Hi, just joined the group. I am totally new to the tuning world. I am in the process of a budget S/C conversion on my 1.6 1990 mx5. Built a speeduino kit up loaded tune studio and gathering all the bit and pieces as I go. Just going through as much info through the miataturbo threads to educate myself. Cheers Steve.

 

Hey man welcome to the forums here. Would you mind posting some pics? what are your plans with the car?(daily/track/autox) I've got a "budget M45" build but im going back to N/A pretty soon here. cheers

 

You don't really want to put a supercharger on a 1.6 from 1990. You might think you do, but you really don't.

I'll save you some research time. The early 1.6 had a short nose crank shaft which often had the harmonic balancer pulley strip right off of it at the keyway in normal operation. Trying to drive a supercharger off of a tiny sliver of keyway in addition to the harmonic balancer that's already trying to wrench itself off is a disastrous prospect.

Please consider a turbo as a possible remedy. Pairing that Turbo with a 1.8 engine will yield an even more favorable result. Along with the added displacement you get better breathing heads, a variable throttle position sensor, and a much quicker spooling Turbo. And they are cheap and a simple drop-in upgrade.

 

Glad to see you trying to learn. I have also heard of the short nose problem and agree it would be better to go with the turbo as the direct belt drive of the supercharger would put excess strain on an already weak nose. Turbo is still always an option. A supercharger is definitely faster off the line, but in just 50 feet or so (assuming same boost), the turbo comes right back. As far as tuning goes, your main concern is just getting the engine to run correct AFRs. Don't worry about a couple points off here and there from time to time, nothing is ever consistent, especially when tuning. The more you mess with stuff yourself, the better you'll learn. You are wise to gain as much info as possible about tuning but everyone could tell you something and you could accept that fact but when YOU physically see that connection, it snowballs into other ah ha moments. Good luck and I would really consider to not go with a super charger like sixshooter said.

 

Thanks for the advise. Your right, I should of known better I have had to do the keyway repair on the short nose engine where the cams where 3 teeth out to the crank. I said my car is 1990, the engine is 1990 but the car is 1996 changed the engine as the piston oil ring let go last year. I will try and get my head around tuning before I make the leap into induction.

 

So you put a 1.6 into a 1.8 car? Or are you not in the us?

 

The best way process to go about converting your car to metausMegais to tune it naturally aspirated which will help you greatly, and then slap the turbo on and tune for boost. You want to establish a "baseline" tune for Megasquirt before before forced induction as it allows you to deal with one variable at a time .

 

 

That is a reasonable answer.