When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Ive had the car for almost a year and never thought to start a build thread until now, so to track my progress, here it is.
Greetings.
My name is Elliot and I own an early production (April '89) 1.6L, dual overhead cam, 16 valve, rear wheel drive, soft top, red two seat sports car Mazda designated the "Miata" pressing out a neckbreaking 115-ish horsepower at the crank, give or take due to the taxes of time.
I purchased this Miata in December 2016 on Pearl Harbor day, driving the sketchiest 75 miles of my life in 8" of fresh snow on the "wonderful" roads of southern Michigan. The Miata drives in snow as it is; a 2,000 pound ice skate. 76,xxx miles on the clock, completely unmolested, 2 owners. Original owner was an old man that toured with it and second owner did maintainance on it before selling it to pay for something his girlfriend wanted. An "engagement ring" or something silly like that. My girlfriend loves the car and vehemetly told me never to sell it. Bullet dodged, but let's keep it a secret how much money I'll be putting into it, shall we?
Okay, done with the novelistic intro.
I'm pretty much a car noob. Ive only ever done basic maintainance before (brakes, fluid changes etc) and I wanted a car to work on and learn with and I started with the goals of making a slow car fast. Not choosing the Miata platform would be downright herecy here.
Goals: 12-15 psi, daily-driver-level-reliability street car. 1.8 swap if the shortnose timebomb goes off. Maybe E85/flex, corn fuel is hard to find around here.
The day it arrived home
Last edited by WigglingWaffles; 11-16-2017 at 05:04 AM.
Fast forward to now. Ive been driving the car since March and I havent made much progress, but such is life. At least I'm not rushing this forced induction thing and slapping on the cheapest parts i can find, i guess. Mostly just replaced fluids and hoses. I spent most of the spring and summer enjoying the car stock while soaking up as much turbo knowledge as I could.
Modifications to date: Innovate MTX-L wideband, a Braineack-built MS3X, and if it counts, my fuel door release now opens my trunk and the fuel lid has a clicky magnet.
Im taking it slow with this tuning thing. Ive had the megasquirt in for almost two months now and my tune still isnt even close to perfect, and until it is, no positive pressure.
Parts purchased thus far: SR20 T25 and rebuild kit, Kraken manifold and 2.5" downpipe, as well as oil/water lines and hardware.
Plans for next season: the car will be going into storage mode soon, so I'll be using the winter months to save up for purchase of the remaining parts I need. Injectors, intercooler, piping, clutch, so on. ((I shouldve turned the wheel the other way, show off those stock daisy's)) Das Miata as it sits now. Im not a photographer by any means.
Nice car. You’re doing the right stuff in the right order, which I did not. I like your plan better.
You’ll hear that you should 1.8 swap before turbo. It’s probably true. But I can assure you that the stock 1.6 is worth the effort, and if you kill it with dumb mistakes like I probably will, you can always 1.8 swap later.
Sad update;
The Miata has been put into storage for the winter. Until March or April, she will sit.
Good news is that storage insurance is 20$/month, compared to the usual 240$. Being 21 in a no-fault state with a "two door sports car" sucks, I strongly do not suggest.
My ride for the winter is an '06 G6 GTP.
I wish hibernation was an option.
Last edited by WigglingWaffles; 11-13-2017 at 03:57 PM.
Update? I guess?
I rebuilt the turbo this morning with a dynamic seal kit from G-Pop Shop. I've never done it before, but I took step by step pictures and before I knew it, I was done. I'm pretty happy with it, hopefully it lives up to the price premium.
The turbo as it sits now. I should polish it. The shinier it is, the faster my car goes, right?
I also cleaned the threads and replaced the studs on the turbine housing, as well as the Kraken manifold I intend to mate it to. Hopefully the manifold lives up to the maker's promises and not its name. I dont trust the wastegate actuator, however, a 7-9lb can and a boost controller will take its place.
My plan for exhaust is a 2.5" straight pipe with an inline muffler, and angled tip for extra street cred. Im a pretty good tig welder and I specialize in stainless so I just have to cut and extend the downpipe I got with the manifold, easy peasy. The only thing I don't have any idea for is intercooler piping, I might end up going 2" hot side and 2.5" to the intake, I intend on keeping A/C and power steering so space will be extremely limited. Will I chop up part of my hood and run it through the bumper? Maybe.
All of the hard parts in my possession thus far
Ive been scoping classifieds everywhere for other parts, and someone here is selling an FM stage 1 for a 1.8, so long as I obtain a 1.8 flywheel, they both should bolt up and work, correct?
Last edited by WigglingWaffles; 11-13-2017 at 04:46 PM.
Aaaand subscribed, this looks awesome! Glad to see another 1.6 build going! I wish I had a garage to work on my car, but at least I live close to a Miata specialist who can help me out. Good luck with your build!
If you're building it yourself and there isn't a big difference in cost, you should try seeing if you can take it to 3 inches in the midpipe. It should help spool a fair amount and you need what you can get with a 1.6.
