Miata Turbo Forum - Boost cars, acquire cats. - Water pump return solutions

This thread on manifold designs went OT into a pretty useful discussion of water pump return solutions.

https://www.miataturbo.net/forum/t34924/

The basic problem is, how to get the big water pump return out of the area where you'd want to put a low-mount turbo, with a BEGI S4 or Ebay ripoff, Absurdflow-style, or other similar manifold. Also, if you want to have your compressor discharge go forward past the a/c compressor in the space normally taken up by the lower radiator hose, you need the hose to be somewhere else.

I figured there should be a thread compiling all the solutions people have tried for this in one place to make searching easier.

I spent half of yesterday looking under the hood of every imported car in the local Pick-Your-Part and learned a lot.

1.8 thermostat housing
Problem: Runs into the A/C bracket. Lacks returns for the heater and turbo coolant, but otherwise doable without A/C. Simple, and you already have the part.

Flip stock water pump inlet 180 degrees
Definitely a good option without A/C, and you already have the main part. Need to plug the heater return, but that's easy.

Heater return bump runs into a/c bracket, and lower radiator hose lines up with a/c pulley.

You could trim the 90-degree elbow off the turbo coolant return and re-bead it, or pull it out and install another fitting. Toyota 5S-FE engines in Camrys have 1/8 BSPT threaded fittings both 5/16 and 3/8 in the end of their intake manifolds that will work well and look OE, unlike brass from the hardware store.

Post from manifold design thread with pic of this option

Water pump inlet from a 1.8L Protege
This is a clean solution. The downside of this is it points out the side between the p/s and a/c, into the same space as you might be trying to free up for your charge air path. If you don't have a/c, this is a good option, as you can just snake a hose from this fitting down to the radiator, and leave open space. Reduces the chance of having a problem with the hose and anti-roll bar.

You will have to either plug the heater return, or grab the heater return pipe from the car at the junkyard and modify it to work.

There are two versions of this part, one short and one long. Get the short one. The long one is smaller diameter and won't work properly.

I have a cell phone pic, but I'm phone-skill impaired and don't know how to send it to my email.

BEGI's fabricated solution
I will reserve comment, except: Compare the price of this to the prices of other options.

BEGi Water Bypass System BEGi

What I'm doing
Pics and details when it's done.

Everyone else, post pics of what you've done.