Thanks! Good luck with the rails, install isn't too bad. Glad to hear that you got the headlight thing sorted out.


New issue -- when the a/c turns on, the serial to wifi adapter dies due to the voltage drop of the 2 giant spal fans turning on together. I think this also explains why my wideband would stick on 14.7 periodically. The LC-2 gets power from the same source and is set to read 14.7 during warmup. So I think it's been restarting. According to the MS3, I'm only getting a voltage drop of 14.2 - 13.3ish. Need to bust out the multimeter and measure the drop that the LC-2 and wifi adapter are seeing.

So the LC-2 controller and my serial to wifi adapter were seeing a voltage drop down to <10 V whenever the fans turned on. Ouch. The LC-2 would even shutdown when just the cooling fan turned on. So all the fuel tuning I've been doing with VEAL has been inaccurate a good portion of the time because my LC-2 was constantly rebooting and reporting 14.7 during warmup. Hopefully my VE table isn't too dicked up.

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...59198f8b48.png

I fixed the issue by sourcing +12V from the battery instead of the alternator. Also cleaned up the ground point I was using on the chassis and stuck one of these under the dash to connect all my grounds.


Now the voltage at the LC-2 only drops to 12ish when the fans turn on and doesn't reboot. Serial to wifi adapter maintains a connection as well, so that issue is solved. Just need to run VEAL some more.

Did my first autocoss last weekend, had a blast.

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...442be1063f.jpg


I have a lot to learn! Car was great for the most part. I went with a friend who's been doing autox for a few years and he helped me get oriented. We dialed in the handling by adjusting the rear swaybar to its softest setting to make it a little less tail happy after I spun on my first run.

Had a little bit of drama towards the end. We missed out on our last run because the car didn't start when it was our tun to leave grid. It was the same issue that happened at Laguna Seca -- turned the key, heard a single click, then nothing. The accessories had power (lights, radio, etc), but it just wouldn't crank. Wasn't sure what to do, so I waited a bit then tried again and it fired right up. At Laguna Seca I thought it was the clutch interlock switch not working because of wires in the way, but I'm pretty sure it was just an intermittent failure and it went away on its own rather than because I moved some wires under the dash around. The car did it again before we left, and this time it took around 5 minutes to start again. We made it home and did some troubleshooting.

Tried to start it without pushing the clutch in to see if I coud reproduce the single click and no crank. No click, not the same behavior.
Tested battery voltage just to be sure, it was fine.
Replaced main relay with a spare.
Tested main fuse
Unplugged small blade connector on the starter to see if it was a loose wire or bad connection from the ignition to starter. No click.

Narrowed it down to the ignition switch as the likely culprit. Ordered a replacement last weekend and put it in yesterday.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...dfe938d0c6.jpg

Held in by 1 screw. Used an offset screwdriver to undo it.

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...55de0fe868.jpg

It didn't give me any trouble driving to work and back during the week before I put the replacement in. It's a super intermittent failure so it's hard to say if its fixed or not. Just have to wait and see, but I'm hopeful.

I've just been daily driving the miata without working on it for the past few months. No issues until last Friday when I started it up to drive home from work and the car began to shake violently. Popped the hood and saw that my coilpack was arcing to the engine block. Limped home on 3 cylinders. AFRs were fine so hopefully I didn't kill my cat. That's the 3rd coilpack this car has eaten. The 99-00 ignition system is really terrible.

Thankfully I bought LS coils, the sadfab bracket and ignition wires, as well as Nigel's wiring harness a few months ago. Put those in over the weekend and got my 4th cylinder back. Idle is definitely smoother now, and the car sounds quieter. I think that the coilpack had a crack slowly develop in the insulator, so I was probably getting a progressively weaker spark until it finally let go.

Still haven't pulled the trigger on the turbo kit. The plan all along has been to get the FM stage 1, but I'm having second thoughts. My dream setup for this car would be a 2554R with a 3 inch exhaust, ideally with a catalytic converter, resonator, and the big Magnaflow 12578/12579. I want fast spool and quiet.

