[Chimp400]

I’m seriously thinking of adding a Turbo kit to my 1.6 NA, not aiming to go silly but I suppose somewhere around 180 Bhp would make a cracking car.
id probably buy a complete kit from someone like motorsport electronics as I don’t want to be messing searching for 2nd hand unknown parts.
To put it in perspective I considered buying a Lotus Elise next year but would need at least £17k to get into one of those.
The NA would probably be just as much fun and I would be too precious about driving it.
It’s a weekend dry use car only.
My car is rot free and a good base to do a conversion I think.
Anyone able to offer any advice on how their conversions went and did you keep the car?

 

[guitaristanime]

making horsepower as low as 180 might be difficult unless you use a tiny turbo which is going to cost more than the kits that are made up

I turbo'd my NB1 around 3 years ago and I still use it all year round and will probably never part with it. Such a good fun car for not much money.

Kraken arguably makes the best flowing cast manifold and exhausts for turboing.
Measure, measure and measure. There's loads of stuff in the way, don't bother going for 2.5" intercooler piping, it's unnecessary with the low numbers you are aiming for.
If you've got air conditioning, you might have to spend some time routing stuff around.
You can rebuild a turbo at home using a pre balanced cartridge for a fraction of the cost of buying a new one. Don't use ebay cheap turbos unless you don't care about your engine.
My last piece of advice is not to skimp on the ECU, if you are going to buy a kit from ME then all good, you'll have everything you need to reliably make 180bhp easily.

But if you do go down the DIY route, make sure that the ECU is supported by your tuner.

 

[Chimp400]

The car has taught me you don't need to spend silly money or have huge power you can't use on the public roads.

 

[B_hawk111]

If you are aiming, for that sort of power look into supercharging it! A bit more bolt on, and it will make that power but with a nice straight power delivery like a faster NA

 

[Chimp400]

A complete Turbo package looks be to around £2995, which is about where I want to be really.
The S/C route seems to be a lot more expensive.

 

[guitaristanime]

If you are aiming, for that sort of power look into supercharging it! A bit more bolt on, and it will make that power but with a nice straight power delivery like a faster NA

After seeing the issues @Shadowraven had with his S/C build, I sold my supercharger and didn't bother trying. This idea that a S/C is easier than a turbo seems wild to me.

The car has taught me you don't need to spend silly money or have huge power you can't use on the public roads.

Completely agree, what I was getting at was that the horsepower figure is kind of arbitrary.

What kit are you looking at for £3k?

 

[Chimp400]

MX-5 Mk1 1989-1993 1.6 Complete Turbo Kit

This is a complete turbo kit for your 1989-1993 1.6 Mk1 Mazda MX-5. It includes all the parts you need to transform a stock MX-5 to a turbo charged 180bhp machine. (capable of 240+bhp with the addition of our boost control kit, clutch, and further tuning.) Pre-Clocked IHI TD04 Turbocharger...

motorsport-electronics.co.uk

 

[B_hawk111]

After seeing the issues @Shadowraven had with his S/C build, I sold my supercharger and didn't bother trying. This idea that a S/C is easier than a turbo seems wild

His is unfortunate and definitly not in keeping.woth how it usually goes, mine bolted straight on, with a stock mk2.5 header and then custom centre back to the mk1 mx5parts exhaust, the intercooler piping is probably too big to be optimal and it mapped no problem up to 190hp off an m45.

A complete Turbo package looks be to around £2995, which is about where I want to be really.
The S/C route seems to be a lot more expensive.

I paid £150 for a supercharger, about 400 or so for mounts etc, 100 for a intercooler and pipework, £400 for an me221 £150 for aome rx8 yellow injectors and £300 to have ot mapped.

First time around ot made 188hp, then second time after i made proper hard intercooler pipes, bov, changed the exhaust a little bit it made 190 😂

Mine is maxed out now though, so of I decide I want more power then I will have to go for a turbo, good thing I'd you do go down the turbo route is you can have it mapped on a high and low boost and then get the best of all world's.

Mine is now a track car, it gets beaten around the track all day and never skips a beat, friend of mine brought his turbo one along and had issues with bolts coming out of the manifold, overheating, all sorts.

 

[guitaristanime]

Nice!

Two interesting points to note:

• the only thing holding that kit back from 240bhp is literally a £50 boost solenoid, a £350 (plus labour) clutch and some air hose. 180bhp is on the edge of a stock clutch and I wouldn't put much faith in it for long, especially a 1.6 clutch.
• You will need to factor in mapping, I really don't understand why ME keep advertising that the base map is drivable, unless they are going to spend the 30 mins over team viewer setting up some of the things that need adjusting out of the box. At least in my experience when I fitted my ME221.. However on the flipside, I paid Alex Hickson £100 and he fully set up my car remotely, it's never seen a dyno and it drives faultlessly.

