put it on the miata??
 

well my buddie gave me a turbo that has been siting around at the shop. now deciding to put it in the miata that i know its off a volvo and a td04hl-16t. what yall think start the project or hold off? this will be my first turbo install as well

get another one and run 2.
and nos. lots of nos

Well, considering that you have about 1/10th of a complete setup, you're practically finished. Go for it.

Before a turbo, you probably want:
Good tires
Good brakes
Good diff
Good clutch

THEN the turbo setup starts.
Injectors
ECU
Manifold
Downpipe
Intercooler
Misc. pipes/clamps/couplers/oil feed/return
Turbo

See what I mean? And I'm still leaving a bunch out. BOV? MBC? Something besides stock exhaust? Heat shielding? Wideband?

2x. Nos will save you money in the long run so you dont have to mess around with a fuel system upgrades.

And don't listen to the jokers here telling you to waste money on an expensive ass ecu. its not needed. just turn up the boost with nos

+1 I beat a Corvette 2009 ZR1 with slicks and 32PSI on a Greedy turbo + NOS. Miata FTW

Welcome to the forum. You might want to grab a shovel to dig through all shit that is sure to fall into this thread. There is a huge wealth of knowledge in this community, read some of the stickies in the DIY section. You should be able to find some information on volvo turbos by searching, they have come up a few times in recent memory.

All I know of volvo turbos is that they have a flange that differs from the standard t3, but adapters and the correct flanges are available on ebay and sites like atpturbo.

volvo turbos are crap, might as well get an ebay turbo kit... they're usually very complete and turbo not hit block!

patience young grasshopper

Intro:
I’m going to quantify everything that follows by saying that I have very few technical thoughts that are my own. I do a lot of homework and pay attention (or try to) to the really smart guys around here. I DO KNOW WHAT I LIKE… and I like going fast for cheap. I like clean looks, but if it comes down to a choice, I will choose function over form every time. Somewhere you have to make a tradeoff between speed/looks/money. I think I’ve got a good handle on the balance between those 3, and when I see something I like, it’s because I’ve already done the math and know I can afford it and it doesn’t look like ass… or maybe it does but it works so well I’ll just paint it and try not to look at it. I won’t go out of my way to make or buy something ugly just because it works (maybe I will just to laugh at myself for the attempt and be stoked 10k miles later that it’s still working), but now you know where I come from.

How I go about “thinking” what to do with my car:
First, you’ve gotta have a baseline… what’s fast? What’s slow? To do this, YOU’VE GOTTA GET A RIDE/DRIVE IN A FEW MORE MIATAS!!! If you do not belong to a Miata Club, why not? When you’ve decided that your baseline isn’t fast enough, you need to decide how much faster you want to go. Most people equate this to a power gain… as in horsepower. OK, so how do I get more horsepower… WAIT! How much are we talking about… 10/20/30whp… or 150whp… or 300whp… how much? There’s an old saying that people throw around… “Speed is money, how fast do you want to go?” There’s some truth to that, but come on… just answer the question! Really… it’s not that easy. If you want to double (or triple) that power, you’re gonna need to upgrade some other parts in the process, or beforehand. Where do you start then? How about starting with whether it’s POWER that you want. If you’re talking about speed around a track, you can add 10whp or get some swaybars and lower your laptime by the same amount. Some guys want a better 0-60 time, ask yourself this (How often do you sit at a stoplight, rev the engine to 7k and dump the clutch… burning every gear to redline and no-lift shifting down the avenue? Is an extra 20whp going to make you start doing that? Why do you care about 0-60time?) Maybe it’s some extra freeway passing power that you want… the safe feeling that you WILL be able to get in front of that semi-truck you see in the slow lane when coming up an on-ramp? What exactly does your Miata NOT DO now that you want it TO DO when you’re done spending money. You have to answer this question… otherwise how the hell do you know what to buy? Be very specific as you lay down your plan! If you’re like me, every dollar gets examined. I won’t spend a damn penny unless I know the extra cent will make my car faster than if I just threw the penny out on the sidewalk and lost 6grams of weight.

SET A POWER or PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT GOAL!
Nothing is more important than this (except maybe one thing). You’ve gotta have something to anchor your build (money spending) on… something you base your decisions around… something that determines why you buy one part over another. Something that tells you when enough is enough and you’re fine with that. Lots of things will determine this number… what do you need the car to do? Remember that the Miata weighs around 2200lbs... 1100lbs less than a new Mustang, 650lbs less than an S2000.

