Engi-Ninja's Remarkably Unremarkable NB2 Turbo Build
 

So, after a few years of dreaming, I'm going to attempt to turbo my 2003 this summer. She doesn't have the Konigs on her in the picture because they have summer tires on them. She looks much better in triple black.
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I bought her in the spring of 2013 with 23k miles on her. I then proceeded to drive her all over central and southern Indiana for 3.75 years, and now she got about 4 times that many miles. Never had any issues, runs flawlessly.

The plan is to do a straight-forward, pseudo budget, 220HP build. I don't want to have to build the engine at this point, so I don't plan on going for any more power than that in the near future. This will be my daily driver, so I want it to be as reliable as possible.

A couple of weeks ago I installed an MS3 basic and MTX-L, and have been working on the tune since then. For the most part, it's coming along nicely, though there are a few oddities I may need some help with down the road. I also acquired an SR20 T25 from Zilvia, which appears to be in very good shape. I'm planning on working on breaking the turbine housing bolts loose this spring so it's all ready to be clocked when I get the rest of the parts.

The rest of my list is as follows, in roughly chronological order:

IAT: GM from DIY
Injectors: Flow Force 640cc, unless I can find a good deal on something else, like matched rx8 yellow injectors.
Clutch: Either ACT HD with organic disk or FM stage 1, depending on which I can find a good deal on. If I have to buy one brand new, I'll probably get the FM1.
Compressor flanges: Kingawanga from Ebay.
Wastegate snap ring: Garrett from Ebay.

Everything else: FM DIY kit. I know this will cost me a bit more, but right now time is worth more than money, so I would rather all the bits go together with minimal banging of heads into walls and punching of furry woodland creatures.

That's about all I have right now. I'll keep this thread updated when I have any interesting developments. Let me know if you see anything missing or wildly out of line!

It appears you are very local to me. I feel like I have seen this car around with the Konigs on it. Do you plan to do track days/autocross with this car?

Good to see another local! I'm not sure if I'll auto-x or not...I'll see how I'm feeling about it once the turbo is installed and tuned. I have thought about taking her up to Indy for the open drag days too; that would be fun. Do you go to the Columbus auto-x often? I know some guys who go nearly every time; a white MR2 and a green Bullit mustang. One of these days I'm going to tag along with them and check it out.

I've gone quite a few times, and still go periodically to do shake downs, but mostly I do track days. I know the people you are talking about, Xu was my nemesis for a while when I was autocrossing regularly in ES. I would highly encourage going turbo or not, it's a great group of people, it's great fun, and teaches you about your car.

Haha, yeah I heard he was pretty quick! He's working on building a Formula SAE car right now, he plans to autocross that eventually too. I'll have to check it out when the weather gets warm, I'll let you know when I'm going.

Glad to see this build progressing. If you're ever up at the Lucas strip give me a shout, I'm only about 5 miles from it.

Will do man! I'm starting to get excited about it, it's always nice to actually start making progress.

Sooo....after a somewhat long hiatus, time for an update!

After a rather intensive investigation into how to make the world's quietest turbo Miata with a 3" exhaust, I have commissioned the worthy Mr. Shuiend to build me a turbo kit with a custom exhaust. Props to him on a very solid price for a custom setup. He also stopped by on his way up north to drop off some bits that he already had on hand:
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...43e5221626.jpg

Since the MK Turbo kits use a T3 flange setup, I sold the SR20 T25 to Cameron and Ben, who promptly installed it and boosted the shit out of it.

While waiting for the MK Turbo kit, I have a few things I can work on in the meantime:

1) Install boost gauge (VDO mechanical gauge just arrived today, installing tomorrow)
2) Drill and tap oil pan (maybe tomorrow if I don't chicken out...)
3) Upgrade clutch

I pulled the splash guard off yesterday and realized there's no way in hell my drill is going to fit in there. HF was out of angle drills on sale, so I ordered this from amazon instead:
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...237a828e83.jpg

Hopefully it'll help me sneak past the power steering lines.

While I'm waiting for that to arrive, I went ahead and marked the drill location:
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...4469ded44c.jpg
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...d44cb93fc0.jpg
Ignore the squiggle to the left. The star shaped mark was attempting to imitate Savington's photo with the socket butted up against the rearmost rib on the compressor bracket.

Does anyone see any issues with this drill spot? I think it looks pretty close to the other pictures I've seen on here, but I just wanted to double check.

hole
 

make sure it is above oil level

It was recommended to find another flywheel and get it resurfaced prior to upgrading the clutch. I acquired this one from a friend, but I'm concerned about the amount of rust on it. It looks a little more than just surface rust:
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...47bfb76fe4.jpg
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...b59523b0bb.jpg
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...98819f4e10.jpg


My main concern is the rust on the mounting surfaces; it looks like there's some pitting. I'm not sure what's considered an acceptable amount of rust in this case; could someone please advise?

If you're getting it resurfaced, does it matter? From pics it's tough to tell how bad it really is though. If you are still worried about it, you can have mine.

Well the resurfacing will take care of the friction surface, but I don't think it'll touch the rust on the mounting surfaces. It's definitely beyond "minor surface rust" on those surfaces; there's some texture to it. I don't think I'm comfortable with putting something with that must rust damage into the engine, even if the rust itself can be cleaned off.

If you have one that's in good shape and don't need it, that would be awesome!

Tada! Drilled, tapped, and capped:

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...8c7be60c00.jpg

Also, someone please tell me what the hell is going on here:

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...da56d9a146.jpg
It's like he was trying to put a snorkel on and got the intake and exhaust mixed up.

I'm pretty sure he's using his exhaust as a rain gauge

Wannabe bosozoku exhaust, single sad pipe. :cry:

At least do the star...
https://s1.cdn.autoevolution.com/ima...s-96473_5.jpg?

Haha, wow...

So you want one of those for your exhaust tip. I got it and will make sure it looks just as badass.

Awesome! I want mine with heat bluing too, cuz that makes it more fasterer.

So Penis shaped exhaust tip, with a blue shine from a propane torch.