I am so sick of hearing about Chet Steadman! - Budget NA turbo build
 

Hope at least some of you got the reference - it's from Rookie of the Year. Everytime I would see a Miata I would think of the scene where Jack stumbles out of his red NA Miata - Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet. All of that changed when I started watching Greg Peter's Car Passion Channel on YouTube. After a few episodes I knew I had to have a Miata.

Anyways, this will be a pretty basic and budget build, hopefully not too slow. It's a great car in stock form, but turbos make everything better. Here is what I'm thinking turbo setup wise:

- Bell exhaust manifold
- GT25xx turbo (still up in the air)
- RX7/8 fuel injectors (still researching new options)
- MS ECU
- Straight through exhaust
- FMIC - still need to see what I want to do here, don't really love ebay setups.

Here's the car in its current form - 1997 Brilliant Black Miata with 80k miles. It's relatively clean, definitely needs some TLC.

Day it was picked up:
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She made it home in one piece:
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Always loved the Mazda decal on Miata front bumpers, so plotted one out real quick:
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The steering wheel was just insanely big, so it was replaced, while a short hub and quick release were added:
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Looked like the original rotors/pads, so those were replaced. It's annoying how much rust this car has, will probably end up getting new calipers. Cleaned them up for now
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Other smalls things done:
- Removed annoying key buzzer
- Removed what appeared to be an aftermarket cruise control install and appropriately set the tension on the throttle cable

Here's what needs to be done:
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- Timing belt, water pump, and related accessories
- GV lip, because why not
- New soft top (not pictured)
- New plugs, oil, coolant (not pictured)

After that, all of the turbo related goodie purchases will commence.

Thanks for reading

How much do you want to spend? That should be the real deciding factor. Below are the steps in the order that you need to follow to be successful.

1. MS and a wideband. You want a MS3 of some sort. Cheapest is a MS3x from Braineack on the forums. MSPNP Pro from DiyAutoTune or a MS3Basic from Trackspeed Engineering also work but are a bit more expensive. Wideband either go with AEM or Innovative, both work, both have plus and minuses. Learn to tune the engine NA and everything stock motor wise. This limits the chances of you blowing up your motor.
2. Bigger injectors, and retune. I highly recommend the FlowForce injectors that TSE sells. They are a bit more expensive then the RX8, but a much better injector design and give you more headroom. After installing retune fuel and such.
3. Clutch. FM, ACT, or 949Racing are the only places you should be getting a clutch from. I prefer the FM1 as it is just about stock pedal feel and holds the most torque for the price.
4. Intercooler and piping. You can get the Vibrant core that Fab9 sells on Amazon Prime for about $150-$160. It is the best bang for the buck budget core. Skip the $60-80 eBay cores, as they are complete crap. Get the piping your need from Silicone Intakes.com. The more expensive cores from Begi or Precision are nicer and more efficient, but a bit overkill for a budget setup.
5. Turbo setup. For a budget I highly recommend my MKTurbo setup, but I am a bit biased. FM/Begi log manifold and either of their downpipes with a T25 off of a SR20 are also a good route to go. If you can find a used GT2560 at a good price they also work very well. I don't suggest buying a new Garrett turbo at this time. For the money you will spend on one, you get close to EFR price, and overall they are probably a better place to spend baller money.

Realistically to reliably turbo your Miata to about what a stock motor will handle budget between $3000-$4500. You can do some things cheaper but overall you will most likely end up somewhere in that range. If you want to do things super cheaply then plan on spending 6 months to a year gathering parts.

I am still putting together the turbo recipe sticky ...atempt. can I use most of this ? It's a good introduction for my list of parts needed.

Absolutely. Shoot me a pm if you want me to look over what you got, or offer any other advice.

Going to disagree about the ebay intercoolers. The bar plate ones are pretty dope.

If you are still on a stock block they should be fine.

One of these days I will take pictures of my $70 eBay one, and the $150 Vibrant core. There is a large difference in the insides and I won't recommend the eBay ones any more.

Which ebay core did you get. Because the Vibrant ones aren't too amazing either.

Thanks for all of the replies everyone. The above quote is extremely helpful, I'm sure not just for us, but for everyone looking to turbo their Miata. Thanks for documenting all of that!

1) Yep, will def. tune on NA, trying to absorb as much information as possible re: MS, Tunerstudio etc.
2) Sounds good.
3) Also been reading a lot of great feedback on FM clutch setups
4) Have had great experiences with Vibrant. Have you tried Treadstone ICs? Also Silicone intakes is the bomb

Sounds like you are on your way to a nice simple build. I found, for me, I could only get so much by reading and just had to dig in and dump a MS3x in my car. About 3 months later I finnaly have gotten the hang of most of the basics.

Going to second the FlowForce injectors. I went with unmatched ones from ebay (they are injectors from a '13-14 Ford GT500, my friend and I split a set of 8). They work amazingly now that I am running full sequential with them. (They were a bit too big to idle right running batch on a 1.6, probably would have worked better with a matched set).