Just bought a miata, does this sound like a good plan?
 

So I just bought my first project car (1990 mx-5)
Always wanted to boost a RWD car. I have alot of goals for this car and I just wanted some opinions on how i go about this. I kind of have my project setup in stages to keep it reliable and cheap as possible as Im a college student (only 18)

So im starting with a 100% stock car with a brand new OEM clutch around 120k miles. Car is 2 owner first owners were old people and second owner was my friend who just wanted a 2 seater convertible and never was into racing
so i know the car wasn't beat on to harshly.

The first stage i wanna tackle im hoping to hit around 150whp. I wont keep it at this stage as It's just to get the car running, boosted, and prepared for my later stages
First stage Gonna run for maybe a month or 2. Not a daily just a weekend car. Maybe gonna put 1-2 thousand miles MAX on this stage.
I wanna keep the stock clutch for now cause its brand new
Oem injectors
ebay turbo kit with upgraded oil/water lines gonna shoot for a t28 turbo.
Flying miata Manifold
Stock ECU with a pressure switch to trick the ecu to fuel dump as soon as it starts seeing any boost being built
vortech FMU
stock fuel pump (has a brand new one)
AEM wideband with it only running narrowband.
Doing the timing myself gonna set it to about 8 degrees
freeflow exhaust with maybe a magna flow muffler or 2 to keep it decently quiet.
NGR blow off

Second stage for car im looking for 200whp
Gonna get that torsen diff kit
New clutch
injectors and maybe a fuel pump if i still am running lean
and a mega squirt ECU (will be dropping the FMU, ecu trick switch, and set timing back to 10.)

Third stage im looking for 230-250whp
This is the max im going to push the ebay turbo
and if i havent upgraded the fuel pump yet this is where thats gonna happen but im sure il end up getting a walboro as they are only like 90$
Going to get a brand new turbo or one with less than 5k miles on it. thats not a china charger
I would always like to know if it would be necessary to upgrade the internals. I would like this car to touch 300whp as i want this car to be a 1/4mile car in the end.

"final stage"
This is where the block would be built, and maybe a new transmission like a 6 speed if you guys think it would be necessary.
Looking for 300whp and that should be enough for this car until i decide to get rid of it.
Should I have any head work done?
I'd like to keep the head stock and only mess with stuff that needs to be replaced like seals ect.

So this is basically my approach to have a "broke but boosted" type of build. I know many of you will tell me to just go get the ECU right away but My budget really wont let that happen as I'm going to have to go get a tune right after.
So the FMU and DIY timing should be fine for only 150whp on the stock ecu. Anything I should change?

This is a really retarded plan. The whole plan consists of buying garbage and then replacing it shortly thereafter.

How about, buy an MS3 and learn to tune a stock engine, proceed from there.

Fixed that for you.

Seriously.

Get the ECU first, tune - tune it yourself, you'll learn heaps and you said it's a weekend car so who cares if it runs a little rough at first while you learn? Also, it's far less likely you'll blow it up naturally aspirated.
Get injectors, re-tune - this will enforce your knowledge from the first round and prepare you for the turbo.
Then get an MKTurbo, tune again, this time you could take it to a professional to dial in your timing, but by now you should be pretty comfortable setting up a street tune.
Live a happy reliable life with 220-250whp.

Or just save up for longer and get it all at once. Doing it slowly like you've outlined will cost more and break more. An ECU is more important to a turbo build than the actual turbo is.

Obviously you aren't getting what im saying. The whole point is that the car is going to be cheap. Everything is going to be cheap, And if the motor blows, I don't care. You literally wasted your time in posting exactly what I asked someone not to post. I've seen many cars run a very analog fuel setup with the FMU setup, and it's much cheaper to do considering I can find a vortech for under 100 bucks. especially with miata's and i don't wanna blow half the starting budget on an ecu that wont net any power thats noticeable. im fully aware that the ecu is a good idea from the beginning. But considering people have used FMU's and retarded the timing to about 8 degrees and it's worked fine. I'm looking for advice that would be beneficial and not something I already know. The only thing that I would be replacing is the FMU anyways. Not a bunch of random parts. I dont have 4 grand to dump into the car right away. If i did i would do it. FMU is only there to get the car running good enough to see boost and not lean out.

