NB MX5 Supercharger Install

Almost a year ago, this black NB MX5 and a Centrifugal Supercharger kit ended up in our shed one hot summers sunday.

The instructions looked quite straight forward, and unlike our Supercharged Mini Build, this particular kit would be a straight bolt in. It came with bigger injectors as well as an interceptor box to increase fuel delivery.

Installation involved removing the airbox, and repositioning the power steering pump. The kit comes with a large aluminium bracket that holds the supercharger itself, as well as the two tensioners that route the new drive belt around the other accessories. The belt has quite a way to travel to get around the aircon, power steering AND the supercharger itself.

The car was also fitted with extractors, a worthwhile upgrade when supercharging to help get the extra exhaust flow out of the engine with as little back pressure as possible.

The supercharger has its own cooling system comprising of an oil cooler, reservoir and lines. The supercharger itself generates the necessary pressure to circulate the oil. This cooler is installed in front of the radiator with out any cutting required.

We installed the intercooler and piping, no cutting required here either, but the pipes do have to be routed to avoid the swaybar.

We installed the injectors and interceptor box which got the car running initially. With any change this major a check up on a dyno is a good idea. It's also worth noting that this box only adjusts fuelling. The factory timing map remains.

 The setup fits well into the available engine bay space. In the Red MX5 we were able to install a washer bottle relocation kit which moves the bottle up closer to the windscreen and away from the extractors. Soon after this an exhaust heat shield was installed.

It was around this point we hatched the idea of getting one of the new Haltech 750's into the car so we could tune it more precisely than the interceptor. The question was also asked "I wonder how good this is compared to a turbo one with the same mods..."

The kit is quite popular with MX5 owners and we were surprised at just how quickly we could install the setup into the car.

We left the plastic under trays off for the initial drive so we could double check we had no leaks, some cutting is required to get around the intercooler pipes.

The belt that came with the kit worked well straight out of the box but we noticed it was wearing pretty quickly so replaced it a week or so before dyno tuning the cars.

This supercharger has the potential to double the power output on a car such as this, and is one of the simplest mods we've done for such a significant increase. The kit does exactly what it says on the box, however we wouldn't consider it race track ready without a dyno run first to check that the AFR's are correct.

With a few helping hands we managed to have this kit installed and the car driving around the block in around 7-8 hours time with only a few simple tools required.

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https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLp0KnUFYB--gSSjepcDdoTQMtRnQ_1x3F