GTS Miata

iTrader: (1)

I know from lurking around here that most of you seem to be of the DIY variety, but I wanted to see what your opinions were on the new FM turbo kits? I’m trying to decide if the convenience of a complete kit delivered to my door is worth the extra money? I enjoy a good DIY project, but it seems like the ones that I work on from scratch seem to take forever to complete.

I was pondering the voodoo II kit and then adding a megasquirt to take it up to FMII levels with out the FMII expense.

samnavy

iTrader: (7)

Hmmm.... $3000 and 160rwhp for the VoodooII... Hmmmm....

Begi Mani and DP: 385+439=$824
GT2554: $900
ebay IC and Piping: $300
Bosch BOV: $55
Begi FPR: $200
Bipes: $225
Water and Oil Lines/Fittings: $100
Used 330's and RX7MAF: $100
Misc stuff: $200
Walbro: $100
Total: $3000... but that'll get you 200rwhp and be just as safe.

Don't forget the clutch!

Those prices are all for NEW stuff, except the Inj's and MAF. You could easily shave $1000 off that by sourcing used parts. FM kits are good, you just write a check and bolt them in. Personally, that's no fun to me. I love DIY, which is why I bought almost everything used or made it myself. The debate will rage forever as to whether Begi or FM make "better" stuff. Personally, I think Begi's stuff is better engineered, which is why I bought their Mani and new DP... but if I had any welding skillz, I probably would have tried to make my own.

Bottom line, DIY is not hard... it does take a little more time if you're on a budget and are waiting for parts to become avail. You can still however, buy new parts and still end up cheaper and with more power than the FM VoodooII. You could skip the Walbro/FPR/Inj's above and instead buy a Voodoo box($415) for fueling to make things easier for the same money, but i don't think it would get you 200rwhp.

hustler

iTrader: (6)

I've actually considered buying their kit with no intercooler or electronics...but I doubt they will go for that.

If they would just sell their manifold and downpipe, I'd be happy.

Braineack

iTrader: (62)

I think Keith has mentioned you can buy it in any configuration you want if you'd prefer not to have an intercooler. And I'm sure they'll sell manifold/dp combos. It's money in their pocket.

Stripes

iTrader: (8)

If you don't want to deal with the hassles of a DIY kit, I think the FM voodoo kit would be a great starting place. It's worth the money if you want to bolt on a basic reliable turbo system and upgrade to MS down the road. I spent more than 3000 dollars on my DIY kit and took me more than 6 months to build it. I enjoyed building my kit from scratch, but there were times when I asked myself why I decided to take on this challenge. DIY completely consumes your life.

Fritch

you CAN do that, you can buy whatever you want really. The kits are just a convenient list of parts for someone that might need all of them. When I ordered my voodoo kit way back when I called and told them that I didn't need somethings and I wanted some other things. They will be happy to custom tailor your order to you.

GTS Miata

iTrader: (1)

I'm not sure the very soon to be wife will enjoy that...

Keep the opinions/ideas coming..

Just to clarify, the Voodoo II is advertised to put down 180, not 160 as stated above. I would hope that they are being conservative on the numbers that they post. My 95 with a DIY cowl intake and Racing beat exhaust put down 110 a couple years ago on the dyno.

Markp

Well considering that my stuff was delayed more for financial reasons than for actual technical issues, you can quickly build a DIY kit that kicks *** for far less money.

I purchased the SS Autochrome manifold, which can be had for $175.00, while not for everyone. This manifold doesn't seem all that horrible. Don't get me wrong, I had some issues with it but for $175 it seems hard to beat this far. I then put on a $200 ghetto chinese turbo from driftpros on ebay. Now mind you all this money I saved allowed me to move forward on a built (although not exactly as I specified motor) and repair of the cylinder head that got accidentally damaged.

I have spent roughly $7000 total on the project. This includes the built motor, the repair of the cylinder head, the TEC-IIIR and the turbo kit itself. And believe me, I could have done it much cheaper.

The motor was $2000 of the cost.
The TEC-IIIR was over $2000 of the cost.
The Damaged Cylinder Head and Billet oil pump gears $1000.
Labor was billed at $1000.

That means that the rest of the turbo kit, including wastegate, boost controller, turbo, manifold, intercooler, piping, couplers, gauges and everything else came in near $1000.

The Manifold was $175
The wastegate was $220
The Turbo was $205
The piping was $200
The intercooler is not much different than a $150 Ebay unit

$950 in hard parts. Now I quoted prices people would likely pay. I personally got my intercooler and manifold free. I would dare say that I have a whole lot more car than someone who would have spent $7000 at FM. Assuming that you wanted to do what I did at FM (or any other place on earth) you would be well above $10,000 dollars. Remove my built motor, $1000 in head work and billet oil pump gears, and TEC-IIIR (replacing it with a Megasquirt) and you've pulled over $4000 out of my $7000 budget. I'll put this car up against any FM or BEGi car with a $5000 system installed. It isn't certainly an issue of quality, the FM and BEGi stuff is of high quality, but I think that I picked my battles well. Also I wouldn't want to race the BEGi/FM units with a 4000 RPM redline imposed.

Mark