Congratulations. 2 baby's in one year is good going.

My first is due at the end of the month, good luck with sleep!

Thank you lads. Its a definite change of pace to life. Good luck with yours Landy.

In a weird twist of fate as my wife and I work together I usually take her to work with me, as shes on maternity for a number of months I get the opportunity to take the car out much more often. :cool:

Cheers
Stot

Congrats mate, mine was born 8 months ago tomorrow, which is why I haven't been about much.

Good job you've finished your car, as you wouldn't have much time to spend on it!

Going to make up some stone guards for my rear wings so I made up some paper templates to test for size.



Cheers
Stot

About ready to turbo this thing. I found a brand new old stock genuine garrett SAAB 900 turbo the same as my testfit one for under £200 so cant really go wrong there.

I cut the flange off the old SAAB downpipe elbow and ill weld up a 2.25" elbow to it to mate up to the existing exhaust. Should be plenty big enough for the turbo according to the corky bell book the downpipe should be 10% bigger than the outlet of the turbo, which is 2".



Just waiting on oil feed and drain lines to turn up from HK and Ill have everything I need to get somewhere between 170hp and 200hp.

Cheers
Stot

I have machined the downpipe flange so that the pipe is an interference fit so welding the cast flange to the mild steel pipe should hold up OK hopefully.



It will likely be shorter than this but Ill leave enough pipe so that if it does crack I can weld a new flange on.

List of parts for the conversion now is

Megasquirt - Already in
LC-2 Wideband - Already in
Cleaned and flow matched 440cc injectors
2.25" intake pipework.
12" x 10" core intercooler.
Cast turbo manifold
Garrett TBO312 turbo
Turbo oil feed and drain pipes.

Should be pretty straight forward other than drilling the sump for the oil drain. Pipework is good for about 1.7 power ratio which should see me at 190ish with a nice quick spool so hopefully improve the low-mid range.

Cheers
Stot

Intercooler and merc rad just about fit in the nose with a fan pulling from behind.






Just put my air filter on if for now til I fab up a downpipe for the turbo.

Cheers
Stot

Slowly getting this turbo on. No light when I get home from work and a new baby are limiting my time but I managed to make some progress.

I cut relief cuts into my manifold as recommended on various miata sited to help reduce the likelyhood of it cracking. The idea is to allow it to expand over time.



I also had to mill the back edges of some of the bolt holes flat as the casting was fairly uneven on the lower ones but I got it all mounted up with new hardware.



The lower nuts and especially the middle nut was pretty impossible to get to so Im super glad I purchased a new Halfords tool kit a couple of weeks ago with ratchet ended spanners as they were the only things I could get in there!

Also got the turbo mounted up. Its been clocked to suit and I made up an adapter for a banjo oil line fitting for it.



On the 1.6 MX5 there is already a take off point for high pressure oil so an M10 x 1.5 banjo fits in there easy.

My downpipe looks ok, I have a 45* and another 90* to get out of the existing side panel hole.




Ill likely have to rehome my washer bottle.

Ill also likely make up a jig when its all done and get one made up in stainless when this one rots/falls apart.

Cheers
Stot

Dropped the sump to put the turbo return line in and decided to go for shortening the sump while I have it off as I already scraped it a few times.



I was going to cut the plate to fit this on my mill but its a bit too big for the table so Ill l be chopping and filing I guess. :rolleyes:

Cheers
Stot

Slow progress, but I shortened the pickup pipe and have an oil return and drain plug. Whoohoo.



Cheers
Stot

You can't rush perfection :)

Russ

I was actually thinking, If you were not extending the sump backwards, you could drill and tap the 6 bolt posts from the bottom and bolt on a 5-6mm piece of aluminium or some steel with sealant gasket rather than needing to get it all TIGed up.



I wasnt going to extend back but decided I would...

Cheers
Stot

Im swapping to 13" wheels and tyres as I want to get a softer compound tyre and have the extra sidewall flex so bought 1 just to make sure it cleared everywhere ok.






They clear the 1.6 running gear nicely so ordered the other 3. Ill cover them in A021Rs in 185/70/13 from http://www.polleymotorsport.co.uk/ only £50 each + VAT.

Cheers
Stot

Got my downpipe sorted today. Made a frame from exhaust brackets and 20mm tube then cut and welded bends n flanges.





I have an O2 bung to go on the lower section and its done.

Cheers
Stot

That fit quite well.





Cheers
Stot

Well done, looks good. Nice winter project that. Will you wait for spring before you drive it in anger? :)

Slight mod to bodywork hole and nobody will know ;)

Nice work.

TT

Not if its sunny over winter. You can buy a big coat at TKMaxx for £20 ya know. :cool:

Cheers
Stot

Sump is now ready to be fitted after being welded by a mate who said it was a pig to weld!



Cheers
Stot

It's dirty cruddy second grade cast ali of course it's a pig to weld, it's not like welding new cold rolled ali sheet it's got a fine sand like grain to it that just disappears when you push the weld pool at it. If it was easy then every body would do it.
Are you going for a new ECU, piggy back or just using the 13-14 deg retard timing trick with that set up?

Hi Phil,

I have a Megasquirt Microsquirt v3 on it already. Basically an MS2 with limited input/outputs but enough to run an MX5 engine. I find it pretty easy to work with.

Cheers
Stot

Adding a turbo isnt cheap but im still trying to save where I can. The injectors of choice for an MX5 turbo install are RX8 440cc yellow injectors. They are a straight swap for the OEM injectors but of course, as this is a known thing, sets of used dirty injectors are £90-£110.

Turns out that Subaru WRX blue injectors are 420cc and are the same as the RX8 yellows except they are 9mm shorter, but a full set cost me £20. I paid £55 to get them re-coned and flowed and im still quids in against the dirty RX8s which would also need re-coned.

Making up some new brackets for the OEM rail seems like a no brainer to me as I have a mill and alluminium so I cut the old mounting tags off the rail and made up these,




Cheers
Stot

Are you running those injectors at 3 bar? Have you upgraded the fuel pump?

Yeah at 3 bar they are 420cc. The standard fuel pump is fine if you are using an aftermarket ECU rather than a higher rate pressure regulator to provide more fuel. It can pump up to nearly 6 bar so 3bar standard + 3 bar of boost if youre crazy enough. :D

To quote Miata Turbo FAQs.

Cheers
Stot

Oh right, good to know. I didn't know mx5 pumps were so capable!

Couple of steps closer. Got the sump on.



Clearance is miles better now so shouldnt be scraping any humps now. :cool:

Also got my charge piping in place.




Waiting on one last silicone T to for the dump valve and need a bottle of oil to refil and I can give it a whirl.

Cheers
Stot

Well it runs again! :cool:



I need to upload a new map to suit the injectors as they will be way rich on the old map.

Cheers
Stot

thats going to be a nippy little number.

Hope so but Im going to need to get a new exhaust to make the most of it as mine is 2" Once I have everything in place and I've been running it a while ill get a new DP and exhaust made of 2.5" stainless.

Cheers
Stot

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