XR4Ti M11 turbo and Garrett T25 questions...
 

Ok everybody fire up the barbeque... You're gonna have a noob roast.

I have three A.R. 60 M11 T3 turbos laying around. Back in high school and college i was big into xr4ti's. I still have several of them. At any rate because of this, i have several turbos hanging around.

My question is, how well do these adapt to the miata? I have MSPNP, AEM wideband, RC 550 injectors, i'll be fabbing a FMIC, log manifold etc... Unfortunately i have no aditional specs on these. I'm on the horn at the XR4Ti forum. But they're a little pokey around there.

I also have am AiResearch turbo from a later XR4Ti... Not sure if there is a Big difference there.

Let the roast begin...

I should also mention that i'm looking to achieve between 200 and 225 rwhp. I'm looking for streetable and track/autoX occasionally. Not looking for huge power here...

Find an SR20 T25 or you'll be reinventing the wheel with everything else.

The classic noob mistake is to attempt to build a kit around a turbo - the turbo is a tiny part of the kit, and if you build around weird ----, you'll be using weird ---- forever.

This is fair enough. Was just curious if it would since i have a stack of em.

pics of turbos is it just a standard t3 60 trim turbo?

Sorry, can't get any pics as all the turbos are at my fathers house 150 miles away. They are indeed 60 trim turbos. They have ar 60 compressor side and came with either a .48 or a .63 exaust housing pretty much at random, so not sure what i have as far as the exhaust side is concerned until i actually get up there myself.

These won't work though, eh?

I run a t3 60 trim with a .48 ar turbine housing, it will work fine.
I've have full boost around 3500rpm or less depending on gear\load

Well looking at the turbo the compressor side is far larger than the exhaust turbine side... So it should be safe to assume that it isn't a .63 exhaust and is indeed a .48, correct?

Also, there's a garrett t25 on craigslist by me. The guy doesn't seem to know jack squat about it, but he said it was refurbished (it definately looks shiny and new.) I'll post pics up in a bit. But from what I can see it has a .48 compressor and a .49 turbine side.

Any idea what this could be?

a teeny tiny little t25 that will top out at 200

That's what i was thinking. But then wouldn't a 60 trim T3 0.48 exhaust and 0.60 compressor be just fine?

Get the T25, sell the others. I like modular setups, where you can swap out turbos for others, and even bigger ones. Beyond the compressor flanges, the SR20 T25 fits perfectly for this. I just upgraded to one and I have no idea why I haven't done it earlier, spools crazy fast and still easily makes your power goals.

Want more power? Swap in another T25 turbo, there are many.

For your proposed setup, you'd have to change your manifold, downpipe, oil feed, oil drain, water lines, heat shielding, hotside intercooler pipes, PLUS the turbo.

See the issue? If you're set on doing it, go for it, but there's your huge "pro" for using a T25.

yes plus its t3 flanged so upgrade options are just as good
I don't what everyone is bitching at.

Here are a couple shots that the dude sent me of that T25. It doesn't seem to have a standard T25 exhaust flange... I'm sure it was out of a saab or some ----...

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1337225466
PART951337219966107 by riponfrosh, on Flickr

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7233/7...f3eaea517e.jpg
PART951337219966048 by riponfrosh, on Flickr

get a pic of it further out

Another shot of the Craigslist T25...

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1337225695
PART951337219965802 by riponfrosh, on Flickr

Stay away from that turbo...it'll make like 10 psi at 3,000 rpms, but will bleed boost off over 5,000.

I had a .48/.49 turbo a while back, and it sucked royally. Run away from it.
I just saw an sr20 t25 in the classifieds. Buy that and don't look back.

T25 upgrade options in reasonable sizes are far more numerous than T3 flanged turbo upgrades. In a standard SR20-style T25 flange, you can get everything from a 2554R to a 3071R, but with a T3 you're trapped to oddball OEM stuff and used journal bearing turbos.

FYI, I had a Garrett .48/.49 T25 from some 90s turbo Pontiac. Most of the .49a/r T25s are from odd stuff, but the Pontiac turbo I had was a standard 5-bolt outlet. That was an awesome street turbo, and I made 200whp at 13psi with full boost at ~3000rpm. I don't regret upgrading to the .64a/r 2554R a couple of months later, but the .49 feels like the kind of turbo an OEM would select for this engine.

