MX5 NC/Mk3s, general geekery, a track car, engines and me.
Discussion
I build fast road and competition engines for a living and usually write about Fiat/Lancia engines and stuff I know about (I've just done a bit for PPC mag) and have always driven older basic (but interesting) cars. The Mazdas being newer have some odd modern quirks to get used to, so here is my technical thread mainly about making a fast road, but mainly track car from an NC. Sorry there be no fitting of fancy light bulbs, stripes, trinkets or much polishing 
There are two cars in this thread, track and road, both grey (Metropolitan and the track car is Galaxy), but it'll mainly be about the track car.
So here is me in my usual sardonic style doing things to an NC, It'll be a bit like the Fiat/Lancia engine thread and (almost) in real time with badly thought out long term future plans thrown in. This is dangerous, the World is littered with half finished projects that were started with the best of intentions, but there isn't much I can do about that apart from be safe in the knowledge that any mini Evos will not be getting in the way of progress, work, lack of money, death, ill health, house or workshop moves may do so.
I've tapped up a few people for the odd bit of info here and there over the past few months so if you're one of those reading this then a big thanks to you. I love learning new stuff, soaking it all up like a sponge.
It began a year ago when the mid life crisis hit its peak, you get to a certain stage when all kinds of physical problems crop up and you realise you'd better get stuck in because you won't be able to do it someday and that day is getting closer quicker
I bought a Sport tech in really lovely condition, am still enjoying it and wrote about my first impressions on here, it was (and still is) great, but as it is a very good standard example I didn't want to fiddle or spend money devaluing it. I needed something to mess with and spend/waste money on to give some pleasure on track. Being a geek I gain great satisfaction from learning and invest great amounts of time & some money into it.
Being in Yorks I'm not a million miles from Blyton Park too which is the usual haunt for the Northern MX5 track driver.
So I set about finding a project car and went through the usual process of it bringing out the very worst in people with them being evasive, greedy, being lied to (normal at this level of budget) etc to find the right one.
"Oh I have no idea how that came to be, I bought it like that" No you didn't, you know all about it.
"It really doesn't leak"
"Why is it dripping with condensation inside and soaking wet under the mat?"
"It isn't",
"I see", dries hands on trousers.
"No i'm not available to speak to you about the car" = I don't want to lie to you in person, the advert is lacking in detail for a good reason.
As you can gather, I don't gain a lot of enjoyment from dealing with people when buying and selling cars
I mean don't get me wrong, there are some really honest and lovely people around to deal with (like the ones I bought the road car from), they just seem so hard to find.
I had cause to head up to the North East for the weekend with the OH and a possible purchase came up there at the same time so I figured it was time to get serious, scraped together some folding and appeared on some young kids rented/mothers house doorstep some hrs later. He lied through his teeth about various things, but I beat him down and we came to a mutual financial agreement. It ticked most of the boxes; 2ltr, early 'oval mouth' bumper, soft top, Sports model, no rust on top, looking relatively solid and low mileage (52 K) had been fiddled with and in need of being fiddled with some more.
I wouldn't be spoiling a good one, but it's presentable.
I would recommend running a mile from anything showing rust on top, they start corroding underneath and it works its way around, by the time you can see it up there you can bet it's twice as bad underneath and needing welding.
A little edit here: If I was doing this again, I wouldn't buy the Sport model, it seemed like a good idea at the time, but most, if not all the Sport parts have been binned or sold off for peanuts.
I initially found the rear to be wallowing all over the place and soon found the tyres had barely any pressure in them. The strange hissing noise from behind my head was not a leaking tyre, but probably a drain tube sealing flap not seating, this is put down to being 'rodded' and is a bit like swallowing your tongue except it leaves the air way open and not closed. The sound isn't unlike putting a shell to your ear, but it's the sound of the road, not the sea.
A pic from the Ad here, as it transpired the car had been lightly modded, but all the bits taken off for the sale. The owner denied all knowledge, but if you look carefully you can see a very badly rolled rear wheel arch to clear some big wheels.
Up on the lift I set to with the angry grinder underneath on all the surface rust, It went through at one point (rear of cill, just in front of the rear wheel) so out with a cutting disc and welder. There are some oval holes under there too, I have been told they were used for tying the cars down during transit and should have been blocked off with a rubber cap before sale, sadly they weren't...
When they are being made Mazda put masking tape over various parts of the underside (mainly fixing points) and actually miss out important areas when undersealing, this means it's patchy at best with many areas just finished in nothing but primer.
