Great value engine mods

[fez]

Thought it would be useful if people posted all the non expensive mods or mods that provide most bang for your buck in one thread that could be stickied maybe? Anything that people recommend? Maybe things like drilling holes in your airbox, cold air intakes, ignition advancing, adjusting the Air Flow Meter clock spring.

[Steve]

Ignition timing, this moves the torque curve to a more useable spot rather than increasing power, but worth the 5 mins it takes,
NGK ignition wires (the blue ones),
Remove the aircon stuff + all the trash stored in the boot/glovebox + spare wheel (replace with a can of foam),
tighten your accelerator cable (gives better response in most cases),
make sure your brake pads aren't rubbing.

[hoopsbhoy]

Get up 30 minutes earlier every morning and go for a run, when you get back eat some porridge and make yourself a healthy lunch to take to work. The weight you loose will have a fantastic result on performance That's probably the persnal trainer in me.

To be fair from all my research your best bet is to shed a few kilo here and there, not much else to be got from the engine

[rhysmate]

Turbo it Apart from what Steve said the only way to improve your driving experience is fit a nice radio and some better headrest speakers

[fez]

So does anybody lean out the mixture by messing with the air flow meter?

[Steve]

its possible apparently, either replace it with the larger airflow meter from an RX7/626 or tighten the spring in your current one.

[fez]

Would you use an emissions tester to see when your at the right stochiometric ratio or is it guesswork?

[leamyj]

Would you use an emissions tester to see when your at the right stochiometric ratio or is it guesswork?

Oh I always use guesswork
(reminder to google "stochiometric ratio")

john

[Steve]

Yep, you could test at a garage, I'd buy a gauge though and hook it up to the O2 sensor

[sidewaysreilly]

Tip, dont mess around with mixtures unless you fully understand why you need to and what (if any) gains you will achieve.

Realistically you have 2 options.

1, fit a bigger later type engine or

2, Turbo/Supercharge it.

[indie]

currently considering buying a second hand 1.8 engine with a view to re-building it and fitting it in place of my 1.6.
has anyone done this here cause ive loads of questions to determine if its viable.
car is a 2001 nb 1.6

is it realisticly posible to bore out a 1.8 to a higher cc with the view to gaining more n/a power.
will i need to change my gear box, if so will the 1.8 gearbox fit directly in place of my existing one.
i presume i will need the ecu, but will i need the complete engine loom.
like most mx5 drivers im after reliability so the power thing isnt that important, but if it was easilly attained it would be a nice bonus.
any info on this is greatly appreciated.

[Steve]

The 1.6 and 1.8 gearboxes are the same. I'd add a 1.8 diff though instead.

Heres where I'd start for details on the conversion :
http://www.flyinmiata.com/tech/1.8_conversion.php

[Quinlanar]

does anyone know anything about ITBs ? would it be worth the hassle

[rhysmate]

does anyone know anything about ITBs ? would it be worth the hassle

Not if you want alot of power. But it woud be mad

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmHSFWfjwbg

[Quinlanar]

a friend of mine got a set of ITBs of a levin to fit a peugeot 106, if i could pick up a cheap one from a scrapyard id have a go at making the adapter like he did to make them fit