How can I get more power without turbo/super?

Jan 26, 2004 24 Replies

Hey all -



I'm new to working on my Miata, just making some minor fixes here and there, but I'm really starting to get into it. I would really love to get a little more power in my Miata, but I don't really have the cash to put in a turbo or something like that. That being said, do you know of some inexpensive ways to add a few more horses to my 94? I've been looking at some intakes that claim to add 6-10hp that don't seem too pricey. Is that a good way to go? What's will give me the most bang for my buck?



Thanks,



Dmoney



Here are the useful products, in decreasing order of:effectiveness:

Intake: Randall cowl intake tube from FM. $140 Exhaust: all are much alike, choose by sound/looks. $300-600 Header: various, with miniscule variations in the torque curve. ~$400 Cat: high-flow from FM or JR, may help above 6000 rpm. $190

Forget any sort of cone filter or K&N. All you'll get is more noise and more dirt in the engine. I know, you'll probably run out and buy one anyway, because it's what all your friends with Hondas have. It's your money.

For your $1000-1300, you might get an additional 10 hp at the rear wheels, a barely-noticeable amount. Not worth it, is it? If you really want more power save up for a used supercharger. There are no cheap turbo kits for your '94, but the FM turbo is generally considered the most bang for the buck (big bucks, but BIG bang).

You can also advance the timing to 14BTDC. It won't give you any more power, but it will shift the powerband a few hundred rpm lower and make the car feel quicker under 5000 rpm or so. It may also require using higher octane fuel in warm weather.

IMHO, performance money is better spent on shocks, alignment, and tires, where you'll actually see a substantial improvement. Don't buy any wheels that weigh more than 13 pounds, or you'll negate most or all your power gains.

See

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for more advanced tricks. Bear in mind that most of the normally-aspirated mods would have to be reversed if you decide to go with forced induction in the future.

What he said! All the non-FI tweaks are about having fun and thinking you made it faster. Probably more impact running with a near-empty tank, and going on a diet.

are there somewhere topics of losing weight on a miata Would i be easy to gain 100kg without removing the interieur

TM

There is an old issue of miata magazine that gave some ideas. Losing the top was one way to lose some significant weight.

Leon

Search the miata.net forums, it's a popular topic. No, dropping more than about 25kg is difficult if you want to retain the top and passenger seat.

However, if you're serious about weight, you could lose the top, windows, passenger seat, and spare tire, gut the interior, replace the driver's seat with a racing seat, remove air conditioning and power steering, buy expensive lightweight wheels, change the exhaust system, use a motorcycle battery, remove unused wires and brackets, and drill holes all over the car. Then you might reach your 100kg goal.

You are kidding. You should be able to lose much more than 200 lb doing all that? It is a 2400 lb car.

Leon

What about new clutch flywheel?

Seems to me throttle resp>

Dang, Lanny's fiesty tonight! Talking about all your Honda buddies, totally un provoked!

What about port matching. I remember reading about Hakunna going thru some intake tract clean-up and port matching as a predecessor to FI however, he (the owner) was shocked at the improvement. I'm very interested in this low cost upgrade.

Chris

92BB&T

Excuse me, Prof. Dommelen, but I believe 100kg = approx. 220 lb. You could ask the guys at JPL Pasadena about metric/British conversion, but I'm pretty sure that's right .)

Steve McMahon Green JRSC 00LS

You are correct. 1 lb = 2.2 kg.

Oh, piffle. My 100-kilo recipe was based on actual reports of people with early Miatas (circa 2150 lb) lightening them to just under 2000 lb by taking most of the measures I suggested. I don't think it's possible to get under 1900 lb and still be street legal, much less weatherproof.

OTOH, there's always this route:

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Well, while they may have a broad, permissive view about units, they might be able to answer me whether 200 = 220 to one correct significant digit.

Leon :)

Everyone, and I mean Everyone on this thread needs to go to the above link.

Yeah, we can make 'em lighter, all right!!

Lanny, that was fabulous.

Seriously LOL .)

-- SM

I mean, does that look like a Leon-type project, or what? He could turn his class loose on Bozo, and end up with the only 900-pound Miata in Florida. Gentlemen, start your Sawzalls...

Light ok, but handling. that chasis is defnetly not as stiff as it was before.

Think that answer lies on the south polar region of Mars. There's a $330M splat that cheering JPL engineers don't much talk about.

Now about the 900-lb/409.09kg Bozo-project Lanny mentioned. You will have video, I hope. Make a great Discovery channel series .)

-- SM

Now come on ! Don't connect "badstuff", (Bozo-project) with "Bozo", the car ! I'm sure Leon's car, "Bozo" is a very fine car and not what we would call, "a Bozo" ! Sorry Leon. I don't think they ment harm to the fine Miata name of Bozo. :-) So, let's be more careful about making mean and shameful remarks about Bozo. (But you know, I think I did hear Leon say Bozo was a "project" once. Hee, hee, hee! ) ...... there,did that cover it OK Leon ?

Bruce RED '91

I suspect Leon would pay a little more attention to the aerodynamics. I mean, those guys did a great job with the Sentra, but they were clearly flying by the seat of their pants. Leon would certainly spend some more time in research between each step.

Dana

What? How about my Brainstorm chrome fuel lid? I need *that*!

Leon

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