You're a turkey. I'm not good with peer pressure. I guess I'm some injectors and a flex fuel sensor away from being able to go down that road.

I know E85 would give me more power. I'm not necessarily power hungry. What I'm making now is really nice. I mean there is only one other turbo miata in my area and it was a car I owned. Our car scene has kinda dried up these days. The car is a blast to drive in its current configuration. If I added more power I might start breaking things which would be annoying. I'd like to spend more time driving the car than working on it.

One major hurdle with E85 is the fact that only a handful of towns in Arkansas even have it. So when I'm doing drives I would not get to use it. So spending the money on the setup doesn't give me a good rate of return.

I'm still working on the BOV issue. psyber_0ptix I tried running a 3/8" line down to the BOV and stepping it to a 1/4" real close to the BOV and that helped some but the BOV still isn't responsive enough. FM suggested running dual BOVs but that sounds like a mess to deal with. If anyone has thoughts on this that would be great.

So far, I have some fine tuning to do here and there, I may move to a crossflow over the megan radiator I have. I'm seeing about 90c while doing spirited runs. By spring the car's body work will be fixed to perfection and the car repainted. autokonexion seems to be fulfilling orders so maybe by then I can get the flair I need. I'm hoping to hit a point where I leave it alone and just enjoy it. I'm not going to say "done" but close enough to stop. There is a point where more money in mods will pay off less and less.

 

Beauty about flex is you don't have to run it full time. But understood, sort the small things first. But also understand if you ever intend to in the future, you may need some injector overhead.

Are there other bov to try?

 

Take your time. Pace yourself. Or you'll end up like many of us who kept adding power and adding power and never even stopped to enjoy it. Between adding power and replacing broken parts, you forget to have fun.


It's not about "getting the job done". It's about getting it done better, more efficiently, and safer. Mapping for spark and fuel is only about 30% of what a proper tune should do. A system that can't log more than 6 parameters at a time is an ancient, mediocre system. Having to re-do logs just to see other parameters is not only idiotic, but can be dangerous as well.

 

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=539653046414838&id=1715864865 54831


Bov ideas?

 

I wish I could give you more than one cat for that. That was hilarious!!!

 

Whelp my next project has presented itself. I had a friend help me put my car back together after the wreck, he changed the gasket that goes between the turbo and the manifold. When he put it back on, he stripped at least one of the four bots that hold the turbo on the manifold. So it looks like I will be taking the manifold off the car to fix that.

 

perfect time to upgrade to Inconel studs if you haven't already.
Also hopefully you're either not using a gasket at all or a MLS one. No graphite

 

People actually use a gasket there? Not me, just a smear of axle grease, the Hustler method I believe.

 

Me too. The grease burns and makes a crusty hard carbon seal. Works well.

 

I would love to use Inconel studs, I will have to do some homework since I will more than likely be widening the screw holes after retapping them. I'm also going to deck the turbo and manifold while they are out then use the grease seal method. I have access to a machine shop so it cost me nothing but time to do it all.

I will also sandblast and ceramic coat everything while it is out.

 

The assumption there is that both surfaces are perfectly flat. Otherwise it will still blow out, BTDT.
But that method is great with flat surfaces.

 

So I pulled everything out last night. I was shocked at how quickly I could do it. From the car on the ground to everything out was an hour and a half. I think thats pretty good. Unfortunately I broke a bolt off in the back of the turbo I noticed that all the bolts used on the turbo, exhaust, and wastgate were all very brittle from all of the heat cycling. I'm going to replace every one of them. I felt like I was going to break most of them off as I was taking them off.

After removal I noticed I have a power steering leak to fix and a slow oil leak to track down. More work I guess. This car is like a high maintenance girlfriend I swear. Just what I've always wanted on the road but constantly needing attention and my money.

The turbines are also in poor shape, the previous owner had to have dropped a bolt in there. I've been running it a year with no issue. There is no shaft play and it spins freely. So I guess I'll run it. Looks like turbines are $200. I could probably pick up a used GT3071 for not much more and have less lagg. Either way my funds are a little low for the moment.

Another note, before Vlad tuned my car I was getting about 29mpg at 250hp at 3XX (not dyno verified) I'm getting about 24mpg. I hear fuel economy might be effected more when moving to a 3.63 and a 6spd. Can anyone confirm that? Also I can't find spool data on a 3071 can anyone share that with me?

 

that turbo looks suuuper bad

 

Oh yeah...... I've ran it for a year like that. I've mulled around the cost of rebuilding it vs replacing it many times. I've been waiting on a good deal for a used one to pop up. I don't have a grand to drop on a new one at the moment. I honest forgot it was that bad. I've only had it out one other time.

 

Jeez that turbo has seen some bad days. I would definitely replace that and it wouldn't be too much to say it would dampen its power output.

 

Mangled turbine? Check your throttle body and make sure both screws are still in the plate...

Also, your exhaust manifold is warped and needs resurfacing, look at the soot on the head.

You want inconel studs on the manifold-to-turbo joint and stainless studs on the turbo-to-downpipe. No bolts.

--Ian

 

Just for posterity, what about manifold to head studs?

 

Do people replace these? I've never had an issue with OEM ones. The head has coolant in it, so these studs don't see the huge thermal loads that the others do.

--Ian

 

That compressor is rough! Imagine how awesome it'd spool with a fresh new balanced wheel.

Your mileage might improve slightly on longer gears on highway since you're not winding out as high. But around town, the road will have more mechanical advantage, so city miles might drop a bit.

 

In this case, I must use bolts to hold the turbo in place, the thing is so big I can't slide it on with studs in the way. I may use bolts that have safety wire holes? I can't think of a better way. I can stud the downpipe.