Option A:
FM stage 1 kit. 2560R should be responsive enough. Would be the easiest kit to install. I could put the kit on, drive it with the stock exhaust for a bit, then pickup the FM 3 inch downpipe, buy a cat and big magnaflow muffler and have a local shop put together an exhaust for me.


Option B:
Kraken manifold, downpipe and 3 inch exahust. Replace the smaller muffler included in that kit with the 12578/12579. Pick up a 2554R, eBay intercooler and piping. It would get me the exact setup I'd like, but won't be as easy to install as the FM kit. Includes the hassles/headache of buying turbo fittings, DIY intercooler piping, etc, etc.

Option C:
MKTurbo. Less money than A or B, but I'd be missing out on a cast manifold and a water-cooled turbo.

Option D: EFR kit
Option C.2: Mkturbo kit minus turbo and source your own. Don't know if he'd do this but it wouldnt hurt to ask...

Haha. D is tempting but would lead me down the rabbit hole of built motors, 6 speeds, and an empty wallet. Honestly though I did entertain the thought -- "buy once, cry once." I could just run the 6258 on my stock engine, while slowly putting together a built motor. Aside from the price, the two things keeping me away are the small, but not negligible chance of bending a rod on my daily, and the lack of space in my garage. I don't have enough room in there to pull an engine so the logistics of doing a swap wouldn't be super easy. I'm not even sure I could fit both my car and an engine stand in there, so storing a spare motor wouldn't be easy.

C.2 is a good idea. I've heard a cast manifold is potentially in the works, might have to reach out.

Option B2: Kraken, but have a local exhaust shop make the exhaust from downpipe back.

I have a kraken set up with a TD04 on my 1.6 and the thing spools better than any turbo car I have ever driven. And this is with a 2.5" downpipe and 2" exhaust.

FYI, Kraken will swap out the included muffler for the miataturbo approved muffler if you ask him. He is responsive through facebook and I think it was a very minor upcharge to do it. I am still in the budgeting stage of my build but that is what I will be doing.

Glad to hear it, everyone seems really happy with the Kraken pieces.

Thanks that's great to know! What does your budget look like so far and how does it compare to the costs of the various kits on the market? I started to do a rough price estimate on a DIY set up using the full kraken exhaust. Assuming a $50 Euro upcharge (complete guess) for the big Magnaflow:


https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...66815acf5f.png

Fairly liberal with the misc things but I think it's the correct ballpark. I'm looking at ~3.5k, vs the 4k + the cost of a 3 inch exhaust for the FM kit. The more I think about it, the more appealing the kit is honestly. It will certainly be more money, and I'd get a 2560 instead of a 2554, but the install and pre-install research would be much, much more straight forward. No sitting around pricing out fittings and buying/returning various degree silicone bends.

If FM is running their 15% off sale again at Laguna Seca I think I'll just pull the trigger on that. We'll see.

Save $100 + with basic BOV that works well.

Thanks! This is getting more and more appealing. Just e-mailed Kraken for a quote for their 3 inch kit with a big Magnaflow muffler.

Just bought the kraken manifold and exhaust with the big Magnaflow. Here we go.

You won't be dissapointed. They are some of the nicest parts on my car (along with the Xidas and BBFW rollbar. Everything else is second hand on cheap)

Wait. Wtf? He said he'd do that? I've been trying to get him to do that for like two fucking years lol.

Actually kinda pissed about it. I had to have a local exhaust shop weld together an ugly looking setup with that muffler that wasn't even mandrel bent. And I stupidly got a chambered muffler instead of a straight through on the V2 kraken.

Well... atleast it's good that he's updating things for a V3 I guess. Sigh.
I guess this is why we can't have nice things.

Is this issue completely solved? I have the exact same issue with mine starting and it's driving me crazy. I disassembled and cleaned my stock ignition switch and that didnt fix it for me so I'm wondering if I should try a new one like you.

