Turbocharged Exocet
Discussion
After drooling over many of the higher end builds on here, JayNW's Supra and Hoonigan's GT40 to name but a few, i thought id throw up a thread of my build representing the other end of the spectrum. The budget end! I'll list the costs along the way to give you guys a clear idea of whats involved.
I'll start from the beginning which takes us back to the summer of 2011.
I was in the final stages of finishing renovating an old house i had bought 4 years previously and new once it had finished there would be bit of a void. Im the sort of person that has to have some sort of project on the go so started to look at possibilities.
The obvious one was to build a car, which i had been wanting to do since i saw my neighbour builed himself a 7-esque type kit car when i was a kid. Add to that the fact that i had always been into cars it seemed like a no brainer. The only problem i could see was that my mechanical knowledge stretched as far as topping up the fluids and changing a wheel but how could it be? If my neighbour could do it then why couldnt i?......
A quiet night shift meant it was another night online to kill some time to really look into this kit car building malarky. I ended up on the MEV (Mills Extreme Vehicles) website and instantly noticed their Exocet kitcar with the big blurb of how cheaply the car can be built for and how its possibly the easiest kitcar in the world to build. Cheap and easy?...surely there's a catch somewhere. But it seemed not. the more i looked into the more sense it made. So that night my search for an MX5 donor vehicle began...........and it ended about an hour later! A fellow PH'er, Dimski, had one for sale and it was only about 50miles away from home.
If you havent already noticed i tend to dive into things very quickly without much thought and considering my garage was planned to be knocked down a few weeks later and a new one built i should have held off on the kitcar build. But i didnt!
Fast forward a few days and i was the proud owner of this little beauty...
The cost was £1000. It fitted the bill perfectly. It had wheels that i liked, P5 coilovers and a Helix Organic clutch which all meant a saving on me having to buy these later on.
It did cross my mind on the drive home that it may be too good to strip down to use as a donor and i think unless i started to strip it straight away those doubts may take over. So as soon as i got it home it was straight into the garage and the strip down began.
I had what can only be described as the basic tools. My socket set was an £8 ebay special, my drill was a 4yr old £10 B&Q jobby and my spanners were loaned of my father who used them during his apprenticeship forty odd years ago! Add to that a donated 4inch angle grinder from my brother and a lump hammer from my sister (its concerning when your sister is better equipped tool wise than yourself!) the tear down was good to commence!
It went far easier than i expected and within a couple of days on and off the whole thing was stripped and the shell ready to be lifted off. Cue the first hurdle. From memory the shell weighs approx 265ish kilos so there was no way i was going to do it on my. Get a few mates around to help was a possibility but unlikely to happen the same day and i wanted it done then, that minute. Then i had one of the most ridiculous ideas ive ever had. In the garage was a manageable, but stirdy enough, RSJ. I'll use that as a lifting beam, throw on a block and tackle, which i had, and lift the b
d shell off myself!
No sooner than you could say measure twice cut once i knocked a hole in both adjacent walls to sit the beam on. You know where i just mentioned about measure twice cut once....well i didnt even measure, just assumed and it turned out that the beam was a good meter short to span the width of the garage!
Fear not for i had some 4x4 timbers laying around. Laughing in the face of defeat i knocked up a lifting rig that even the most hardiest of rednecks would be proud of!
Giving a two fingers up to elf'n'safety the lifting operation began.
It was around this time my father popped in for a visit which proved to be useful as an extra pair of hands was ideally needed.....and some sense knocked into me.
Once the shell was up the 'rollerskate' that is the MX5's insides was wheeled out of the way.
Then everything tucked up nicely until the phase of the build.
So the plan from here was to clean up and refurbish all the parts i was going to need....the suspension arms, shocks etc and then when i was nearing a time where id be happy with the results the order for the kit would be placed.
Here's a few photos of that progress...
A before and after of some of the suspension arms once attacked with the grinder and a wire attachment prior to painting...
A before and after of the shocks...
Rear subframe...
With me only being home for weekends the refurbishing of the parts took me up to December by which time i was 99% happy with progress so a phone call to MEV with my requirements and an order was placed. IIRC the cost was £3200 which was for the new chassis, floor pan, bodywork, edge trim, various fixings and mesh.
During the refurbishing i also managed to sell off enough of the MX5 parts i didnt need to actually cover the cost of the initial purchase price of it. I think the total money made back on the parts was just under £1200. Keeping well in with the 'budget' side of the build.
