General MX5 Chat

CordedBowl · Post by **CordedBowl** » Sun Oct 20, 2013 8:49 pm

Looking good MrGrey

STIG · Post by **STIG** » Mon Oct 21, 2013 8:07 pm

So the bigger injectors are fitted, Megasquirt ECU installed and tuned, CAT removed supercharger rebuilt, driveshaft loop fitted and the car's ready to pick up tomorrow from Tauranga. All that in 5 days - which I'm pretty pleased with (as he still had quite a bit of work on anyway).

He only did the base run with the CAT out, but reckons the difference between driving it to his engineer and driving it home (once cat was removed and before base run) was night & day - so he regretted not doing the base run with that in first to see just how much power it was actually lacking. He said the factory exhaust system was quite restrictive as well, so would get some decent gains running a 2.25" system. I'm not concerned with that extra 10~ horsepower though as I'd rather spend that time & money getting the suspension setup ready for the track to make this power useable!

It's now making 160hp ATW (190-195 bhp) and the power ban keeps on climbing through the rev range (as opposed to dropping off after 6500rpm like previously). It's also making another 20 ft.lbs of torque and it's flatter than before too.

Note: stock pulley, not upgraded either. These kits are rated at 160bhp, so not sure how we've managed to get 190-195bhp out of it from practically just the ECU and tune!

The graph shows the before & after figures (as labeled on right-hand side):

Stevo · Post by **Stevo** » Mon Oct 21, 2013 8:23 pm

STIG wrote:So the bigger injectors are fitted, Megasquirt ECU installed and tuned, CAT removed supercharger rebuilt, driveshaft loop fitted and the car's ready to pick up tomorrow from Tauranga. All that in 5 days - which I'm pretty pleased with (as he still had quite a bit of work on anyway).

He only did the base run with the CAT out, but reckons the difference between driving it to his engineer and driving it home (once cat was removed and before base run) was night & day - so he regretted not doing the base run with that in first to see just how much power it was actually lacking. He said the factory exhaust system was quite restrictive as well, so would get some decent gains running a 2.25" system. I'm not concerned with that extra 10~ horsepower though as I'd rather spend that time & money getting the suspension setup ready for the track to make this power useable!

It's now making 160hp ATW (190-195 bhp) and the power ban keeps on climbing through the rev range (as opposed to dropping off after 6500rpm like previously). It's also making another 20 ft.lbs of torque and it's flatter than before too.

Note: stock pulley, not upgraded either. These kits are rated at 160bhp, so not sure how we've managed to get 190-195bhp out of it from practically just the ECU and tune!

The graph shows the before & after figures (as labeled on right-hand side):

I see you are using Jared http://www.trademe.co.nz/Members/Listin ... er=2201401 Did he supply/install your supercharger?

STIG · Post by **STIG** » Mon Oct 21, 2013 8:36 pm

Yeah, that's the guy. Awesome dude to deal with.
The supercharger was installed around 20,000kms after it rolled out of the dealership in Auckland somewhere back all those years ago, so now at just over 100,000kms it had just began running itself dry, and I was unfortunately the one to cop the bill for the repair! That's alright though, it had the stock ECU and was running obscenely lean, so lucky I got my hands on it and had this man save it.

STIG · Post by **STIG** » Mon Oct 21, 2013 8:40 pm

It was just starting to fail, so I had him fully strip it and rebuild it - which cost I think $350-400 (labor included).

warrior · Post by **warrior** » Mon Oct 21, 2013 9:02 pm

That looks good. I bet you cant wait to drive it.

STIG · Post by **STIG** » Mon Oct 21, 2013 9:27 pm

Yeah man, definitely! Exams are coming up next week though, so I'm trying not to get too excited yet

warrior · Post by **warrior** » Mon Oct 21, 2013 10:15 pm

Once you have some free time I would love to come and look at your car and see what its like compaired to mine.

STIG · Post by **STIG** » Mon Oct 21, 2013 10:28 pm

Sure thing, that's fine by me

we're also just in the process of moving house now, so that's the other thing. Just give me a bell on weekends and see how we're placed - shouldn't be an issue though

REDBEN · Post by **REDBEN** » Tue Oct 22, 2013 8:30 pm

[quote="MrGrey"]I am using red protruding wheel nuts made of duralumin (a hardened alloy) so they will look pretty swish

Mr Grey Just to help you out (If someone hasn't pointed it out yet?)

Alloy wheel nuts as of a few months ago are now illegal to use for road use in NZ. For more info check out the LVVTA website.

Hope this saves you any hassle...

MrGrey · Post by **MrGrey** » Tue Oct 22, 2013 8:35 pm

oh wow, I was not aware... thank you very much for the heads up!

I can understand why, if you torque them appropriately they are fine.... if you swing on them like a gorilla and break the integrity of the thread you run the risk of throwing wheels around like confetti (and leaving super duper grooves in the tarmac with your disk brakes)

As usual, its the ignorant numbnuts that ruin it for the rest of us, but I can understand why they chose to make them illegal... sigh

the thread and pitch on our cars wheel nuts are 12x1.5 correct?

warrior · Post by **warrior** » Tue Oct 22, 2013 8:37 pm

Fitted the large crank pulley I bought back from the states from TRACK DOG today.

