Hey all I wanted to just give my two cents on how I feel about Bell Engineering and one of their product I purchased from them.
As some of you may know, the MSM has a notorious problem after ~40k miles with the stock throttle inlet tube inflating under boost and popping off the intake manifold. (Scares the crap out of you when driving on the freeway and you have a sudden and complete loss of power and the car stalls at 80mph.) After some hard driving, the rubber gets hot, expands, and at full throttle the amount of pressure built up just pops it off. Most people just replace the stock clamp with a nicer T-clamp. But the real fix is to just replace that whole pipe.
When shopping, you really have 2 options, Begi's throttle inlet tube replacement, or Flyin Miatas. I opted for the much cheaper Begi option.
I ordered their MSM Throttle Inlet Tube, 1.0" Forge Valve option. When I first received the part, initial reaction was wow this was hand made and has a nice powder coat on it. The instructions Begi provides are fairly blunt, and need to be updated from their last version of their tube. (The original have the BPV bung on the left side of the tube instead of the right side, facing the vacuum hose for the bpv.) But installation is fairly self explanatory without instructions.
As I was installing, I noticed this:
I was unable to fit two clamps in between each bung to properly tighten down the hoses and keep them from leaking. So I made a post about it on Mazda-speed.com's forum. And Stephanie over at Begi saw it and offered to replace the part with a new part with the issue corrected. It took them maybe 4-6 weeks to actually finish and send the new part, which was kinda a pain hafting to wait that long.
But I received it finally, here's a comparision of the old part and the new one:
I installed it and had no problems clamping down the vacuum hoses etc.
Overall, Begi's Throttle Inlet tube replacement is a great option, it's much cheaper then Flyin Miata and they are willing to fine tune any part to the customer's liking. I definitely like that about their company. The fact they didn't get it right the first time though, and it took them a little over a month to fix the issue does sort of irk me. But they were nice about it and willing to work with me. I do not think I will ever purchase a large order from them though, for fear I would have to "make the part work" instead it just bolting right on like Flyin Miata's stuff. But I can also understand it's not always going to be a perfect fit because all of their products are manufactured by hand and are prone to human error.
I definitely saved some money though, only cost me $90 over Flyin Miata's $240. I give this product an overall thumbs up.
As some of you may know, the MSM has a notorious problem after ~40k miles with the stock throttle inlet tube inflating under boost and popping off the intake manifold. (Scares the crap out of you when driving on the freeway and you have a sudden and complete loss of power and the car stalls at 80mph.) After some hard driving, the rubber gets hot, expands, and at full throttle the amount of pressure built up just pops it off. Most people just replace the stock clamp with a nicer T-clamp. But the real fix is to just replace that whole pipe.
When shopping, you really have 2 options, Begi's throttle inlet tube replacement, or Flyin Miatas. I opted for the much cheaper Begi option.
I ordered their MSM Throttle Inlet Tube, 1.0" Forge Valve option. When I first received the part, initial reaction was wow this was hand made and has a nice powder coat on it. The instructions Begi provides are fairly blunt, and need to be updated from their last version of their tube. (The original have the BPV bung on the left side of the tube instead of the right side, facing the vacuum hose for the bpv.) But installation is fairly self explanatory without instructions.
As I was installing, I noticed this:
I was unable to fit two clamps in between each bung to properly tighten down the hoses and keep them from leaking. So I made a post about it on Mazda-speed.com's forum. And Stephanie over at Begi saw it and offered to replace the part with a new part with the issue corrected. It took them maybe 4-6 weeks to actually finish and send the new part, which was kinda a pain hafting to wait that long.
But I received it finally, here's a comparision of the old part and the new one:
I installed it and had no problems clamping down the vacuum hoses etc.
Overall, Begi's Throttle Inlet tube replacement is a great option, it's much cheaper then Flyin Miata and they are willing to fine tune any part to the customer's liking. I definitely like that about their company. The fact they didn't get it right the first time though, and it took them a little over a month to fix the issue does sort of irk me. But they were nice about it and willing to work with me. I do not think I will ever purchase a large order from them though, for fear I would have to "make the part work" instead it just bolting right on like Flyin Miata's stuff. But I can also understand it's not always going to be a perfect fit because all of their products are manufactured by hand and are prone to human error.
I definitely saved some money though, only cost me $90 over Flyin Miata's $240. I give this product an overall thumbs up.