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Looking to start my very first Turbo Miata build.
I have a 1991 NA Miata, just looking for advice, first steps and reliable brands for the parts involved in the build. Any input will be helpful. Thanks everyone.
Lars put together a great list and it’s got a lot of the info you’re looking for, I linked it below. You’ve got a lot to read and a lot to learn, read through as many builds here as you can to see what has worked for people and what hasn’t.
If I could offer any advice noob to noob, it's research first. Whatever question/problem you have, 9.5 times out of 10 it has been discussed in great detail on here. If you still don't get it or can't find the answer, post your question and cite what you have already read.
Side note, build threads are located in the media section of this site. It took me a long time to figure that out.
First question is, can you spend more than you paid for the car to reliably turbo it? It takes $3-4k for a decent reliable mid range setup. And you are already at a disadvantage starting with a 1.6L.
measure twice, cut once. always make sure your tools are out of the engine bay/underside before starting after any upgrades you do. also, maintenance first, then performance. make sure your car is 100% squared away before you start throwing more power at it. that being said, the mkturbo kit comes with all that you'll need to reliably turbo your car in a weekend, however, the kit with everything is out of your price range. with your budget you're looking at buying a lot of used stuff from old builds which isn't terrible, but will most likely end up costing you $k or more in fixing, replacing, matching, fabrication, tuning. all of that, so do your research and see whether your willing to spend the money at once or in little bites.
Welcome to mtnet.
spend 10x more time researching than installing new parts. Dont do a broke and boosted setup. Its more of a headache than its worth and megasquirt isnt that hard to use.
mkturbo has a solid bargain kit, kraken makes really good quality stuff, flyin miata has a full kit, or you can diy the whole thing to save a few bucks. But remember, buy it right or buy it twice.
good luck to you.
Prior to putting in the MS I was a complete noob. Now I'd say I'm a slightly enlightened noob. I was surprised with the ease of the initial setup and tuning of my MS3. The car started up first try and ran great just after one short auto tuning drive. Zero issues so far, knock on wood. Now after hours and hours of reading, researching, and tuning, I'd say the car runs near perfect. I'm still N/A so that probably helped.
The more you put into learning about MS/TunerStudio/tuning in general, the more you get out of it.
First Turbo
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