Just introducing myself. I am in the Aylesbury / Buckinghamshire area and am planning to come along to the MK & Chilterns / Oxford meets in January so please say hello if you see me looking lost !
I have actually owned this car for at least 12 years - I bought it from an elderly neighbour with about 23k miles on it (only used in the summer and always garaged) - I wasn’t even looking for an MX-5 but I could tell a good buy when I saw it !
Since then I have gradually modified it with a new hood/glass window, wheels, suspension, big brakes, Alpine audio, Momo steering wheel, Milltek exhaust and finally last year I installed a roll bar and had some engine work done ( at Basset Down Balancing ).
I’m looking to get much more involved in the MX-5 scene now as I have recently been notching down one of my other passions ( I used to have a largish number of 1970’s and 80’s motorcycles - but have sold up and am down to 1 bike now ! ).
Anyway I am looking forward to meeting some of you and becoming active in the forum.
Hello, a very nice example. I too have recently recently joined the club ( this is my first conversion ) and by a strange co-incidence, I am considering contacting Basset Down Balancing to refresh the engine of my very similar looking MK1. I have a BRG MK1, 90K, lowered, roll bar, competition exhaust … running well to good.
I would like to ask Basset Down Balancing to overhaul the engine and Stage One gas flow the head, possibly fitting a Typhoon Induction kit.
Please may I ask :
is Basset Down Balancing recommendable for such work;
Hello - Yes overall I had a great experience with Basset Down. The guy that owns it is Super-Super Nice - I originally just stopped by for a chat as I was passing through and we talked about scope for the work - on the back of that I booked in with him a couple of months later.
My particular issue was that I had ‘accidentally’ bought a low-power (90bhp) 1.6 - as I explained in my original post it was an impulse buy from a neighbour 12 years previously. (Incidentally I’d advanced the ignition a couple of degrees to around 12 BTDC on this engine and it improved matters no end - so highly recommended as a free mod for anyone in a similar situation ! ) - What I really was after was an increase in power to full-power 1.6 plus a bit, so this was the basis of our discussion.
He was particularly careful to discuss with me if this was just a “phase 1” or if I’d be likely to be adding to it in the future ( eg: with a turbo - which he is happy to do also ) as this would affect the choices ( eg with compression ratio ).
On the basis of this what he did was :
Install 'full-power' 1.6 cams
Recondition the head with 3-angle valve grind and porting
40 thou skin on the head to raise the compression ration to 11:1
Added a couple more degrees of timing
...plus cambelt and water pump while he was in there
He was also going to change to a freer-flowing exhaust manifold but owing to idiosyncracies with the low-power 1.6 engine it sadly would not fit.
The total cost was pretty much exactly what he said it would be and I thought the labour charges (£45/h) quite reasonable.
The car is transformed now - and pulls strongly right the the redline whereas before it used to run out of puff. He advised me it would run best on super-unleaded now ( 97+ ) although said it would be absolutely fine on regular 95.
The only problem I had was that over the first couple of hundred miles I lost enough coolant to virtually empty my expansion/header tank… then it just fixed itself and I have not lost a drop since ( in a further 3000+ miles ). I scrutinized every single coolant pipe but there were no leaks. I came to the conclusion that it can only have been the water-pump gasket that needed to get ‘wet’ and go through a few heat cycles before it fully sealed - although really I’m only guessing and clearly this should not happen. But either way the problem went away and the car has been great since.
So - yes - I had a good experience with Basset Down personally - the guy is a proper old-school engineer, I know he’s got a couple of apprentices working for him, but I guess so long as he’s overseeing everything that’s fine - it’s his reputation after all. I don’t know if he personally worked on my car or not… I suspect it was probably half-and-half - again only guessing as I didn’t ask.
Hope that’s helpful anyway, my recommendation would be to pop-in one day if you are in the area and have a chat !
One other thing, had my coolant leak NOT fixed itself - I have no doubt that Basset would have taken it back - no questions asked - and fixed it. But as it happened I never needed to call them as the problem just went away.
Pete, thank you for your comprehensive reply, a very good insight. I understand that ideally for best effect, the ignition ought to be advanced with modified camshafts as per your approach. I most certainly will at least have a chat with Bassett Down to consider a similar overhaul with an induction modification, albeit I am keen on retaining the naturally aspirated setup. Pleased that your coolant loss sorted itself out, possibly an airlock ? Thanks again, gratefully appreciated. Regards, Chris.
Hi Pete, very tidy MK1 you have, like the mods you’ve done to it. I too have the 90bhp 1.6 (didn’t realise they made a 90bhp one when I bought this, thought all 1.6s were around 115bhp!). Did you avance the ignition before having the mods to engine done or after it. I’ve contemplated doing this but am wary about maybe damaging the engine long term? Anyone know what kind of increase in power (if any) this will achieve, and how the acceleration/mpg will be affected?
After the mods you had done, what was the final power sitting at? Very interested to know!