 

[Chimp400]

Be interested to know the remote tuner details.
I live a few miles from Valley 5s who I believe do the tuning but it says its permanently closed on a Google search.

 

[guitaristanime]

so of I decide I want more power then I will have to go for a turbo

Never seen m90 spelt that way before!

 

[guitaristanime]

Be interested to know the remote tuner details.
I live a few miles from Valley 5s who I believe do the tuning but it says its permanently closed on a Google search.

Do not use Valley5s!!! There's a reason they are permanently closed, law suits.

EDIT: Alex Hickson on Facebook: (1) Alex Hickson | Facebook

He's ME's approved remote tuner

 

[B_hawk111]

Nice!

Two interesting points to note:

• the only thing holding that kit back from 240bhp is literally a £50 boost solenoid, a £350 (plus labour) clutch and some air hose. 180bhp is on the edge of a stock clutch and I wouldn't put much faith in it for long, especially a 1.6 clutch.
• You will need to factor in mapping, I really don't understand why ME keep advertising that the base map is drivable, unless they are going to spend the 30 mins over team viewer setting up some of the things that need adjusting out of the box. At least in my experience when I fitted my ME221.. However on the flipside, I paid Alex Hickson £100 and he fully set up my car remotely, it's never seen a dyno and it drives faultlessly.

Yeah I did put a clutch in mine, but a stock excedy 1.8 clutch lasted a good 2 years of road abuse before I started to get very occasional slip,

Mapping is essential! Mine drove OK on the basemap for about 6 months, startup was always fine but idle was useless so I just locked it at a set rpm and left it alone!

 

[B_hawk111]

Never seen m90 spelt that way before!

😂 nah if I'm going to change it will be a turbo, even just for the stu stu stu!

 

[Shadowraven]

I'd go turbo. The SC response is nice sure, but they are a bit limited on power. The M62 I have is spun to it's safe limit and makes 210bhp, and it drops away at the top like they all do. Dont believe all the crap you see online about M4s making 200whp either, they don't, they can't, they are so far off the efficiency map at that point it's just not possible. 190bhp with a 15-17% reduction pulley is what they make. The M62s can make a small amount more, but they don't breathe as well after 10k rpm so won't make the peak power. 200ftlbs torque everywhere is nice, but a td04 makes more from like 3k rpm anyway.

Turbo is also significantly more efficient. I get mid teens-low 20s (about 160 miles per tank), I know Guitarist get's high 20s-low 30s, it's a huge difference.

My issues were due to a few things, mostly a horrendous "tuner" who had no idea what he was doing. I also designed my kit to include an autotensioner, allow ABS, racingbeat intake, over the rad IC with AC etc, it was all a lot more extra work and as I was using the M62 there was very little info about for it. My kit was a DIY weld yourself kit that I heavily customised, a bolt on kit should be much easier, but for the money it's not a great return on power tbh, if you can do a SC kit for £1500 then it's worth it. The full pre-made kits that are like £3500 aren't worth it IMO, too close to TD04 money.

 

[MarkGolf]

Thought I'd chime in.

I turbo'd my 1,8, set up for 233bhp at the wheels, puts it on par with an E92 M3 (manual), the DCT just gets away with those seamless changes, BMW M2.. Which is some going for a little MX5 and good fun to talk about after.
As much fun as it is, it is a yob, which I love but at the same time, I have found myself missing it's original 130bhp character, having to thrash it to get up to speed etc. The turbo get you at law breaking speeds fast and does offer more challenge as you have to slow down but there is something about hearing the engine screaming, yet, you're still at acceptable speeds.

If I were to make it perfect, I have thought 170bhp and thorttle bodies probably retains the original character and adds noise, but I know they're pretty hard work at times and not much off the shelf.

So a S/C sounds like it might be perfect but I've never experienced one.

The MX5, even in is stock form, completely opened my eyes to what a fun road car is, I would choose to drive the MX5 on a late night blast over my old E46 M3, 997 C2S and 964. It just offered fun which those cars don't on the road, you have to break the law or be at risk of big bills to really get the same level of fun. The real hammer blow is that I was due to buy a 991 GT3, it made me rethink that as I don't need to spend that much to have a car I'll be so precious over, I won't want to drive it in the same way that I do as the MX5.

So all in, the turbo has been and is great, there's a reason I've not dialled it back to produce less power but in the back of my mind, on twisty surrey hills roads, a 130 NA would be as fun. 170bhp prob the best of both. I think I'll eventually get another 1.8 Eunos with LSD, throw some coilovers and AD08r's, call it done.

 

[Chimp400]

I'd agree with that.
I was going to buy something next year with a budget of £15k to £20k but can't help thinking there isn't much out there as fun as the 5 and I'd be too precious about using it.
My old Tvr Chimaera was close for fun but that was more about the noise, it couldn't touch the 5 for driving pleasure.
I have considered a nice 1.8 conversion but think the Turbo would be the best and easiest option really.