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Mail From: "Frank Devocht" <(email redacted)>

I already had about 15 people asking me to forward the updates to my
install report. I didn't realise that so many people were interested,
so I thought it might be better to put everything on the list after all.
I've rewritten the whole text, and added the things I replied to some of
you personal.
So, just throw away or delete the earlier copy, this one includes
everything I wrote on the topic.
VERY IMPORTANT: This text describes the way I did the install. So this
does not mean that it is the only way to go, neither does it mean that
everything I did is correct. And it surely isn't meant to replace the
instruction manual. It's just a summary of my thoughts about the whole
thing. If anything goes wrong and your car/house/boat/whatever blows
up, I don't want to be held responsible.
And oh, you'll have to read over the errors. English is not my birth
language (I'm from Belgium). Thank you.
That being said:

BEGI SYSTEM IV INSTALLATION REPORT

I was thinking about getting some more horsepower for a while now. I
just couldn't decide what to get. My first idea was to put in a JRCAI.
Then I decided it had to be a Sebring. But after reading on the net, I
figured this was not the way to go, it had to be something with more
oomph... (No offence intended to any of you JRCAI or Sebring owners)
maybe an Autorotor? Aerodyne? System III? Only problem was its
prices... I surfed the net for months reading everything I could find
on *chargers. Still couldn't decide which way to go.
But then it happened! My wife and I got to drive a new Corvette. 344HP!
Now this is what I call horsepower! When we got back in the Miata, my
wife immediately said: "this thing is way to slow, you just have to put
in a *charger! And if you do, do it right the first time, so no CAI and
no Sebring. Get me some real horsepower." (again, I have no intention
in offending anyone). Well, she didn't have to say that again. After
talking to Corky, he advised me to get a turbocharger. So, a System III
it was to be. Turned out Corky already had his System IV out. Even
better.

I ordered the turbo directly from Begi right after the Paris event. He
told me it would be ready by mid July. Since I had planned a trip to
the States in September I decided not to have it sent to me but to pick
it up at Corky's myself. After reading all the stories about delays I
figured it would only be ready by September anyway. I sent Corky the
occasional message to make sure he didn't forget about me and that
everything was on schedule. He always assured me that everything would
be ready. I must say these 3-4 months seemed like a year...

Anyway, I did my trip from 1-23 September. I visited Bill Cardell to
pick up the FM1.8 clutch + flywheel, Cannon brace, front strut brace and
some Magnecore spark plug wires. I also got a knobmeister knob that Joe
Portas had sent to Bill for me to pick up. Real nice people, Bill and
his wife Tery. He showed me some of the things he was working on, like
the '99 set-up. He also showed me the new dual exhaust he was working
on. To bad it wasn't ready yet, I would have taken one.
I couldn't believe my ears as he actually offered me to drive his car.
WOOOW is all I can say! This thing pulls like hell and is incredible
smooth at the same time. He has a nos. system in there, but didn't
bother putting the bottle in as it already pulls like crazy without it.
He was also experimenting with some new brakes. Take it from me, they
do their job!

I got to Corky's around the 14th to get the turbo. He showed us around
in his workshop, really professional work he does there. Almost
everything was ready, except the downpipe and the heat shield. They
quickly welded the downpipe while I was waiting. The heat shield wasn't
available, but Corky promised me to send it over as soon as he got it.
I hope to get it soon, 'cause I don't want to blister the hood.
He and his wife Mary invited us to lunch. Very nice people! Real
gentleman, Corky. They also invited us to stay over at their place.
Since we were camping, we gladly took the offer. We had a wonderful
evening with them (and a delicious dinner, I must add). Thanks again
Corky & Mary! That night it rained like hell, we sure were glad to be
sleeping indoors...

Then it was off to Moss Motors for some additional goodies (Jackson
Racing sway bars, front chassis brace,...) Imagine how it felt driving
around with all that stuff in the trunk of the car for another 10 days
without being able to unpack or install it. I must have red all the
manuals a hundred times.

When I got back home I started unpacking everything. It seemed as if
there never came an end to all the bits and pieces. The more I took out
of the boxes, the more scared I got. I've never done major work on the
engine, apart from replacing the oil filter and buying this thing seemed
like a BIG mistake at the moment (rest assured, that feeling changed).
At first sight, everything seemed to be there.

