Landrew

iTrader: (2)

Way back after my S10 got stolen in the fall of 2009 I had options with the money from insurance.

I didn't really consider the miata at the time. I had driven them but had forgotten the driving experience plus they are expensive up here. Then early fall my boss said take my mint 90 for a drive. I was hooked and remembered his used red 91 and brand new NB from years back that I had driven. I thought if I buy one it has to go fast. He said just supercharge or Turbo one. 30min of research and I saw that for a few thousand I could have not only cornering and braking but straightline. Boom - searched for an NB with Torsen and 6spd.
Found one 8 hours away i could actually afford. A high km 02 SE.

I had so many comments about how will your kids fit - my reply: they wont. Its for my wife and i to enjoy and keep our alone time just that - alone together. At our house: "hey can i come mom or dad", "well sure - oh but were taking the miata other wise we would take you" (not)

The cool part is I spent less on it and the Sierra pickup I just bought combined than any new or even 3 yr old minivan would have cost or even most new compacts. Mmm - depreciation and mechanical skills have served me well.

What do you do when you replace a pickup with a roadster - you make lemonade!

mmm sweet yet sour:




FF to today. It has received some wheels, ricelands, Duece bar and the SanFrancisco treat (rice-a-roni) red paint to the calipers and silver to the rotors.

Finally today I started the Turbo build.

Any big project requires energy and what better way to attach oxygen to hemoglobin than with the help of Fe or iron to the lay person. So I ported the wastegate and breathed in the particles. It only took about 30 min and a cheap Princess Auto die grinder. My 8gal compressor was on 100% duty cycle but thankfully it runs on Amsoil compressor oil in the ISO 100 flavor so it was fine. I dont think the neighbours like the continued noise but i finished just at 11pm so I am within the legal right.

before:

after:



The pic below doesn't look professional but that's because it's not, actually the port looks really clean, better than the glare and bare spots where I cleaned up some ridges make it appear. It came out nice and the air particles are not really going to care about the cosmetics and I do not feel at a loss for not having BEGI do it. I would have sent it to them but shipping and wait time to the US is costly. I had read about boost creep and wanted no part of that. I was not looking forward to the job but it was way easier than I had imagined it. Let's hope the rest of the build goes like that.





PS my Canadian Car has almost 100% of its turbo parts sourced from the USA. Actually my vehicle parts and moto/atv parts, gear etc usually come from the US. Heck my milk would to if it would ship properly! My loyalty runs with the best price as I need to stretch my dollar. Go go laissez-faire!

papasmurf

iTrader: (1)

This thread is full of win. Anyone who tows a dirt bike with a miata deserves an applause.

Landrew

iTrader: (2)

My goal is to hit boost while towing the bike and pass any of the fast common cars and check the look on their faces.







I load/strap my toys well so I know they wont go anywhere and I have even got the rear to step out on wet corners. The worry is that the trailers corner will hit the bumper as it swings independantly.


Tomorrow (ok today when the sun is up) I doubt I will get to do more than just header removal prep as I'll only have maybe an hour of time if that. I'm going to remove the heatshield and spray all the bolts and let them stew for a day.

NA6C-Guy

iTrader: (1)

I hope you don't mean the rear of the car stepping out on wet corners. Good luck getting your car and trailer towed home after you end up off the road. Get the rear broken loose and the trailer will want to continue straight off the road, dragging your tiny woman car off the road with it, ending in a nice jackknife.

But yeah, passing people on the interstate in boost with the top down and a dirt bike in tow would be awesome fun. Just don't let the trailer get away from you. A wag at 80mph in that tiny car would probably be no fun.

Sparetire

Shoot I have had some excitment in my S10 with my little class a trailer. The S10 is amybe 2900LBs. It would be much more fun in a 2400LB car.

Nice porting. Honestly its sort of fun save for the shavings (for a real treat, blow your nose right now. Pretty.) because its sort of like sculpting IMO. The free power is also a nice touch.

underdog

iTrader: (6)

Cool story! Good luck with it.

Landrew

iTrader: (2)

My towing "drifts" were pretty weak and slow and used slippery roads to make it happed but i had to do it, with boost no way.

Update:
Header off the studs and cat flange unbolted. Both were quite easy. I soaked the Header and EGR but not the cat flange and the bolts all still moved quite well for sitting there since 02.