I wouldn't have thought to ask if andym didn't mention it. Super excited to get this kit, I'll post pictures of it once it arrives. Hopefully with a cat, inline resonator, and the big Magnaflow I'll have a quiet and stealthy exhaust without giving up much spool.


I haven't had any problems starting since I replaced the switch. It seemed to happen when I would leave the keys in the ignition for a few minutes and then try to start. I've done that quite a few times while tuning and haven't had any issues. It was really intermittent so I can't say for sure if it's gone.

Yeah, I got my kit a few months ago and installed it recently. Wasn't an option then and trust me I asked! Maybe next time if I can't get it sorted locally haha.

Stoked to see it. You're going to love the kit.

Now I need to really figure out a few odds and ends that I hadn't planned for while researching this build because I originally intended to go with the FM kit. Namely, heat shielding, potential hard oil/water lines, intercooler and piping, and an intake.

For heat shielding, I'd like something that's effective and looks at least somewhat clean. I'm leaning towards purchasing the FM or begi shields and then massaging them to work with the kraken manifold turbo placement. I've already swapped the heater hoses to silicone and wrapped them in high temperature insulating sleeve. I'll get additional insulating material for the brake and cruise control lines. The shield will be responsible for reflecting radiant heat from the turbo, everything else will just get wrapped in non-reflective insulation.

The kraken kit ships with water and oil lines, but I would really like to have stainless steel hard lines for reliability purposes. Again, I'm leaning toward buying the FM ones and seeing if they can be bent/finangled to work. At worst, I could connect them to the turbo then chop them near the other ends -- the main benefit is heat resistance closest to the turbo. They're quite pricey though, especially for something that might not even fit.

For the intercooler I need to decide between FM and the fab9 stage 1 and DIY piping. With the FM one, the cold side should be plug and play. In theory, the hot side will just need a bit of finessing and potentially a few pieces from siliconeintakes to make it to the turbo. Might be able to save some money going with the fab9 unit and custom piping, but it wouldn't be as clean and robust as the formed silicone hoses from FM.

Intake will be tricky. Continuing with the theme here, I could get the FM air box. Not sure how much it will run because it's not posted for sale separately on their site. Doubt it will be cheap. Either way some type of air box will be a must have. I really dislike the look of bare cone filters for some reason. Probably because it reminds me of when I first bought this car and it had a knock off K&N filter zip tied to the power steering reservoir.

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...8a3ffe573f.jpg

Picked up this stock muffler for cheap. I pulled off my racing beat power pulse today and will post it for sale once I clean it up. Proceeds will go towards the turbo bits. I enjoyed it, it was a great aftermarket exhaust for adults -- quiet at idle and low rpm, but had a nice sound high rpm. Doesn't make any sense to keep it though with where this build is going.

FYI just installing the vibrant 12800 which is a fab9 without brackets. Fits fine with the FM silicone hoses. Might need to trim them though when I'll do the fog light oil cooler install.
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...bcbec70a43.jpg

Thanks for the heads up! Nice ducting on the intercooler, that looks great.

I have decided to go with the FM intercooler kit after calling them up today. Ideally I'll be able to get a 2554R with matching compressor inlet/outlet flanges and the correct wastegate bracket from their turbo supplier, limit engineering. I'll call them once I'm ready to pull the trigger on the turbo.

Going to skip the oil/water hardlines to cut costs down and avoid the hassle of adapting them to the kraken manifold turbo placement. I'll just pick up some heat sleeve for the oil drain hose from kraken, and possibly replace the water lines with silicone and buy heat sleeving for them as well.

Next major purchase will be the turbo itself. Then in October I'll buy the FM intercooler and hose kit and heat shield. Assuming they have the same sale that they did last year, which was 15% back in store credit, I'll use that towards the airbox, filter and turbo hush kit in a second order later on.