SET A BUDGET!
Nothing is more important than this (except maybe one thing). You’ve gotta have something to anchor your build on… something you base your decisions around… something that determines why you buy one part over another. Something that tells you when enough is enough and you’re fine with that. Lots of things will determine this number… but mostly it’s how much your wife will let you have until she makes you sleep in the car. Remember, each dollar you spend needs to put you one step closer to achieving your end goal… why buy a header now when you intend to buy a turbo-kit in 6 months?

MAKE AN HONEST ASSESSMENT OF YOU ABILITIES/TOOLS/FACILITIES!
Somebody is gonna have to put all this stuff together… you? Labor charges for a mechanic/machinist/tuner is not cheap. You can pretty much plan on spending $1000 to have somebody install and tune on your average complete turbo kit. A decent garage, metric tools, torque wrenches, jackstands, and the balls to dig in and start unbolting things can be a decent undertaking in itself. Hint: this is where having friends, AND JOINING THE LOCAL MIATA CLUB comes in handy. There is a very large DO-IT-YOURSELF (DIY) community within the larger Miata community who are not shy about diving right in themselves and building/designing/fabricating/engineering every single last part that’s going on their car themselves. How good are you? Your amount of good directly translates into money saved… and since Miatas are so cheap to begin with, go ahead and screw something up if you like, replacement stock parts practically fall off trees.

DECIDE ON A TIMELINE!
So, how long is this gonna take? It depends on what you’re doing and how much money you have. Some guys (I have a big box in the garage right now) buy parts in anticipation of installing them when the time is right. Some guys want to get boosted this weekend. Some guys are going to Iraq and have 12 months to ponder their decisions and save money. Whatever you decide to do, START DOING IT! Then, be persistent-but-patient as the days or months go by. If you want 300whp and have 6 months until the start of summer, but also need suspension/brakes/tires/rollbar, you’ve gotta plan that stuff in. You could always blow $8k on the Visa in the next 20minutes (I wish), but that never seems to make somebody as happy as sitting down with Excel and coming up with a total plan of attack and sticking to it.

When you have a POWER GOAL, have SET A BUDGET, decided WHO IS DOING THE WORK, and decided HOW SOON DO I WANT THIS DONE… then do your homework on parts and shit, and start buying.

And for the love of Sweet Baby Jesus, NEVER EVER EVER EVER start your build around a turbo one of your buddies had lying around!!!


If you want more of the most awesome advice you'll ever read, go to the Meet&Greet forum and read THOROUGHLY the 3 stickies in there.

^^^^THIS!

A free turbo may seem like a good place to start and it possibly could be providing you do a lot of research, build the appropriate setup around it and tune it properly.

However, if you just slap something together haphazardly, with no plan of action just to achieve mad tyte boost yo, it could cause more problems than anything and cost more in the long run.

Don't just rush headlong into it. Set some goals and determine your budget. Research the turbo to see if you even want to run it. See what else is available as far as kits and parts so you know what your other options are.

Yeah, It is cool to use that turbo, if you have a manifold and downpipe sorted. How are you going to do oil and coolant lines? Do you know what you need? Even 5 psi requires more fuel? Are you ready for that? Megasquirt is a very inexpensive standalone unit, that costs little more than the bandaids that you can get. By the time you get an O2 clamp, bipes and AFPR you could have full control over everything with the megasquirt. Injectors... The 1.8 injectors are good for 7-8 psi at stock pressure, the 1.6 even less. If you want more than 5 psi your clutch will probably bite the dust too. If it is a 1.6 car, the diff upgrade is suggested. You can DIY your intercooler set up for less than 200. Oh wait, all of this turbo goodness and stock exhaust don't mix... Upgrade..... See what we are getting at? I can't even give you that good of advice with out knowing what you want so you don't have to keep buying parts, you can just get what you need the first time and be done with it.

They are lying to you, they are jealous of ur turbo since u got it for free. Weld something up, install a simple pipe from the turbo into the intake manifold and let er rip down the street. Dont worry about connecting the wastegate as theres no point to it. Miatas are bulletproof as they are made for turbos.

Short answer: no, put it on your tricycle.

Or pull a penguin and put it on your go kart.

bahaha lots of info. ill be reading around on the forum like yall said befor i slap this sucker on or if i decide to go a different route. i do plan on upgrading injectors and few other things. i just got that turbo to start the ball roling

i recently spent close to 3k on turbo goodies, ecu, turbo, full exhaust mani ecu injectors, meth injection, custom intercooler, gauges. its not as expensive compared to other platforms but its not pocket change.

That^