New Turbo

What Next!?! …

So its about time I did some updates on the car..!! Too Right!! I’ve been a little busy but have a few more additional items 🙂

Land of the Rising Sun

Nothing had changed much and my mind wanders along with images of flame spitting, Cosworth eating Cappuccinos.. It was time for a change……and a chat with Japan

New Bits

A particular turbo is designed to do a particular job. A particular ECU can only be tweaked so far… New parts were needed for the job I had seen an advert for a company called IRS Motorsport based in Tokyo. I sent them a fax and they were very helpful with part numbers and prices… but alas no cash meant no fiddling and I left it for the time being….

I Blame Pickles!

It was all his fault… Justin, going and getting that N2 computer was the last straw. “I can’t believe how quick it is” he says, “Much better acceleration and pickup” he beamed. “AAAAHHHHH” I replied The time had come, the weapon had to be chosen… The choice was between the Hitachi HT06 and the IHI RHB31FW mated to an N2 ECU with larger injectors. A quick fax to IRS sorted that out….”No HT06 available for F6A..only for K6A… IHI fit to F6A EA11R with no modifications” (Which is pretty damn good English when you consider how many letters they have in THEIR alphabet!?!

To cut a long story short (and break a habit of a lifetime!) I ordered the IHI turbo and N2 together…after waiting a reasonable time to get a good exchange rate (just over 200Yen to the pound at the time)Nicely boxed it turned up by TNT courier in about 4days!! Excellent…straight outside to fit injectors and ECU..

Installation

….Is dead easy…. You’ll only need a couple of tools including a screwdriver to undo the throttle sensor, socket set for undo nuts to the injection rail and long nose pliers for undo those annoying clips that are on the hoses. If anyone gets an N2 and is unsure give me a bell… or pop round (if your in the South of England that is!) I’ll give you a hand. This obviously is only the ECU…fitting turbos are a little more time consuming….!

Colchester.. here we go!

As I’ve always said, my dealer, Levois, have been pretty good to me and we had already talked about fitting the turbo. “Not a problem” they said, “If its fitted like a standard unit then it wont take long” So I left the car with them and lo and behold a week later (I only go visiting dealers on Saturdays) I picked my little baby up!! “Err.. we turned down the boost as it seemed a little fast” was commented… So of I went for a little drive, or rather I didn’t… I had done my back in on the Wednesday and so Sue took first dibs on a run. Fast!! She most definitely was… I’m scared, said Sue after I persuaded her to floor it so I could see what level of boost was being run. 0.9 Bar said the gauge…blimey not even enough for the N2 to switch on the little green turbo light.I couldn’t hold back… after food at a little chef on the A12, I finally got a go….

YEEHAAA!!…. I was really pleased, Sue was just scared. It really flew along, picking up well in all gears, with bundles of torque as well as power and the ability to really scream her head off in ALL gears…

I couldn’t help it!?!

Caught in a little bit of traffic, about to clear up and MX-5 welded to the rear of the car….speed 70mph……mission….to go were no UK Capp had gone before……<BR>Clear road, 3rd gear….whooa….rear squats, car accelerates, 4th, 5th…were did that MX-5 go?? Speedo needle buried onto the stop. Point proved…

So what is it?

Well from what I know, the IHI RHB31FW is exactly the same as the original turbo, except the impellors are different which basically adjusts things like flow rates and spool up rates. I would say the boost comes in a little later than the standard turbo but it comes in a lot more but still smoothly so you don’t get a surprised loss of traction at an awkward moment, I also noticed that (I presume) due to the different ECU and injectors, the car can travel at 80-85 without much if any use of boost, which does wonders for fuel economy…faster AND cheaper…Cool!

For now the car stays as it is, until the next time….!