Advice on adding a Turbo to my NA 1.8

[NitroDann]

Ok thats more like it, some info to work with.

More power for the track, save the hastle of a turbo setup.

Get

Cams
Computer
Compression
Full exhaust
Make a proper intake for it

And you will gain Plenty for the track with no police hastles, its cheap, you wont go through brakes and tyres like with a turbo setup etc etc.

My 2c.

Dann

[deviant]

I had an NA8 turbo which I ran a few times in the club sprints, dont know if you noticed it or not. It was a dark green LE with monster brakes and no interior. Unfortunately I do not have it any more as I swapped it for a full race car which is another NA8 turbo.

The original Green car had 212BHP at the wheels and 300NM torque.

To achieve this took:

AVO turbo kit
Big injectors and fuel pump
Full exhaust system
Haltech ECU and tuning

This had all been done by a previous owner using a workshop and would have owed him somewhere in the region of $10,000.

On top of that it needed a decent clutch to handle the power so around $1K installed. At these power levels the car WILL need a good LSD otherwise you will just spin one wheel in the corners. I believe a KAAZ diff is abou $1200+ install labour.

To keep it cool on track took a Cooling Pro radiator which was only $300 or so. There was also an oil cooler and the AVO kit has an intercooler with it.

You will need to look at the brakes to. Imagine you are at the RAC driving centre standing in the spectator area facing the skid pan. On the long straight down the far right of the facility my car would hit about 170KMH along there if it was set up without the chicanes so suddenly speeds are getting up there. At Barbagallo the Green car would hit around 190KMH and the race car will do 220-230KMH (guessing as the needle runs off the top of the speedo) so brakes are very important indeed!!!

You already have suspension so that is good but note that with the substantial increase in power and a tight diff the handling dynamics of the car will change and may require a different set up to suit you. The Green car was a massive handful on track as it was to stiff....bloody good fun but not quick and it could get away from me very quickly. The race car is a completely different set up and has a ton of grip.

On the road the car was brilliant fun. It is the sort of power and torque an MX5 should always have had. It could accelerate ferociously if I wanted it to or it could be tickled along in a high gear just using the torque to pull it along. Its peak power and torque were quite high up the rev range and had a nice progression in to full power / boost so unless I was being silly it was hard to get in trouble on the road, it took race track speeds to do the sideways thing. On wet roads you would have to be a bit careful. Fuel use would average at about 10L/100KM but could burn through a full tank in 200KM on track. The exhaust system was sensible so was nice and quiet on a run but made a nice noise at full chat. The air con and all the electrics worked as normal.

None of the mods on my car had a modification approval but the car was fully insured by Shannons with all mods named. Unless you have something very obvious on your car an MX5 seems to fly under the radar with the Police so I never worried about it. If I ever got pulled over and asked about the turbo I would have tried to claim it as being a factory turbo or something along the lines of it being an engine or turbo from an SE / SP fitted to my car.....after all you are allowed to do an engine swap from the same type of car and just change the engine number with the DPI.

I'm sure I have forgotten a lot so feel free to ask anything you want. As a final though though I would suggest that if you can NOT do a lot of mechanical work yourself that you consider selling your current car and finding one that has all the work completed. The Green car had a folder of receipts totalling around $30,000 and I snapped it off its owner for $13,500. He was not even up to swapping wheels or doing an oil change so lots of that $30,000 is labour.

[gslender]

the car was fully insured by Shannons with all mods named

I'm aware this isn't the point of the post, but folks should be careful of what this really means...

No insurance company will pay out a claim if they discover the car involved in the accident had non-legal modifications made. Non-legal means not approved by engineers for use on the roads. So not only are you chancing the risk of having paid premiums that result in zero cover, you also potentially creating a legal liability risk of a civil case whereby you'd personally be liable for my damages (and costs) resulting from your lack of driving a legal vehicle on the public road system. My case would claim (assuming I'm an impacted party to the accident) that you were negligent and contributory to my damages and costs by that action. So not only would you be without an insurance payout for your damaged car, but you could be facing court costs and legal damages resulting from the other party too... and no insurance to cover any of this.

Very risky position to assume that not getting something engineered/approved only equals avoiding police attention/fines.... there is lot more at stake.

Note: obviously the accident needs to be related to the cars modifications (ie excessive speed, unstable handling etc) - so mods that don't relate to that are unlikely to be in scope either for insurance or legal claims.

