Made up a down-pipe to silencer pipe today.


Its all 2 1/4" up to the silencer then the silencer I have is 2"

Tossing up between cutting open this silencer and fitting 2 1/4" internals or get a full system made for my birthday next year.

Guess Ill see how long my patchwork pipe lasts!

Cheers
Stot

Got it out of the garage and onto the new 13" wheels this weekend. The wheels are skinier of course but the offset on them is putting them right in the centre of the rear arches so they have that period look to them.



Its a handfull maneouvering in this cold weather, but already I can feel the power comes in lower. I need to plumb the radiator back in as there is just a hose loop bypassing it at the moment so that I could get it back to the garage and then I can take it for a spin to see just where its coming in.

Cheers
Stot

So it goes like stink. Then you realise the stink is the clutch slipping. :D :o I was still driving it like standard which wont have helped. 1.8 flywheel and clutch in spring then.

Cheers
Stot

Are you going to fit your clam shell wings? That will finish it off nicely. It's looking very good by the way

David

Thanks David. I will be fitting the clams but probably not until after I replace the exhaust. The current exhaust would need the clams trimming a bit and I will probably get a shorter stainless bomb style one made up to give me the room. The exhaust is a lot quieter with he turbo so a shorter thinner cherry bomb glasspack style silencer should be plenty I think.

Cheers
Stot

Took the car out for 40miles or so today to get some logs and do some VE autotune. Its running very nicely as it goes, really smooth and quiet. in 5th on the motorway doing 60 I don't need to drop a gear to get into the powerband to overtake anymore, just press and you're up to 80 in a couple of seconds.

The turbo is putting a max of 7.4psi into the manifold, so probably a bit more before the inter-cooler but the clutch gives out at around 3500 @WOT. I can nurse it past that but meh. I'm pretty sure its just an old worn clutch and if it was a fresh one it would be working ok but if I need to split the motor and gearbox I may as well upgrade somewhat.

Reading on the forums there are plenty of people running turbo and supercharged 1.6 MX5s on standard 1.8 flywheels and clutches up to 180-200whp for tens of thousands of miles. Beyond that and its a crap shoot as to the clutch recommendation. Stage 1, Stage 2, ACT, FM, F1, blah, blah. Anything but an XTC which are apparently fake/painted OEM in general. I'm not wanting a paddle/puck on off switch type clutch anyway so I'm thinking that as my car is 30%+ lighter than an MX5 and my mileage is going to be limited I'll go with an OEM 1.8 Exedy clutch and aim for 200hp.

As I cant wait til spring, a 2003 1.8 Flywheel will be here tomorrow for just £30 and a clutch kit is £120. As soon as you start going 'uprated' you're into £280+ for the clutch kit.

Cheers
Stot

As I started reading, I was thinking the same conclusion for the standard clutch.

Good its not just me then. :D

I bought a knock sensor ages ago to add to my measquirt and got round to making a Flyin Miata style adapter for it.




It replaces one of the engine mount bolts on the back so that an M8 bolt can bolt into it.

Cheers
Stot

Well I now have this to fit...



I'm thinking it should take a few hours. Engine onto hoist, remove engine mounts, remove gearbox bolts and slide the engine forward. Saying that its probably a walk in the park to just hoist it out all together at that point as there's really nothing in the way and only a few hoses to remove.

I hope that will work as my rear gearbox mount was a real bugger to get in and I recon will need to be destroyed to get out. Wish I had designed it differently now.

As for the flywheel I found that most 1.8 flywheels are 9kg. 1.6 is 8.4kg however the 2003/MK2.5 1.8 is only 7.6kg so looks like this one may be lighter than my standard to boot.

Cheers
Stot

some nice post iva progress there Andy I must admit that mine manages no problem with the standard blue point clutch,
I think what you said earlier re the less weight of the car ring true and balances out the extra power avialable.....on our way to spring now Wu ooooh