Not much happened until late January 2012 when i had a phone call to say the kit was ready to be picked up. The following day the old man and i rented a LWB transit and did our best impression of white van men all the way up to Mansfield to pick up the goods!
10hrs later and i arrived home kit in hand.
The joys of living alaone..
...and so the actual building side of the build began.
First up was to get the frame upside down and fit all the fuel lines, brake lines and floor pan. Pretty straight forward.
Then it was a case of flip it around and botl to the subfframes. This was a bit trickier than first anticipated due to the locations of the fitting holes on the new chassis to maximise stiffness but got there in the end.
With that done it was then onto the part i had been dreading...the electrics. However, the existing loom is used and should just plug back into the sockets the connectors came out of. Sounds easy when its said like that! Despite each connector only fitting into it's proper socket i should have done a better job of labeling everything up, just like every member over on the MEV owners site told me to do!
The dreaded loom...
Work got a bit hectic around this time so was spending less and less time on the car and therefore from starting the electrics to having a car that worked when you turned the key took a couple of months. This wasnt helped by me getting a bit too confident with it all and snipping off connectors that i didnt need i.e electric windows, radio, heaters etc....somewhere along the line i cut the wrong one and the car just would not start. This resulted in having to order a new loom (£110). This one was installed and all connectors remained where they were....for the time being.
Work on the car slowed down so much it was getting frustrating. I dint want to lose interest in it or fail to complete it but it felt it was heading this way. In work every spare minute was spent online reading up on 'how to's' and looking for ideas for the car just to keep me motivated with it but when id be arriving home for the weekends i just wanted to chill out. So i went on a spending spree...
First up were the seats. As much as i would have loved some carbon fiber seats there was no way on earth i could afford them so bought these buggers instead
£140 for the pair off ebay and they are the comfiest seats i have ever sat in. Weigh next to nothing and fitted with no problems what so ever.
Then it was just a case of finishing the lighting off, fitting the steering wheel+ column, fitting bodywork, brakes etc etc In otherwords...still a lot!
The exhaust was next up and i new i wanted a centre exit style so back onto ebay i went and found this beauty for £20!
It was a it tricky to get it to fall in the centre using just the exhaust pipe that was on the car so referred it over to my in house design department to come up with detailed CAD drawings and calculations.....
Started to mock up the exhaust
and once happy it was picked up by my sister's OH who welded it all for me and it fitted a treat!
Then it was back onto the interior. From the off i wanted an all black car but all the bulkheads and trims were bare aluminium. I thought about painting them but eventually decided to wrap them. I was going to go for black but wanted something with a bit of texture to hide any imperfections so went with a carbon effect. This stuff was cheap enough off ebay
The transmission tunnel wrapped
Transmission tunnel finished off with gaiter and surround and edging
Tunnel and bulkheads fitted. The floor was covered with rubber matting to, once again, get rid of the bare aluminium and to give a bit of grip.
I was now on a wrapping mission so next up was a cowl/cover for the instrument cluster.
Bend and cut some aluminium to shape
..wrap and fit...
This brings us up to the end of 2012 and the car was virtually complete. Here's some random photos...
One home made battery box
Battery box fitted
It was time to start looking into booking the IVA test. I wont go into great detail about the test but its basically a test that lasts about 5hrs where the measure almost everything and everything has its own required position or dimension. Oh and it will set you back £450!
I decided to wait until the new year to book it and spend my time really going over the 400+ page document that covers the IVA requirements ensuring i had everything covered.
Fast forward to the new year and the car now looked like this..
Original steering wheel back on for the test...
The test was all booked and the day of reckoning soon came around. Long story short...it failed.
The speedo was out by a lot, a couple of edges that werent covered, exhaust too loud (read 103db, max is 99db), electrics under the car too close to the exhaust, no DOT4 sticker and a few other minor ones. I think its what they call a 'good fail'. However i was allowed, and legal, to drive it home!
It was the first proper drive of the car and having to do 60miles on the motorway home in it was an experience!
Once again work took over my life and i didnt get the retest (another £90) until September which went fine. A photo from the day..
So that was it. I was now the owner of a road legal car that i built myself and i felt bloody good!
First job was to de-IVA it. In other words change some of the ridiculous items which were a requirement and add some on that may have been a bit iffy.
I never liked the look of the back end so knocked up a totally useless and unfunctional 'diffuser' to neaten it up. Thelong screws were just temp. Its since been neatened up.
And some photos from its first legal drive which went great apart from having a mars bar thrown at me and someone shouting wker
So there you have it. A car built by me, who 2 years ago barely knew any mechanics and on a budget. Final cost came in at under £5500 which included getting it road legal.
