Turbo Mx5 - Freefaller?

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I understand you uprated the clutch and gearbox on your Mx5? Where did you go to get this done and how much did it set you back? Also, was it much heavier as a result?

Just researching some options at the mo ;)

Cheers!!
 
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Just trying to price a few things out at the moment, I have a Mk2 1.8S (1998) and am pondering going down the turbo path. I was looking at clutches on the P5 website and it seems to suggest that performance clutches are pretty heavy and I'm not sure if that would make road use a little laborious?

Cheers for the link, never heard of flatlander-IPP before
 
Depending on the condition of your clutch and how much power you need to run it might be pointless changing it, i'd turbo it and wait till the stock clutch / see if it slips, its a simple job to change a clutch on a 5.
 
Yeah I went for a SPEC 2 clutch (Kevlar disc, high pressure clamp plate), didn't need to change the gear box though, but I was on the limit of torque for my standard one. The SPEC 2 is good for around 300 ft/lbs off the top of my head. I think I got it for around £250 at the time. :)

They aren't too heavy, but I'm a big chap so probably didn't matter to me too much, town driving was fine, though could be a little juddery at car park speeds.
 
Just trying to price a few things out at the moment, I have a Mk2 1.8S (1998) and am pondering going down the turbo path. I was looking at clutches on the P5 website and it seems to suggest that performance clutches are pretty heavy and I'm not sure if that would make road use a little laborious?

Cheers for the link, never heard of flatlander-IPP before

You will get use to a heavier clutch I would assume. To be honest if you go over the 200bhp area then you will definitly need a new clutch. I have seen someone gain 30bhp on their dyno reading when they changed their clutch, was in the 200-250bhp area.
 
Ok excellent that is really helpful advice, thank you guys!

I was thinking about spending around £2k on a turbo, there are no prices on the P5 website (POA) so I am not sure what sort of system I would be able to get for this.

Thanks again :)
 
Well I imagined paying £2k on a turbo would get me something fairly decent no? (that doesn't include labour costs or an ECU if necessary) Although I would like to do this myself I think it would be much more sensible to pay someone who actually knows what they are doing!
 
Depends how much extra power you are after I guess. There are a fair few bolt on Turbo/Supercharger kits for around the 2k mark, which include everything you need.
 
Depends how much extra power you are after I guess. There are a fair few bolt on Turbo/Supercharger kits for around the 2k mark, which include everything you need.

I was under the assumption that these need to be tuned some how on a rolling road or some such?
 
Well obviously I am after as much power as I can get, trouble is the more I spend over say £2k the closer it becomes to trading off paying a bit more again and getting an early S2000 (the £2k + other necessary upgrades + the cost of my car). On the flip side I could save money by selling the Mx5 and getting an already turbo'd MR2!

Decisions decisions!
 
I was under the assumption that these need to be tuned some how on a rolling road or some such?

Depends, you can do a fairly good job yourself if you have the knowledge. I think EMB is easy to tune yourself and people get decent power from it. DIY setup wouldn't exactly need any fabbing if you have £2k to spend, and you will be able to get 200-250bhp. My list would be:

Begi cast manifold and downpipe (www.bellengineering.net)
T25/T28 from an s13/14 200sx (can get a rebuild kit ~£50, good idea to do)
Universal intercooler mx5 kit (www.universal-intercoolers.co.uk)
Emanage Blue
Toyota Supra 305cc injectors
LC-1 wideband
Boost guage

Depending on the power you would like then there are a few other things you will need.

2.5" exhaust system
AFPR (get the begi one)

The AFPR gets around the maximum that the EMB allows a good idle on the mx5 for. So as the boost increases, so does the fuel pressure, this way you can safely run 200bhp at 80% duty cycle and 55psi fuel rail pressure. At a push you can do 250bhp, but that is the limit for the EMB really, as that will be 85% duty cycle with 75psi fuel rail pressure. People run higher, but I like the idea of not pushing things too hard.

The exhaust system will get more power and speed up the spool. That covers the major parts, though I haven't covered all the details there.
 
I would say that list would come to about £1700 by the way. 250bhp is about the internals maximum you can safely run, so its a good point to get to and be happy with. The EMB is like what Firestar said, tis a piggyback which you just have to input the amount of fuel added, loads of info on it. Makes for easy installation.
 
I ended up paying around 3k.

I did a lot of the labour myself but some of the finer tuning needed a laptop and AFR monitoring kit installed to get the best bit of ECU tuning - doing lots of runs in different gears, low/hard acceleration.

I had a full exhaust system including turbo downpipe
Turbo
Intercooler
Clutch
Brakes
Suspension
ECU
Air filter
Pipework
I needed to fill a fuel regulator too.

I'll post some pics of the work carried out later if you want?
 
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