- Removed: 11/2005 -
The Coldside now lives with Dan at
Run-Down.com
Miatas need more power. Ask anyone.
I've lusted after a turbo kit nearly as long as I've owned the car. That lust was unfulfilled due to the
high prices of turbos and the lack of funding, a familiar story. Recently, I've been following the
BR Performance
Coldside supercharger kit with much interest. It supposedly has no lag, makes nice power, and retains all
of the stock, high-reving character of the Miata. And recently, BRP had a batch of Coldsides on sale. I'll
cut to the chase... it's as good as everyone has said, and better!
The following is a brief account of my Coldside install. It took the better part of a week to get everything
running right. It was difficult. It was also worth every minute.
New alternator pulley, old injectors, old manifold.
The first item on the list was alternator removal. It gets a smaller pulley due to insufficient
belt wrap with the stock pulley. Changing it was really no big deal. It was harder to remove the alternator
(a task I've done about 5 times now) than to change the pulley. I wrapped the stock alt belt around the pulley
and clamped it in place with some vise grips while a buddy zipped the bolt off with my electric impact
wrench. This tore the belt, but it wasn't being reused and was 50k old anyway. As for the injectors...
The Fuel Rail - bane of my existance.
The Coldside uses the Powercard for fueling which allows the stock injectors to spray a little more fuel. It
also uses a very pretty dual-feed fuel rail. Armed with this knowledge, I bought a spare set of injectors off
the miatanet classifieds and sent them to Marren for cleaning and balancing. The green rings are the Marren rings
which do not fit in any Miata fuel rail. Fortunately, I had a set of new Mazda rings. Anyway, this photo
shows the rail with injectors, fittings, and teflon tape. Beware: rant ahead.
Long story short, fuel melts the teflon tape I was using. The instructions simply called for teflon tape. I got
some from Home Depot ($.49, MIL Spec T-27730A) and wrapped it up as seen in the photo without testing to see
what fuel did to the teflon. Answer: it disintigrates it in less than 2 minutes. It took a while for the fuel
to go all the way up the threads on the pipe fittings, like overnight. In other words, I'd install the rail, test
it for leaks, find none, and then find a leaky (DRIPPING!) fuel rail in the morning. This happened twice. On the third
time, I called Brant of BRP and asked him what to do. "JB Weld" he told me. Since I wasn't planning on ever removing
the fittings, and didn't have to wrestle with the annoying elbow fitting seen in the foreground, JB Weld was the
answer. I wish I had known this originally. *Sigh* At least I can safely report no fuel leaks.
A final word about the injectors. Marren did a great job cleaning them. Their o-rings are crap. Use Mazda o-rings. That is all.
Engine sans manifold. Notice the oil pressure sender.
If you're thinking of changing your oil pressure sender, DO IT NOW! It's hard to change the Mazda one
with the manifold in place, but I've done it. It's IMPOSSIBLE to change one aftermarket one for another
with the manifold in place. I wanted to switch my VDO 100 psi sensor with another VDO sensor with a dummy
light. IMPOSSIBLE. But quite easy once the manifold is outta there. In other news... you can see the
fuel hardlines in the foreground (they're grey). You can also see Tom's hand trying to figure out
how the S/C manifold brace bolts together.
Manifold and fuel rail installed for the first time...
This was the first time for the fuel rail install (it was installed three times total before it worked right)
and the first time for the manifold to be in place. Actually, the manifold has only been bolted
in place once. That's pretty good. Notice the elbow fitting on the right and all the teflon tape. I ended
up leaving it out in favor of barb fittings on both ends of the rail.
Manifold gasket-goop, vacuum lines, fuel hose.
After the first fuel rail removal, the gasket-goop bathed in fuel for about 30 minutes. Not only does
fuel eat the teflon tape I was using, it also melts gasket-goop. The manifold turned into one huge vacuum leak.
Less than fun, however, I'm now a pro at installing the manifold plate (the 2nd round of gasket-goop looks WAY
better than the stuff in the above photo). Also notice the fuel rail elbow. Yeah... simple barb fittings make
it easier.