The manual itself is clear, but lacks some more pictures and/or
drawings. Sometimes there is not enough explanation. I suppose for an
experienced mechanic the manual would just be fine, but for me it was a
bit harder. I got everything in, but sometimes it took me quite a while
to figure out where everything had to go. Room for improvement here.
It took me about 10 days to do the install, but I did it slow and triple
checked everything. I also had to repaint the engine bay. So this took
a few days too. Last year I had the car repainted inside and out, but
not the engine bay as it cosseted too much. The car was originally
white, but the colour has faded over the years. It's a US import, so I
guess the weather conditions have got something to do with it. Anyway,
I had it redone in that bright green metallic of the SLK. Looks superb
on the miata.

Before installing the whole thing, you have to remove quite a number of
things, air filter box, tubing etc... So far so good. Then I removed
the downpipe. Oops, broke the bolts to the cat. Hmm, I failed to
follow the advice in the installation manual to spray them with
penetrating oil the night before. Oh well, just hoped not to break
anything else.
When you take the header off, be sure to note in which direction to put
the gasket back on.

Header
I expected to have some trouble on installing the new header, but
luckily I had a wrench that fitted just perfect. Managed to tighten all
the bolts without too much difficulty. I don't have a torque wrench, so
I just torqued them as hard as I could. Hope I didn't overdo it. Time
will tell.

Turbo
When you have to bolt the turbo to the header, the 2 rear studs are a
bit long. I couldn't get the second nut on the upper one (you have to
put 2 nuts per stud). I put the first one on but not all the way. Then
I pulled the turbo back a bit as to get a more clearance and was able to
get the second one on too. Obvious. This didn't work for the rear
lower stud though, I could only get one nut on (even the stud being
shorter then the others). I didn't connect a single oil or water line
until I knew exactly how to route them. I took the turbo out 2 or 3
times to get all the hoses in so they were neatly routed. Only when
everything was ok (also all the intercooler tubes) I connected the oil
and water lines.

Turbo Oil drain line
Well, I must admit that for me this was the scariest part of the entire
installation. I saved it to the very last moment...
You have to drill a hole in the sump and put in a hose barb. Oops,
which hose barb? Seems Begi forgot to provide it. The drill and a tap
were there though. I asked Corky which hose barb I should get. A
straight one, same size as the tap. Obvious. Took me 2 days to find
one. When I finally got it, it turned out to be smaller than the drill
(37/64'). Oops, Begi provided the wrong tap! Oops, I bought the wrong
hose barb! Took me another 2 days to find the correct tap and hose
barb. A Begi kit wouldn't be Begi kit if everything was there, now
would it?
I first put a big tie wrap around the 2 hoses under the sump to get them
a bit out of the way. When you drill the hole in the sump you won't be
able to do this perpendicular to the sump. BUT TRY TO GET IT AS
PERPENDICULAR AS POSSIBLE. The manual says it's no big deal and that
you can correct it with the tap, but that's not completely true. When
the drill is too much at an angle your hole won't be round and the barb
will sit a bit loose. I learned the hard way...When you tap the
threads, cover the tap with grease. Don't take it out too soon! I took
it out after 2 threads to clean it, but when I tried to get it back in I
couldn't find the thread again. Had to start all over, but this of
course damaged the thread I already had... When I put in the barb, it
fitted rather loose! I put a lot of locktite on it. I didn't screw it
in as 'Bubba' would do it, 'cause I was afraid to overtorque it.
Remember, the sump is not thick, you'll only have about 2 threads to
hold the barb. When you put the hose on the barb, don't put to much
strain on it as you could damage the threads (sump is aluminium, very
soft).
The manual says to drill the hole between the 2nd and 3rd bolt from the
front and about 1 inch under the edge of the sump. In my case the
bracket for the a/c condenser was in the way. I drilled it just
underneath, about 1 inch from the bottom. Contacted Corky about it, he
said this was no problem at all.
If you put enough grease on the tap, you won't get to much shavings in
the pan. Afterwards pore a bottle of white spirit (or equivalent)
through the oil line. This way shavings that did get in are flushed out
through the oil drain. Filter the residue and pore it in again. I did
this 3 times. You'll see that there aren't many shavings that fell into
the sump. No problem. Actually sounds more scary then it is. In the
event that a few shavings should stay in, there's no danger to the
engine. They won't pass the oil filter so they can't damage the engine
(anyway, they are made out of aluminium so even if one could get into
the engine I don't think it could do much damage).
The oil hose is a big pain in the butt to get onto the hose barb. It
took me over an hour to get it on. I soaked the hose barb and the
inside of the hose with oil and still could only get it on about 1/3
inch... then it got stuck. No way to get it further on and no way to
get it back off again. Finally I grabbed it with some pliers and used a
piece of the car as a lever. Can't explain very good, but I believe it
was the front axle I used. Anyway, the thing passes just next to the
hose barb. Use it as a lever to push to hose on. Sounds more difficult
than it is, you'll see what I mean when you're under the car. Worked
like a charm.