So, yeah, not sure what's the hurry here.

When you do something, do it once, and do it right.

Now obviously there are stages to this, but as you have it outlined, you're working your ass off all the time to get the car ready to drive, then changing everything again.

First get the real ECU.

Next get injectors, and at the same time, the fuel pump. Because ... think about it. You want to have your fuel dialed in before you start asking more of it. Stock NB fuel pump and stock purple top injectors starts to lean out at roughly 190whp.

Next boost your motor to whatever. My recommendation? avoid the FM turbo stuffs. It's 15 year old tech. Get the TSE EFR 6258 setup. A bulletproof excellent flowing stainless steel cast manifold. A modern super low inertia turbo. Run it at low boost for an easy 200whp on a stock engine that survives all day long in a track environment, which is 20x harder than a street environment.

When I build a car, I build it to keep it, because I like that car. I don't invest time/money in a car I don't plan to keep, basically, forever, unless something unforeseeable comes along.

If all you want is a boosted street only car, and eventually sell it, putting the TSE kit into it will still serve you well, because it is state of the art for Miata boost. When you go to sell the car, you can list that with confidence. As opposed to, say, "I boosted this bitch with this super awesome ebay turbo kit, and look it didn't blow up yet."

So, seriously, do it right, or don't do it right, and be just another craigslist listing we list here for fun and giggles.

Nothing is even purchased yet besides the car.. I will however take into account buying the ecu first. I'll do some research on tuning and get some more opinions. I will look into the ECU first. Is there anything you guys can link me as advice into first time tuning?

MS labs MS3 basic.

Thanks, i've decided to just get the ECU first. Get it running on that. And not even think about boost till I have everything. Including a real turbo. It's not that much more expensive considering I won't be paying for the china shit.

Well holy fuck. The quality of new members is improving, or something.

Good plan. Good to see you listening also. :likecat:

A lot of people come in with something along the lines of your plans, people tell them basically what we just told you, they don't listen, it doesn't go well.

You said you want to do it cheap, and this is the cheapest way to do it. Otherwise you're spending money on stuff you'll just soon replace. It's a little more up front cost, but cheaper total to buy the ECU first. And this way you'll learn a ton as you proceed, each step will feed and inform the next. You can still save money by waiting for quality used parts, they come up fairly often just be ready when they do.

It is going to cost you between $3k-$4k to reliably boost your miata to the limits of the stock motor. You might be able to save a bit if you buy used, search a ton, and are willing to wait a year to find the deals. Otherwise there is a sticky thread that tells you exactly how to do what you want to do in the correct order. Start reading.

Yup, just compiled a list together and its gonna cost around 3600$ to get it started. I've just ordered the ECU, injectors, clutch, and wideband. Figured this would be a good starting point.

That list is sick dude thanks!

It's the 1.6, so be sure to budget a rear differential and axles because they commonly fail even at stock power.

I'm glad you decided to do the ECU first. Much smarter than the original plan. And a lot more fun to tune.

Curious here. What made you see the light so quickly? That is extremely rare and an equally good trait.

After post #4, I was prepared to come back and laugh at this thread on the daily. you spoiled that for me.

Carry on.

Edit: I should read the whole thread first. Noobs usually don't listen right away. Good choice. I have boost three miatas now (my own and two others) doing it the way that list says. They all turned out perfect with zero down time. Learning to tune is like running face first into a brick wall though, but it is doable. Plan to spend 3 months or so getting it all sorted out just on the ECU and wide band (leave the stock injectors until youf get the hang of tuning).

Going to echo getting the ECU first and learning to tune. That made the biggest difference on my 1990. Smoothed everything out, better fuel economy, more low end/mid range torque. Picked up about 10hp with everything else still stock and could pull away from stock 1.8s. (Slowly, but still pull away).