Konmo's 1990 Turbo VVT Swap
 

In July of 2016 I acquired this 1990 miata with 145000 miles on the odometer. It is all red with a red hardtop. The engine had spun rod bearings according to previous owner. I didn't even bother trying to turn it in on since the engine was going to come out anyways. It was mostly stock with raceland coilovers. I got it towed from San Jose to my house and soon after the build began.

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This was the night that it arrived from San Jose.

I woke up early the next day and took a picture of all three miatas because well why not :smile:
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I put it in the garage soon after and I began pulling the stock 1.6 engine with the spun rod bearings.
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after that, I thought I might as well start cleaning the engine bay since the engine was out so I rolled it into the driveway and started removing headlights and other engine bay goodies. I pressured washed the subframe and controls arms to remove all the grime built up over the past 26 years of it's life.
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This is what is going in to the miata. It's a JDM 2003 VVT engine that I acquired last year and it had just been waiting for the right miata to get swapped. It included the JDM flat top manifold and the JDM 4-2-1 headers which I guess are somewhat rare here in the states? Also had a 6spd with it.
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At the same time that I started dissasembling the new project, I also started to return my first miata back to stock. This is the one on the left with the black front end (long story for another time). I planned on reusing and swapping some of the parts onto this new project.

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This is my previous miata with the sparcos pulled, rollbar removed, and also steering wheel/hub and starting on the megasquirt removal.
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all of that going into this interior..
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By this point I had removed the borla catback, GV rear panel, and Carbon miata carbon kevlar trunk from my first miata. Everything was just kind of scattered everywhere.
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I pulled my 4.10 torsen from my first miata and swapped in the stock rear end from the newest addition to the family.
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Next was removing my Tein coilovers from my first miata since those were also going to be swapped over to the newer one. The racelands on the newer miata were going to be traded in place for the Teins.
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The rears were done first so I could put the wheels back on
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I had to start filling the garage with all my parts from both cars. It was almost like playing Tetris, but with car parts.
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so at this point I was still working on getting one car restored to stock and the other upgraded/swapped
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And here's one with all three of them
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My first miata was mostly all stock now so it was time to focus my attention on the swap. I started pulling the interior to begin cleaning as well.
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Since the interior was coming out for cleaning. I took that opportunity to put in some sound deadening and heat insulation. I purchased some Raam mat BXT II and also some their ensolite foam. It took a while to cover up the interior, but it was definitely worth it. The cabin is so much quieter and cooler with it.
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I bought a replacement 15x8 6UL wheel, because I had ruined my front driver side wheel on the first miata (this is also why the front end of it is black)
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I finished installing the Tein coilovers into the newer miata.
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I wanted everything inside squeaky clean so I also pressure washed the carpet which turned out pretty good.
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next up was the torsen differential. I got my hands on a 3.9 torsen last year, but I didn't have a carrier for it so I opened up the 4.10 diff and used the carrier on the 3.9. Gave it a quick cleaning and bolted it up. And in case you're wondering, yes that is a lug nut welded onto the fill plug(also a long story)
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While I was down there I also decided to clean the PPF. My OCD wouldn't let me leave it dirty.
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Getting ready to install the magnaflow turbo exhaust.
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I got the carpet and dashboard back in. I also started installing the Nakamae interior.
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I got the sparco seats back in both on planted seat brackets. Driver side uses a PCI seat bracket and the passenger side uses a garage star seat bracket. Also installed more Nakamae on the rear package tray/deck and behind the seats.
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Next I installed the KG works instrument panel that I had been also saving for the right car.
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I installed more of the interior plastic covers as well as my garage star E-brake handle and A pillar gauge pods with an MTX-L AFR guage and autometer boost/vac gauge.
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I started focusing on the engine now. I removed the oil pan to clean it up and prep it for a oil return bung (3/8 in. NPT) and another bung for oil temp(1/8 in. NPT). My buddy works at an agriculture welding/fabrication shop so I got him to help me out. I'm not a welder myself, but I think it came out pretty good.
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oil return
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oil temp
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Again the car was rolled into the garage since most of the parts were already installed on the car. you can see the engine next to it on the engine stand getting ready to be installed.