It looks worse than it is and at least it's lighter now, the ground off rusty areas were given a coat of Rustbuster's award winning Epoxy mastic, stone chip and cavities injected with rust killing waxy Dinitrol. I also removed some of the easy to undo rear suspension arms, braces and floor pan guards which were merrily rusting away and gave them the same treatment after they'd been in the blasting cabinet. What hasn't been done now, will be done later when it comes off, unless.... Hmmm, well we'll get back to that later. My background is Italian cars and rust so i'm very sensitive and not lacking in knowledge about it!
The usual dried out leaking foam washers in the scuttle were pulled out and the gap sealed up to stop the leak. Tacky mesh grille removed and stuck on Ebay to be replaced by a more efficient original.
I'm a dealer for Meister so some CRD+ were purchased and fitted. (if you need any let me know, good deals for fellow PHers) As the car now sits much lower and the suspension is designed to create more camber the more it's compressed (camber curve) there is now a huge gap between wheel and arch, the NC has much more camber curve than earlier models. I was wondering how I could fit wider wheels & tyres on, now i'm an outlet for Rota wheels.
A set of matt black Titan 17 x 9 with 245 AR1s were fitted, as you can imagine the amount of grip is huge, the downside is of course a bit of a clumsy feel to it, but you can't have everything. A lighter colour wheel would have looked better perhaps as it makes the wheel look bigger, the matt black makes the wheels appear smaller, but white and silver are harder to keep clean.
As you will know there are two basic styles of lift used in workshops, two post and four post, they both have pros and cons, but two posts do have more advantages so are more commonly used. They do however have the disadvantage of not supporting the car on its wheels when:
A. You need to do the geometry and
B. When you need to do things like weld cills on.
To get around this some time ago I made some four legged bar stools (for Giraffes). I can lift cars up, insert these under each wheel, drop the lift down and perform the aforementioned jobs unimpeded.
Tools needed for setting wheel geometry are some stretchy builders string, a ruler, steering wheel clamp and camber/castor gauge. Oh and if you're an engine builder some gauge blocks.
Lasers are very useful, but used mainly for speed, they don't do the actual job any better.
So off I went for a few hours and got a bit carried away, I returned home at approx 11pm to find the OH looking a bit grumpy. She loves me really and the car handles great, Mazdas tolerance is about +/- 5mm or something silly so me being within .5 was ok. Will I notice this extreme accuracy and benefit from it? Louis Hamilton I am not, but it'll make me feel warm and fuzzy inside. Haha, this is a bit of a poke at the MX5 people on internet forums who compare all their settings, talking about £150 setting charges, fancy print outs, how 1mm has made a huge difference, so and so's top secret recipe and then they're all nearly the same barring a mm or two here and there.
The later models of NC actually had engine induction noise piped into the cabin to make them appear more sporty! I'd always wondered what that weird pipework was for. I made up a bung for it on the lathe and blocked it off
The other bizarre thing Mazda have done is put an oil pressure gauge on the dash which doesn't measure oil pressure at all. It takes the signal from the water temp sensor, the rev counter, blends them together and works the needle from the result of that. I'm going to fit a proper aftermarket gauge later.
I gave it a full service and changed all fluids. The last owner told me (as I was drawing out the dipstick) that "These cars really do dirty their oil quickly" What he really meant to say was he'd never changed the oil. I said nothing, but used it as a bargaining tool later. The oil purists will be livid as I put a 10/60 in, it isn't going to have an easy life or be used for short journeys in Winter etc..
The exhaust manifold is a piece of crap with a cat hanging off it so a lightly used Racing Beat manifold was sourced for half its original value and it's a lovely high quality piece of kit, I blocked off the EGR passageway with a couple of home made bungs, took the brackets off the original manifold/cat and welded them onto the new one so the heat shields could be re-fitted.
Given it's track use only I figured it was morally ok to cut out the centre cat and replace it with a pipe for now, the Lambada sensors were reused and re-sited so they should still work and not trigger the code light. A full SS system will come later on when the engine is done.
More to follow soon
There are two cars in this thread, track and road, both grey (Metropolitan and the track car is Galaxy), but it'll mainly be about the track car.
So here is me in my usual sardonic style doing things to an NC, It'll be a bit like the Fiat/Lancia engine thread and (almost) in real time with badly thought out long term future plans thrown in. This is dangerous, the World is littered with half finished projects that were started with the best of intentions, but there isn't much I can do about that apart from be safe in the knowledge that any mini Evos will not be getting in the way of progress, work, lack of money, death, ill health, house or workshop moves may do so.
I've tapped up a few people for the odd bit of info here and there over the past few months so if you're one of those reading this then a big thanks to you. I love learning new stuff, soaking it all up like a sponge.