Turbo braided oil line
There are 2 90° adapters in the bag. Use one on both sides of the line.
Initially I only used one. I didn't use the one that goes to the turbo
side. The line fitted, but rubbed against the actuator push rod. The
braided hose could easily damage the push rod, so use the 2nd adapter
too.
Oh, make sure you connect the line to the correct hole in the engine.
There are 2 bolts, it's the lower one. When I unbolted it, a little bit
of oil came out.

Turbo water lines
When I connected the water lines the manual says to wrap them 'with the
material provided'. Oops, which material? I ended up taking some 5/8
hose and slid it over. Hope it will do. Routing of the water lines was
a bit tricky. With all the tubes for the intercooler they could get in
the way. So I ended up installing all the IC tubes first to see how I
had to put the water lines. When I knew how to route them, I took all
the tubes back out and continued. The installation manual wasn't very
clear about this (same goes for the oil line).
I recently red a posting that the first 3 inches become brittle after a
while (Turbo side). So I'll look around for some real heat insulation
material to put around them. After all, it says so in the manual...

Intercooler
Installed it and ... Oops, it rubbed against the radiator. After a bit
of trial and error I decided to drill a new hole in the aluminium spacer
with which it is fixed to the hood lock. The original hole is off
centre, but I drilled a new one nearly in the middle. Fits perfect now.
Maybe Corky should drill 2 or 3 holes in it for better adjustment.
If I may give you some good advice, buy new hose clamps for the IC
tubes. I managed to overtorque about half of them. Almost all of them
are one size too small. So use whatever you can and complete with
bigger ones.
It took me a while to figure out how all the tubes and hoses had to be
placed. The drawing in the manual isn't very clear. Don't tighten them
immediately. When everything is in, make sure they are nicely aligned
before tightening them. Take your time for this, make sure they don't
touch the crank pulley.

Blowoff valve
Installation of the Mitsubishi blowoff valve was a bit tricky. There
should be a pic in the manual about this. The signal line goes down and
points to the front of the engine. You have to fuzz a bit with all the
tubes and the air flow meter to get it to fit right. I shortened a few
hoses to the turbo to get it in properly.

Additional fuel pump.
Installation of the auxiliary fuel pump and the AFPR is quite easy. Put
the pump on top of the fuel filter and fix it with the clamp provided.
Connection of fuel lines is well explained. You have to route a wire
from the original fuel pump down to the new one under the car. Solder
this wire to the original wire, don't use the connector provided, it
will corrode. When you crimp the little eye on the other end, to bolt
it to the new fuel pump, also solder this. I mean, crimp the wire in
the eye as normal, but then also solder the crimp. That way you are
sure that in a hundred years you'll still have a good connection. It
may sound as overkill, but it will only cost you about 10 sec's of work.
The wire has to be routed down to the new fuel pump. To make sure it
doesn't get damaged I put it in one of those ribbed plastic tubes. Sits
nicely protected that way. If you ordered the J&S, there are a few feet
of that tube provided, use that, it's long enough. Remember, fuel pump
goes on top of filter, NOT underneath (did that at first).
The fuel pump is rather noisy, so you might consider putting some sound
insulation material under the service hole cover from the fuel tank.

AFPR
Fix it to the firewall exactly in the position shown in the manual.
Take out the glove box (only 2 screws at the bottom of it). When you
drill the 2 holes for the mounting bracket, you can put the nuts on the
bolts from the inside of the car. Just push the insulation a bit away
and you'll see the holes/bolts. Even in my car with a/c I could easily
access them this way. Be sure it fits low enough as not to touch the
hood. Be sure it fits high enough to give enough clearance with the
washer fluid bottle. Mine sits just above it. The fuel lines pass just
above the flat part of the bottle. When I push on the APFR they touch
it. No problem, as the lines are made out of rubber (or something like
that).
There is a tiny little valve you have to attach to the AFPR. How to do
this is not explained in the manual. You do this with a 1 to 2 inch
piece of vacuum tube. Slide the little valve into the vacuum tube and
connect this to the AFPR. There is a little hose barb provided for this
in the kit. When I wanted to screw it in the AFPR, I didn't find the
right wrench, so I decided to tighten it with some pliers. Bad idea, it
broke... Turned out I had a spare. Since I got the J&S (it doesn't use
a vacuum line as does the MSD), I used the one that is normally used for
the MSD. So I took one out of the 3-way splitter and simply put a bolt
in the hole. I had to take it out anyway. I didn't tighten it with the
pliers this time.