Ive been working so much lately I almost completely forgot. As of today I have owned my Miata for an entire year. (details on my "arrived home" photo read the 10th, not the 7th, oops) and I'm literally where I started last year. Waiting for winter to be over so I can get in the drivers seat.
Except this spring, itll be twice as fast if not more.
I already have money set aside for some flowforce 640s, and I'm in the stages of planning my intercooler and piping. As for exhaust, Vbands and a straight pipe with a muffler is pretty set in stone. I unfortunately cant bring myself to work with metal car parts while its <20ºF outside as much as I really want to, so I'm simply in information gathering mode until march/april.
So far, I've come into a crossroads on a few things and would value some input.
Intercooler piping. Power steering and AC stay because its going to entirely be a street car, unless I can manage to get myself into the local track scene. What should I expect as far as fitment goes? Im more than willing to hack up my hood and go over the top of the radiator on the hot side, but if theres a hassle-free-ish way to cram 2" of piping around the mess of such luxuries, I am open to suggestions.
Also, and I feel dumb asking this, what do I do about the pcv? That weird metal hose that connects the timing cover to the intake tract. I understand thats not supposed to see boost, so do I just put a breather filter on it? Or does it have to go full catch can to work proper?
last but not least, I do have a shortnose. It doesnt have visible crank wobble or any symptoms of a failure so far, but to my knowlege is untouched factory original. Im automatically assuming the turbo may increase the stress factor that could lead to a failure. What, if any, steps can i take to prevent it? Or should I fly the flag of "if it aint broke, dont fix it" and know that I may, or may not, have to shell out for a replacement engine at just about any time?
Also, and I feel dumb asking this, what do I do about the pcv?
leave it alone.
That weird metal hose that connects the timing cover to the intake tract. I understand thats not supposed to see boost, so do I just put a breather filter on it? Or does it have to go full catch can to work proper?
Intercooler piping- you just have to take the car apart and figure it out. Read a bunch of build threads here for ideas, then get cracking. I spent about a month figuring out how I wanted to mount my IC and run my pipes, and I don't have PS or AC. I'm a very slow, meticulous worker though and I want things done right the first time.
Short nose crank- leave it be and it will probably be fine. AFAIK it usually doesn't become a problem until people remove it to change the front crank seal, then don't torque it down properly.
PCV and catch cans- lots of opinions on this one here. Do some searching.
Aaaalrighty. I got the Miata out quite early and I'm diving headfirst into the tuning bits. Progress so far is minimal, I dialed in my idle settings somewhat and have fiddled with VE tables, mostly getting adept at using TS and scratching my head. Ive curated what I think is a proper afr table from scratch and plan on aligning the VE table with these numbers on my days off this week.
Is this good? Or am I way off and need to be scolded?
Parts I have accumulated;
Turbo, Kraken manifold, cx racing 19x6x2.5 intercooler, oil/water lines, cobalt boost gauge, 2" hotside IC pipes, 640cc FF injectors, FM happy meal pressure plate and 10.3lb flywheel.
Parts i still need;
clutch disk, release bearing, oil drain connections, downpipe and 3" exhaust, 2.5" coldside IC pipes, vTPS, blowoff valve, boost control solonoid and torsen swap if i can snipe a good deal. And probably other things I forgot to list.
I decided to just buy an exhaust instead of using the 2.5" downpipe i already have and going through the trouble of fabbing my own exhaust to save time and headache. Kraken started making cast downpipes and full exhausts for what i think is a reasonable price, and I'd like to support his work.
I had bought a used FM stage 1 kit from another user here and part of the hub was slightly damaged around the spring. Its probably fine, but I'd rather take my chances with a new disk than change it twice. Flywheel and pressure plate look great though.
Problem I've encountered; on cold starts, the engine idles around 2,000-2,400 rpm and will remain idling there until its warmed up and restarted, then it follows my idle target tables. I havent gotten around to fixing this yet, but I dont think the car roaring up that high on cold start is a good thing.
Other than that, the car runs excellent and even started right up coming out of storage. I cant wait for spring to really kick in so I can get some parts installed.
The 1.6 has a thermostatic cold idle valve (that thing on the side of the intake manifold with the two coolant lines). I have found I don't need much of a bump for cold idle with the IACV since that one takes care of it.
Your target AFR map looks very conservative, but otherwise fine. I would target 13.5 or so at 100kpa and go from there.
Learning to tune is like running face first into a brick wall, but my car drive way nicer than it ever did on the stock ECU. Cold start and idle still need work though...
The 1.6 has a thermostatic cold idle valve (that thing on the side of the intake manifold with the two coolant lines). I have found I don't need much of a bump for cold idle with the IACV since that one takes care of it.
MS cares little about that.
it's either settings in the tune and/or the idle speed adjustment is too high and at the most min idle valve settings, there's still too much air bypassing the TB plate.
it's either settings in the tune and/or the idle speed adjustment is too high
Thosw are the first things i went to, got it down to about 1700 by fiddling with the adjustment screw and idle settings. Its not super concerning to me now, but I'll tweak and dial it in my spare time.
10-27-2017, 03:30 PM
Another noob turbos his 1.6
1