The car handles ridiculously well, imagine an MX5 but about 300kg lighter, and accelerates adequately. Even so the cra has been off the road for a few months and phase 2 is almost coming to an end on it which is turbo charging it. Considering ive gone waaay over the amount i had planned to post i'll document the turbo conversion, which is again keeping in with the budget build ethos, in a follow up post most probably tomorrow.
I'll start from the beginning which takes us back to the summer of 2011.
I was in the final stages of finishing renovating an old house i had bought 4 years previously and new once it had finished there would be bit of a void. Im the sort of person that has to have some sort of project on the go so started to look at possibilities.
The obvious one was to build a car, which i had been wanting to do since i saw my neighbour builed himself a 7-esque type kit car when i was a kid. Add to that the fact that i had always been into cars it seemed like a no brainer. The only problem i could see was that my mechanical knowledge stretched as far as topping up the fluids and changing a wheel but how could it be? If my neighbour could do it then why couldnt i?......
A quiet night shift meant it was another night online to kill some time to really look into this kit car building malarky. I ended up on the MEV (Mills Extreme Vehicles) website and instantly noticed their Exocet kitcar with the big blurb of how cheaply the car can be built for and how its possibly the easiest kitcar in the world to build. Cheap and easy?...surely there's a catch somewhere. But it seemed not. the more i looked into the more sense it made. So that night my search for an MX5 donor vehicle began...........and it ended about an hour later! A fellow PH'er, Dimski, had one for sale and it was only about 50miles away from home.
If you havent already noticed i tend to dive into things very quickly without much thought and considering my garage was planned to be knocked down a few weeks later and a new one built i should have held off on the kitcar build. But i didnt!
Fast forward a few days and i was the proud owner of this little beauty...
The cost was £1000. It fitted the bill perfectly. It had wheels that i liked, P5 coilovers and a Helix Organic clutch which all meant a saving on me having to buy these later on.
It did cross my mind on the drive home that it may be too good to strip down to use as a donor and i think unless i started to strip it straight away those doubts may take over. So as soon as i got it home it was straight into the garage and the strip down began.
I had what can only be described as the basic tools. My socket set was an £8 ebay special, my drill was a 4yr old £10 B&Q jobby and my spanners were loaned of my father who used them during his apprenticeship forty odd years ago! Add to that a donated 4inch angle grinder from my brother and a lump hammer from my sister (its concerning when your sister is better equipped tool wise than yourself!) the tear down was good to commence!
It went far easier than i expected and within a couple of days on and off the whole thing was stripped and the shell ready to be lifted off. Cue the first hurdle. From memory the shell weighs approx 265ish kilos so there was no way i was going to do it on my. Get a few mates around to help was a possibility but unlikely to happen the same day and i wanted it done then, that minute. Then i had one of the most ridiculous ideas ive ever had. In the garage was a manageable, but stirdy enough, RSJ. I'll use that as a lifting beam, throw on a block and tackle, which i had, and lift the b
d shell off myself!No sooner than you could say measure twice cut once i knocked a hole in both adjacent walls to sit the beam on. You know where i just mentioned about measure twice cut once....well i didnt even measure, just assumed and it turned out that the beam was a good meter short to span the width of the garage!
Fear not for i had some 4x4 timbers laying around. Laughing in the face of defeat i knocked up a lifting rig that even the most hardiest of rednecks would be proud of!
Giving a two fingers up to elf'n'safety the lifting operation began.
- **Readers of a nervous disposition of cars being torn apart or those with a fondness of MX5's may want to look away right about now.....****
It was around this time my father popped in for a visit which proved to be useful as an extra pair of hands was ideally needed.....and some sense knocked into me.
Once the shell was up the 'rollerskate' that is the MX5's insides was wheeled out of the way.
Then everything tucked up nicely until the phase of the build.
So the plan from here was to clean up and refurbish all the parts i was going to need....the suspension arms, shocks etc and then when i was nearing a time where id be happy with the results the order for the kit would be placed.
Here's a few photos of that progress...
A before and after of some of the suspension arms once attacked with the grinder and a wire attachment prior to painting...
A before and after of the shocks...
Rear subframe...
With me only being home for weekends the refurbishing of the parts took me up to December by which time i was 99% happy with progress so a phone call to MEV with my requirements and an order was placed. IIRC the cost was £3200 which was for the new chassis, floor pan, bodywork, edge trim, various fixings and mesh.
During the refurbishing i also managed to sell off enough of the MX5 parts i didnt need to actually cover the cost of the initial purchase price of it. I think the total money made back on the parts was just under £1200. Keeping well in with the 'budget' side of the build.