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Driveway full of miatas
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installed the turbo manifold and turbo/oil lines onto the engine. I also installed a Fidenza lightweight flywheel and a ACT HD clutch kit, but I forgot to take pictures of that.
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And well since that was done, it was time to go into the car.
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Check out the clearance I had with the A/C bracket! I was cutting it real close, could not fit a business card between the two.
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Next I started working on my fuel system. For this I had a dual feed fuel rail, not sure what brand and some ID1000 injectors.
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I was going to make my own braided lines with AN fittings so I bought the fab9 premium fuel line/regulator kit. It came with a fuelab 515 series fpr and all the fittings/hose needed. This was the end result which turned out well if you ask me.
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I didn't take many pictures of the wiring changes I had to do for the VVT swap, however I did take pictures of the random cat that decided to show up the next 3 days while I did wiring and other work. I thought it was pretty funny. She was just supervising the turbo install.:D
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There it sits with the engine fully bolted up with the skunk2 throttle body,koyo radiator, Moroso overflow tank installed.
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I also put on the fab9 intercooler to see how it would fit.
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I couldn't figure out the best way to route my intercooler piping. I was using 2 in. piping on the hotside and mostly 2.5 on the coldside. However even with 2 in. pipes, the PS hoses/pump and AC lines were in the way. So what did I do? This...
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So much room for activities now lol
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Everything fit now, so I finished mounting the intercooler and connected all the pipes with a few 90 degree silicone couplers.
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This is how I routed my intercooler pipes.

coldside
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throttle body down to the T pipe with a Forge BOV
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hotside
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And of course I need an ECU to run all this stuff, so I started wiring in the MSPNP Pro that I had also sitting in my room waiting to be installed on the right car.
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Installed a big K&N filter that I happened to have laying around and it just barely fit.
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Put the hood back on and I rolled it out of the garage again.
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After finishing the ECU wiring I did the first start. I used the 01-05 basemap and it worked well to at least get it started and running.

Now we get to the not so good part of the build...I was a happy camper for about a day or two. I hadn't really driven it to much, I was first trying to tune my idle. Once I finally did go on the road, I took it for a cruise around town and I hoped onto 101 south. It was driving fine for about an hour, I was about to get home when all of a sudden my lights started to flicker then my wipers turned on by themselves. Right away I knew something was wrong, I turned right to go into a shopping center parking lot and as I turned the car shut off and smoke started coming from the passenger side floor area. I thought oh noooooo this can't be good, and of course, it wasn't. This is what happened to my megasquirt ECU.
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Right away I started looking at getting it repaired. This happened at night, the next day I had already shipped it back to DIYAutotune for repairs. I also was trying to figure out why the ECU got fried. I started a thread over at mt.net and people started giving their 2 cents of what could've cause this. One of the persons said that it looked like their was too much voltage going to the ECU. Then asked if I was using the original VVT alternator, which I was. I hadn't run the extra wires from the ecu that were needed for alternator control and things started to make sense. I remembered that I had been taking a log during that drive so I opened up the log. Just like they suspected, the alternator had been overcharging my battery, which it ruined by the way. The voltage at the ECU had been slowly rising, right before the ECU got fried and the log stopped, the voltage was at 26 volts! I'm surprised it even ran for that long at such a high voltage.

While the ECU was getting repaired, I started putting body panels and bumper back on.
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also installed my Jass turn signals intakes.
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I also had finished restoring my first miata back to stock and sold it to my cousin.

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I was pretty bummed out because I really wanted to take it to the yearly Miata event at MRLS. I had a little under a week before the event. I had an older MSPNP2 ECU that I had been using on my first miata. I knew that I could still run the car with it, but would have to do a few changes to the wiring and also I could not control VVT with it so I left it unplugged.
I got it up and running and I made it to the event the following weekend. It was worth it. There were lots of cool miatas there and I got a ride along on deviate, 949 racing's K swapped miata. Best of all, I was able to sign the 1 millionth miata :smile:
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There was a lot of vendors at the even with some good deals. I took advantage of that and bought some Garage Star pulleys, which I was planning on getting anyways. Got them 25 percent off.
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Again, the fun didn't last very long. I was only able to make it to the event on saturday, because soon after getting home that day this happened when the car slipped off the jack.
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I was even more bummed out, first it was the ECU, now this. I started taking everything off again that night so I could pull the engine out again. Early Sunday morning, the engine was out once more.
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I removed the oil pan again and took it to my friend who cleaned it up and welded up the hole. This was all done on Sunday as well. I wanted it up and running ASAP.
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It doesn't look very pretty, but that thing doesn't leak that's for sure.

I put the engine back in that same day and bolted everything back up. Monday afternoon I had it all running once again. By this time I had already got back my MSPNP Pro from repair, so I swapped it back in and plugged in the VVT. This time I was using a 94-97 1.8 alternator since that once is self regulated and doesn't need any signals from the ECU to tell it to stop charging. I got it up and running on the newer megasquirt.

