Restoring from coldside to "stock"?

[Nizztos]

Here in Sweden it is against regulations to modify a car. A SC is fairly obvious, but depending on the inspector you may or may not pass. They will notice it, but some are kind enough to let it pass.

My question is how hard, i.e. how much work, is it to remove the SC to make the car stock for inspection? I would "only" need to remove the actual SC, but I asume that some/a lot of other thing has to be fixed to make the car run.

This is a visual inspection and as long as the actual SC is not there the rest does not have to look completely stock.

[MX-Drew]

First off, it is easliy possible to to install a coldside to look as though it was fitted at the factory.

It would be reasonably easy to remove it but it would be a pain. How often does the car have to be inspected?

[Nizztos]

First off, it is easliy possible to to install a coldside to look as though it was fitted at the factory.

It would be reasonably easy to remove it but it would be a pain. How often does the car have to be inspected?

Yearly inspection and they will know. Well at least 75% of them.

[bogey]

It would certainly be easier to bribe the inspector!

[Nizztos]

It would certainly be easier to bribe the inspector!

Easier, yes, Safer no. The SC is not worth going to jail for,which would be the likely outcome of such an attempt.

Sounds as if the FFS coldside is not for me then.

[Steve in VC]

Do what some people in California do, register the car with a relative in another state (in your case country).

[Nizztos]

Do what some people in California do, register the car with a relative in another state (in your case country).

Where to begin.
* I don't have any relatives outside my own country. Compare that to how many americans have relatives in Mexico, well that would actually be a lot, or Canada.
* I think that all countries in Europe have yearly inspections. Driving to another country to get my car inspected, I don't think so. And no, at least AFAIK, I can't inspect a foreign car here. If I could it would be according to our rules, thus negating the whole scheme.
* Many/most countries in Europe have similar rules to us when it comes to adding power. Some will aprove them if they are certified, similar to CARB.

I must confess that I'm a bit baffled by the responses to my question. I got the strong impression from the answers that it would be hard, but none of several responses have actually said that it is hard/very hard/easy or whatever. Just tons of more or less weird ideas on how to bypass the inspection.

[Tom @ Fast Forward]

It is not hard to install or return to stock. It is all bolt on parts. However, it is time consuming. I think the answers are trying to find a way to not have to take it off annually. I think you will find it more of a burden than the fun you get the other 11.9 months. Bill did take his off and put it back on in a day (to run some variation tests on parts) but he was familiar with it.

Again, not hard but time consuming.

[bogey]

The bottom line - it would be difficult at best to restore to stock and then reinstall yearly. The process could be done, but its many hours of labor and each time you would do this process, you would need to go through troubleshooting whatever connection you missed.

Now I really enjoy working on Miatas, and I can certainly install and uninstall a system. But would I want to mess with one that is installed correctly and running perfectly? Not really.

It is unfortunate that you you have to live with such a policy. I guess the people in California should be happy with the draconian laws they have. at least its still possible to modify a car with the proper "paperwork".

The Hotside setup is a bit easier to install and remove than the coldside. That can be done in probably 50% less time.

[Nizztos]

Thanks!

Exactly the kind of answer, although I must confess I didn't like the actual answer :), that I wanted.

[Steve in VC]

Tom,

How hard is it to convert a coldside to a hotside? Is the supercharger nose the same?

I ask because the intake manifold swap was a lot of the work, and it is much less is changed with a hot side. Or, is that offset by the stuff that moves on the hot side?

Thanks,
Steve

[Tom @ Fast Forward]

Moss has a great hotside and is upgradeable. Only takes a few hours to install and uninstall.

There is almost nothing in a Coldside worth saving to make a hotside. Even just the base blower needs to have the bypass actuator moved to the other side.

[rins]

Nizztos: We here in Finland have found a way to get FFS –kit though yearly inspections. Basically we give CARB papers to “Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT)” and they wrote formal paper showing that engine in Euro and U.S. MX-5 is 100% the same. But here comes the tricky part. We here in Europe have different intake cam and exhaust. That shouldn’t be a problem if I have receipt to prove that I have changed them. I think a fake receipt paper is good enough, I highly doubt that they make me remove the valve cover and prove that I have the correct intake cam… :)

We haven’t actually do this process yet but VTT centre have promise that there shouldn’t be any problems as long there is FFS CARB papers to show them. So no more yearly charger removing!! :cheers2:

[Tom @ Fast Forward]

Do you have everything you need regards CARB? If not, let me know how I can help.

[rins]

I will contact you soon as we heard more from our Technical Research Centre. Basically it doesn’t matter if we don’t have Carb-kit (that kit with locked pc-pro cards). Inspection station can’t tell the different as they mainly measure emissions.

But there’s now very good change to get Coldside kit 100% street legal in our country and that of course will mean new customers for you :)

[Nizztos]

I am 99.999% sure that will not be possible in Sweden. I guess it is worth checking up on though.

EU and legislations are a funny thing. Most EU contries are suposed to follow the same rules in many cases. But whenever there is a "good" legislation, some contries includong Sweden decides that local legislations are more important.

When it comes to car modifications, Sweden is definately not going to aprove something just because it is ok in other EU contries. So far they are getting away with it too :(

[rins]

I strongly recommend you to check that out as I understand we here have even tighter regulations than you guys in Sweden have.

Basic principle here also is that every modification to car is forbidden. That is why we have to turn to Technical Research Centre as they are the only ones who can give permission to install aftermarket F/I kit. We already have successfully registered few 95-96 MX-5 Begi turbo kits with Carb papers

One funny thing is that we have to prove by dyno chart that power isn’t exceed 20% over stock horsepower. So officially I’m only allowed to drive with 174hp output :biggrin: yeah right...like that's gonna happen

[Tom @ Fast Forward]

One thing that might help is the under hood CARB sticker. :-) I can supply those.