The EGR is in quite an annoying location on an 02 !! My BEGI manifold is a 99 so the EGR will be easier to get put back on .
I have to grind just a few mm of the tirangle header flange as it catches the steering shaft and I can't pull it out by myself.
Today will be a real day and I hope to get many hours in and pics.

Landrew

iTrader: (2)

Update:

Injectors are in. I took off the throttle body as the 2 bolts behind it holding the top intake halve were a bugger to get to. Both motor mounts are in as well. I used competition ones and did the drivers first and then the passenger. The passenger was accessed from the side and bottom. I unbolted the actual mount from the motor side plate while it was in the cavity between the motor and body. Made it much easier to get to. Removed fron end parts to test fit the IC. Roughly placed the turbo in position so I could see what all the fuss about lower rad, pwr steering and turbo water lines were about. I learn better by doing than the pics from BEGI/FM manuals. Now I see what has to be done. I also drilled and tapped the pan and notched the shelf.
Was a productive last day and a half.

Passenger mount access and pry bar to man handle the motor a bit more. Jack was also under the motor. I've done all the work all by myself so far, motor mounts were tough but not terrible.


Mounts new and old: (oh look I left the gas on with the bike, better fix that when I get home)


Injectors - notice I put the hugely flowing one in cylinder 4 , I learned that here......


In the middle of moving the relays I found 2 broken wires, both relays had the same wire broken. They are all corroded from exposure to crud. I put new ends on new wire connected them and heat shrinked. Then filled all exposed connections with greeze. PS: On my dirt bikes and ATV's I prefill all conections with grease just so this doesn't happen. Don't want to cross a stream and get a short 35km from the truck and hour before dark 7000ft up in the rockies!!

Just showing how much space is here to do the mount. Actually more than you would think. When I 1st got the car I had heard how bad the oil filter placement is. To me it was fine, I wonder about the whiners... Oh and yes that is a Hard Drive magnet on my oil filter. All my vehicles run one or 2 filters on or in the oil filter. I even found these crazy strong ones on an old HD at work here. They are actually a little scary to take on and off at oil change time as they would think nothing of pinching a finger and taking skin off. I can't even let my kids go near them or it's certain maiming:


Thanks to all here for confirming that the injectors I got were plug and play before I took the car apart. I had reservations but voila they fit. Tech note - grease those 3 fuel rail spacers so they don't keep falling out!

Landrew

iTrader: (2)

Quick question:

The coolant tube running right under the ex. manifold is hard line running towards the front of the car and into a casting that includes the outlet that runs to the lower drivers side outlet for the radiator. That coolant hard line has a flexible joint where it enters the casting. How much can / should it move and does it ever leak there. It seems to move easily and I worry that in my yanking of the old header I may have stressed it.

Since I dont have an exhaust yet I was thinking of gutting the cat. The car has 242,000 km's so it may be gettig near the end of it's life anyways. It's for spool and flow reasons - advice on that? The car has an MSM muffler already on it, not that it's a big flower but perhaps mildly better than stock.

Landrew

iTrader: (2)

Got the intercooler on and the piping, the oil t-fitting on the intake side of the block for the turbo. Bought a -10AN / 3/8 NPT fitting for the pan ($6CDN) and JB Welded it in. Ha- did not read the intructions and cut my top rad hose shorter on the block side, oh well fix that later.

IC piping:



Small ebay IC that came in my kit, should be fine for our Canadian climate:




My proposed routing, any tips / advice on my placement for the IC piping ??

Landrew

iTrader: (2)

Got the gauges installed. It wasn't as bad as I predicted. I used some bicycle cable to fish things around. I used the shift boot/center console to get my Uego wired up from the DP.

Found out that both boots are worn pretty bad.

I was happy that first time I put power to everything it worked as it should electronically. As far as machanically I'm not sure on the boost gauge as that will be a few days away.



Speaking of that did I T into the right spot here? And can I use the next vacuum line over to the right for my BOV ??

TurboTim

iTrader: (9)

Very nice.

Soon you can do this with the turbo:

Big brakes are a good idea at that point too.

Landrew

iTrader: (2)

That's awesome. I really should hook up to a camper and drive down a slight grade just to make a video, perhaps with enough tongue weight and a clutch drop you could get a wheelie going ?

Really I don't want to tow with it I just like the option and gag factor. I went turbo to make a good car super.

