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.