G

PS - just my opinion and not legal advice.

[sticky nicky]

Ok thats more like it, some info to work with.

More power for the track, save the hastle of a turbo setup.

Get

Cams
Computer
Compression
Full exhaust
Make a proper intake for it

And you will gain Plenty for the track with no police hastles, its cheap, you wont go through brakes and tyres like with a turbo setup etc etc.

My 2c.

OK Dann,
I think I have a full exhaust set up already. I gather you mean and ECU when you mention computer?
Can you explain the compression, Ive had mine checked and its 200 on three and 195 on the other.
When you say a proper intake, do you mean feeding more cold air onto the pod filter?
Sorry but not very mechanically minded.

Thanks for the other info guys, its made me rethink the turbo, sounds really expensive and ok if you can do the work yourself. In saying that I have Steve at KYP making a few calls to see if he can get hold of a low milage NB turbo half cut from japan for me to do a transplant, apparantly that will have all I need to do the swap.........but fear it will be too costly

Dann

[sticky nicky]

And one day Ill work out how to transfer peoples quotes properly

[NitroDann]

Thats ok, what were you trying to say?

Dann

[deviant]

Cost of getting a workshop to do a turbo install + tune -V- getting an NB turbo half cut from Japan and doing an engine swap.

[NitroDann]

Bolt on mani, bolt on turbo/lines, bolt on dump, bolt on FMIC, slot in injectors, clip in ecu, base map+ 1 hour dyno time, for much better results.. Worth it?

Dann

[whoa_dang_96]

base map+ 1 hour dyno time, for much better results

Tuning NEVER takes just one hour on a dyno ........

[NitroDann]

Thats because dyno blokes have you by the balls and rip you off.
I called a reputable shop recently.
'Hi, how much to strap it on and trim my timing table up, just the top half of the timing map, nothing else.' Quoted 3 hours.

Call again yesterday,
'Hey mate, Ive got a plug and play ecu and need it tuned from scratch, how much?'
Quoted 3 hours.

Dann

[whoa_dang_96]

Thats because dyno blokes have you by the balls and rip you off.

I dont believe this is a true generalisation of all dyno blokes. Perhaps you are not taking into consideration the significant investement in the dyno itself and the years of experience that most reputable tuners have.

Dannin your reference - you may be getting charged for 3hrs, however the guy doing the job may be investing 5-6hrs time once he takes on the job because of various things that may arise during the tune - yet he cannot charge the customer for every single hour as the customer would not pay - although he would like to cause it is his business - there are always surprises or things occuring that cannot be accounted for during a job.

My comment was in relation to people underestimating the time it takes to tune a car - if you have seen it done or done it yourself (with plugin and base map or tune from scratch) you would understand that base map + 1hr dyno does not = happy customer ..... not even for a naturally aspirated track pig let a lone a daily driver turbo.

Sorry Sticky Nicky - didnt mean to hijack your thread - just wanted to share awareness of how much time it takes to get a good tune in a daily driver , or even a reasonable one that is acceptable - getting it running and synced with all the sensor inputs, cold starts, hot starts, boost control, creep ability in traffic, driveability, basic emission control so you are not plumin black smoke - it also depends on the ECU you choose. Please make sure you talk to various reputable tuning shops before hand so you can make a decision based on the facts and the cost and not other guestimates cause you may get a shock when you go to pay the bill. And dont be afriad to stay in touch with your tuner during the job so decisions can be made on the fly and expectations managed.

[NitroDann]

All good info.

Yes I have the only E85 mx5 in oz to my knowledge and No one else Tunes my car.
I tune it.

Dann

[whoa_dang_96]

I can assure you Dann it IS NOT the only E85 MX5 in Oz......

and If you do have tuning experince then I am even more amazed by you Base map + 1 hour tuning comment.....this is very negligent advice

Good luck with the upgrades Sticky Nicky - clearly the legal requirements in WA are different to NSW - and dont go too crazy ... very high boost+high powere output + reliabilty can = $$$$$$$.

[NitroDann]

Who else. Im keen for a chat

People have suggested to me Im the only one, then Ive claimed it since and this is the first Ive heard of another?

Dann

[whoa_dang_96]

Dann - you have PM - why hijack this thread - start one up about E85 MX5's and self tuning if you wanna talk about it ???

Sorry Sticky Nicky