What would you recommend for my setup? Turbo or sc kit

[PT]

Hi all,
I have an NB8B which is a toy only, not a daily driver, and it currently has a stock motor.

I want to go forced induction and part of me wants to go S/c and part of me thinks turbo.

The car has current got a heavy duty clutch and coil over suspension, oh and high end rotors and pads but standard sizes and calipers. Standard exhaust, intake and diff, all areas I expect will need upgrading.

The car is a weekend toy, but would like to be able to do the odd track day and I'd like to give motorkhanas a go.

I'd like to be able to purchase a kit and fit it myself, as it is not a daily driver, I can take my time to fit it. I would then expect to take it to a workshop who could then install and tune an ECU.

I don't want to open the motor up, and understand that will limit my boost (but I don't really know what to).

I'm on the northside of Brisbane.

So my question is, what kits are out there that sound like they would suit me?

Thanks
PT

[gslender]

In either case, I'd recommend you install the ecu now and do the FI later. You'll iron out all the bugs and niggles with the ecu and avoid problems with the FI mucking things up.

G

[Apu]

Whoa! You're in Brissie...haven't you been keeping an eye on what Lokiel's been up to?

[johnnyreble]

I would highly recommend a Fast forward coldsife supercharger kit www.fastforwardsuperchargers.com they make a MX5 kit that comes with everything ready to bolt in all pretuned nothing else to buy the kit is around $4500 and worth every penny, I got one and fitted it myself in a weekend .. needless to say I Love it..

Johnny

[Steampunk]

send a PM to timk. I doubt anyone else have as much experience with owning FI street-registered MX-5s.

[vrmmmpshhh]

can the soldside FFS s/c system be run with a turbo at all?

[Magpie]

Do you want to be road legal in your setup?

[Neilus]

I'm considering something similar with my nb8b and would be interested to know the legalities of running a s/c mx5 on the street.

Sent from my LT26i using Tapatalk 2

[Boyracer]

Have to add my usual reply to this one, sell your car and buy an SE or SP.. Save your self all the dramas and expense.

[bear2230]

Have to add my usual reply to this one, sell your car and buy an SE or SP.. Save your self all the dramas and expense.

ND won't agree but SE's are cheap (relatively) and an altogether better car than a stock NB8B.
All the hard work is done by Mazda, turbo and reliability wise + better suspension, diff, rear axles and a groovy wind blocker with speakers.

Richard.

[PaulF]

Regarding your usage: Have you taken it to the track/motorkhanas as it is? An MX5 is still a great track toy even with stock power.

On to the main question: I've heard of plenty of people who started off with a supercharger and ended up scrapping the idea and going with a turbo instead. Very rarely do you hear of anyone (in the MX5 world) who went the other way.

An SE is all very well if you fully believe that you will always be happy with stock-ish power levels. If you plan on going beyond that, expect an expensive upgrade path compared to an aftermarket NA-T setup.

SPs are nice, and a bit more upgrade-able, but they do tend to command a fairly hefty premium and they only come up for sale occasionally so your choice is limited.

Going fully aftermarket allows you to get something that fully suits what you want/need and will be cheaper to upgrade down the track. If you want it to be street legal, however, I don't know what QLD is like but in NSW the engineering required is not particularly cheap. Certainly possible and not out of the question, but worth considering.

[PT]

Thanks everyone, I'll try and respond to all the questions to help better clarify what I want to achieve.

Yes the car needs to be road going and I will get it engineered to be legal.

I'm reluctant to want to sell and go to an SE as I've put a lot of effort in to this car. It's had a full respray, has very very low k's, I've already done the suspensions and brakes and really like the car. I also used to own an SE, so this will be some night different.

I will make contact with Tim, it's been years since I had him over for dinner, probably due again!

I wanted to go supercharger for the instant on tap power, which would be good in motorkhanas, but I have more experience with turbos and they are a lot easier in my opinion to get good power out of and are easier to upgrade.

What turbo kits do people recommend?

Thanks
Paul

[16bit]

i think a nice little low boost gt2560 setup will do all you want.

dann might do one for you but if not, possibly a begi (questionable quality control from reports) or fm kit will do the trick.

supercharging is expensive.

more so than turbo dollar per kw anyway.

[gslender]

supercharging is expensive.

more so than turbo dollar per kw anyway.

I did an Eaton M45 bmw/mini supercharger for under $1400 and it made 200bhp.

A quality Garrett turbo 2nd hand is about $700 at least, so once you add new exhaust, manifold, BOV, and oil/water hoses etc, it makes it hard to keep under $1500 for an equally good brand kit.

The only other benefit is that I can quickly remove/add the SC kit and don't need to muck around with oil, water and/or exhaust - everything just bolts on.

It isn't as good for making big HP as a turbo kit, but it sure is quick and easy bolt on boost for small $$$

G

[Sean]

If you want it street legal you'll find the CARB legal FFS kit is accepted as meeting Australian emissions standards.

No locally produced NB kit comes pre - approved meaning emissions testing etc will be required.

Ryan (lowmiata) did a semi custom install on his 1.6 based on an AVO kit - He managed to get it street legal in Qld with reasonable ease. he's been out of the mazda scene for a while, but if you PM him he'll likely be more than happy to help.