Not much happened until late January 2012 when i had a phone call to say the kit was ready to be picked up. The following day the old man and i rented a LWB transit and did our best impression of white van men all the way up to Mansfield to pick up the goods!
10hrs later and i arrived home kit in hand.
The joys of living alaone..
...and so the actual building side of the build began.
First up was to get the frame upside down and fit all the fuel lines, brake lines and floor pan. Pretty straight forward.
Then it was a case of flip it around and botl to the subfframes. This was a bit trickier than first anticipated due to the locations of the fitting holes on the new chassis to maximise stiffness but got there in the end.
With that done it was then onto the part i had been dreading...the electrics. However, the existing loom is used and should just plug back into the sockets the connectors came out of. Sounds easy when its said like that! Despite each connector only fitting into it's proper socket i should have done a better job of labeling everything up, just like every member over on the MEV owners site told me to do!
The dreaded loom...
Work got a bit hectic around this time so was spending less and less time on the car and therefore from starting the electrics to having a car that worked when you turned the key took a couple of months. This wasnt helped by me getting a bit too confident with it all and snipping off connectors that i didnt need i.e electric windows, radio, heaters etc....somewhere along the line i cut the wrong one and the car just would not start. This resulted in having to order a new loom (£110). This one was installed and all connectors remained where they were....for the time being.
Work on the car slowed down so much it was getting frustrating. I dint want to lose interest in it or fail to complete it but it felt it was heading this way. In work every spare minute was spent online reading up on 'how to's' and looking for ideas for the car just to keep me motivated with it but when id be arriving home for the weekends i just wanted to chill out. So i went on a spending spree...
First up were the seats. As much as i would have loved some carbon fiber seats there was no way on earth i could afford them so bought these buggers instead
£140 for the pair off ebay and they are the comfiest seats i have ever sat in. Weigh next to nothing and fitted with no problems what so ever.
Then it was just a case of finishing the lighting off, fitting the steering wheel+ column, fitting bodywork, brakes etc etc In otherwords...still a lot!
The exhaust was next up and i new i wanted a centre exit style so back onto ebay i went and found this beauty for £20!
It was a it tricky to get it to fall in the centre using just the exhaust pipe that was on the car so referred it over to my in house design department to come up with detailed CAD drawings and calculations.....
Started to mock up the exhaust
and once happy it was picked up by my sister's OH who welded it all for me and it fitted a treat!
Then it was back onto the interior. From the off i wanted an all black car but all the bulkheads and trims were bare aluminium. I thought about painting them but eventually decided to wrap them. I was going to go for black but wanted something with a bit of texture to hide any imperfections so went with a carbon effect. This stuff was cheap enough off ebay
The transmission tunnel wrapped
Transmission tunnel finished off with gaiter and surround and edging
Tunnel and bulkheads fitted. The floor was covered with rubber matting to, once again, get rid of the bare aluminium and to give a bit of grip.
I was now on a wrapping mission so next up was a cowl/cover for the instrument cluster.
Bend and cut some aluminium to shape
..wrap and fit...
This brings us up to the end of 2012 and the car was virtually complete. Here's some random photos...
One home made battery box
Battery box fitted
It was time to start looking into booking the IVA test. I wont go into great detail about the test but its basically a test that lasts about 5hrs where the measure almost everything and everything has its own required position or dimension. Oh and it will set you back £450!
I decided to wait until the new year to book it and spend my time really going over the 400+ page document that covers the IVA requirements ensuring i had everything covered.
Fast forward to the new year and the car now looked like this..
Original steering wheel back on for the test...
The test was all booked and the day of reckoning soon came around. Long story short...it failed.
The speedo was out by a lot, a couple of edges that werent covered, exhaust too loud (read 103db, max is 99db), electrics under the car too close to the exhaust, no DOT4 sticker and a few other minor ones. I think its what they call a 'good fail'. However i was allowed, and legal, to drive it home!
It was the first proper drive of the car and having to do 60miles on the motorway home in it was an experience!
Once again work took over my life and i didnt get the retest (another £90) until September which went fine. A photo from the day..
So that was it. I was now the owner of a road legal car that i built myself and i felt bloody good!
First job was to de-IVA it. In other words change some of the ridiculous items which were a requirement and add some on that may have been a bit iffy.
I never liked the look of the back end so knocked up a totally useless and unfunctional 'diffuser' to neaten it up. Thelong screws were just temp. Its since been neatened up.