In the meantime, there are plenty of odds/ends to research and buy as well as small jobs to tackle.

Just bought this stainless steel tee fitting to use at the oil pressure sender port for the turbo oil feed. Read a couple threads that mentioned brass tee fittings cracking so I went this stainless piece to hopefully avoid that failure mode. Picked it up from here: Oil Pressure Sensor Adapter, 1/8" BSPT - Engine - Autotech Motoring
http://www.autotechmotoring.com/cont...1899/thumb.jpg

From previous posts it looked like TSE offered a similar fitting but no longer does. Would have preferred to purchase from there but hopefully this will do the job.

I'm thinking about going with stainless steel for the oil drain fitting as well. Found this 1/2" NPT to 5/8" barb fitting:
https://www.brewhardware.com/v/vspfi...b12Mx58-2T.jpg:
https://www.brewhardware.com/product...barb12mx58.htm

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...ad598840aa.jpg


After spending 3 and a half years on a forum called miataturbo.net, we're finally here. 2554R, second-hand but never been used. Picked it up locally for $560. It's getting real now, boys.

Looks good! You are more patient than i am for sure.

Extra points for curious cats!

Thanks! Trying to save money where I can without compromising on parts, so patience is a must. I'm not expecting the kraken kit to arrive for several weeks, so that helps keep the temptation to buy the rest of the parts ASAP at bay. Since I have to wait anyway, I can use this time to watch for deals. Once that big box from the UK arrives, I'll be a lot more eager. Might even commit to going with the widely espoused ebay intercooler.

Purchased drill, tap, and stainless steel oil drain fitting today, as well as a rubber cap. I think I'll drill the pan on my next oil change, then cap it until the final installation. Will pick up a harbor freight right angle drill today to make the job easier.

I've identified all the fittings that I need, but I'm not entirely sure what comes with the kraken kit, so I'll have to wait until that arrives before picking anything else up to avoid double buying.

Stuff to tackle in the mean time:
Finish selling extra parts and clean up garage to make room for this big project
Insert weatherproof connector into factory AIT wiring so I can swap between the stock sensor and the GM AIT with extended wiring. Got this idea from a build thread, I think it was EO2K.
Install injectors
Run wiring for EBC. I picked up a solenoid off the for sale section here. Looking forward to this job the least, removing the MS3 is such a pain in the ass.

I managed to drill the pan in my 1.6 with a big plug in drill from the late 50s, since it was the only one I had that could fit the drill bit. Rubber tube over the drill bit to keep from drill to deep worked perfect.

I donct have an AC compressor in my car, I do have PS though.

I decided to go with AN for the oil drain. Should be less of pain in the ass to remove than cutting a rubber hose off. Picked out some stainless steel braided teflon hose and -10 hose ends. I'll cut to length and then put the ends on when I test fit the turbo.

3/8 NPT to -10AN fitting for the pan and matching cap
-10 AN turbo drain flange

Bits and pieces are starting to trickle in:

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...d731299e6d.jpg

Just realized that the drill I bought earlier won't fit the harbor freight right angle drill. Largest shank it takes is 3/8, and this bit is 1/2. I'll have to return it. Bought this instead, 37/64 reduced to 3/8 shank:
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Drill-Am...8998140withTHD


ID 725s are in.

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...18c8bc5ec7.jpg

On 99-00s at least, the EGR valve has to come off before removing the fuel rail. Learned that the hard way. Once it was off, I installed the EGR block-off plate I got from Begi. I'll try to remove that godforsaken EGR tube tomorrow. Soaked it with rust penetrating lube.


https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...2c4a8bf4b5.jpg

I read a bunch of warnings about being careful with the black plastic spacers that the fuel rail bolts go through. I picked up some super glue in order to adhere them to the manifold. Managed to drop one while super gluing it. Came closer than ever before to lighting the car on fire and watching it burn. Ended up finding the spacer thankfully and finished up the install instead.

