Seller said motor had around 9 psi at idle, oil pressure went up like normal at all other ranges

 

at this point you can only speculate. get the motor and pull the pump. go from there.

 

Ah.. Now I see why you were asking me about that motor Forrest.

This.

Your current setup only goes till 230 or so. Run that with the built engine and worry about the damper when you have a better turbo setup and are ready to dial it up. You can run a new setup for a bit at lower power if you can't get the damper right away.

You also don't have a six speed right? So that's another thing you're going to need.

 

So the plan is either throw a BE pump in for 400$ and get vvt or ms3 for roughly 200$. Run the 50 trim at what? full tilt or under 15-16 psi? It seems colipto tapped it out at around 230 ft/lbs, which is under the stock rod limit.
Or I budgeted
400$ for a be pump
200$ for EMS upgrade of some sort (either VVT tuner or ms3)
300$ for ebay rods and arp hardware
150$ for arp head studs (necessary?)
200$ for bearings/gaskets/ misc ****
That puts me at 1250$ for a semi built vvt engine, 1500$ if you count the motor
The kicker is that the motor has 80k
I would like to max out the 50 trim but would the built motor be necessary? Both sonofthehill and colipto said they liked the smaller turbo over the bigger super 60

 

I have leads on a few cheap ones, should give me time to explode a few before switching to a 6 speed

 

You missed the ~$250 to hone/skim the block. New rings too.

 

I saw pat just skipped this all together, slapping it together was my train of thought, maybe a head skim
Rings is under misc ****

 

If you keep reading you will see the one time Pat did that his engine burned oil like no other and he had to pull it back out.

 

****, also I'm going to need to upgrade to 610's. So add another 500$ or so for machine work and fueling mods

 

I think we are maxing the small turbo around 230 WHP up top. But I just can't say this enough, I bet it can easily make 300 WTQ at 4000 if you are not careful.

 

I guess this will make rods a no brainer then

 

Imagine what a badass street machine you would have with 20psi from 3500 to 6000.

 

https://www.miataturbo.net/engine-pe...3/#post1342038

 

I used a 3 stone hone on my current engine, engine burns zero oil. I wasn't going to reuse rings, I would do new rings and a DIY stone hone. Hopefully that clears up any confusion

 

Oh yeah thats fine.

 

Now arp studs, yes? and I assume ms3 is superior to vvt tuner?

 

Pure budget build ARP not needed

MS3 > VVT tuner

 

MS3x is the way to go. I think i had about $700 in the kit bits? sold my diypnp for 500. So long as you dont have a problem building the ms3x. Use trubokitty.com for that .

 

https://www.miataturbo.net/engine-pe...n-motor-57653/

I would do ARPs - I did.

 

I have an ms1 already. I should just be able to buy the ms3 daughter board and upgrade it. I know the wiring will take a while. Ms3 basic can control vvt right? Ms3x might not be in the budget