And some photos from its first legal drive which went great apart from having a mars bar thrown at me and someone shouting w
ker
So there you have it. A car built by me, who 2 years ago barely knew any mechanics and on a budget. Final cost came in at under £5500 which included getting it road legal.
The car handles ridiculously well, imagine an MX5 but about 300kg lighter, and accelerates adequately. Even so the cra has been off the road for a few months and phase 2 is almost coming to an end on it which is turbo charging it. Considering ive gone waaay over the amount i had planned to post i'll document the turbo conversion, which is again keeping in with the budget build ethos, in a follow up post most probably tomorrow.
Edited by matlee on Sunday 5th January 13:49
What a superb job and well done indeed. The MEV Exocet concept using the MX5 as the donor base is absolutely spot on IMO. The result in one of the lowest cost kit cars that can be built in the UK and by using the whole suspension and major components the finished car has matched mechanical components designed to work in that application.
This is a such practical method to reduce to a minimum the heartache of sourcing parts for a kit car during the build that it must be massively easier and less expensive for the enthusiast builder. I have repeatedly faced problems in trying to finish cars with a variety of sources required by kit cars designed to need parts from several manufacturers. I therefore realise how much more practical and buildable such designs really are for the enthusiast to construct. Well done Mr Mills for that foresight and making the kits available at such competitive prices. Once again well done both the builder and the manufacturer. Excellent work.
This is a such practical method to reduce to a minimum the heartache of sourcing parts for a kit car during the build that it must be massively easier and less expensive for the enthusiast builder. I have repeatedly faced problems in trying to finish cars with a variety of sources required by kit cars designed to need parts from several manufacturers. I therefore realise how much more practical and buildable such designs really are for the enthusiast to construct. Well done Mr Mills for that foresight and making the kits available at such competitive prices. Once again well done both the builder and the manufacturer. Excellent work.
matlee said:
And some photos from its first legal drive which went great apart from having a mars bar thrown at me and someone shouting wker
I think it looks awesome - definitely different. I think this is why all open roof cars should be fitted with machine guns so you can gun down the nasty people. ker
Thanks for all the positive feedback guys.
Now onto Phase 2!!!!
Dont get me wrong the Exocet is a nippy car. However, it feels much quicker than it is due to the open cabin, how low down you are, the amplified noise of everything and the fact that from where you are sitting you can actually see the drivers side suspension working along with the wheel, a feeling which even now still feels alien. Even so I'd imagine a 0-60 time of sub 6secs or there abouts.
But i wanted a bloody quick car!
So, soon after the IVA i started looking into turbo charging. Where as i had become familiar with all the workings of an MX5 over the previous 18months, to the point where id now be confident enough to diagnose and fix any NA MX5 problem, turbo charging was Greek to me!
So the next couple of weeks were spent frequenting numerous forums, asking some ultra newbie questions and trying to come to terms with all things IAT,BOV,TDO4,WB and AFR related.
Against all recommendations i decided to go down the 'band aid' route. This meant a turbo set up which would run off the stock ECU but would require the timing being retarded and a fuel regulator added into the mix. In other words in keeping with the whole redneck vibe of my build!
This set up would get me about me about 180bhp and i was confident i could have it done for less than £600 easily, very easily. So the hunt for the parts began....
First up was the turbo. Long story short i settled on a TD04 from an Impreza which seemed favoured with a lot of mx5 turbo builds. A few days later ebay came up trumps. 1 used TDO4 delivered to my door for £50
Something which i quickly realised, which im sure many others have as well, is that the turbo itself isnt the most expensive part in the world. Its everything else that goes with it that pushes the price up.
Obviously to get this turbo to fit i would need a modified manifold and down pipe. I was given the details of a guy in Slovakia who had recently started churning out custom made parts at a very reasonable price. Communications were made and an ordered placed. A week later this lot turned up...
Thats a manifold to suit the TD04 turbo, downpipe, gaskets, braided water feed and return, oil feed and return and a selections of washers,nuts and bolts all for £330 delivered. Bargain!
Before commencing the the installation i looked more into the whole turbo charging process and was having second thoughts about the whole stock ECU business and the retarding of the timing etc. So decided i would actually go down the 'stand alone' ECU route. Ok it would cost a bit more but it will be good for 240-260bhp. The thought of that in a car that weighs less than 700kgs excites me. A lot!
Once again, i was given a guys details who could help me out. This time though he was based in Greece. I explained to him that id be interested in one of his custom made ECUs (MegaSquirt 2) so exchanged a few emails regarding my requirements. What followed were questions which, at the time, were most certainly all Greek to me!