Used these settings from an mt.net thread in tunerstudio:
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...32a8ddc63f.jpg


I got everything back together and went to start the car. It started with a little throttle, then went really lean, 17ish or so. I had to up my idle VE table, entries in the main VE table, and warm up enrichment. After some tweaking it idled quite well. I'll take it out and use VEAL tomorrow morning.

Spent an hour or so tuning idle. A/C engagement in particular was challenging. It was shitty before, but it was "good enough" so I just left it. Now that I have the actual injectors in that I'll be running, I'm more inclined to spend the time to make things run well. I switched from Took it out for a drive and ran VEAL. Did my commute to work and a few local roads. It started out a litte iffy, but I think with some refinement it will run smoother than stock.

Finally swapped from "use last value" to the initial value table for closed loop idle. This appears to have solved a persistent issue I've had where the idle would jump to 2k or so occasionally when pushing the clutch in. It was really obnoxious while parking. Also, the RPMs would dip very low occasionally after coasting to a stop. Now the car slides into idle much easier.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...e967de762b.png


A/C engagement is a little better now. I added more PWM duty %. It sounds like hell when it engages and the RPMs dive bomb, but it's better than before. This is with idle RPM timing correction enabled. Might need to revisit the wiring for my Spal fans and use an even larger gauge. I've looked into PWM controllers and delay relays, but I really don't want to add additional complexity if it can be avoided. A PWM controller for soft starts would be so nice, though.

EGR tube won't budge. I need to remove the heater hoses in order to get it off. I'll wait on that, since I don't feel like draining the coolant today.

Running low on items for my pre-turbo checklist. Just waiting for the kraken kit. If it arrives in the next couple weeks, I might go ahead and order the FM intercooler and piping instead of waiting for the sale. Not sure I can hold out until mid-October.

Downside of the ID725s: I keep thinking that I stalled the car after coming to a stop at lights because the idle is so smooth now.

Get awr motor mounts and you'll get that rumble you miss!

No thank you my newish factory motor mounts are great. I want to keep the car civilized since it will be my daily for the foreseeable future. Speaking of which, the more threads I read about the big magnaflow, the more I think it will still be too loud for me. I'm loving this stock exhaust life. In a strange way, it's actually been a performance upgrade. I don't feel obnoxious when I'm at high revs on surface/residential streets anymore so I can spend more time in the engine's power band.

I think I found a solution to keep things quiet:


https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...620ce781b0.jpg

Tailpipe silencer: https://apexi-usa.com/active-tail-si...mm-muffler-tip


Adapter to take the Kraken muffler tip from 3 inch up to 3.5 to accept the silencer:

Exhaust sleeve clamp to mate the adapter to the tailpipe:

Should give me an easy to install/remove solution. I looked into adjustable flapper valves, but I don't really need any adjustment -- just want it quiet all the time unless I'm at WOT. I need to do a little research and see if this will completely kill my spool, but I'm willing to tolerate a loss in performance when the silencer is installed so I don't have to be so paranoid about attracting attention that it prevents me from enjoying the car.

Fixed the issue with idle nose diving when the a/c engages. 10 second delay relay on the 2nd fan:



https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...44bf6b8cec.jpg



Now, when I press the a/c button the compressor and the first fan engage right away, then 10 seconds later the second fan turns on. The amount of current required is much more manageable with only one fan turning on at a time. I'm still getting a dip when I turn the a/c off at idle, I'll have to look into that. I thought it was my idle rpm timing correction curve being too aggressive for over-RPM, but that doesn't seem to be the case. It's not nearly as severe as the drop when I engaged a/c previously, so I'm satisfied for the time being.

I have a 5 second delay relay so my compressor engages before the fan. Works nicely for splitting up the loads.

There's AC idle up delay option in TS. Worth a try, did the trick for me.

Stefanst and I spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out idle in my car. Idling rich actually helps with the dip since the car doesn't threaten to stall every time. This is pretty much the only thing that let my car have any sort of normalcy while street driving. The big spal fans draw a fair amount of load. More than expected if one looks at the fuel load etc as well.

