manageddc

So,

I used to have a couple thunderbird TC's an 83, and an 86, when i was younger, and remembered how fun a turbocharged ride was to drive. Fast forward about 15 years, daily driver is now a 2016 Toyota Tundra, and have found myself with a pretty decent income, so wanted something to play with.

Found a 1990 Miata on craigslist that is for sure in need of some TLC, it already had a partial turbo setup on it, and the previous owner has a complete second turbo setup (all the parts) he's including with it. It's in a state of disassembly at the moment, but compression tests were good, so for less than $2k, i figured what the hell? I'm writing this as I wait on the guy to deliver the car and the assortment of parts/kits he threw in with it, anxiously I might add.

Will probably post pics tomorrow when there's light, so y'all can see how I received her, and with some light reading, some patience, some $$, and lets be honest, some blood, sweat, and tears, I hope to turn it into something fun to run around in on the weekends.

I'm hopeful, and once i've posted the details of where everything stands as of the first good lookover, would love input from the community at large with tips, suggestions, etc.

Glad to "virtually" meet y'all, and looking forward to my new project

-Andy
DFW Area, Texas

manageddc

So, I never got around to posting pics of the donor car, but went and picked up a running 1993 Miata last night, and I must say, even stock, I like this car!!! The only performance mods on the one I picked up are Megan 32way coil overs, a weapon R intake, and they replaced fans with flex lite electric fans, which I'll be replacing again with the Mishimoto set I've got from the donor car.... So here's the pics of the '93

-Andy

shuiend

iTrader: (24)

Put on stock OEM fans on the radiator. Unless you are buying very expensive SPAL fans the ones you are putting on do not work as well as the stock ones.

Also pictures of all the turbo stuff are needed so we can tell you if it is crap or decent parts.

Girz0r

iTrader: (1)

Howdy.

raynez

iTrader: (1)

Thats a cool color!

manageddc

Sorry for slow reply guys, between 2 teenaged children, and running a business, well, yeah, you get the point Anyways, here's pics of all the stuff I ended up with.....

manageddc

More pics of the car I actually plan to turbo, which is a 1993.....

Forrest95M

Do water pump and timing belt, replaces all rubber coolant hoses if there OEM, sell the vortech and whatever other bandaids came with that setup, get some rx8's and a megasquirt and you should have a pretty good 1.6 turbo set up

hi_im_sean

iTrader: (3)

I wish people would stop recommending the RX8 injectors already. EV14 or GTFO. Talk to flowforce, or put your own gt500 kit together.

And yea, toss the blue thing that says vortech on it, in the trash.

manageddc

The vortech is NOT on the purple car I plan to turbo just FYI, that's on the red donor car that was already turbocharged by PO. I mainly bought that one as spare parts lol. Which ironically enough I already had to use last night, had the soft top up, and found just how hard it is to see out the back window when I backed into my buddy's truck bumper, and destroyed the right tail light!! Light was the only damage so I was like, ehhh, lesson learned, no worries I got a spare at home lol

Now my research has lead me to the following plan -

Mega squirt for sure,

Injectors idk yet I'm seeing conflicting info so verdict still out on those, whichever ones I choose tho, I'm thinking I should pull the extra wiring in to be able to wire them up for sequential injection, any feedback on if it's worth doing sequential would be gladly accepted.

Depending on what it looks like when I pull it off the donor car, might try to keep and reuse the turbo manifold from that car, and possibly the exhaust, again that depends on what I find its condition to be when removed from the other car. If it's a cheap eBay manifold then doubt I'd want to reuse it....

I'm also looking for recommendations on the following parts keeping in mind I plan to use them with a MS:

IAT sensor
Wideband o2 sensor and AFR gauge
Boost gauge just so I can monitor how much boost the car is running

And prob will want a bobble head version of the "flying purple people eater" lol. Jk on that but yeah

Any more pointers, remote control perhaps? By that I mean y'all tell me what I should de-install from the donor car and take pics of and let y'all tell me if it's worth keeping or not? There's a small turbo on that car already (the parts car) so that stuff will get yanked for sure and looked at.

The motor on the parts car gets good compression, checked that before buying it, so technically I have a whole spare motor and tranny....the thought has crossed my mind of rebuilding that one with forged Pistons/rods, if available for that motor, for a future swap out if I ever needed to or just wanted to lol

Thanks for the feedback I've gotten so far! And yes I do plan on the basics the other guy mentioned, timing belt, water pump, hoses, etc, those are the gimmes anytime you pickup a used vehicle

-Andy

manageddc

One more thing, not building the car to track it, just something fun and zippy to play with on the weekends, and although I might get flamed for it, this is Texas, so AC delete is NOT gonna happen lol

x_25

The GT500 injectors have been great on my 1.6 with my MS3x so far. Managed 34mpg on a long highway trip. Filled up in NJ and made it into ohio on just about 10 galons. Not bad!

I had to wire mine for sequential to be able to idle smoothly at anything aproching a reasonable AFR. Running batch, you have to divide the fuel delivery into two squirts per cycle, which halves the time the injector needs to be open (before dead time is applied). My dead time is set to 1.24ms (measure myself for correct dead time at idle). The injectors don't like running at anything less than 1.45ms pulse width (they are inconsistant). To idle at 14:1 afr with sequrntial injection, I need 1.65-1.75ms (depending on temp and other things). This means with batch fire you need 1.4-1.5ms or so. Well into unhappy injector range.

To be honest, for my power goals, a 400cc EV14 is really what I would have gone with. But the GT500s work fine, get great economy and were dirt cheap. I split a set of 8 off ebay with a friend, then bought the adapter kit from FlowForce. Total outlay was $190.50.

You can idle them in batch, but it took idljng at 12.8AFR to get a smooth idle...

hi_im_sean

iTrader: (3)

In have no problem idling smoothly at stoich or even low 15.x:1 with the GT500s in batch. No IAC or air valve either.

x_25

Then either something is up with my set, or I missed a setting somewhere? I could not get them to do so.

What pulse width are you seeing?

hi_im_sean

iTrader: (3)

No idea. Ill get a log this weekend for you if i remember.

x_25

Just realized no IAC or air valve means you are probably idling fairly fast? Mine worked if I idled it at 1800rpm or so, but my end goal is a comfy(ish) sport touring car. So I want my idle at 1k or less.

hi_im_sean

iTrader: (3)

900-1k. idles fine at 7-800 too(not at 15.x:1 though, high 14s are fine), just doesn't like headlights that low, and really wants to be warmed up.

Braineack

iTrader: (62)

better than rx7 injectors.

Braineack

iTrader: (62)

that's what voltage dwell correction is for :P

x_25

Something must be up with my set then, bought a set of 8 to split with a friend off ebay. It idles a bit rough even at 14:1 at 1k.