It began a year ago when the mid life crisis hit its peak, you get to a certain stage when all kinds of physical problems crop up and you realise you'd better get stuck in because you won't be able to do it someday and that day is getting closer quicker
I bought a Sport tech in really lovely condition, am still enjoying it and wrote about my first impressions on here, it was (and still is) great, but as it is a very good standard example I didn't want to fiddle or spend money devaluing it. I needed something to mess with and spend/waste money on to give some pleasure on track. Being a geek I gain great satisfaction from learning and invest great amounts of time & some money into it.
Being in Yorks I'm not a million miles from Blyton Park too which is the usual haunt for the Northern MX5 track driver.
So I set about finding a project car and went through the usual process of it bringing out the very worst in people with them being evasive, greedy, being lied to (normal at this level of budget) etc to find the right one.
"Oh I have no idea how that came to be, I bought it like that" No you didn't, you know all about it.
"It really doesn't leak"
"Why is it dripping with condensation inside and soaking wet under the mat?"
"It isn't",
"I see", dries hands on trousers.
"No i'm not available to speak to you about the car" = I don't want to lie to you in person, the advert is lacking in detail for a good reason.
As you can gather, I don't gain a lot of enjoyment from dealing with people when buying and selling cars
I mean don't get me wrong, there are some really honest and lovely people around to deal with (like the ones I bought the road car from), they just seem so hard to find.I had cause to head up to the North East for the weekend with the OH and a possible purchase came up there at the same time so I figured it was time to get serious, scraped together some folding and appeared on some young kids rented/mothers house doorstep some hrs later. He lied through his teeth about various things, but I beat him down and we came to a mutual financial agreement. It ticked most of the boxes; 2ltr, early 'oval mouth' bumper, soft top, Sports model, no rust on top, looking relatively solid and low mileage (52 K) had been fiddled with and in need of being fiddled with some more.
I wouldn't be spoiling a good one, but it's presentable.
I would recommend running a mile from anything showing rust on top, they start corroding underneath and it works its way around, by the time you can see it up there you can bet it's twice as bad underneath and needing welding.
A little edit here: If I was doing this again, I wouldn't buy the Sport model, it seemed like a good idea at the time, but most, if not all the Sport parts have been binned or sold off for peanuts.
I initially found the rear to be wallowing all over the place and soon found the tyres had barely any pressure in them. The strange hissing noise from behind my head was not a leaking tyre, but probably a drain tube sealing flap not seating, this is put down to being 'rodded' and is a bit like swallowing your tongue except it leaves the air way open and not closed. The sound isn't unlike putting a shell to your ear, but it's the sound of the road, not the sea.
A pic from the Ad here, as it transpired the car had been lightly modded, but all the bits taken off for the sale. The owner denied all knowledge, but if you look carefully you can see a very badly rolled rear wheel arch to clear some big wheels.
Up on the lift I set to with the angry grinder underneath on all the surface rust, It went through at one point (rear of cill, just in front of the rear wheel) so out with a cutting disc and welder. There are some oval holes under there too, I have been told they were used for tying the cars down during transit and should have been blocked off with a rubber cap before sale, sadly they weren't...
When they are being made Mazda put masking tape over various parts of the underside (mainly fixing points) and actually miss out important areas when undersealing, this means it's patchy at best with many areas just finished in nothing but primer.
It looks worse than it is and at least it's lighter now, the ground off rusty areas were given a coat of Rustbuster's award winning Epoxy mastic, stone chip and cavities injected with rust killing waxy Dinitrol. I also removed some of the easy to undo rear suspension arms, braces and floor pan guards which were merrily rusting away and gave them the same treatment after they'd been in the blasting cabinet. What hasn't been done now, will be done later when it comes off, unless.... Hmmm, well we'll get back to that later. My background is Italian cars and rust so i'm very sensitive and not lacking in knowledge about it!
The usual dried out leaking foam washers in the scuttle were pulled out and the gap sealed up to stop the leak. Tacky mesh grille removed and stuck on Ebay to be replaced by a more efficient original.
I'm a dealer for Meister so some CRD+ were purchased and fitted. (if you need any let me know, good deals for fellow PHers) As the car now sits much lower and the suspension is designed to create more camber the more it's compressed (camber curve) there is now a huge gap between wheel and arch, the NC has much more camber curve than earlier models. I was wondering how I could fit wider wheels & tyres on, now i'm an outlet for Rota wheels.