That said, hit me up if you end up trying to get rid of the big maggie kraken setup. Truth be told, I'd wait to try it first. With a resonator I'm sure it'll be quite nice. If it still drones, you can have a helmholtz put in. I don't see the need for what you suggested here, though to each their own!

And a Fan Delay for the main fan. In my case, I have a short delay for the fan, then a longer one for the compressor. Not sure why it could not work in reverse.

I didn't think about putting a delay on the compressor, that's a good idea. I could use a shorter relay to break it up into 3 phases: main fan, a/c compressor, secondary fan.

I've played around with that quite a bit. Right now I have it set to the max, 1s, to give it plenty of time to raise the idle before engaging the a/c.

Looks like I'll be tracking down another delay relay for the compressor.


So the car doesn't stall or anything, but it drives like a dog in stop/go traffic with the a/c running. The amount of throttle input required to start smoothly varies tremendously depending on whether or not the compressor is running. Also, it creeps forward in 1st/2nd much faster with a/c on than without. I know driving in traffic with a/c on wasn't pleasant with the stock ECU, but I don't think it was this bad. I spent some time adjusting the fan and a/c idle pwm duty increases. Running hypothesis was that I had these set too high in order to compensate for the load due to the current draw of both fans starting at once. Dialed these back a little bit so that I had an acceptable dip.

Still haven't had any luck figuring out what's causing the idle dip when I turn the a/c off. Log and tune attached in case anyone else is curious.
.

I can't see your tune right now but I keep my base idle around 1050-1100 RPM and 1200 when compressor engaged for better smoothness and better A/C performance, too. It produces cool air better and keeps the alternator production up when blower, rad fan, compressor, are all on full blast. I'm really not worried about idling fuel economy as much as being comfortable.

Let me be plain. I am saying that MS3 has a fan delay setting for the main fan. Basic/Load Settings -> Fan Control > Idle-up Delay. If you set that to 1000, then there will be a 1 second delay from when the idle up occurs, and the fan relay is energized. It cannot be set for more than 1 second (1000mS).

You had the big maggie in your build right? Would you say its fairly quiet? Or "quiet?"

That's a valid solution, might opt for that. I idle at around 950 currently. The stock ECU was able to manage a/c engagement at that RPM just fine so I think I'll keep pursuing it for now, but if I can't get it working well enough I'll try raising the idle some more. I suspect that will just take care of it.

Ah, got you. When I read your post I didn't realize you were talking about TS settings. Still had relay on the brain.


In other news, so much for waiting for the FM sale to buy the intercooler and piping:

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...fcb3e5ac52.jpg

I don't hate how my car sounds...

I really would like a resonated setup similar to the one that you're going to receive. I'd likely upgrade the resonator though.

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...f0ca8895d.jpeg

It begins.

Awesome! I will be down the same road of being on the site for multiple years before going boost. Nice to see it come to fruition!

Thanks! Taking it slow is the way to go. I've come across so many tips around this forum that have improved my part choices and made things better/easier.


https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...29e6b5c59e.jpg

EBC wired up and tested. I mounted it on the passenger side of the firewall to keep it from getting too hot. I'll be sourcing boost signal from the throttle body inlet pipe. Hopefully that's the last time I have to mess with anything under the dash. If I get the time later on I'd like to buy a harness extension and put the MS3 and everything in the glove box for easy access.

I picked up this waterline kit from Kinugawa:

It is stainless steel braided rubber, so it won't be as robust as a hard line but I really wanted to not have any hosebarb / clamp connections right at the turbo. With these lines there will be a banjo bolt to -4 AN connection at the turbo, then -4 AN to hose barb about 10 inches away from the turbo.


I painted the FM intercooler black for stealth:

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...2e1bda9c7e.jpg

Since I'm not running any gauges, it will really be the only visible giveaway that the car is turbocharged. I'm willing to accept the theoretical reduction in heat transfer efficiency.



