Mokesta's Clubman

[Mokesta]

My Clubby now has 15 x 7 Watanabe wheels with Toyo 888 tyres. Those and the MX5 Plus TB roll bar are the only current modifcations.

Will be tickled a bit more in the suspension area and lowered a bit.

Intake and exhaust mods planned.

M

[JBT]

Looks beautiful. Loooove those wheels, they suit the NA perfectly.

[Steampunk]

Did you get that dent for free?

[Mokesta]

No dents, just dappled light through a tree. Poor paint and many faded parts. Some areas are to be re-painted as a warranty job.

M

[orx626]

Looks like you are all set for QR Bring it on!

[AJ]

FINALLY!!!............someone who has enough sense to NOT paint their watanabes black!!.................looks awesome mokester

[Spranga]

FINALLY!!!............someone who has enough sense to NOT paint their watanabes black!!.................looks awesome mokester

Oiii!

Very nice ride.

Besides the colour of the wheels

[Mokesta]

It was a cool morning today and my car looked like this:

[Mokesta]

Well it was a productive Sunday. We fitted the X-Force headers, N*Power cat and N*Power rear can. We made up the centre section from 2.25\" stainless.

The 2-bolt flanges from the headers and rear can were cut off and the whole thing made with 3-bolt flanges.

Thanks must go to Danny ORX-626 for the huge effort he put in to make this lot for me.


The X-forece headers compared to some no-names. They are functionally identical with the X-Force having fabricated Y's and a different EGR take-off. The tube sizes and primary/secondary lengths are identical. I chose to use the X-Force because they are marginally better fabricated. (they'd want to be for being twice the price!!) Others are now for sale.



This is how they compare to the stock system:



Then on the car they look like this:



With the cat and rear can they look like this:





From outside the N*Power fits well:



We still have to take the centre section off again to finalise the welding and remove the dags on the inside. There are no flange gaskets in there at the moment either. I intend to install a few sheets of that quilted alloy heat shielding in places to keep engine bay and footwell temps under control.

The only issue is that the rear hanger of the rear can strikes the right hand side tow hook. A quick hit with the grinder will sort that.

The car is louder with a nice note. Gives me flash backs to my old AE86 sprinter with 4AGE. Above 5,500 rpm there is noticeably more go. Below that I think it is just feeling faster because it is louder.

With less flow restriction I hope I get plenty out of the car when the JR supercharger goes on.

M

[Adam_NAclubman]

Looks good! What offset are the wheels?

[Mokesta]

36 mm.

[Mokesta]

Yes, it is definately missing the whole FM brace and rails. I missed my chance to get them with the Aus $ was up. Now th AUD has crashed I'll do without for a while longer.

Today I started fitting the King springs and whiteline bars. Can't wait to see what they do for on-track performance. I would have preferred some proper adjustable height coil overs with adjustable damping but my budget is not big enough.

M

[Mokesta]

Mark
I have Kings with std Clubman Billys (NA Clubman). Opted for standard height as live down a dirt drive way. Personal opinion go 1" lower std's to high!!!
Most appear to complain about the billys and kings being a very firm ride I find it fine, must be use to it. (maybe 2 years in a Zook siera!)
Andrew

Yep, I got the lows. I know this combo is a pig on the road but in the last year I've done more k's on the track than the road.

and I just HAVE to keep up with orx626 who has the king lows and billys

[Mokesta]

I just got back from a test drive after fitting the king springs and whiteline sway bars. I am very happy. Since I turned the shock lower bushes around I cancelled out the sag in those so the ride height has dropped only 10 mm all round. She rides hard and corners flat now.

The kings are the 1" low set and are the new high strength steel that has fewer coils and are lighter than the older style.

I can't wait for the next track day.

M

[Mokesta]

Wow, what a couple of days!

I've been sweating it out in the "MX-5 Plus Service" workshop with Danny (ORX-626). I am doing the budget version of the same SC install as Danny. Here goes:



I'll skip all the pics of the engine bay looking standard or coming apart. You all know what the stock ones look like.
Here it is with just the throttle body adaptor in place. As with Danny's mine has the IAT mod.




My kit is an older version of the JR kit and unlike Danny's, has the stock JR tensioner assembly. Strangely, my kit is a weird mix of brand new parts and old brackets. Anyway, mine has the new crowned idler wheels to help the belt track true.



The washer bottle has to move to fit the kit. My kit came with a drill template and a grommet to move the washer bottle to the right as mocked-up here. Still clashes with AC though...



Now, while I have had a really bad experience with thermo wrapped extractors before, I really didn't want to cook the SC with the X-Force headers. So they got the wrap treatment on the primaries only.

What a prick of a job and I am itchy as hell from the fibreglass. Note that this isn't stuff that is sold at Auto Barn or similar. I got it years ago and haven't seen it since.





The Power-Card that comes with the JR kit has received a bad wrap but I haven't heard much bad about the MS PNP so in she goes...

I spent far too long matching up the factory brackets. Others just screw the unit through the floor.


The Mega Squirt PNP offers a MAF-less set-up using the MAP sensor in the MS and the additional air temp sensor (IAT) we put in the inlet. It is pretty much essential that this is done or the MS reads the temp of the inlet air from the factory MAF and uses the MAP. One of these is pre supercharger and the other is post so the intake temp is all wrong.

Here is my system without the MAF. If you see Dann'y photos from today you'll see a big difference here. Danny has kept the MAF just to link all the JR kit pieces. My kit, beng older, has a different 180 degree bend from the throttle body back towards the air filter. Unfortunately, mine clashed with the AC and just would not fit. Some dodgy temporary convoluted plumbing leads to what you see here:


The bastard pipe that wouldn't fit has two take-offs. One is for the rocker cover vent hose and the other for the idle air bypass system. As a temporary solution I just put some cheap filters directly onto these.


After I fitted the Mega Squirt and before I pulled the engine bay apart, I test ran the car. It started and ran just like the factory computer. It sure is Plug and play

Once the whole lot was together we got the MS connected to Danny's laptop and told it to go MAF-less. Then I went for a test drive. FANTASTIC! and I was only getting 75% throttle. An adjustment of the throttle cable, a re-connect of a fan plug and a mod to the coolant line near the tensioner and she was ready to drive home.

I still have the wide band O2 sensor to go in as well as the knock sensor. These will go in at the same time as the Ruzic Engineering Engine Monitor and Race Logger.
I hate auto electrics so I'll procrastinate for a while I think.

Other items:
> There will be a coolant re-route in this car's future. Not too far off and it will happen when I put the light flywheel in.
> Mine won't have the ARE radiator. Danny's is just SEX but I'd have to sell a kidney... So, if I run out of cooling I'll get a cheapy alloy rad.
> The coolant re-route will result in the deletion of the thermostat housing sticking out of the front of the engine. This will give ample room for a water to air intercooler, but again I may have to sell the otehr kidney for one of those so I may go air to air.
> With Danny's laptop connected and the base tune in the MS, the injectors maxed out their duty cycle at 7,200 rpm. I think a proper tune will be leaner but the car may still need bigger injectors.
> The JR kit is really well done but didn't go straight in. I had to modify 1 bracket slightly and grind the heads of 3 nuts so they wouldn't clash with other parts. Of course there was the AC clash too. Still, Richard at MX5 Plus got me this kit to order from Japan at a really good price so I think it is good value Hp.
> I have a Sparco Sprint Jr seat to go in for track days. No pics of this in the car yet because it hasn't been in yet...

M