General Turbo question - MG Midget engine swap

Mhanko

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Mars
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Mg midget
I’m performing a fairly common engine swap to an MG Midget with a rover 1.8 k series engine. Although common, this swap is slightly different - my engine is a turbo’d version (from 55bhp to 200bhp - weekend track use only). Old school engine guy, I know little about turbos. With the limited engine bay area - I’m wondering if I can customize the exhaust manifold /turbo to fit better rather than make changes to chassis/drive train. So my question: Can the exhaust manifold/turbo be refabricated to fit better is the engine bay? What should I look out for in terms of potential issues? Seems like there are custom kits around that allow the exhaust manifold/ turbo to be customized to fit do so, just don’t know much about them.
 
Massive question! I cant answer it but a YouTube show I watch, Mighty Car Mods, did a supercharged Mini and I seem to recall they had similar issues with space. Might be worth looking up.
 
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there are no reasons why you cannot customise or fabricate a manifold to make it fit in an engine bay or even make one from scratch .

There are certain excepted principles that improve efficiency (or lose if you dont follow them)

Ideally the four manifold lenghts should be the same and as short as possible (within reason) . You also have to fit an intercooler in there somehow which again doesnt really want long pipe lenghts. However It is more important to have the correct turbo for the engine so if your replacement engine comes with a turbo you are halfway there.
 
Massive question! I cant answer it by a YouTube show I watch, Mighty Car Mods, did a supercharged Mini and I seem to recall they had similar issues with space. Might be worth looking up.
Thank you. I will check on the show. YouTube is awesome - learn so much from other folks. Cheers.
 
there are no reasons why you cannot customise or fabricate a manifold to make it fit in an engine bay or even make one from scratch .

There are certain excepted principles that improve efficiency (or lose if you dont follow them)

Ideally the four manifold lenghts should be the same and as short as possible (within reason) . You also have to fit an intercooler in there somehow which again doesnt really want long pipe lenghts. However It is more important to have the correct turbo for the engine so if your replacement engine comes with a turbo you are halfway there.

Thanks for your feedback. The engine I'm using is a Rover 1.8l Turbo - just feel it won't fit as currently configured. I will look into how I can mount things and backwards engineer the pipes. Thanks again.
 
If you cant mount it as original you will likely lose a bit in performance over stock but it will still be way better than without a turbo. id say do it for sure.
 

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