I picked up something at the DHL depot the other day:

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...4f55b81b77.jpg

In case anyone is wondering, the Kraken box will fit in the passenger seat with the top up. From Bulgaria to LA in 2 days.



https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...49ba0a1173.jpg


And that's it. In theory, I now have everything I need to install the turbo. Except time. I'll try to mount the intercooler and piping over the long weekend and go from there. Soon.

Holy crap, 2 days!?!?

I presume that was 2 days from when it was shipped, rather than when it was ordered?


(if it was 2 days since order, well i'd better contact them, since I ordered mine a month ago!)

It took about 2 months from when I placed my order for the kit to ship. For the price it was well worth the wait.

My shipment went from Bulgaria to my door in the middle of nowhere NJ in 32 hours. I am still baffled.

But yeah, it took 2 months to ship.

ah, that makes more sense.

I thought it was crazy fast if it was from order time!

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...1edb52239f.jpg


Progress:
Turbo test fit. Clocked it shortly after taking this photo.
Inconel studs/resbond in the manifold. I have stage 8 locking fasteners for when I do the final assembly
SCM 435 steel studs for the turbine outlet to downpipe elbow. Copper nuts, and one stainless nut for clearance. Thought about using inconel/stage 8 here too as well but we'll see how these do.
Intercooler mounted.
Made my -10 PTFE AN drain line. Probably going to order a pre-made one for peace of mind because I'm not super confident about it.
Ordered new -6 AN to hose barb adapters because the barbs that came with Kinugawa water line kit are too big.
Ordered new adjustable wastegate because the stock Garrett one won't work, even with an adjustable mounting bracket. I realize I could drill/tap the compressor housing but I'd rather not.
Cold side piping done, including Bosch bypass valve. Thanks to DNMakinson for that recommendation.

Still to do:
Hot side piping
Trim plastic air guide and undertray
Put in FM airbox
Make heat shield
Connect oil feed and drain
Connect water lines
Put in new spark plugs (BKR6E)


I was hoping to be boosted by the end of the long weekend but progress was slow. Wasted a few hours trying to remove the EGR pipe from my stock manifold. Finally had to take a hacksaw to it and order a replacement. The snap-ring on the compressor housing gave me a lot of trouble when I went to clock the turbo. Tried three different tools until I was able to finally open it with a set of big 90 degree pliers. Had to grind the edges down so they would fit inside the ring ends. Lot of wasted time going to the parts store. Finding the right angle for the compressor housing also took forever. Snapped one of the hood latch bolts and extracting it ate up time too.

Hopefully I can finish it up in the next couple of days. I will just run without a wastegate actuator for a bit. Also, I was surprised to find that my Kraken downpipe has a 2 bolt flange at the connection to the cat, instead of a v-band. All of the other joints are v-band. I think I might be able to connect this to my stock exhaust? If so I will run it like that until I have time to install the rest of the 3 inch exhaust. I thought about porting the wastegate, but decided to wait and see if I get any boost creep first.

I think that is the purpose ;)

Yep, that's why he does it.

When I ordered mine there were a few options for it, NA, NB1, NB2, and "exhaust builder" which was just a bare pipe end for you to weld on whatever you want/need.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...c143b23618.png


The car is now boosted.

I had to add some fuel to get it to idle properly again because it breathes so much better with the 3 inch exhaust. The big magnaflow sounds great. It's about as loud as my Racing Beat Power Pulse was, and that is completely manageable. I took it out for a quick test drive and haven't hit any significant amount of boost yet, but the initial evaluation is promising. The whole exhaust fit, with the exception of the downpipe. I needed to clearance it with a hammer in order to clear the steering shaft. Kraken has fixed that going forward so it shouldn't be an issue with future kits. There's only a few millimeters of clearance between the exhaust and the differential, but it seems to be enough. V-band flanges are a pain in the ass. There were quite a few times where I thought pieces wouldn't fit, but in the end everything joined up.

