Shoe-String Tuning

A year on and I'm just getting ready to upload photo's as the mod's really start to gather pace and things are changing, I thought I'd better start using photo's and notes to record the progress to see what changes have been made and how much more power we can get out of the base car on an extremely limited budget...

Last October I blew the engine on a 200SX S13 and needed something that would keep me going, cheap to insure but still able to put a giggle on my face...

I found my car exactly as in the photo, freshly imported and not registered in the UK...

1991 Eunos Roadster
Bomex Nose & Skirts
MazdaSpeed Alloys
Syling Bar
48k (Miles)

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A year on all thats been needed, a new clutch, couple of oil changes, de-cat and removal of the resonator box (cheap way to fix it)...

The MX5 is a great car and handles superbly but after a while it just needs more power, the only trouble is my budget or rather lack of it. Everyone I spoke to said that it wasn't possible to install a turbo for under £600, a challenge I had to prove wrong. Before doing anything we needed a baseline to know where we started. WWW.MX5Nutz.com & J-Tuner got together on a cold November morning for a Rolling Road day, the perfect place to start, 115Bhp allegedly out of the factory, give or take a few ponies taking into consideration age etc...

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Slightly under but more than happy, now we have a start point.

Next the shopping list (Listed with the final price I paid):

1 A Turbo (£35)
2 A Turbo Manifold (with downpipe £275)
3 A Downpipe
4 A Dump Valve (HKS SSQV £30)
5 An Intercooler (£10.75)
6 Intercooler Piping (£120 inc corners)
7 Oil Feed/Return (£25)

The best two tools for a Shoe-String Turbo install are Google & eBay, everything you need is around, you just need to find it !!

I was lucky all my parts came pretty quickly, although the first Turbo I bought was the wrong one so had to be resold, no problems as it made a profit...

Once found the fun part started, the Turbo was taken from an old Volvo, perfect condition and not a bit of play, before we could do anything we had to split the Turbo (cold side from hot side) and rotated it 180 degrees on the compressor housing in order to fit the 5, once rotated the Turbo was married up to the manifold and the wastegate re-attached, we were getting closer and still had money in the budget.

Work still in progress, keep checking...

Couple of photo's until the Turbo goes on and more info gets written :D

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