A set of matt black Titan 17 x 9 with 245 AR1s were fitted, as you can imagine the amount of grip is huge, the downside is of course a bit of a clumsy feel to it, but you can't have everything. A lighter colour wheel would have looked better perhaps as it makes the wheel look bigger, the matt black makes the wheels appear smaller, but white and silver are harder to keep clean.
As you will know there are two basic styles of lift used in workshops, two post and four post, they both have pros and cons, but two posts do have more advantages so are more commonly used. They do however have the disadvantage of not supporting the car on its wheels when:
A. You need to do the geometry and
B. When you need to do things like weld cills on.
To get around this some time ago I made some four legged bar stools (for Giraffes). I can lift cars up, insert these under each wheel, drop the lift down and perform the aforementioned jobs unimpeded.
Tools needed for setting wheel geometry are some stretchy builders string, a ruler, steering wheel clamp and camber/castor gauge. Oh and if you're an engine builder some gauge blocks.
Lasers are very useful, but used mainly for speed, they don't do the actual job any better.
So off I went for a few hours and got a bit carried away, I returned home at approx 11pm to find the OH looking a bit grumpy. She loves me really and the car handles great, Mazdas tolerance is about +/- 5mm or something silly so me being within .5 was ok. Will I notice this extreme accuracy and benefit from it? Louis Hamilton I am not, but it'll make me feel warm and fuzzy inside. Haha, this is a bit of a poke at the MX5 people on internet forums who compare all their settings, talking about £150 setting charges, fancy print outs, how 1mm has made a huge difference, so and so's top secret recipe and then they're all nearly the same barring a mm or two here and there.
The later models of NC actually had engine induction noise piped into the cabin to make them appear more sporty! I'd always wondered what that weird pipework was for. I made up a bung for it on the lathe and blocked it off
The other bizarre thing Mazda have done is put an oil pressure gauge on the dash which doesn't measure oil pressure at all. It takes the signal from the water temp sensor, the rev counter, blends them together and works the needle from the result of that. I'm going to fit a proper aftermarket gauge later.
I gave it a full service and changed all fluids. The last owner told me (as I was drawing out the dipstick) that "These cars really do dirty their oil quickly" What he really meant to say was he'd never changed the oil. I said nothing, but used it as a bargaining tool later. The oil purists will be livid as I put a 10/60 in, it isn't going to have an easy life or be used for short journeys in Winter etc..
The exhaust manifold is a piece of crap with a cat hanging off it so a lightly used Racing Beat manifold was sourced for half its original value and it's a lovely high quality piece of kit, I blocked off the EGR passageway with a couple of home made bungs, took the brackets off the original manifold/cat and welded them onto the new one so the heat shields could be re-fitted.
Given it's track use only I figured it was morally ok to cut out the centre cat and replace it with a pipe for now, the Lambada sensors were reused and re-sited so they should still work and not trigger the code light. A full SS system will come later on when the engine is done.
More to follow soon
Edited by Evoluzione on Sunday 14th April 11:42
MagicalTrevor said:
Excellent thread so far, what plans do you have for it?
Still tossing ideas around tbh, maybe something like this 
but we'll see.
Part two.
So here is where it's at right now:
As far as engine work is concerned that's all i'm doing for now, I just hope i'll get some track use out of it 'as is' for a while. The grip and power used to be a fair balance, now it's gone far too much one way and I think the lack of power will quickly get a little boring or frustrating on a wide open track.
One of the reasons i'm not going too far with this engine is this:
It's an accident damaged Mazda 6 I bought in Scotland. Some people will now know where this is going....
So began a difficult day. I got up early, drove my van onto the paddock to hitch up the trailer where due to the incessant recent rain it promptly sank. I jacked it up and managed to get it free of the mud where a few yards later it sank again.
After an hour or so of rolling around in the mud I resembled a large old sweating pig so I saw sense, realised soon I wouldn't be able to get to Scotland & back and phoned a friend. I have friends in high places, 6ft high places:
A few minutes later it's dragged me, van & trailer out, the chap is happy with his payment of home made cider (or he will be when he's slid off his chair cross-eyed and dribbling that night) and i'm on my way.
If anyone knows anything about Vivaros you will know they are known for chewing up gearboxes, it's an epidemic that Vauxhall and Renault know all about, but have also done bugger all about over the years. 2.5CDI engines are also very powerful things and they get hungry, this one certainly did and it chewed noisily on the gearbox all the way to Scotland and back. It lost 6th on the final leg, pissed out oil and I only just made it home, I really do mean just. The next day it wouldn't drive at all, it's completely locked up. The box is completely dead, add another job to the ever growing list....