Air flow meter
This may sound stupid, this is what happened to me: in the manual there
are 2 brackets mentioned which need installing. I could only find one
(the yoke). The second one wasn't in the parts bag for the AFM and
wasn't even mentioned on its parts list. So I thought it wasn't needed
and tried to fit the AFM without it. Needless to say that it didn't
work. When I was desperate enough to call Corky for help, I noticed it
on the floor.... It simply was too big to fit the plastic bag and was
mentioned as a separate item on the inventory list. Stupid, I know...
but it could happen to you too.

Air duct
Mine interfered a bit with the edge of the radiator. The manual says
that if you have a certain make of radiator (can't remember which one),
that you have to take it out and redrill the holes to lower it. I
didn't find a make on mine so I don't know if I had one of these. I
didn't take it out, but only took out the 2 mounting bolts (its only
fixed with 2 bolts at the top) and lifted it about half an inch and a
bit backwards. This way I had just enough clearance to drill the hole
out without having to take the radiator out of the car. Now it sits
about 1/6 inch lower. Then I bent the intake a little bit further
upwards. Fits nicely now. I also had to cut a bit of the plastic thing
behind the radiator (the thing that covers the fan) as it interfered
also.
I recently noticed that there was a little bit of car paint on the duct.
It touches the reinforcement bar of the hood, but this can easily be
corrected by either grinding a bit away of the intake or by squeezing
the reinforcement bar at bit. The marks tell me exactly were to
grind/bend/squeeze/hammer/use TNT/whatever.

J&S
I put the J&S under the metal plate on the passenger of the car and
soldered all the wires directly to the ECU. This way you don't have to
route a single wire to the engine compartment. (besides the wire for
the sensor of course). The ECU is easy to access and again, don't use
the connectors provided, solder every single connection. If you don't,
I assure you that you will have trouble in the future. I left the wires
long enough to temporarily put it under the radio. I did use the
connectors on the sensor wire, but to prevent corrosion I but a long
piece of shrinking tube around it. Suppose it'll do.
Set initial sensitivity to about 10 o'clock. Mine was too high at first
and retarded all the time. I had it at about 11 and the car was
practically undrivable. I didn't know what was going on, until I turned
it back a bit. Once the setting is correct you can put it next to the
ECU.

Boost gauge
The boost gauge mounts to the A-pillar in a special pod. Looks nice.
Only problem is that you have to put some screws in it. If you decide to
take it of for some reason, it'll leave a couple of ugly holes in the
pillar.
I routed the vacuum hose trough the firewall via an unused grommet just
below the master brake cylinder (the big black cookie box). It comes
out just behind a pedal (I think it was the clutch pedal). You have to
cut the sound insulation a bit to get to it. Then route it upward and
to the pillar. It has to be routed near the front edge of the pillar,
or else it will be visible after installation. Don't panic if it gets a
bit squeezed. I had to squeeze it anyway as the vacuum signal was too
strong, causing the needle to vibrate. I used a tie wrap to clamp it
off a bit. Works better now.
The gauge is held in the pod with the black plastic bracket. To fix it,
you undo the 2 copper ribbed 'nuts' on the rear of the gauge. Put the
gauge into the pod. Then put the bracket back on from the rear and fix
with the 2 nuts. I modified the plastic bracket a bit as the legs were
too long to get proper clamping force.
The light of the gauge can be connected to the dimmer, just route the 2
wires to the rheostat (is that the word for the thing you use to set the
intensity?). Connect one wire of the gauge to the red (+12V) and the
other wire of the gauge to the red/black wire of the rheostat (voltage
on this wires increases with decreasing intensity and vice versa). So
don't connect any of the gauge's wires to earth (black wire). Depending
on which wire you connect to earth, it would either work the opposite
way as it's supposed to (when you set intensity to min, the gauge
intensity would be at max and vice versa) or it would either be at max
intensity all the time.
To mount the pod, use the 2 screws provided. Just put them in were they
fit best. I put one in on the top and one in the bottom of the pod. I
should put in a third one as it leaves a little gap...