I now have a 2003 Silverado (that I spent few hours on last night [while really wanting to do the Miata some more] swapping the center console for a middle seat as we need all 6 seats and more) so I won't be towing as often.

I do use a bike rack and I think a hitch is a great part of a sports car.

I would love to put one on a Ferrari or Lambo and pull a trailer full of old beds and assorted grungy garbage just to pee off the snobbery.

Landrew

iTrader: (2)

So I clocked the Turbo after it was installed. I had an issue trying to get the IC tube on. At the angle the outlet was it did not want to stay on unless I really cranked the clamp while I pulled up on the tube. That was not acceptable to me. Being that I didn't want to take off the water and oil lines and that I had already bolted it up to the manifold I thought about clocking it in place. After taking 1 water connection off the housing I could get to 4 of the clocking bolts, once I loosened those I got after it with 2 crow bars. I don't recommend this but I wasnt a happy camper and needed results. Here is a before and after:



The clocking affected my WG actuator in a way I did not like so I did this:




Once I got that over with I mounted the XEDE under the drivers dash, took some fine finger work to get it all the wiring hooked up and then I rested it in the cavity to the right of the steering column between some steel beams, fits perfect.

I learned more about BOV, GM IAT and WG signals here. https://www.miataturbo.net/showthrea...500#post593500

So now I'm running the WG signal from the intake near the TB then to the MBC as seen below. I of course had to plug the port on the Turbo outlet.:


Got the intake mounted up with the BOV and stock IAT and breather:


Then I went on to the exhaust. I could not get it to go on until I realized the water hard line was in the way (I guess thats why FM and BEGI tell you to bend it over - ha) Once I crowbared it I got the DP on but the clearance to the shelf is not acceptable so today after work I will be folding it over like with how the Turbo shelf is bent down.



On a side note, my used kit was on a 99 so the EGR tube for my 2002 could not be used. I have one coming for free but I couldn't wait. In a google search on it's thread pitch i found that it is a M22X1.5 which is really hard to find. I finally found and Dorman Oil Drain plug that will cap the manifold part of the EGR - up here in Canada that drain plug was $16 what a joke!

So tonight I will make a block plate for the EGR on the block, finish the Exhaust and O2's, fill with coolant and 1 part Rotella dino and 3 parts Rotella T6. Load the XEDE map - perhaps if I have time put in a new fuel filter and then start her up and check for leaks in about 35 places!!

Landrew

iTrader: (2)

YEEHAW ALL Y'ALL!

So I finally cranked it over with the ECU relay removed, stuck it back in and loaded an XEDE map. It started but was idling low - bad and had off the scale AFR's. I took it down the alley way and I had to clutch it as it was bucking around. Once under load it was better but closed throttle is was lean and quirky. I had the MBC set really open and didn't know a thing about WG preload so after some warm up and leak checking I started to apply throttle. It was ok but not great, it was only boosting to maybe 3 psi. I then turned the MBC in a few times until I got it to 10 psi and it's great. It was raining out so there is wheelspin but thats what I like. I only had a 10min drive as I wanted to research the idle and lean conditions.

Update to this morning. I gave the WG about 2 turns of preload and loaded a map I found on mnet (the only miata map on the internet) and voila, it idled and low speed drivability was great. The map is a little rich but it works smooth.

Thanks again for everyone here helping out, the search button and good deals on used parts !!!!!!!. I would not have attempted the build without this site.



BTW power does corrupt, I already want to turn the boost up but I will try to keep it at 12psi. I'm also running the stock exhaust.

What kind of HP/TQ gains and how many RPM will my spooling drop when going from the stock Miata exhaust to a 3” system as that is my next planned move.

I'm running stock 5 range plugs and will be buying BRK7E's today.

dgmorr

iTrader: (4)

Where did you get those inlet and outlet adapters for your turbo?

Landrew

iTrader: (2)

came with the turbo but i can ask the seller if you'd like

Doppelgänger

iTrader: (12)

Congrats on the project
I know I have fun towing my 5x6 trailer loaded with stuff and passing everyone on the highway I need to get a shot of me towing a nice bass boat.

On the EGR plug, I used one from a Dodge Ram diesel pickup truck and was like $10 from NAPA. You def. did your research and reading correctly to make sure you were well informed on the install!

Landrew

iTrader: (2)

Thank You,

Tell me about an exhaust - what can I expect ?

lsc224

iTrader: (13)

Congratulations! Good you are up and running, been following your build.