Apart from the bad start and the lunched box the day was relatively incident free, I would much rather head North than South from Yorkshire, the scenery is epic and the roads just get better and better the further you go. Viv tows well and where applicable (quiet motorways) it'll drag poorly (and portly) Mazda 6s up hill and down dale easily and relentlessly in 6th and eat its gearbox at the same time with no issues. It did actually slow down at some points, I thought it was engine issues, it felt like the turbo giving up, but now I know it was parts of the 'box seizing up and being torn apart.
So I returned home late with my prize, I had to hear it run before I went to bed so out with the jump leads, worked out how to start a keyless car and it runs fine. As I pointed out earlier I have no experience with new cars so sat in this for a bit and pressed some random fancy looking buttons whilst it warmed up, the car informed me it was dialling emergency services, haha yeah I thought, what are you doing, calling Mazda Assist to tell them you've been in an accident. My thoughts were cut short by an actual human being asking me which emergency service I required, WTF??!! I sheepishly explained what i'd done, apologised and let her cut me off. Ooops.
So if you don't know, then why the 6? Aha, well the '5 has a Duratec fitted, the Duratec came in modular forms of 1.8, 2.0, 2.3 and a 2.5, the latter being quite rare and the one i've got. They are all physically the same on the outside so in typical Ford fashion are interchangeable.
The 2.5 offers similar BHP to the 2 litre, but more torque (about 20 ft/lbs IIRC) and of course much lower down in the rev range. It shouldn't weigh much more at all, so a bit of a win-win situation. Admittedly it is an engine for a family taxi or pickup truck so (like the origins of a Dodge Viper engine) whilst most of the advantage is there in the CC it can be a bit pipe and slippers for a high revving track car so improvements will be made, although running it up and down the yard shows it to be surprisingly quick to pick up and yes, very torquey.
Four cylinder engines are naturally unbalanced and there is not one thing you can do about it apart from fight or oppose it with Lanchester or balancer shafts. The bigger the engine gets (mainly in stroke) the worse the vibration gets and the modern method is to fit a removable balance shaft cassette onto the bottom of the engine. The aforementioned Renault 2.5 CDTI engine had the shafts on when used in a car, but not in the van so it's a bit tractor like. It has to be to drown out the gearbox noise.
It's a tight fit in the '6 is the engine and box. I disconnected everything from it and looked down from above, that wasn't going to work very easily so I looked up from below. It wasn't going to go up very well either.
I resorted to looking on the 'net, in particular on Youtube where there are some comical clips of people trying to shoehorn them out.
I realised it came out of the front so removed everything in the way and pulled it out, there are mms to spare it's so tight.
When I was running the car round in the yard I noticed a very loud knocking noise from the rear, also a sloshing noise when braking to a halt. Up in the air in the workshop it turned out someone had put the rear wheel nuts on just a few finger turns, good job I didn't drive it for long or far
I was yanking off some undertrays and heat proofing when I exposed a small hole in the spare wheel well and was given an impromptu shower:
Ah so that's what the sloshing noise was all about, it filled half a bucket too
Back to the engine.
The Duratec 2.5 also has a balancer shaft cassette bolted on underneath, I'm told it'll have to come off if it is to fit in the MX5 and can see why as the sump hangs lower and fouls the front and rear lower crossmembers.
I do like the idea of a smooth engine though, so am going to try my utmost to retain them with a redesigned sump.
See here is the thing, many years ago with older tech and cars you had to make a choice - track car or road car? You couldn't do both successfully, but as time has wore on the gap has closed up a bit and it is more possible to be having some cake and eating it too. Take the suspension for instance, Meister do a track biased or road biased set up. I went for the track biased option, yet it's surprisingly ok for road use. It's set on its softest and yes the OH's boobies jiggle a bit more over the bumps, but it's not too bad, not too bad at all (the ride and the boobs). I was expecting it to bang and crash over the bumps, but it doesn't. They've made the first few mm of damper travel very compliant.
Suspension is a very much opinionated topic, it's about where you've come from, your past experiences, your comparisons and very rarely fact. When I first got into a '5 with standard Sport Bilsteins I thought it was fantastic, one of the best things i'd ever driven, but now I notice how it is a bit harsh over the bumps.
Initially the plan is to turbo it, I could go mental here and create some 500bhp monster so I can wave my cock around, at first I thought it'll be a bit too much for a 2wd lightweight car and was going to go for say 300, but now it's shod with wide sticky rubber and better suspension we'll see. Here is where we're back to having cake, a powerful engine which goes well on the road and track should be possible. We've got stuff like intelligent boost control, swirl flaps, variable length intakes, VVT, balancer shafts etc which IF I can keep them will all help it on the road and not hold it back on track. Yeah If....