Tips for installing the lower manifold plate: First, goop the plate. Letting it sit for 5 minutes before trying to
install it is good. Also, be prepared to get the goop everywhere once you begin tightening the bolts. Second,
install it from below. It's much easier to lift it into place without scraping off any gasket-goop than it is to
do it from the top. While you're under the car, put one bolt and lock washer on each end of the manifold finger
tight. Then get up and bolt the rest in. Third, invest in flexy-head ratchet-wrenches. My flexy-head 13mm is now my
best friend. Fourth, put the four long supercharger mounting bolts in place through the manifold. This will ensure
correct plate alignment. After you get 3 or 4 bolts in place and more than finger tight, you can remove the long
bolts. Fifth, unbolt the big gob of wires connected to the top right of the tranny via one of the 12mm tranny
bolts. That gob of wires is in the way. Sixth, use both hands to install the bolts. Hold the bolt with one hand and
turn it with the other. Trust me: you can do this for each of the 12 bolts. Finally, re-torque all of the bolts after
you think you have the plate in place. Chances are, the first two or three will be loose.
The blower in place for the first time.
Yeah... it's been out many times since then. Darn fuel leaks... Notice the gasket goop and the throttle body
coolant lines. And notice how my Snoopy dipstick is starting to look worried...
Completely buttoned up for the first time.
This was the first time it was buttoned up. I started unbolting the manifold at 10am that morning. I finished
installing everything at 11pm that night. Through the course of the day, 3 very kind people helped install things and turn
bolts. This photo was taken right before the 11pm testdrive. Notice how pitiful and dirty my valve cover has become.
Notice the crazy fuel line loop and water line routing. Also notice my quicky intake which took nearly an hour to build.
Coldside - buttoned up and working 100%
This photo was taken one week after the above shot. In that time, I rebuilt the fuel rail twice, re-gooped the manifold
and blower once, did a timing belt and water pump change (the waterpump failed after the 2nd testdrive. Amazingly, I had
a spare that I was planning to install since I was due in about 10k miles.) and rebuilt the damn quicky intake twice.
The quicky intake is next on the list of things to go. I'll cut up my sexy carbon fiber monsterflow and do something cool.
This shot shows the belt run and alt pulley quite nicely. And maybe it's my imagination, but my Snoopy dipstick looks
much happier and more relaxed than in those above shots.
Trackdog blanket, headlight intake.
You can see the header wrap in several photos above. That, in addition to the shiny Trackdog header blanket
seem to be making a nice difference in underhood temperatures. This photo marks the end of my headlight
lid NACA duct's use on my car. It was removed in favor of a stock lid about 10 minutes after I took this
shot. But fear not! The duct will be unbolted and put in the passenger side lid. That project is slated for the
weekend after I finally get a nice intake made for the Coldside.
Coldside choo-choo train.
The choo-choo is the loving name for the Coldside bypass actuator. The whole thing slides back and forth
as you rev to open and close a little butterfly valve. Very cool, but very easy to screw up if you happen
to put your air filter too close to it and the hood happens to smash the filter into the wrong empty space. DOH!
Don't ask me how I know this...
You can follow the fuel line around if you know what you're looking at. It goes under the nose of the blower
and wraps around toward the tee. I unbolted one of the nose bolts and put a safety hold around the fuel line to
keep it from even thinking about going near the belts. The line is also wrapped in wire loom to prevent chafing.
You might say I'm a little paranoid about those fuel lines. To the left of the photo, you can see my vacuum switch
thingy that plugs into the fuel pressure riser. I didn't like putting it on the cam cover. There was a perfect mounting
hole on the firewall, so I used it.
96-97 cars have an exhaust pressure sensor...
Finally, the last big annoyance of the Coldside install was this little sensor. Mazda calls it
the exhaust MAP sensor. My enthusiast manual calls it the exhaust boost sensor. My OBD-II system calls it
"error p0470, exhaust pressure sensor". This little guy plugs into the exhaust side of the EGR valve. It seems
to work in tandem with the red and blue sensors currently living under my fuel hard lines in telling the ERG
when to open. As any Coldsider knows, you don't connect any hoses to the EGR valve with a 96-97 car. That
leaves out our poor little friend, the exhaust pressure sensor. If he doesn't ever sense pressure, you get a nice
check engine light bearing code 470. So I plugged it into my manifold, which occasionally sees pressure
in excess of 7 lbs (at 5500 feet above sea level, that's pretty good). The result of this fix is a happy
pressure sensor and no more CEL codes.
That's it?!?!?!
Yes, that's it. I don't have time to post any more photos, I have to go drive my Coldside! It really is a better
driving experience than I even expected. Once the install pain was over, I became a very happy person. Kudos to
Brant and the rest of the folks at BR Performance. They built an excellent kit. I'd recommend it to any 94-97
NA owner who hungers for more power than the factory gave them. The throttle response alone is worth it. The extra
power is just a bonus.
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