The trial and error 1.6 turbo miata.
 

So after a few iterations of turbocharging my 1.6, I have decided the easiest way is to now use a kraken td04 kit, a used td04l from a wrx, and a speeduino pnp ecu.
Trying to keep the total cost of the initial setup below $1500 and still street able.

I have had the car with a t3 turbo, a taco taco manifold, custom downpipe, 2.5 IC piping with intercooler, and a megasquirt before, but that didn't go too well. The megasquirt caught on fire(Pictures below), the turbo was way to big, it didn't have water cooling, and I couldn't have a/c in the car with the 2.5 inch piping and an intercooler. The oil line was also returned to the oil return on the cold side, which wasn't a good idea.

Details as planned. Non intercooled to start, 5psi or so to start, rx8 injectors, speeduino ecu, kraken td04 manifold and downpipe, custom 2inch IC piping. Able to stand the Arizona heat and keep a/c.

What I already have and am still using.
RX-8 Injectors (May go to a higher cc for e85, but we'll see)
Variable TPS
Innovate Wideband
Colder spark plugs

My breakdown is as follows.
1. Install Speeduino PNP and get it running.
2. Change injectors to 440cc
3. Order correct size hoses/silicon joiners/piping.
4. Fit everything up in one go
5. Tune the boost.

More will follow as time goes on. I have a 1.6 vlsd in the car so that will need to go asap. I have a torsen 4.3 sitting around, but I'll try to sell that to someone with a spec miata and look for a 4.1 or 3.9
I am trying to keep it at 5psi or so because I am only on an exedy oem clutch. The limit of the clutch was around 7-8 psi on a t3 turbo, but I want a clutch that can last some time.

As for the car itself. It is a 91 white 5 speed. Good compression on all 4 with a leakdown of 3-4% across the board. Pulls great. Is on 15x7 with 205 nitto nt01s and has a mishimoto 2 row aluminum radiator with the mishimoto slim fans.

So now, what I have bought so far for the build:

Speeduino. $183 including the express shipping
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...3d00c6b0d9.jpg
Used td04l off of a wrx. $80
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...8f1db4cc00.jpg
2.5 to 2 inch silicone hose $6 on ebay

Kraken td04l 1.6 turbo kit $700 (hasn't arrived yet)



Bonus Pics of the burnt megasquirt. RIP
Looked worse on the other side.

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...3a2859a7d6.jpg

What the car did have on it.
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...a72e6f57c1.jpg

what in the world did you do to that poor diypnp?

My hypothesis is that the coilpack was shorting on the block enough to find its way back to the ecu. the #4 spark plug wire wasn't fully in and the coilpack. The tip?/connector part of the coil was burnt as well)

You're going to be all by your lonesome with that ECM, very little to no support in the Miata community.

Are you willing to sell me that burnt up megasquirt? I've got another one I can combine it with to make one good ECM.

The ECM is essentially a megasquirt on a budget and is fairly straight forward, but we'll see.

As for the megasquirt. I have it sitting in California and I am going to be in Arizona until sometime in October. So if you are willing to wait, I can sell it to you. It looks a lot worse at the bottom. I might be able to find a picture of it. The daughterboard is toast. the diybob portion appears fine though.

FWIW I'm trying to change that as much as possible. The NA6 PNP units are going to be a focus for the foreseeable future as it's a great community for a project like Speeduino :)

If you need any help I have mine running on a speeduino now and currently finishing up my turbo kit.

Received everything I needed from Kraken.
Overall a 8/10
I would give it a solid 10, but stuff was missing in the kit and I pretty much got a response of, well we can tell you the specs of the parts, but we won't send you what is missing.
Seriously pissed me off, especially since everything else appears to be of great quality.
The stuff that was missing was the banjo bolts, washers, and some other misc hardware that was said to come with the kit. kinda irks me the wrong way with the response.
I can go get the copper washers for a dollar or so and the water banjo bolts can be sourced for $10-20 or so, but still...

Went to the dragstrip using the speeduino while still mostly stock. Just had the variable tps and heat range 7 plugs.
Trap speed was 78mph on the best run. about 17.3 I could have added more timing and less fuel, but I forget what my base timing is. I could have easily given it 5 degrees more overall timing and the afr was about 10-11 at wot 7k rpm. So putting it to around an afr of 12 and bumping the timing up should get me into the 16's easily. Also not filling the tank up fully would help. Car weighed ~2450 with me in it.

As for the speeduino. Runs great! I have a slight disconnect issue when it is plugged into the laptop. The unit will disconnect suddenly and randomly with it connected to my laptop and the car will shutdown. With it not connected, it works great. But I think I know what is causing that. (fingers crossed)

Next is the turbo fitment, probably to come in a week or two.

Where do you buy the PNP speeduino. I was trying to find some more info on but couldnt find too much.

AJ resident with a 1.6, TD04-13t here. Where in AZ are you staying?

https://www.miataturbo.net/ecus-tuni...-50695/page17/

I have one of the 10 beta production units. No idea when the full release will be, but maybe he still has a beta unit or two still in stock. With tracked shipping from Australia I payed 183 total.


I am in Tempe.

