How much clearance does the compressor need between between it and the shelf?

 

depends on your mounts a little too.

 

Well lets say bare minimum.

 

The engine rocks towards the passenger side under power... so I'd think probably 1/2" for good measure would be fine. There's a lot of material there on the fender seam to Dremel youself a little more clearance if needed.

 

My T25 is causing more problems then its worth. I already notched it, but with my stupid 90 degree straight down clocking(to bad I didnt know that was not a good idea) it leaves about 2 mm of clearance.

I'm going to try and grind off some more of the material at the notch, and also file down the stupid flange on the turbo to gain some clearance, as well as slightly clocking it inboard -which leads me to my next question. Does the waste gate rod have to be perfectly straight, or can it be on a slight angle?

 

If it's not perfectly straight it can bind, which can lead to overboost, which can lead to *BOOM*. Good thing MS has an overboost feature.

 

Go to youtube and look at some turbo miata dyno runs. You'll get a good idea how much the engine leans over due to torque (as Samnavy indicated).

 

Good idea. I just did.

It rocks into one direction when on power, but doesnt really rock into the opposite direction when off throttle. So I think a half inch will be plenty. I can do that pretty easily with what I plan to grind out.

 

a set of vice grips and a 3 lb sledge and you can easily gain 3/8 - 1/2" more clearance... that's how I got space for my compressor and downpipe.

 

WTF are the vice grips for?

 

I assume you would latch them onto the shelf, and start hitting them with the hammer...

 

I guess thats if you want to bend down the rear shelf.

 

i gotta try that vice grip thing, i've used up all of my cutting/grinding wheels/stones on my dremel and really don't want to get in there with an angle grinder that close to my hardlines

 

you clamp on the vice grips and bend it down as far as you can... then you use the hammer to pound it flat up against the other metal (roughly 90* downward from it's original position)

 

get some MMR mounts and then you dont have to worry about the motor moving at all

 

I have less than a 1/4 inch on mine...no problems.