Abilor's Devil's Own Meth Kit Adventure

[Abilor]

Greetings!

Not to beat a dead horse, , but I wanted to share my DO install proceedings. This is a part 1 of 2, as there are some other pics of the final install I want to take, but I wanted to post my initial impressions, and pictures of my bracket in particular.

The bracket looks somewhat hideous; if I had a lot of welding gear laying around it would have been better, but the design itself is highly functional, and more importantly, EASY. My whole outlook on this project began when other threads simply posted, "at first I was like... and then I fabbed a bracket", with no real supporting detail of how to proceed on the bracket. So if you have a Gen1 Speed 3, you want to spray meth, and you're scratching your head on the bracket, this is the thread for you. If you are hardcore and found this to be a non-challenge, move along...

You can follow the pics as you will, but the basic narrative is this. My requirements for this project was a setup that: 1.) Didn't make permanent modifications to the car (you never know), 2.) didn't require me to remove the bumper (PITA), 3.) allowed me to switch nozzles easily, 4.) notified me when I needed to top up the meth/water 5.) was easy to fill up, 6.) and left the possibility of an OCC (possible fail here).

From the DO website I ordered the 2.5 progressive controller kit for our platform, along with the nozzle adapter for boost tubes, the optional level indicator, the solenoid, brew, and a 2 qt tank. I got a T-shirt for the hell of it, and they were out of my preferred size, so I got a size up and they threw in a DO5 nozzle for free, which was very useful; more later on that.

I then went to Blowe's, and found a sheet of 8" x 18" 16ga welding steel. This stuff is MONEY. It cut easily with metal blades for my jigsaw, and drilled easily with cobalt drill tips. It is also VERY strong, and very resistant to flexing. You can see in pics all the other various assorted hardware. I got some extra steel braces, but turned out not to need them.

As far as mounting, first I cut a sheet the width of the 2qt tank, and left about 3" along the top for mounting possibilities. I then used a sharpie to mark where I wanted to drill the holes for mounting the pump, and the tank. Lining up the pump was easy, but let me explain the mounting position.

Under the car, especially with a short ram intake, there is a HUGE space on the drivers side. On the frame are two metric 6, 10mm screws holding some small control unit to the frame. With these two bolts, you can mount your bracket straight to the frame. I spent about an hour playing "tetris" with the pump and tank, and found this bracket idea to be best. Originally I wanted two separate plates, one for the tank and pump, and one for the mount, to correct for errors and for future proofing. Looking back, I would fab it as one piece, but hey.

Anyway I found that once I measured twice and cut once on drilling the holes to mount the pump and tank on either side, lining up the pump's bracket with my own bracket along the bottom, and keeping the edge of the plate in line with the frame bolt closest to the bumper, I was able to cut a second piece of steel plate to be the mounting bracket. I undid the two bolts from the frame, used the assembly that was mounted there to mark a scrap piece of steel with a sharpie for the dimensions, and I was off to the races.

Once cut, drilled, joined, and installed, the whole bracket fits like a breeze. I had to cut a square notch out so it would fit against the joins of the frame, but between the frame bolts, the steel, and the notch resting against the frame, this thing is very, very strong. There is NO flex from bumper to bumper, and because the pump is butted up against all the wheel well plastic, there is very little lateral flex as well. Also, the way it is mounted, the pump rests a bit on the bottom plastic, especially with cover on. So in the event of catastrophic failure, the pump and tank won't just fall onto the road. Plus, I have access to the allen bolt controlling pressure easily.

The tank fills VERY easily from up top. I can reach the cap very easily, and a funnel with a tube extension makes the job simpler than filling wiper fluid.

Wiring was easy once I soldered extensions onto all the wires that were short, used loom on the tip to make a "needle", and threaded looming through the hood unlock cable port on the driver's side firewall (undo the damn grommet first). From there it was straightforward plumbing and soldering in line with the DO directions.

On the DO directions, the mazdaspeed 3 directions are WRONG. Wrong color wire, wrong wire location. Wish they would fix this. The MAP wire is not white with an orange stripe. I believe it was green, but the easy way to identify is if you are at the bumper, you grab the ECU wire bundle closest to you, start at the bottom left, and count up to seventh wire; that's the one you want. When you positap and turn car on (without starting), it reads between 1.8 and 2.8V (mine was 1.92V).

Sorry to be TL;DR, but I wish I had had more detail when I started; hopefully this gives someone else some ideas, and an easy way to go.

Total time was about ten hours, partially because I was slow, and partially because it was dark, 93 degrees and humid, and I was attacked by beetles and crickets the size of mice (see one on my hood - it kept jumping on me). Louisiana is like Indochina...

DO5 nozzle proves to be best. Results can be seen in my tuning thread: Got the Cobb AP

[AJ713]

Thanks for the write up and the pics, mate. It'll save me some time down the road!

~AJ

[IMASA]

Thanks for the post. I will be doing the same later this year. Did you go with a solenoid or check valve?

[Abilor]

Originally Posted by IMASA Thanks for the post. I will be doing the same later this year. Did you go with a solenoid or check valve?

Solenoid. Easy hookup.