It did what it said it would.

My car now makes just over 8psi and it made quite an improvement. Now my car FEELS quick

REDBEN · Post by **REDBEN** » Tue Oct 22, 2013 10:39 pm

MrGrey wrote:oh wow, I was not aware... thank you very much for the heads up!

I can understand why, if you torque them appropriately they are fine.... if you swing on them like a gorilla and break the integrity of the thread you run the risk of throwing wheels around like confetti (and leaving super duper grooves in the tarmac with your disk brakes)

As usual, its the ignorant numbnuts that ruin it for the rest of us, but I can understand why they chose to make them illegal... sigh

the thread and pitch on our cars wheel nuts are 12x1.5 correct?

No problems

My Mazda Wagon is M12 x 1.5 I'm pretty sure its the same for MX5's as well.

chris · Post by **chris** » Wed Oct 23, 2013 8:43 am

Wohoo - lowered the mx5 thing.

Fixed my exhaust leaks.

Tidied the interior out.

Need to paint my roll bar.

Yay!

Mr. Shine · Post by **Mr. Shine** » Wed Oct 23, 2013 8:43 am

REDBEN wrote:Alloy wheel nuts as of a few months ago are now illegal to use for road use in NZ. For more info check out the LVVTA website.

That's news... do you have a link, because I can't seem to find any mention of that in the certification thresholds or elsewhere.

Nor can I seem to find any relevant mention in the VIRM for WoF purposes, unless I'm missing something!

mazline · Post by **mazline** » Wed Oct 23, 2013 11:01 am

Couldn't see it my self,Just have to be made for their intended purpose,
meaning they have to be Car wheel nuts,not standard nuts.
No mention of wither they can be steel or alloy.

Mr. Shine · Post by **Mr. Shine** » Wed Oct 23, 2013 11:06 am

Yeah, there's note that any non-listed modification to wheels/hubs etc. requires certification but I would think they'd consider alloy wheel nuts to be a case of fit for purpose OEM replacement.

If it is the case though a link would be good for confirmation so we can all see

REDBEN · Post by **REDBEN** » Wed Oct 23, 2013 12:07 pm

Yeah I agree I try find it tonight and post it up.

STIG · Post by **STIG** » Wed Oct 23, 2013 2:54 pm

If the guy who fabricated and welded in my roll bar did a shit job (as he has obviously rushed it) and I can't move my seat right back as the bloody bar's behind it (so the minimal legroom I had anyway is now completely gone), can I make him re-do it properly at his cost? It's not up to par at all.

warrior · Post by **warrior** » Wed Oct 23, 2013 3:15 pm

Yes!!!!! Get him to sit in it then tell him what he is going to do about it. It is hard to put a rear roll cage in a mx5 but not impossible. I feel for you mate.

warrior · Post by **warrior** » Wed Oct 23, 2013 3:16 pm

P.s just to let you know, I have a bolt in roll cage and my seat wont go right back with that either, I am 6 foot and it is ok but I would not want to be any taller.

Furai · Post by **Furai** » Wed Oct 23, 2013 3:25 pm

STIG wrote:If the guy who fabricated and welded in my roll bar did a shit job (as he has obviously rushed it) and I can't move my seat right back as the bloody bar's behind it (so the minimal legroom I had anyway is now completely gone), can I make him re-do it properly at his cost? It's not up to par at all.

Was it done the same as mine? Mine restricts seat movement but I use a bucket and a steering wheel spacer as I never had room anyway....

STIG · Post by **STIG** » Wed Oct 23, 2013 3:41 pm

Cheers, Warrior. I'll go back and get him to do something about it as the engineer and tuner that have the car now both just shook their heads saying how much better it could've been designed and there is actually room for the bar to move across to avoid restricting the seat movement. Almost as if he just rushed through it as quickly as possibly and charged the maximum amount for that job.
I'm just 5'11 1/2, but still there's nearly no leg room at all compared to before... the young kid who came to put it on the freight truck before I sent it down to Tauranga was probably 6'6-6'7 and I really had no clue how he managed to drive it on and off lol.

Yeah, Kieran, same guy. 3 people now have showed me how the design could've been improved and are fairly shocked at how almost no effort was put into the design of the thing! He also didn't add a support cross-bar for the harnesses to be fitted to, which is ridiculous. I couldn't find a photo of your design - could you send me through a pic?

CordedBowl · Post by **CordedBowl** » Wed Oct 23, 2013 5:24 pm

Did you tell him specifically what you were after? This sounds like miscommunication.

Furai · Post by **Furai** » Wed Oct 23, 2013 5:27 pm

Pics on my facebook man, I got what I wanted but it was his first MX5 one.

To be honest some things could have been done differently but all have thier ups and downs. Mine can be turned into a full cage where as a central one between the towers cant be but offers more room. Its foremost for strength and safety not for looks.

It sounds like you needed to give each other more info on what you wanted. No rollbar is the same.

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