Any advice for first time turbo?
 

Hey, so I was browsing my local craigslist sites (small town, so have to search a few) and I stumbled upon this great deal that I'm about to take advantage of. My car's a 97 mostly stock, and here's a link to the ad, and the text in case it goes down:

Mazda Miata MX-5 New Turbo & Manifold

Mazda Miata MX-5 1.8L Turbo Mainfold and JDM T25/T28 Turbo
NEW, never used.
Includes all gaskets, manifold gasket, turbo off manifold gasket and down pipe gasket.
Chrome manifold, fits perfectly
T25/T28 Hybrid Turbo – oil and water cooled
Fits 1.8L Mazda Miata MX-5 engines
Waste gate set at 7psi, external waste gate


I tried doing some searches on this particular turbo, but couldn't find many reviews, just some for sale on eBay. Anyone have any experience with it? Also, I'm thinking I would set this up without an intercooler, as I'm not trying to run a huge amount of boost or anything. I'm new at this, so feel free to tell me that's a stupid idea. Thanks for the help guys!

dont do it!

well, thats certainly some advice. haha

"dont do it" as in dont run without an intercooler, or dont buy that turbo?

its not like i dont plan on installing an intercooler ever, just was wondering if that was something i could save for a few months later, or if the lack of one be just a big mistake.

+1

First before anyone else gets mad. Go introduce yourself in the meet and greet. Then go read the DIY FAQ ALL YOUR QUESTIONS in one. Then you will realize that you will be spending lots of money on a chinese churbo. Read read read then read some more.

^ what they said.
It might seem like a good deal but in the long run (and by long run i mean a few months lol) you will be replacing a smoking turbo and a cracked manifold. If you want to turbo your car your best bet is to buy some quality parts right off the bat. I believe a member on here is making some nice stainless manifolds and downpipes at a really affordable price, you should prolly use the serch and c what you can find.

^^^^

and if all else fails, buy that chinacharger kit, and get a manual boost contorler and crank that bitch up to 20psi of boost! :bigtu: youll be haulin ass then!

I've been lurking for a while, but didn't properly introduce myself. Mostly because I wasn't really planning to turbo my car for a while, but then I saw that post on craigslist. Anyways, this will probably end up sucking more of money than I would anticipate, and I would like to do things properly as well.

Thanks for the advice, that's why I asked before I went and dropped $200. Now the question is, think I could flip it and make a profit selling it on eBay? haha

Back to the plan of getting my new clutch and light weight flywheel.

nope.

dont waste the time! bookmark these two sites!

Bell Experimental Group - BEGi

Flyin' Miata 1 800 FLY MX5s

Love flyin miata, just ordered some cheap salvage parts off them to fix my car after it got broken into. Anyways, sorry the noob questions, but thanks for all the advice!

yeh! now! go de-newb yourself!

You should check the for sale sub forum habitually. Usually there are some kits for 5-600 for a complete setup like a greddy. Be patient.

Im realizing why my introduction was taken like it was...

First off, you should also give us an idea where you live. If you were in the Mid-Atlantic area, I'd tell you to just PM TurboTim, drop your car off with him, open the checkbook, wait....wait, then pick up your car. :laugh: I'm really glad I did. I still need some final tweaking, but my car (1997) is a whole new beast.

I wouldn't want to keep replacing parts. Do it right the first time. One period of downtime versus several and tracking down parts, custom welding, etc. is much more of a headache than going with a proven supplier.

If you prefer an off-the-shelf solution, there's obviously BEGI and Flyin' Miata. I chose the Absurdflow b/c I have a 97 w/ power steering, A/C, and ABS. I wanted to make Tim's life as miserable as possible (even threw in the Racing Beat front sway bar brace at him!). I have yet to dyno the car, but I'm guessing by the setup that I'm in the 270-300whp range. It's a lot more fun than my WRX wagon was.