Needless to say we got there in the end and an order was place for a MegaSquirt 2 with basic settings. This came in at £420 delivered and due to the xmas post and a surge of orders placed with him it turned up about 4 weeks later.
This is what they describe as a plug'n'play and comes with a base map. So assuming everything goes ok i should be able to get the car up and running myself.
Next up on the list of parts were bigger injectors. I went for Yellow RX8 420cc injectors as these are a straight swap with the standard MX5 ones with no fannying about. I managed to source some that were currently on an MX5 and were being changed for even bigger ones. I got the set for £90.
Then it was onto a Wideband 02 sensor which, ive been told, is a must. I went for a PLX jobby. £100.
Another bit of gadgetry required is an Open Element IAT sensor to monitor the temps of the air being fed to the engine. £30.
Then it was onto the intercooler. Just a normal intercooler off ebay with a box of various fittings and silicone hoses. £140 all in.
Last but not least was the holy grail.....the thing that wet dreams are made of....the thing that can snap knicker elastic at twenty paces....all this of course if you are a pre pubescent teenager, but im not afraid to admit it i love the sound of them. Yep you guessed it....only a bloody dump valve!!!!
A genuine, used, Bailey dump valve for the price of half of a decent Dominos PIzza...£8!
Ok, so i had all my parts and was ready to take on the world!...unfortunately i wasnt ready to take on the task of removing the old manifold!
Bugger me sideways it was a nightmare to get off! It was eventually done with the only casualties being two manifold studs and my knuckles. I priced up new studs and Mazda OEM variants were about £6 each! A local motor factors sold 10 of them for £8. It was a no brainer.
I also started the task of 'clocking' the turbo so the oil return and air out pipe would both be facing downwards. This involved stripping the turbo and rotating the innards then reassembling it. No major issues achieving this.
It was then back onto the manifold. In my need to rush things i managed to cross thread 2 of the studs ruining the thread on the inside of the block. tt.
Back online i went to find a solution and it came in the form of a helicoil kit. I had never even heard of this kit before but ordered one anyway and when it turned up a few days later it worked a treat. Manifold and downpipe were on.
The intercooler was straight forward. I just knocked up some steel brackets, fitted the cooler then felt like an extra on the Krypton Factor when it came to routing the pipework.
Now it was onto the bit i had been dreading....drilling the oil sump to attach the oil return feed to. I read, and read and read some more. Watched tutorial videos of it and looked for an alternative....there wasnt one! I had however forgotten one rather important thing....how am i going to firstly drill the hole and secondly tap/thread the hole? I didnt have a drill bit big enough and i had never even seen a tap and die set let alone used one!
The usual suspects B&Q and the local builder merchants either didnt have the right size or wanted an extortionate amount for them. There was a Screwfix near by which had exactly what i needed but it wasnt open, infact it was still being built. So back to trusty ol'Ebay i went and relieved myself of £9 for the drill bit and tap.
The day came to attack the sump and you can only 'line up' the drill so many times before you actually have to start drilling. The location of the hole was measured more than once, a lot more! Anyway the hole was drilled without any drama but then it was onto creating the thread. I made sure i took more time on this than anything i ever have before and about 10minutes later i had a lovely 1.5mm pitched thread. There was something very satisfying on each turn of the tap when you could feel the metal being ground out.
I didnt have any photos of this but heres one from online
Im yet to flush out the sump for any filings which may be in there but its on the list of to do things.
It was then onto fitting the water lines. These just tapped into one of the existing water lines. Not exciting enough to warrant a photo. The oil feed tapped into a blanked off oil feed port already on the engine. That was very kind of Mazda.
Then it was onto the oil return line. School boy error time! It threaded into the tapped hole fine but due to how tight everything is i could not connect you to the underside of the turbo. The remedy?....remove the turbo, fit the line, re fit turbo. It was a hassle but wasnt the end of the world.
I was going to use the location of the narrow band 02 sensor for my new Wideband but was recommended other wise as it was to close to the turbo. I needed to get a bung welded further down the pipe. Luckily my sister's other half is a welder and was happy to weld the bugger on. Unluckily he had to take it into work with him to do it so it was time for more dismantling!
I decided to fir the IAT sensor on the intercooler which seems to be the optimum location. I had a bung for this that would need welding on again but the bung was stainless and the intercooler aluminium. It was time to make away with the bung and put the tap to good use again. The photos are self explanatory...
