Im currently fitting this with a fully built saab 2.3t lump, hoping for over 300whp!! So i've had this car for the best part of two years now. It's my second mazda, replacing my old mk1 that turned out rather rusty!. This is her when i got her, with my old mk1 lurking behind Few days later i dropped her to a more sensible ride height Then bolted on some wheels as they were desperately needed. So much better! Bought some interior niceties Fitted a sandwich plate and took the inlet off to replace the blowy as fuck gasket. Ready for new gauges to be installed. and got the gauges installed and running. i always like to know what the engine is doing, especially when sideways
Decided to give the car a tidy up, so painted the rocker cover, installed a new cold air intake, undersealed all the front chasis because somehow i seem to of bought the only mk2 without any rust! Then decided the car was epically practically, easily carrying my bike around! Repainted the wheels as well as i got bored Booked pod, and unfortunatly the 100k engine decided it didnt want to drift. So out it came, painted the bay while it was out and in the new! and i had to clean it up before it went in, replacing the gaskets to make sure it was not going to fail again
Got it all in and running sweet as So booked up some more skid days and learnt lots. Car was reliable and working really well... After that i worked out what need to improve, and got to work sorting those things out! Replaced brakes all round, installed a hydro handbrake, fitted new mesiter r coilovers, and fitted some supernow rod ends to get rid of some horrible bump steer. got new wheels, made some modded rear arms to bring the camber back to 0.5. Then alingment to make sure it was running spot on! Got some other stuff done to the car, as i had decided i wanted to go more more power: Then most importantly did some drifting! 6tag_090515-115023 by George Poling, on Flickr
And now bringing the thread upto date. This is the MX as it sits now And now for the fun bit. I normally work on saab's, as does the old man. When looking into more power we both got this idea into our heads, "why not use a saab engine?" Bought myself a test shell so i can work on the new engine while still driving mine. Made some engine mounts to get the engine sitting properly, even managed to get the bonnet to shut properly! Bonnet shut with engine in: Decided to go with a Omega R30 gearbox. Its direct bolt on to the engine, and rated to the highest torque of any of the omega boxes. Got the engine sat in the shell, im going with a late 9-5 manifold as it faces the correct way for RWD, and a 900 intake and throttle body. (Engine in the car is not the final one going in - as im rebuilding that!) Turbo is a garret t25 ball bearing, with a internal wastegate. Rebuilt engine, with the normal fancy bits, polished and balanced crank, skimmed head, uprated valves and springs. Standard cams for now The main issue we had was the sump. with the standard sump it didnt fit, and mocking up a template it would get destroyed by the floor where you wwould have to change it. We were only really left with using a dry sump! Engine with no sump, before we started to make the dry sump! You can see the clearance issues Thats it for now, im working on the other bits ready to get it running, wiring everywhere and bits from countless saabs in the garage. Hopefully it should be running in my test shell in the next few weeks, then swapped into my shell ready for JAE. Im looking for around 300whp to start, but once im happy the car is strong enough and reliable ill be looking for upwards of 350 whp using some abbott racing cams and a holset HX35 turbo. Stay tuned for updates!
Yeah well a turbo MX is so common, and 250 whp is about the maximum you can extract without spending stupid money. been working on these engines for years, so it seemed the the obvious solution! We've had ones running 400+ without issue, and still reliable
There rated for 300nm of torqe, saab engine is 320. Ive heard most people seem to do faily well with them. Worst case if it blows ill gte a t5 box with a custom bellhousing made. Its just so much more expensive lol
I know people will disagree, but most mx5 specialists say that 250 - 280bhp is all you need in one of these. After that it's just silly. Still, looks a decent project and I'm keen to see updates
Interesting project! What kind of rear diffuser is that? Is it a modified RX7 one? Those door bars look pretty meaty too Yours looks a bit like a better version of mine
This is drifting. No such thing as silly. One of the many I've had had 270bhp, and yes it was retarded fast, but it could handle much more in my eyes, even as a road car. Even as surprisingly stable even at 160+ once I'd done a few changes to the aero (no spoiler tho). 100bhp is enough in one of these to drift at big speeds even in the dry, but that's not to say there's no use for more, people use 500bhp+ MX5s with no issue.
Im sure people will say its too much. I was going to turbo, but having been skidding in friends ones, they say they could still do with a little more. I think around 300 is the key figure
The test car is now running and driving! Just got to finish a few little electrical bits then ill be swapping the running gear into mine
Oeh, interesting! It's nice to see more saab engined cars, they are cheap and seem to take quite a bit of power! Just too bad they never put it in a fun chassis Having to fabricate a custom sump would've stopped me, but kudos to you for doing it anyway! As for gearboxes: abc clutches make adapters to bmw gearboxes for quite a few engines, might be worth checking them out and see if they also do saabs? BMW boxes are easy and cheap to find, and very strong. Would be my gearbox of choice for pretty much any engineswap. The adapter stuff costs quite a bit though (but comes with a very good clutch, so it's not too bad really) Following this!
Small update - my blue car is now at the shop for the swap, shouldn't take too long as all the fab work has been done. Had to buy a new dry sump pump as the one we had wasn't good enough! Test car has been running sweet though! Pics to follow, and pod day for October booked for a shakedown! I'll be sticking the engine in on low power to begin with, then sorting out all the piping and coolant more permanently before it goes for mapping. Aiming for around 250 who to begin with, then upwards of 300
Been a little slack on updating this thread, will be doing a rather update very shortly. New dry sump pump arrived today, so will be fitted tomorrow and tested over the weekend ready for Christmas!