Unfortunately the initial beta units are all gone, but I'm looking at doing a 2nd beta shortly. The only difference (at this stage) will be in the fuel pump circuit to try and make it more resilient (In case people go to start without removing the ST_SIG fuse). Everything else has seemed good so far though. I'll post up on the thread Drezi linked to when they're available.

If you need any help I am in Phoenix, AZ running a td04-13t on 12 psi on a megasquirt right now on my 91 Miata

Where were all you phx people with the exact same turbo at when i was building my car?

Quick update. Went back to Cali for a about a week. Came back and put the 4.3 Torsen I had laying around in the car. Had to replace a spindle and get new axle nuts. Put some garbage tranny oil in it, but that'll be changed to Redline within 2k miles for sure.

And for the big news. The turbo is in! Although no charge piping is present. Will post pictures soon. Had quite a lot of issues with the parts fitting together.

First thing was the manifold going on. Can't put the lower center nut on. Won't fit on the manifold.
Then I drove it to the workshop and cue'd the music. Drove it with just the manifold on, yes. x) I zip tied the vayne afm open to get the fuel pump on. Will eventually get an IAT

So for getting a return line. Just had to unbolt the steering rack and hang it down. 5 bolts was all it took.
Then it was drilling time. Drilling was easy enough. Had access to a lift, a helper to slightly pressurize the crank case, and lots of grease. Used 3 drill bits. Slowly stepped up. I drilled a tad low, but oil didn't come out and I had the a/c compressor in the way aswell.
But once the hole was drilled, the threaded drain was some odd thread. Pipe thread? it didn't appear as npt. Slightly bigger than 5/8 npt fine. Maybe??? Should have just gone to the hardware store and gone for a real npt. Instead I grounded the threads off and hammered it in the pan with some JB weld on it. Kind of stupid, I know. It also wasn't that great of an angle. Engine will come out sometime this winter for seals, belts, and maybe Head gasket and head work. So not a huge deal for now. I can find a new pan and put it in at that time.

The next problem was the compressor clocking. Had to heat it up with oxy-acetylene and it took a while to rotate it, but I managed it. So I rotated the core to have the oil drain go straight down. Hooray! Well, sorta. The lower radiator hose is pretty much right under the turbo core. Managed to move it out of the way and get the hose on. The thing is, it is more than just touching it. It is leaning against it with some force. Should be able to figure that out soon with new lower radiator hose. The power steering cooler line was also in the way. Bent it a bit. Don't have power steering anymore. Only blocked off the big lines when de-powering it.

So the Turbo eventually got clocked and put on with oil lines and a return. The exhaust was a pain to get on the turbo. More fitment issues were found with the heater hose. No surprise there. It touches the v-band clamp. Modification is needed for sure. Drove it with just the supplied downpipe from Kraken. Then proceeded to use some bailing wire to keep it off the ground for a quick test drive to look for leaks. Let it idle. Had a leak with oil feed. Forgot a copper washer. oops. All was good. Decided to drive it home and all was good. Thing is... the oil return gasket started leaking. Just ordered some new td04 gaskets.

The Kraken cast iron 5 bolt td04 to v-band adapter has to use quite small bolts. Could only put 3 on for now. Not ideal, I know.

So things to do so far.

• Lower radiator hose modification/replacement/reroute
• Heater hose modification/replacement/reroute
• Turbo gaskets.
• Charge Piping

All this action and no pictures?

You didnt really do this stuff did you? Hammered a ground off, JB infused plug. Rad.

Come on bro, step your game up! This is a absolute-definite point of failure, yet you continued to do it even after acknowledging so.

^ so gangsta- I love it. I spent so much time fussing over the perfect drilling spot, tapping perfectly, fishing chips out of the pan with my pinky finger. This guy’s getting shit done.

Well, it is the one thing that will probably be redone this winter. So far it is holding together fine. Might put some steel stick on it as well for added measure! ;)

Having someone blow compressed air into the dipstick tube and using lots of grease on the tap helped a ton. A lot of aluminum shavings flew into my face. Plus any shavings will either get picked up by the oil pickup screen or the oil filter if they are big enough.

Bonus photos:
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...1aeb824d97.jpg
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...a7aee4ee21.jpg

Need a breather filter and some obvious stuff, yes... I know. Some exhaust bolts are missing on the 5 bolt flange. Just got those today. The ones I had wouldn't fit on the outer side.
Compressor housing is going to be rotated 90 degrees so it points upward and also so the waste gate actuator can actually be hooked up.
Just ran it home on the NA tune I had. It makes turbo noises. But it also had lag and no boost. :( that will change of course.

Hopefully this Monday it will be up on the lift again and the charge piping will be done. I don't see a reason to run a blow off valve just yet as the stock TD04 waste gate is somewhere around 7psi or so. I'll put one in when an intercooler goes in. I have a blitz dd sitting around I will use. Sadly it is up in NorCal. Will be trying to go to raceworz at Irwindale. Then I may as well head back up to the bay afterwards.

For the intercooler piping I got some off of a volvo somethingorother(v70??/s80?/idk)
Gonna hack it up and use that. Just needs some cutting and welding and maybe some odd size silicone joiners.

I have some 2" aluminum piping left from my build, and I have a bead roller if needed.