her to wrap up and layer in the cold falls on deaf ears, with an evil glance thrown in for good measure to ensure I "understand"...LOL