It was solid enough just threaded in but i had a bit of JB Weld laying around so strengthened it up a bit more with that
This was the air filter that was currently in the car. As much as i wanted to use it i just couldnt get it to fit
...so bought a normal cone type. Fitted lovely.
This then brings it pretty much up to date. Im just waiting on a bit of intercooler piping to come back to me with two stubs welded on to take the dump valve and the other to connect to the idle speed control thing. Then its the biggy...the connecting up of the new ECU and hoping it all it works!
I'll no doubt update it when this is done, regardless of the outcome, and then hopefully be content enough to actually enjoy the car and not look to change anything else on it!
The total cost of the turbo conversion has come in at well under £1500 which was my initial budget when deciding to go the stand alone ECU route.
If anyone is interested in all things Exocet related there's a great bunch over on the MEV owners site along with some big BHP builds including an LS1 powered Exocet!
Peace out.
sheepdip said:
Its just a shame that there is not a way of using such a comprehensive kit and not having to go down the IVA route. IMO you are using so much of the donor you should not need to go down the IVA route - real shame.
I know of one Exocet that is on the road as a 'heavily modified' MX5. I was considering this, very grey, route to save the cost of the iva but when the sums were done i would have been worse off. For example the insurance on a heavily modified MX5 for me came in at £1200. Fully comp insurance on my Exocet (post IVA) is £94 a year (...you read right, £94!!!). Now onto Phase 2!!!!
Dont get me wrong the Exocet is a nippy car. However, it feels much quicker than it is due to the open cabin, how low down you are, the amplified noise of everything and the fact that from where you are sitting you can actually see the drivers side suspension working along with the wheel, a feeling which even now still feels alien. Even so I'd imagine a 0-60 time of sub 6secs or there abouts.
But i wanted a bloody quick car!
So, soon after the IVA i started looking into turbo charging. Where as i had become familiar with all the workings of an MX5 over the previous 18months, to the point where id now be confident enough to diagnose and fix any NA MX5 problem, turbo charging was Greek to me!
So the next couple of weeks were spent frequenting numerous forums, asking some ultra newbie questions and trying to come to terms with all things IAT,BOV,TDO4,WB and AFR related.
Against all recommendations i decided to go down the 'band aid' route. This meant a turbo set up which would run off the stock ECU but would require the timing being retarded and a fuel regulator added into the mix. In other words in keeping with the whole redneck vibe of my build!
This set up would get me about me about 180bhp and i was confident i could have it done for less than £600 easily, very easily. So the hunt for the parts began....
First up was the turbo. Long story short i settled on a TD04 from an Impreza which seemed favoured with a lot of mx5 turbo builds. A few days later ebay came up trumps. 1 used TDO4 delivered to my door for £50
Something which i quickly realised, which im sure many others have as well, is that the turbo itself isnt the most expensive part in the world. Its everything else that goes with it that pushes the price up.
Obviously to get this turbo to fit i would need a modified manifold and down pipe. I was given the details of a guy in Slovakia who had recently started churning out custom made parts at a very reasonable price. Communications were made and an ordered placed. A week later this lot turned up...
Thats a manifold to suit the TD04 turbo, downpipe, gaskets, braided water feed and return, oil feed and return and a selections of washers,nuts and bolts all for £330 delivered. Bargain!
Before commencing the the installation i looked more into the whole turbo charging process and was having second thoughts about the whole stock ECU business and the retarding of the timing etc. So decided i would actually go down the 'stand alone' ECU route. Ok it would cost a bit more but it will be good for 240-260bhp. The thought of that in a car that weighs less than 700kgs excites me. A lot!
Once again, i was given a guys details who could help me out. This time though he was based in Greece. I explained to him that id be interested in one of his custom made ECUs (MegaSquirt 2) so exchanged a few emails regarding my requirements. What followed were questions which, at the time, were most certainly all Greek to me!
Needless to say we got there in the end and an order was place for a MegaSquirt 2 with basic settings. This came in at £420 delivered and due to the xmas post and a surge of orders placed with him it turned up about 4 weeks later.
This is what they describe as a plug'n'play and comes with a base map. So assuming everything goes ok i should be able to get the car up and running myself.
Next up on the list of parts were bigger injectors. I went for Yellow RX8 420cc injectors as these are a straight swap with the standard MX5 ones with no fannying about. I managed to source some that were currently on an MX5 and were being changed for even bigger ones. I got the set for £90.
Then it was onto a Wideband 02 sensor which, ive been told, is a must. I went for a PLX jobby. £100.
Another bit of gadgetry required is an Open Element IAT sensor to monitor the temps of the air being fed to the engine. £30.
