1.6l soon to be boosted question
 

Hey everyone, I'll start off by saying the reason I'm even considering boosting my 1.6 is because I already have a full turbo kit for it minus the megasquirt and injectors, otherwise I would do a 1.8 swap first. My question is even though I did a full head rebuild a few months ago, its burning oil pretty heavily on startup, so would it be worth it to get another 1.6 for dirt cheap and throw the turbo kit on that or should i go another route?

It depends.
What turbo kit?
Usually, you can just change the manifold when you upgrade to a 1.8.
What do you mean by dirt cheap?
If you can get it for ~$100, then sure.
If not, just shop around for a good deal on a 1.8 and be done with it.
Have you thought about other upgrades like the diff, clutch, etc.?

Diff, driveshaft, and axles were just swapped with a torsen setup and clutch i was planning on a fm happy meal kit before installing the kit, coil pack is retrofitted from a 2010 honda, the kit was pieced together by the guy i bought it off of and made ~180 on stock computer with just a progressive fuel pressure regulator as fuel management but I would rather be safe and get a megasquirt and tune it properly

post a pic of the exhaust manifold.

You are swapping the motor anyway. Sell your manifold/downpipe and upgrade to 1.8L stuff.

Keep it. 1.6 is a superior engine.

That is most likely what I'll do if the motor ends up having to get pulled, just sucks tossing all the money into rebuilding and machining the head and then swapping to a 1.8 after, oh well lol thanks for the advice brother!

1.6 revs faster.

I've read many build threads and the 1.6 is very reliable at 200hp and people are happy. Soon as they go to a 1.8 the goals seem to be 250hp and up. That's when stuff starts to break..

Yea like i said the previous owner of the kit was pushing about 180 on stock motor and stock computer for about a year with no issues at all, my goal is to be between 200-240whp

IMHO one thing to worry about in 1.6 is the clutch - as far as you want to stick with organic, you'll probably need a 1.8 one (with 1.8 flywheel to match). At least from my personal experience the 1.6 Exedy Stage 1 organic lasted only 7k miles.

what exhaust manifold you running? I'm shooting for a similar build.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1447693751


Not too sure on the maker of it

I just posted a photo of it, I'm not sure of the company that made up, hoping its not cx racing but it feels real solid and it held up fine even when the previous owner went with a bigger turbo

Thats a cast manifold. Should work fine.

looks to be a quality manifold, and worth sticking with if the 1.6 will meet your goals.

Yea I'm happy with anything over 200whp really, I was just hesitant to boost this motor with the cloud of blue smoke on startup even after the head rebuild. I assumed piston rings but my compression is 170 across the board.

From my experience the clutch was the fist thing to give up - and I had Exedy Stage 1 organic. It was dead after just 6000 miles, so I recommend either a clutch designed for more torque, or a 1.8 one (you'll need also 1.8 flywheel, but it's a bolt on swap).

I was going to go with a fm happy meal stage 1 or 2, stage 1 seems to be able to handle the power that I would have most likely and its also on sale right now lol