MX5 = Awesome!

For £1200 you could get an JRCS M45 kit secondhand + rebuild, EMB, wideband & Greddy map sensor.

Would need to fit it himself but its easy enough to do doing an M45 build is cheap and easy, expect around 170bhp.

Loved the supercharged noise but if i was doing it again i'd turbo it.
 
wohoo said:
I'd be doing most, if not all of the work myself, I dont mind shopping round for the bits.

So did all 1.8is' have the LSD? how well do these fair in accidents, im just wondering what to look for in the cheap end of the market, I can usually spot a botched repair, but is there any commons points where they bend?

Some great info so far lads, cheers.
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You know, I'm not sure on that. Though I can tell you that an LSD diff looks identical on the outside to an open diff, only one way to find out whether it has one, try and do a donut.
 
Firestar_3x said:
For £1200 you could get an JRCS M45 kit secondhand + rebuild, EMB, wideband & Greddy map sensor.

Would need to fit it himself but its easy enough to do doing an M45 build is cheap and easy, expect around 170bhp.

Loved the supercharged noise but if i was doing it again i'd turbo it.
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I am interested, why would you turbo it if you were to do it again?

I am trying to work out myself which I would rather do, I am more swayed towards turbo though.
 
Main reason i went for a supercharger build is i imported the kit from the USA for a very good price and i didn't want to mess around with tapping the sump and coolant lines for a turbo.

Reason i'd go for a turbo now is i know the car backward and upside down, it offers more power for less or the same cash, plus it wouldn't throw bloody belts!
 
What could be done for £1500 to a 1.8 mk2 that would sustain the reliability of the engine if one wanted to go Turbo instead of SC?
 
Bah coolant lines are easy to do! Tapping a sump isn't too bad either. Yeah the limitations of power with the supercharger is the thing that puts me off too. And Wills mx5 has so little turbo lag, iirc he had a gt25 on his, which is the same size I want. They are perfectly fine to go up to 240bhp area which is plenty. :D
 
wohoo said:
I'd be doing most, if not all of the work myself, I dont mind shopping round for the bits.

So did all 1.8is' have the LSD? how well do these fair in accidents, im just wondering what to look for in the cheap end of the market, I can usually spot a botched repair, but is there any commons points where they bend?

Some great info so far lads, cheers.
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As I understand, the 1.8iS came with an LSD along with some of the special editions.

I'll dig out the SC info, sure it's over at nutz...
 
What you go for depends what flanged manifold you can find for a good price, lots of junk around that either melt / crack or don't flow very well, electrics don't change much between super / turbo so thats a fixed cost.

I did buy a GT28 off woohoo (i think) over e-bay a few years back and that was going to be the basis of my build.
 
I was going to buy one of those manifold kits that you weld yourself you see. People have used them and found them to not crack and stand up to it fine. Really even if you say like buy a begi manifold you can modify it to fit different turbos.
 
saitrix said:
I was going to buy one of those manifold kits that you weld yourself you see. People have used them and found them to not crack and stand up to it fine. Really even if you say like buy a begi manifold you can modify it to fit different turbos.
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Never seen those before, sounds like a good idea provided you can weld,

Just checked the turbo came from stoofer.
 
Reading this thread proves how little I know about forced induction, even though I am contemplating it later in the year! Useful info guys, ta :)
 
I've jsut skim read over this thread, as it's mainly about mk1s.

Me and the other half are looking to replace her micra with a mk2/possibly 2.5 mx5 soon, can anyone reccomend anything to look out for? It's definitely going to have to be a 1.8, we test drove one today and it was about ample (ill be driving it too, it was a hoot!) but what options are there?

Probably be looking up to ~£4k in value, and will be a daily runner not a track toy (albeit very small milage)


Saves a new thread!

Cheers,

Tom.
 
Just the usual with all MX5's, check the hood is fine, seals are ok, no rust on sills and arches. These can all be fixed though and can haggle the price down. The rest is just the usual to check with cars really, check cambelt has been done if past 54k etc...

Can get some bargains on the Mk2, I got mine 6 weeks ago. 1998 1.8iS in black, 45k miles, no leaks or rust, mx5parts exhaust all for £2450. These typically go for £3-4k though.

Mk2.5 still command a premium due to being newer and a facelift, but have less room inside (both height and width due to seats and door panels).

Mine's a daily too.
 
Howard said:
The 1.6 is more suited to turbocharging, the 1.8 is the choice for supercharging.

Even the early engines are very reliable, but the VERY early 1.6s did have issues with crank pulleys, but this is only really applicable to high milers. Other than that, just look out for rust.

The UK/JDM models are pretty much identical in terms of parts :)
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I turbo charged my 1.8S to 240bhp without any issues at all....

The engines are bullet proof. You'd want one with an LSD so look out for the 1.8S though you can always retrofit LSDs fairly easily.
 
Nope 28. :)

List of mods:

GT28
down pipe
turbo exhaust
uprated CAT
Fuel regulator
Induction kit
custom forged pipework for turbo/intercooler/air intake
intercooler
kevlar/organic clutch (good for 380lb/ft)
Piggyback ECU


That's about it!
 
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