Hood support rod
It has to be attached to the tab at the left front corner of the engine
bay. It took me a while to figure out where exactly this tab was
located. This tab exists on the other side of the engine bay too. On
that side there's a bolt in it that holds the washer fluid reservoir.

After checking, rechecking and triple checking it was time to start the
car. Fired up almost immediately. HURRAY!
Boost initially was only 5psi. The manual say that by shortening the
push rod 2 turns you get 1 psi of extra boost. So I had to give it
about 6 turns to get to 8 psi. I read some posts saying that it is to
short and you have to thread it further to get enough boost... So it
decided to give it 12 turns. OOOOoooops, 12psi... and I still had
about a half inch of thread left... Duh. Don't know why I got so much
boost, I've still got the stock exhaust though. I took the cat out,
maybe this is why. I turned it back out and set it to 8 psi.

It took me a while to get the fuel settings correct. The car initially
jerked between 3inch of vacuum and 2psi of boost. Fuel pressure at idle
was 45. I set it at 40 and now it runs smooth. At 8 psi I only get 95
psi, don't know if it is enough. Don't have pinging and car pulls
smooth to redline. Suppose it'll be ok. I haven't checked the timing
yet, but since I don't get pinging I'm going to advance it a bit.
Getting a bit more boost too I think (9-10psi?)

I do have a little problem which I can't locate. I think it's the AFPR
but I'm not sure. When I apply more then 5 psi of boost I get this
really loud howling/blowing sound that appears to be coming from the
AFPR. Sent a mail to Corky today, I hope it isn't broken...

I didn't put the clutch in yet, as I wanted to go driving after all this
waiting. The stock clutch holds good for now. I think I'll put the new
one in with Christmas holidays. I'll have to replace the drive belt
then to (already 72K on it...). I know, I should have replaced it
whilst installing the turbo but it would have cosseted me another one or
two days and I wanted to go test the turbo...

After all, I believe the kit is well worth its money. The car pulls
incredible, even with only 8psi of boost. Cruising in 5th gear is a
joy. When I do 120 (75 mph) and push the accelerator, the car goes to
160 (100) in no time. Really impressive. In first gear I have no
problem in spinning the tires (195/50/15). Actually it's a bigger
problem in NOT spinning them... Didn't try it in 2nd yet (stock clutch,
remember), but I don't think this would be hard to do.

There's one little "down" side to it all though. The exhaust almost
makes no more noise! I'm thinking of making my own dual exhaust to give
it some more sound.

Installation of the Cannon brace was a bit tricky. It didn't fit right.
The manual says to return it for a refund if it doesn't fit and not to
try and get it on anyway. Hmmm, send it back all the way to the States?
I just drilled out the 2 upper holes and put it on anyway. Fits nicely
now. Same problem with the sway bars. The U-clamps interfere with the
Cannon brace. The manual says just to grind a bit away if they
interfere. That's just what I did. Fits nicely now to.
Oh, if you decide to install bigger sway bars, do this before
installation of the IC. The tubes are in the way. I had to take some
out again...
Then it was time to get the Magnecore spark plug wires in. Oops, the
longest one was to short. Put the original back in. Funny sight, 3 big
red ones and 1 blue. Bill C. promised me to send me a new one without
charge. Hope to get it soon.

In the mean time I've had a message from Corky about the noisy AFPR.
Someone wrote me a mail saying that it sounds just like a horny goose.
Nearly fell of my chair from laughing when I red it. It actually sounds
like one (I think...I've never actually heard a horny goose
before...haha). Corky on the other hand said that actually, it's the
horny goose who adopted the noise of a bad FPR....haha.
Anyway, it seems they occasionally do that. Corky told me to move the
static pressure around from 38 to 42. If that doesn't shut the goose
up, he'll send me a new one. Now how's that for a service!
There's no harm in driving around with it. I just get strange looks
from bystanders...haha.

Let me know what you think/comments/corrections/remarques...thanks


Frank.

Team waitedlongenoughtogettheturboin...haha


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This read-only message was archived from a public mail list.
Mail From: "Frank Devocht" <(email redacted)>

Sorry guys,

I just got a mail from Hugo, the listmaster that my install report is to
long... Seems the list can only handle messages up to 16K....
My install report is about twice that size, so....if you like to read
it, you'll have to take a look at the miata net archives. Their list
seems to be able to handle messages this big without any problem. You
can find the report under:

realbig.com/miata/miata/98-10/2189.html

Frank

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