For anyone thinking about doing a similar Kraken/FM hybrid setup in the future:

The compressor inlet hose from FM won't work with the Kraken manifold without modification. The turbo side of the hose wasn't the right size for my compressor inlet, so I cut off as much of that side as I could, then used a 90 degree elbow cut down to almost nothing, and 2.75 inch to 2.25 inch coupler to slip onto my compressor inlet. I also needed to hog out the lower mounting hole on the FM air box in order to slide it over slightly to compensate for the altered location of the inlet hose.

I needed to trim the shelf a bit to make putting the turbo on easier. I could have gotten away without it, but I would have to shove the engine over on its mounts in order to stop the compressor housing from interfering. Taking a bit off with a dremel made installing/removing much easier.

In order for the FM hot side silicone intercooler hose to fit, about an inch had to be cut off the turbo side to prevent interference with an a/c pipe.

I bolted the manifold on first. Then I attached the cast downpipe adaptor the turbine housing, installed the oil drain hose, and then put the turbo onto the manifold. I slipped the intercooler hose onto the turbo just before putting it onto the manifold. I used AN adapters and 90 degree elbows for my water lines. Those were installed before putting the turbo on the manifold, but I connected the AN lines afterwards.

Still a lot of cleanup to do -- need to connect the EBC, sheath the oil feed, secure the Lowes Motorsport turbo heatshield better, put in the FM hush kit and a few other odds and ends, but the car is back on the road. I'm fairly confident there are no catastrophic leaks/issues, so I'll be taking it out on more test drives this week and easing my way into boost.


It always takes longer and costs more than you expect it to.

Your build is looking awesome and it is shaping up to be nearly the same build I want to do. Keep up the good work and let us know how it drives.

Thanks! I wouldn't have ended up here without your tip about Kraken swapping the big magnaflow. Really appreciate that!


Second test drive, got a little bit more into boost. Maxed out at 5 lbs. It has picked up a pleasant bit of mid-range torque. The car just goes. On the freeway, fifth gear felt like third.

Even with the recirculating bypass valve, the whoosh noises are great.

When I got up higher in the RPM range and the engine moved a bit more, it became clear that I didn't clearance the downpipe well enough. That was one of the worst sounds I've ever heard in my life.

Did you ask for the 12578 or the 12579 magnaflow muffler? You said overall it sounds like a very quiet car but with a growl? Was he able to have it work with a cat, resonator, and muffler or were the cat and resonator mutually exclusive?

Yes, pretty much. The exhaust volume is pretty low, but it's very deep now. I linked him to the 12578, 12579 and 12589 mufflers and asked him to put in whatever he could fit. He went with the 12578. I have a cat and a resonator. The resonator is about where the gas tank is.

Oh that is awesome. When I last contacted him, but unfortunately changed priorities with life for a little while, he could do the resonator in place of the cat but couldn't have both at the same time. This sounds awesome and I think I need to contact him sooner rather than later. Ideally, I want to be up and running Christmas break so that puts me as placing my order within the next few weeks if the wait time is a few months.

If you haven't already, put a shield between the fuel tank and the exhaust.

Thanks! I was planning on it, picked up this a while back:
https://www.summitracing.com/parts/THE-11620

Unfortunately with the resonator right under the tank it won't fit properly because it is meant to be affixed to a 3 inch pipe. I think I'll hack it up and find a way to use it anyway.

Back do daily driving the car. No drama so far. I put in the new, colder spark plugs and the 323 GTX PCV valve last night. Dyno tuning session scheduled for this weekend.

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223 HP, 205 lbft of torque.


Dyno tuned at Church Automotive. 10/10, recommend them to anyone in Southern California.

This car is a blast.

Just re-read through a few pages... AWESOME WORK. I always like seeing a project finished and the goals reached.
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That Dyno looks good too! I bet it's a blast to drive... No more getting bullied by minivans amirite?