So lots of plans, i've noted a few things in the engine bay which I can relocate and modify, the alternator (and maybe ABS module) can be moved to allow a turbo to be mounted lower down (instead of high up like most do), new coolant expansion tank can be relocated in front of the scuttle where there is a big space and things like that.
I'll either buy the bits or just a whole scrapped RX8 to transfer parts over from that, it's got much beefier front and rear suspension, hubs and diff. The two cars are quite similar under the skin in many ways, one can be used to upgrade the other.
Next weekend is a trip to Wales to pick up a hard top and I'm waiting for the bodyshop bloke to blend in the rear arches too, he promised he'd do it weeks ago, took the car and has done nothing which has slowed progress. The idiot who owned it before me went mad with the arch roller, buggered them up and then denied all knowledge! I just took advantage of what was there and stuck the wider wheels & tyres on.
I don't think i'll actually fit in it If I go for a full cage, so a braced rear hoop with side bars will eventually be ordered from GC Fabs.
I must apologise for the rotation of the pics, i'll be taking them with my camera from now on If I remember, I think we're more or less up to date now.
Edited by Evoluzione on Wednesday 27th March 10:18
A good read, OP. Definitely looking forward to seeing how you get on with this, you're clearly confident with swinging a few spanners about. I also feel like I need to go and read your Fiat/Lancia thread now!
I've had my 2013 NC since September and absolutely love it. It was only on 7k miles when I bought it and it's now on 11k. I wish I'd got into MX5s years ago. I did go to view/drive a mk1 RS Ltd a long time ago (complete with Kevlar seats!) and for some daft reason I bought something else instead.
You're not far from Blyton then? You can't be far from me in that case, cos I'm not either. Where abouts are you? I'm going for my first track day at Blyton on June 3rd.
So far, I've gone for Meister CRDs, 17x8 OZ Leggera HLTs, Kumho PS79s (I read good things about them and they are pretty good) and a Blink fast road alignment. I've also (just today, in fact) got my Tillet B5 seat fitted properly, after having had it kind-of fitted for a few weeks. What an improvement over the standard seat! I'm just over 6ft tall, broad shouldered, and nearly 16st and I found I was perched on top of the car before - now I'm almost sat on the floor and feel like I'm properly "in" the car. It completely changes how the car feels. I've just got to fit the passenger seat now.
I've had my 2013 NC since September and absolutely love it. It was only on 7k miles when I bought it and it's now on 11k. I wish I'd got into MX5s years ago. I did go to view/drive a mk1 RS Ltd a long time ago (complete with Kevlar seats!) and for some daft reason I bought something else instead.
You're not far from Blyton then? You can't be far from me in that case, cos I'm not either. Where abouts are you? I'm going for my first track day at Blyton on June 3rd.
So far, I've gone for Meister CRDs, 17x8 OZ Leggera HLTs, Kumho PS79s (I read good things about them and they are pretty good) and a Blink fast road alignment. I've also (just today, in fact) got my Tillet B5 seat fitted properly, after having had it kind-of fitted for a few weeks. What an improvement over the standard seat! I'm just over 6ft tall, broad shouldered, and nearly 16st and I found I was perched on top of the car before - now I'm almost sat on the floor and feel like I'm properly "in" the car. It completely changes how the car feels. I've just got to fit the passenger seat now.
Edited by 5er on Saturday 4th August 17:38
5er said:
A good read, OP. Definitely looking forward to seeing how you get on with this, you're clearly confident with swinging a few spanners about. I also feel like I need to go and read your Fiat/Lancia thread now!
I've had my 2013 NC since September and absolutely love it. It was only on 7k miles when I bought it and it's now on 11k. I wish I'd got into MX5s years ago. I did go to view/drive a mk1 RS Ltd a long time ago (complete with Kevlar seats!) and for some daft reason I bought something else instead.
You're not far from Blyton then? You can't be far from me in that case, cos I'm not either. Where abouts are you? I'm going for my first track day at Blyton on June 3rd.
So far, I've gone for Meister CRDs, 17x8 OZ Leggera HLTs, Kumho PS79s (I read good things about them and they are pretty good) and a Blink fast road alignment. I've also (just today, in fact) got my Tillet B5 seat fitted properly, after having had it kind-of fitted for a few weeks. What an improvement over the standard seat! I'm just over 6ft tall, broad shouldered, and nearly 16st and I found I was perched on top of the car before - now I'm almost sat on the floor and feel like I'm properly "in" the car. It completely changes how the car feels. I've just got to fit the passenger seat now.