I had been having issues with it overheating even while on the freeway since I now had a big intercooler infront of my radiator. It covered the entire front opening of the bumper. The temps were getting to the Danger zone! Also I never figured what it was, but I think that the turbo heat kept killing the fan motors on the stock driver side fan. It happened with two different stock fans. So I bought two SPAL 30101522 12" fans and had my buddy make me a fan shroud which turned out pretty good.
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the fans/shroud definitely helped with the overheating problems, but now I have a new problem. The fans pull too many amps (13 amps each if I remember correctly) since I wired them in series, when they both turn on, it will stall the car while i'm idling. It's fine when driving. And well this is where I currently am with the build. Just need to figure out that last annoying things, overall it's running pretty smoothly. It's pretty darn fast too. : 3gears:

Got the Nakamae headliner installed
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I had been out of state for work in Yuma, Arizona for the past 5 months. But I'm back in California and anxious to continue with this build.

This is how it sat when I got back
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I had gotten used to driving my stock 93 LE miata, so when I drove the turbo miata it felt like a night and day difference!
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There's still plenty of things needed to finish this car. I'll keep posting my progress. I've been trying to take as much pics as I can, because who doesn't like looking at pictures.

Nice build thread, and props for not losing motivation despite the set-backs!

Love all the photos. You may want to add some rubber flaps on any areas on the shroud where they'd fit. Shroud will be less restrictive under operation at speed, but still shut for fan use.

SPAL 30130012: Replacement Rubber Flap For 11" Dual Fan Shroud | JEGS

Thanks! I took plenty of pics trying to document all this.
I already have two of those rubber flaps, I just haven't had a chance to install them. I'll be installing them just like the Flyin' Miata fan shroud.

While I was out of state, I made a few purchases that were being held for me until I got back to California.

I got a set of RS Active Type 2 headlights
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I also bought a broken US Racing Sports Type 2 bumper that I plan on getting repaired. Not sure I want to try repairing it myself.
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These parts will eventually be installed. I have a few other things I need to finish first.

I've had a spare USDM 1.8 VVT engine for almost two years and it was finally time to start building it. This is how it sat dormant waiting for me to give it some attention.
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Started disassembling the engine
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The engine was actually pretty clean inside and you could still see the crosshatch lines in the cylinder bores.
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Now I just need to drop these off at the machine shop
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It's amazing. You're using the same quilted vinyl as an engine stand that I used for my door cards and parcel shelf. So versatile.

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This is what I'll be installing into this engine.

• Manley H-beam rods,
• Supertech 8.6 CR 84mm pistons w/ Wiseco rings,
• ARP main and head studs,
• ACL main and rod bearings,
• Boundary Engineering street/strip oil pump,
• Supertech +1mm oversized intake and exhaust valves,
• Supertech double valve spring kit,
• MMD SUB lifters,
• ID1000 injectors,
• Skunk2 64mm throttle body,
• squaretop intake manifold,
• SuperMiata harmonic damper w/ 36-2 T trigger wheel, and all new mazda seals and gaskets.

haha I had scraps left over from when I made my quilted door panels. I might as well make use of it for something.

What turbo are you going with?

This sounds exactly like my setup, aside from my SUB being on a spare head, and I'm using Eagle h-beams.

I bought a MK Turbo kit in Lars' group buy in late 2015. I'll be using that until it bites the dust then get some type of baller setup. Most likely EFR setup as well.

I can get you a link to a bigger turbo once the built motor goes in if you want it. Then you can turn up the boost some more. Glad you are enjoying the setup so far. Let me know when you want to boost the LE.

I heard aidan wanted a set of red interior for his car, ya know to make it even more baller :bowrofl:
Good build thread OP, I enjoy the pictures!

Got my block and cylinder head back from the machine shop yesterday. I have been reading about leaking Supertech valve stem seals, and I don't want to take that chance and have mine leak once the engine is put together. I will be swapping them out for the valve seals that 949 Racing sells. Apparently they come from the same supplier as FelPro.
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The built motor will be put together and should be going in very soon. Send over that link, I'd be interested in a bigger turbo now that this motor will be able to handle what I throw at it. Will that bigger turbo work fine with my current MK turbo setup?
Thanks! More to come. The built engine and some more goodies are still waiting to be installed. I will continue to post my progress. Stay tuned!

Bigger turbo will drop right in. You can even reuse your current exhaust housing that is already ported on the new turbo fine.

My exhaust housing is not ported yet, it's on my to do list though. I saw some examples of the porting on your MKturbo thread.That would help with boost creep right? I also noticed that I can still push about 1-4 psi of boost with the waste gate wired open. Should I be able to build that much boost with the flap open and if not I'm guessing porting the waste gate hole would remedy this?

Yes, the turbo housing not being ported is why you get creep and hit boost with the waste gate wired open.

I would probably max out the turbo you have now, then upgrade later. I mostly say this to save you $200 right now.