I had the same turbo. It came from and early 80's Pontiac sunbird.
I hated it. 13psi to make 200whp? That's a joke.

I have a buddy that bought one of those pontiac turbos thinking it was a 2554, I am about to pick it up for free and run it for cheap.


The only weird thing was that we couldn't get the oil feed that fit his SR20 to fit in it.

Savington..... I think you are a tad off base with the T3, there are loads of turbos on that frame, both jiurnal and BB.

Leagl go Kart...

That T3 M11 ford ran for years 1983-86
On the Merkur, SVO Mustang and Turbo Coupe

83 TC ones were just oil fed
84-86 had both water and oil

.48 AR exh were found on the 83-84 TC with auto trans
.63 AR were on everything else IIRC

Both were good for about 20-22 psi on a 2.3T

In 87/88 ford went to the IHI turbo w/ top mount IC

The next basic step from the T3 would be the T3/T4 hybrid

I have a Turbonetics one, .63 AR Hotside w/ a .80 cold for my TC build

Personally, save your T3's for your XR4Ti

Unless you pull the 2.3T out of the XR and shove it between the fenders of your Miata

Pretty narrow world view, there. I don't care how much boost it took to make the power - my goal when I bought that turbo was low-end torque and ~200whp, and for those goals it's the perfect turbo.

I don't think any turbo will make more low-end torque than a .49a/r T25. (Maybe an EFR6258 :giggle:)

That probably would have been the damn way to go... but...

I'm pretty sure i just picked up an SR20 T25. That should be a good starting point, right??!?

See my build thread, it's a great starting point, as we've said throughout this entire thread.

I'm very happy at 8ish psi, which should be even a little under 200hp. Can't believe the response time of this thing, even compared to my similarly sized greddy TD-04.

Well i bought it, but it doesn't have any intake or compressor pipes/flanges. Anybody know where i could get some cheap? They're pretty pricey on ebay and i'm sure they are crap. Or if anybody has some kickin' around they'd be willing to sell... I'll also start a wtb thread...

Again, see my build thread, I reused the stock outlet, although I cut it a bit short. That saved me $40 and then I bought an inlet one for $35. There are some $40 sets on ebay and amazon. That's about as cheap as you'll get.

I don't really agree with the guys saying you should get a t25. It's not like the t3s you have are that odd ball. I ran a 60 trim t3 with a 0.48 hot side, the turbo spooled well and made good power.

It sounds like you've already made your decision, but why not go with the turbo you already have, and the one you already have spares for?

Isn't Scott the one who whines and bitches incessantly about how his .48a/r T3 doesn't spool as well as half the T25 setups here?

Just get a Slovak to weld you a manifold for your T3.
https://www.miataturbo.net/diy-turbo-discussion-14/recycled-exhaust-manifold-65884/

Well I was convinced to get a t25, so that's what i did. I definately wanted to stick with the T3 as i pretty much have a lifetime supply. Hopefully i don't regret my SR20 T25 purchase.

Well he's on a 1.6 vs. my experience with a 1.8, I don't know if that makes a big difference or not. All I know is that with my set-up, I never felt the car was laggy (my qualitative opinion vs. Scott's quantitative data...). I also tracked the sh*t out of my car for a couple years with my set-up and I think a larger footprint turbo with a larger turbine was better for my needs. For a street car maybe a quicker spooling t25 works a bit better.

I guess my whole point is that, if the guy has a lifetime supply of a fairly standard t3 turbo, why not build his system around that turbo?

You won't.
Fast spool, and I've made 225whp on 12psi with mine. I love my SR20, it's dependable and cheap...I just want more, so mine will hit the market in the near future.
I'm not a fan of the super fast spool, but my piece of crap pontiac sunbird turbo spooled a lot faster. I guess I can't complain about the SR20, cause people say "turbo lag". With the SR20, it's easy to reply with "what lag?"
The SR20 turbo is hands down the best miata turbo as far as spool, reliability and value. 225whp in a miata is pretty fast I must say. I can't see how anybody would be dissapointed with that kind of power in a miata.