Next up I'm either going for the Blink or BBR 200bhp upgrade. I've heard good stuff about Skuzzle, but they're rather far away.
Well its young enough to benefit well from some cavity wax injection and successful patching up of the rusty bits underneath if you're into the preservation kind of thing.I've had my 2013 NC since September and absolutely love it. It was only on 7k miles when I bought it and it's now on 11k. I wish I'd got into MX5s years ago. I did go to view/drive a mk1 RS Ltd a long time ago (complete with Kevlar seats!) and for some daft reason I bought something else instead.
You're not far from Blyton then? You can't be far from me in that case, cos I'm not either. Where abouts are you? I'm going for my first track day at Blyton on June 3rd.
So far, I've gone for Meister CRDs, 17x8 OZ Leggera HLTs, Kumho PS79s (I read good things about them and they are pretty good) and a Blink fast road alignment. I've also (just today, in fact) got my Tillet B5 seat fitted properly, after having had it kind-of fitted for a few weeks. What an improvement over the standard seat! I'm just over 6ft tall, broad shouldered, and nearly 16st and I found I was perched on top of the car before - now I'm almost sat on the floor and feel like I'm properly "in" the car. It completely changes how the car feels. I've just got to fit the passenger seat now.
Next up I'm either going for the Blink or BBR 200bhp upgrade. I've heard good stuff about Skuzzle, but they're rather far away.
It's possible you didn't fit in the Mk1, the size of the NC was my first reason for buying it.
I'm not near to Blyton, i'm near Leeds, it's just my nearest track at 70 odd miles away. Donington is only about 10 miles further though, but as the car is now it's suits Blyton better. I've had bigger cars there which didn't suit so looking forward to driving the '5 there. Donington will suit it better when it has more power.
If the people who are fixing bodywork and replacing broken gearboxes get moving a bit quicker i'll be out there too.
Edited by Evoluzione on Monday 7th May 21:51
Evoluzione said:
Well its young enough to benefit well from some cavity wax injection and successful patching up of the rusty bits underneath if you're into the preservation kind of thing.
It's possible you didn't fit in the Mk1, the size of the NC was the first reason for buying it.
I'm not near to Blyton, i'm near Leeds, it's just my nearest track at 70 odd miles away. Donington is only about 10 miles further though, but as the car is now it's suits Blyton better. I've had bigger cars there which didn't suit so looking forward to driving the '5 there. Donington will suit it better when it has more power.
If the people who are fixing bodywork and replacing broken gearboxes get moving a bit quicker i'll be out there too.
I do intend to get it properly weather proofed. It's possible you didn't fit in the Mk1, the size of the NC was the first reason for buying it.
I'm not near to Blyton, i'm near Leeds, it's just my nearest track at 70 odd miles away. Donington is only about 10 miles further though, but as the car is now it's suits Blyton better. I've had bigger cars there which didn't suit so looking forward to driving the '5 there. Donington will suit it better when it has more power.
If the people who are fixing bodywork and replacing broken gearboxes get moving a bit quicker i'll be out there too.
Maybe see you there at Blyton then. I'm about half an hour away so going to try and get there as much as possible, that and Cadwell.
Ah, you’re Martin C from the Facebook group, we’ve been chatting recently! I’m Andrew O.
Nice project.
I’ve considered a 2.5l upgrade but need to work out just how identical the engines are as in Sprinting, the MSA regulations (rules) state.
“11.5.1. For Road-Going Series Production Cars, the cylinder block and cylinder head must remain in the original position and be externally identifiable as that fitted to the original model or specified option. Induction is free, as are exhaust systems”
If the outside of the engine is the same then it might be a consideration.
Nice project.
I’ve considered a 2.5l upgrade but need to work out just how identical the engines are as in Sprinting, the MSA regulations (rules) state.
“11.5.1. For Road-Going Series Production Cars, the cylinder block and cylinder head must remain in the original position and be externally identifiable as that fitted to the original model or specified option. Induction is free, as are exhaust systems”
If the outside of the engine is the same then it might be a consideration.
MagicalTrevor said:
I’ve considered a 2.5l upgrade but need to work out just how identical the engines are as in Sprinting, the MSA regulations (rules) state.
“11.5.1. For Road-Going Series Production Cars, the cylinder block and cylinder head must remain in the original position and be externally identifiable as that fitted to the original model or specified option. Induction is free, as are exhaust systems”
I suspect the biggest challenge be that the car is bumped from class A2/A2.1 (up to 2000cc) into A3, or even C3, where there's some seriously powerful cars. For that reason I'm keeping my MX-5 largely stock, as I want to have a go in A2.“11.5.1. For Road-Going Series Production Cars, the cylinder block and cylinder head must remain in the original position and be externally identifiable as that fitted to the original model or specified option. Induction is free, as are exhaust systems”
Interested!
