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I've been quietly trawling this forum for the last few weeks, scratching my head and bookmarking links all over the place.
I thought it might be nice to introduce myself here even though I haven't had to ask any stupid questions -yet.
My wife and I had an NA MX5 until about 7 years ago, selling it when we needed more seats for our kids. Now that the kids are a big enough to ride in booster seats and we have spare space in the shed it's time for a comeback! I'd been checking a few local NAs out for sale and the poor old things have deteriorated more quickly than I was hoping, with most of the cars being too far gone and needing more $ than they'd be worth to get to a level I'd be happy with (our intention is to keep this car for a looong time as a sunny weekend fun car).
Then this beauty popped up for sale, friends and family laughed but I saw potential:
An unregistered 89 1.6L with about 250,000km. Styling straight out of 2002 Autosalon- God awful 18" chromies, underbody neon wiring everywhere, tasteless airbrushing, a semi installed CD player with dodgy holes and cut up interior, tacky wing and more. The bodykit started to grow on me, so it's staying for now. The price was right and the deal was done, we had a new MX5!
So a trip to the panel beater with the bonnet and a swapped out bootlid without spoiler holes, some wheels and a lot of late nights in the shed polishing and re-trimming and this is where I'm at so far:
Mechanically the car is running really well, with even compression etc but we've been driving a MK6 Golf GTI for the last few years and it makes the MX5 feel soooo slow in comparison.
That's where the turbo project is coming in.
So far by reading heaps online and getting advice locally I've decided the following, with most of these bits sitting in the office or in the mail:
-Tacotaco T3 1.6 manifold
-MS2 DIY (and AIT sensor and mod bits)
-Chinacharger T3 42/48ar turbo
-RX8 injectors
-eBay oil line kit
-depo wideband O2 and boost gauge
-Xtreme HD clutch and a bunch of seals to change while the gearbox is off
-ebay 600x180x65mm intercooler (no piping yet as I test to test fit and work out what's needed
-lined up a local exhaust shop to fab up a 3" downpipe and exhaust when it's time.
The plan:
-Build and install MS2 and wideband. Learn it's quirks and get her running smoothly.
-clutch and seals in and make sure that's sorted
-Turbo time!
Hopefully this all goes well and when it's done I'll try and do a build thread properly to share what worked or didn't work for me.
Wish me luck! and thanks for the great resources on this forum!
Depending on your plan, you may want to swap out to a 1.8 engine if you can. A bunch of parts aren't really compatible between the two engines, so it'll be a pain to swap once you've bought everything. Additionally, just swapping to the 1.8 should net you some power, so that should keep you happy.
For all of five minutes or so!
Car looks great. I agree with Marcello. Good on you for saving it!
06-03-2017, 08:53 AM
An Aussie NA 1.6 turbo about to happen
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