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After reading multiple build threads, I've been inspired to start my own. Beware, this most likely will be a slow moving build but I'll attempt to keep things moving.
A little background about my car and myself, I bought my car during July 2016. It's a 94, R titled, C-Package with around 148,000 on the dash. The R-Title came from a hit in the rear left that was repaired nicely. I was 16 at the time and was super excited since growing up I've always been interested in first gen Miatas. I'm 17, live in Western PA and am a senior in High School. After I graduate I'll be attending Mount Aloysius University with a major in Nursing.
Pic of when I first brought my car home:
Not long after I bought my car I ordered Tein Basic coilovers to replace the blown ebay ones it was currently on, slapped on some cheap wheels I had lying around, and installed a hard dog roll bar.
Next comes the winter of 2016. I bought some Klutch SL1 wheels (16x9 Rear, 16x8 Front) from my buddy that were on his BMW E30. Instead of just rolling and pulling my fenders I decided to buy a widebody kit from Carbon Miata so I could cut off the rear quarter that was hit when it was R-Titled. I took some different pieces of 2.5 in piping and welded the different bends together to dump it out the driver side in front of the rear tire. I bought a front lip and made some angry eyes out of electrical tape. I also repainted the rest of the car with the fender flares.
The current parts I've bought:
Garrett T25 from an SR20 motor
RX8 Yellow Injectors
MTX-L Wideband O2 Sensor
Begi Mani and Downpipe
Parts I'm Planning to Buy:
MSPNP2
Boost Gauge
IC Piping, other hardware, fittings
Piping for a new exhaust
Tial BOV
Clutch
Other things that I'm forgetting
So my initial goal is 200 whp then go from there. I compression tested my motor and got an average of about 180 psi with no more than 5 psi difference between cylinders so I'd say it's pretty healthy. After lurking on here for almost a year now, reading many many build threads, and reading the MS manual I'm confident that I can safely boost my car. My budget started out at 2000 becuase I planned on using a tacotaco manifold and some other cheap ebay stuff. After seeing what happens when you go cheap, I've upped my budget to 3000 and decided to do it right the first time. I've also recently picked up a hardtop that needs a little spot putty work and paint for 750 bucks.
Honestly, I really wanna faster than my dad's 07 Mustang GT, partly because I wanna be able to brag to him about it, and partly because I wanna shame him into supercharging his car.
I appreciate all constructive criticism and will try to answer all questions that anyone has. Sorry again for what will most likely be a slow build.
Welcome to the forum. ^As he was about to tell you, the rx8 550 injectors on the market are very often counterfeit, don't flow 550cc, and don't flow similarly one to another. Unless you have them tested for flow, I would be cautious or you may damage your otherwise healthy engine.
I have a buddy that's big into racing RX7's and RX8's and sold them to me for a decent price. Honestly I should have just waited and bought EV14's but live and learn I guess.
Welcome to the forum. ^As he was about to tell you, the rx8 550 injectors on the market are very often counterfeit, don't flow 550cc, and don't flow similarly one to another. Unless you have them tested for flow, I would be cautious or you may damage your otherwise healthy engine.
Yeah, I've seen multiple threads about this. My buddy races RX7's and RX8's, when I told him that RX7 and RX8 injectors are plug and play on Miatas. He had a set from a few years ago that he never used so I bought them since they weren't discontinued until recently
Real possibility for sure. Not a lot of Miatas around, but I'm in Pittsburgh.
Yeah, the very few miatas I've seen around are completely stock. I'll probably be going to Carlisle in May so maybe I'll see you there if you're attending.
My car was beating 4.6 mustangs at the 1/8th mile by 2 car lengths at 200whp at the test and tune. They weren't prepped drag cars and neither was mine.
But road courses are more fun.
Last weekend-
Here's an expert in a lower powered Miata:
Just a heads up, this forum doesn't embrace the "No ***** given" or "Instagram build" mentality. Many folks here are in technical fields and are fact/data driven. So building something for style just isn't what we do. We typically have a goal in mind. That being said, we were all young once and done dumb things. We learned from our mistakes and others and were better for it. Try not to let some of the folks get under your skin and you'll learn a lot here.
My car was beating 4.7 mustangs at the 1/8th mile by 2 car lengths at 200whp at the test and tune. They weren't prepped drag cars and neither was mine.
But road courses are more fun.
My dad and I agreed we'll go against each other at the drag strip as well as an autocross event. I'm not entirely interested in straight line speed but it's all for fun. I'm really excited to start autocrossing next year since I've never done anything like it before.
Originally Posted by Midtenn
Just a heads up, this forum doesn't embrace the "No ***** given" or "Instagram build" mentality. Many folks here are in technical fields and are fact/data driven. So building something for style just isn't what we do. We typically have a goal in mind. That being said, we were all young once and done dumb things. We learned from our mistakes and others and were better for it. Try not to let some of the folks get under your skin and you'll learn a lot here.
I totally understand, everything isn't for everyone. If people don't like my car they're entitled to their opinions. Me getting upset over it isn't going change anything
Welcome to the site. Seems like you're off to a solid start as far as collecting parts. So nice to see young people come to the forums with reasonable comprehension and communication skills, it's scary how rare that is.
I'd focus on the megasquirt next. Getting it installed while n/a will allow you to get some hands on tuning practice with a lot more room for error than trying to learn on a newly turbo'd car. Plus you'll be able to ditch the stock AFM and tune to squeeze a little more power from the car. It also helps when you can start prepping for the turbo; installing injectors and building intercooler piping (if you're going the DIY route).
Welcome to the site. Seems like you're off to a solid start as far as collecting parts. So nice to see young people come to the forums with reasonable comprehension and communication skills, it's scary how rare that is.
I'd focus on the megasquirt next. Getting it installed while n/a will allow you to get some hands on tuning practice with a lot more room for error than trying to learn on a newly turbo'd car. Plus you'll be able to ditch the stock AFM and tune to squeeze a little more power from the car. It also helps when you can start prepping for the turbo; installing injectors and building intercooler piping (if you're going the DIY route).
Yeah, I'm going DIY with my IC. Would you recommend installing megasquirt first by itself or would you do the megasquirt with injectors right off the bat? I've seen people do both and was wondering if you or anyone else would recommend doing one over the other.
since you'd be new to it: get the MS running first, then add injectors. depending on the injector it might require a good bit of fine tuning after the change. if youre initial map isn't setup correctly, you could struggle to even get the car running.
since you'd be new to it: get the MS running first, then add injectors. depending on the injector it might require a good bit of fine tuning after the change. if youre initial map isn't setup correctly, you could struggle to even get the car running.
Also, I'm a jr member here for all intents and purposes, but my opinions is that I don't really care thatttt much what the outside of your car looks like as long as you don't **** around with the mechanical ****.
You're 17 so your tastes are very different than those of many on here.... but if you listen to anything, you should listen to folks telling you to build mechanical/technical things a certain way.
The fact that you are open to doing the injectors and doing the megasquirt the right way is encouraging.
Say hi to punxy phil. I did a summer course at IUP back in the day.
12-06-2017, 11:44 PM
High School Kid Attempts to Do Something Right
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