Then it was onto the intercooler. Just a normal intercooler off ebay with a box of various fittings and silicone hoses. £140 all in.
Last but not least was the holy grail.....the thing that wet dreams are made of....the thing that can snap knicker elastic at twenty paces....all this of course if you are a pre pubescent teenager, but im not afraid to admit it i love the sound of them. Yep you guessed it....only a bloody dump valve!!!!
A genuine, used, Bailey dump valve for the price of half of a decent Dominos PIzza...£8!
Ok, so i had all my parts and was ready to take on the world!...unfortunately i wasnt ready to take on the task of removing the old manifold!
Bugger me sideways it was a nightmare to get off! It was eventually done with the only casualties being two manifold studs and my knuckles. I priced up new studs and Mazda OEM variants were about £6 each! A local motor factors sold 10 of them for £8. It was a no brainer.
I also started the task of 'clocking' the turbo so the oil return and air out pipe would both be facing downwards. This involved stripping the turbo and rotating the innards then reassembling it. No major issues achieving this.
It was then back onto the manifold. In my need to rush things i managed to cross thread 2 of the studs ruining the thread on the inside of the block. t
t. Back online i went to find a solution and it came in the form of a helicoil kit. I had never even heard of this kit before but ordered one anyway and when it turned up a few days later it worked a treat. Manifold and downpipe were on.
The intercooler was straight forward. I just knocked up some steel brackets, fitted the cooler then felt like an extra on the Krypton Factor when it came to routing the pipework.
Now it was onto the bit i had been dreading....drilling the oil sump to attach the oil return feed to. I read, and read and read some more. Watched tutorial videos of it and looked for an alternative....there wasnt one! I had however forgotten one rather important thing....how am i going to firstly drill the hole and secondly tap/thread the hole? I didnt have a drill bit big enough and i had never even seen a tap and die set let alone used one!
The usual suspects B&Q and the local builder merchants either didnt have the right size or wanted an extortionate amount for them. There was a Screwfix near by which had exactly what i needed but it wasnt open, infact it was still being built. So back to trusty ol'Ebay i went and relieved myself of £9 for the drill bit and tap.
The day came to attack the sump and you can only 'line up' the drill so many times before you actually have to start drilling. The location of the hole was measured more than once, a lot more! Anyway the hole was drilled without any drama but then it was onto creating the thread. I made sure i took more time on this than anything i ever have before and about 10minutes later i had a lovely 1.5mm pitched thread. There was something very satisfying on each turn of the tap when you could feel the metal being ground out.
I didnt have any photos of this but heres one from online
Im yet to flush out the sump for any filings which may be in there but its on the list of to do things.
It was then onto fitting the water lines. These just tapped into one of the existing water lines. Not exciting enough to warrant a photo. The oil feed tapped into a blanked off oil feed port already on the engine. That was very kind of Mazda.
Then it was onto the oil return line. School boy error time! It threaded into the tapped hole fine but due to how tight everything is i could not connect you to the underside of the turbo. The remedy?....remove the turbo, fit the line, re fit turbo. It was a hassle but wasnt the end of the world.
I was going to use the location of the narrow band 02 sensor for my new Wideband but was recommended other wise as it was to close to the turbo. I needed to get a bung welded further down the pipe. Luckily my sister's other half is a welder and was happy to weld the bugger on. Unluckily he had to take it into work with him to do it so it was time for more dismantling!
I decided to fir the IAT sensor on the intercooler which seems to be the optimum location. I had a bung for this that would need welding on again but the bung was stainless and the intercooler aluminium. It was time to make away with the bung and put the tap to good use again. The photos are self explanatory...
It was solid enough just threaded in but i had a bit of JB Weld laying around so strengthened it up a bit more with that
This was the air filter that was currently in the car. As much as i wanted to use it i just couldnt get it to fit
...so bought a normal cone type. Fitted lovely.
This then brings it pretty much up to date. Im just waiting on a bit of intercooler piping to come back to me with two stubs welded on to take the dump valve and the other to connect to the idle speed control thing. Then its the biggy...the connecting up of the new ECU and hoping it all it works!
I'll no doubt update it when this is done, regardless of the outcome, and then hopefully be content enough to actually enjoy the car and not look to change anything else on it!
The total cost of the turbo conversion has come in at well under £1500 which was my initial budget when deciding to go the stand alone ECU route.
If anyone is interested in all things Exocet related there's a great bunch over on the MEV owners site along with some big BHP builds including an LS1 powered Exocet!
Peace out.
Edited by matlee on Monday 6th January 21:29
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