Have an NC with the same coilovers, a manifold, intake and map from Skuzzle.
The 2.5 Mazda 6 seems to be a bit of a rarity so good job on finding one of those!
Some decent cams and a map will apparently liberate as much as 40bhp above the standard 2.5 power as it wasn't built to rev.
Have an NC with the same coilovers, a manifold, intake and map from Skuzzle.
The 2.5 Mazda 6 seems to be a bit of a rarity so good job on finding one of those!
Some decent cams and a map will apparently liberate as much as 40bhp above the standard 2.5 power as it wasn't built to rev.
devnull said:
I’m surprised but also not surprised at how much the NC rusts like all other MX5s
Mazda don't give a toss, but then neither do the first owners either so they rust. The 6 has no underseal at all, it's just finished in primer underneath with undertrays covering the majority up.
That's a 2.5 with a mild cam swap only, everything else is stock, even the exhaust and cats retained.
Dark lines are original spec, red BHP, green is Torque. It doesn't have the variable inlet lengths running or VVT so whilst the top end is accurate in reality it'll give more under the curve at lower rpm.
Add in higher CR, tubular manifold, exhaust and it bumps it up a bit more:
You can see the dip at 3k which the VVT and adjustable runners will iron out.
Then there's 'Everything but the kitchen sink' spec:
As you can see it gets a bit peaky, but still manages to get the job done before piston speeds get out of hand, although you would be putting in stronger rods and pistons etc, etc anyhow.
They're just rough iterations based on what I know will work to a certain degree, they could be played with, to give a bit more here and there or smoothed out.
devnull said:
I’m surprised but also not surprised at how much the NC rusts like all other MX5s
PH still surprises me with how badly cars seem to rust in the UK - maybe due to the salt on your roads I guess. Here in NZ MX5s don't have a reputation for being rust-prone at all, I've had a couple of early Mk1s and never saw any sign of rust even with them being 25+ years old. Tempted to get a Mk3 in future.
The 2.3 and 2.5 Duratecs have a longer stroke than the 2.0 so the blocks are 15 mm taller. Otherwise they're all the same externally. The longer stroke means the crank comes further below the block than the 2.0 crank, which is something to consider with custom shortened sumps and windage trays.
The heads are the same in terms of ports, valves, and cams but the VVT versions are designed for a VVT solenoid to sit in it. The solenoid pokes out of the cam cover about 20 mm, or about the same as the cam position sensor. You can swap a non-vvt head on but you would also need the non-vvt chain, which is a thinner design, and the non-vvt sprockets.
The heads are the same in terms of ports, valves, and cams but the VVT versions are designed for a VVT solenoid to sit in it. The solenoid pokes out of the cam cover about 20 mm, or about the same as the cam position sensor. You can swap a non-vvt head on but you would also need the non-vvt chain, which is a thinner design, and the non-vvt sprockets.
TekoTime said:
The heads are the same in terms of ports, valves, and cams but the VVT versions are designed for a VVT solenoid to sit in it. The solenoid pokes out of the cam cover about 20 mm, or about the same as the cam position sensor. You can swap a non-vvt head on but you would also need the non-vvt chain, which is a thinner design, and the non-vvt sprockets.
The 2.5 has supposedly bigger intake ports and different cams.What I want to know is if I can make the later twin VVT head fit the 2.5 block, that would be good.
Edited by Evoluzione on Wednesday 27th March 08:56
5er said:
I do intend to get it properly weather proofed.
Maybe see you there at Blyton then. I'm about half an hour away so going to try and get there as much as possible, that and Cadwell.
Yes it would be good, i'll be there at some time! I also really need to know what a £700+ seat feels like to sit in Maybe see you there at Blyton then. I'm about half an hour away so going to try and get there as much as possible, that and Cadwell.
Evoluzione said:
The 2.5 has much bigger intake ports and different cams.
What I want to know is if I can make the later twin VVT head fit the 2.5 block, that would be good.
I haven't done much reading on the 2.5 tbh. I swapped from a 2.0 to a 2.3 in my kitcar but got caught out with the extra height and had to do some work to make it fit. Not much space in a Seven! Maybe i could keep an eye out for a 2.5 head somewhere.What I want to know is if I can make the later twin VVT head fit the 2.5 block, that would be good.
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