MX5 Owners in here....bring your curling tongs

I can highly recommend the Rotrex supercharger, as per the blurb in their advert, it's just like having a bigger engine with the same characteristics.
 
Housey said:
Has anyone got any experience of BBR GTI and their work? Once again I find myself contemplating having some work done on my wife's MX5 as she is adamant she doesn't want to change the car as it owes us nothing, has been faultless bar 1 sensor 6 months into ownership and frankly she still loves the little thing. It is a standard Mk3.5 Sport Tech 2L we have had from new and today sits with around 75K miles on the clock. My concern is tuning a car with that mileage, but knowing how under stressed the engine is I am not too worried but my thinking is perhaps an ultimate NA tune to around 225bhp or moving to a turbo conversion. Added to this would be a suspension refresh and some tightening of the chassis to remove some scuttle shake, but I don't really want to to turn it into some low down bump fest as the damping is so well sorted on the standard car.

I'd welcome any comments and experiences people have of this outfit?
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I have a BBR GTI tuned (stage 1 turbo) NC1, 276bhp with the Koni suspension package and uprated clutch. I honestly couldn't go back to a NA Mx5 now. I understand the ethos behind low powered fun cheap sports car but the car is a whole different beast with the extra 118 bhp. Its not supercar beating, and is comparable in straight line speed to a lot of the more modern hot hatches (circa 5.8s to 60). The downside is that the conversion costs a fair amount of ££. 5k+ for any FI install by BBR. The engine should be fine at that mileage if well looked after. The 2 litre units in the 3.5 have a forged crank and are pretty happy with FI. My conversion was done about 10k miles ago and knock on wood all is fine besides the standard gear lash in the gearbox many of them suffer from.

The only downside I Would say about the Koni setup they do is that it does lower the car a lot, to the point where you have to be very concious of aggressive speed bumps and the like, so that might not be the best way to go for yourself.
 
Good feedback, thanks. At the moment I am probably more tempted by the NA tune to 225bhp, which is more than enough and with ITB's would probably sound quite fruity too. I think some lowering would be good, but not to the point where speed bumps become an issue or for that matter the 2 x cattle grids we have to cross to get in/out of our property. Having said that if my GT3 could get over them I am sure a low MX5 would not be too much of an issue.
 
I have an Il motorsports exhaust on mine and for a four cylinder they do sound sound rather good under full chat. It's amazing how much the standard exhaust mutes it (having said that the turbo will be muting the sound so my setup on a NA car may be too loud given that the only silencer I have is a back box)
 
Yeah, with more speed keep the ride height conservative, I had my coilovers raised up from what they were originally set up as.

Great on the track but on proper roads it was too compromised. It's no fun grinding the bracing on every severe dip on a b road, never mind speed bumps!
 
I don't think BBR do the ITBs any more, I've asked about it previously as I look to NA tuning to stay in 2ltr classes.

re the Ohlins setup is more compliant than stock, doesn't have to be set low, my coilovers are much higher than the stock eibach setup or something like BBRs Koni setup (which is a terribly firm setup BTW, not good IMO if you want to maintain road manners)

Sounds like you know Blinks work if they have done an engine for you before, unless you were unhappy with their work for some reason they seem like a good one stop shop, ohlins + 4-1 decat manifold + supercharger and you will have one strong NC.
 
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sandys said:
Sounds like you know Blinks work if they have done an engine for you before, unless you were unhappy with their work for some reason they seem like a good one stop shop, ohlins + 4-1 decat manifold + supercharger and you will have one strong NC.
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More than happy with the race engine they built and fitted into my Mk1 and they also put a fresh set up on the car too.

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Does need some TLC on the bodywork, plan to get it full painted this year and treated and then get it out for some fun, finally.
 
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wesimmo said:
Ouch. New engine time?
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New engine and a bit more sensible with midrange torque.

I knew I was playing with fire with it making ~265ft-lbs. part of me didn't care, the other part wanted to find out what the limit really was.

I'll soften the timing and reduce the boost on the new engine till 6k rpm so i can still make 280-300bhp.

I "only" need 230ft-lbs to make 300bhp at 6800rpm
 
Gayjin said:
Ouch. What are you in the progress of doing in the pic?
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Results from a leakdown test made us think it was head gasket so the plan was pull the head, send for a skim then build it back up with new gaskets and belts.

Couldn't see any signs of a leaking head gasket on either the face of the block or the head. Rotated the engine over by hand and could see that number 2 and 3 pistons at TDC were flush with the deck while 1 and 4 protrude.

Roughly measured with a set of Vernier calipers and number two is around 1.3mm low number three is about 1.1mm low.

Found a 71k mile engine on eBay so I'll get that bought this evening.
 
Fitted some BC-Racing coilovers that I picked up cheaply to my NC. Certainly feels a lot better than the Eibach springs and stock shocks. Just need to dial in the comfort settings.
 
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