Miata Turbo Forum - Boost cars, acquire cats.

- DIY Turbo Discussion (https://www.miataturbo.net/diy-turbo-discussion-14/)

- - order of turbo operations (https://www.miataturbo.net/diy-turbo-discussion-14/order-turbo-operations-105299/)

order of turbo operations

Hey all, got pretty much all of the cosmetic mods I want to do for now on my 92' Miata and am now looking at turboing. I'd like to swap a 1.8 and turbo that instead of the 1.6 currently in my car as that engine has over 220k on it and because of its high mileage I think I'd have to pull it and probably rebuild it anyway. What would be the right order to go about this? Buy and turbo the 1.8 before I swap it, swap the 1.8 in, and then turbo it? Do I buy an ECU before anything and install that? I'm not exactly sure what parts of the process I should be buying/installing first.

Thanks for any help!

Personally, I would swap to 1.8, then aftermarket ECU, then injectors, then turbo. Leave some time between each step to ensure each step is working properly, learning how to calibrate the ECU, etc.

^
Clutch/flywheel will be super easy to do in the midst of 1.8 swap also

Do all maintenance on the 1.8 while it's out. Timing belt, water pump, crank, cam and rear seal. Trans front and rear seal too. You probably need new shifter boots as well. Since it's out I'd pull the pan to drill it and reseal it. Reroute is easy to do with motor out but I was afraid to damage mine so I did it afterwards. If you're using a "tee" fitting for oil you'll want it together before installing.

If you plan on tuning yourself you may want to install the ecu first and practice/learn on the 1.6 to avoid blowing up the new to you 1.8.

Quote:

Originally Posted by shuiend (Post 1418118)

Follow the following 6 steps to properly and reliably turbo your stock NA/NB miata.

1. Standalone ECU and wideband. Budget $800-$2000. I highly suggest a MS3 of some sort with an Innovate MXT-L or AEM UEGO. Hydra, Aem, Haltech, Adaptronic also make stand alones, but there is less forum support. Install this on the stock motor and learn how to tune.

2. Buy larger injectors and install them. Retune. Budget $300-$1000. You want to get get EV14 injectors. I suggest FlowForce injectors as they are the best bang for the buck EV14's. Anything also from Injector Dynamics is good. Generally higher hp guys on here run ID1000's. You don't want older RX8 or RX7 or etc... injectors. Most RX8 injectors on the market now are fake chines knockoffs and who knows how well they flow, and RX7 injectors have shitty control at low pulse widths so idle control can be hard to get good.

3. Stronger clutch. SuperMiata, FM, ACT are the only brands you want to be looking at. Budget $300-$1000 for this. This is another place not to try to cheap out on due to how much of a pita it is to change a clutch when your shitty ebay one fails.

4. Figure out your IC setup and BOV. Budget between $350-$1000 for this. Generally run 2.5" aluminum pipe on the cold side, and 2" aluminum pipe on the hot side.

5. Buy quality turbo hardware. TSE/MKTurbo/FM/Artech/BellTuning/Fab9 is where you should be buying from. Budget $1500-$5000 for all this. Install all this and tune your fuel and spark table in boost.

6. Enjoy the stock motor and be between 220whp-250whp. At this point you will have a reliable setup that you should not have to do any major work to as far as the turbo setup goes. Now you will start spending money on engine cooling, and suspension and such to catch up to your new found horse power.

There is a good stickied thread about this.

Here's a little testimony for you. I was originally on a bone stock 1.6 and then switch over to an MS3Pro and learned how to tune first. I (we as a hive mind) can't stress enough how much easier it is to learn how to tune on an otherwise stock N/A motor. You'll be surprised at just how much of a difference it makes in terms of power. I then 1.8 VVT swapped it, retuned, and drove it for year. You could stop there if you'd like, a NA VVT swap is a massive improvement from the 1.6.

Prestige Spares UK on Facebook sells complete low mileage (sub 100k) VVTs shipped to your door for not much more than what you can find them locally. They even come with a squaretop manifold to boot! They also have a thread in the classified section.