thesantaman

Well guys I know i'm new here but I bought a Miata motor and it should be coming this weekend. My plan is to build a turbo motor and then drop it in after it's all ready.

Goals: 200-300 h.p. My initial goal is the 200hp range.. then after time and fine tuning i want to get into the higher 200 area.

My thoughts: From what I've read so far this is what i'm thinking.

1. Forged rods. (eagle or $500~ range)
2. Newer or new stock pistons.
3. Reconditioned head (Mine will need valve work done)
4. ARP Head studs.
5. Heavy duty headgasket.

This is just my thoughts. I would love for some advice. Keep in mind I am not building a $30k race car. This will be a budget racer for daily driving. I am confident that I will be able to do this car for a fair price considering the good price of parts in the for sale parts forum.

Thanks!

FRT_Fun

iTrader: (19)

What year engine?

thesantaman

96-99 i believe it's a 1.8L

FRT_Fun

iTrader: (19)

... it's either a 94-97 1.8 OR a 99-00 OR a 01-04. And yes it makes a difference.

thesantaman

I was under the impression that anything below 99 was either a 1.8 or 1.6.. I guess i'm wrong though.

What was the major differences between the three?

Larger compression ?

thesantaman

and the motor is a 95

FRT_Fun

iTrader: (19)

Not going to list all the differences. Compression/Flow/VVT/lifters/etc. Searching should yield results faster.

thesantaman

Sorry to say but your coming off as quite an *** hat sir. The engine is a 1.8 out of a 95 as states above.

FRT_Fun

iTrader: (19)

Alright noob good luck with that engine. If you can't even ******* research you will fail at life. Good job buying an engine without knowing the year. And you expect to go turbo? Holy **** I feel sad for that engine. Do yourself a favor and put a hole in the block now. I don't know why I cared in the first place to be honest. You will do well here.

thesantaman

LOL bro i think you came in here with an attitude... Go ******* drink a beer or something. I know lots about mechanics. Yes I will admit turbo is a newer thing to me, but I am smart and I learn fast. I knew the engine was an earlier 1.8 but i merely forgot at the moment. No reason to have a fit about it. Did you forget your midol or something this morning?

Savington

iTrader: (31)

Bad attitude won't get you far here. We don't tolerate hand holding. If you aren't interested in helping yourself by searching through the forums, why should we help you at all?

If you want to buy a motor, call me at the shop. If you want to do it yourself, search and see what others have done. This forum isn't in the business of donating free advice when the person asking isnt doing some research themselves.

thesantaman

I have been reading the forums here for almost a week reading about these cars; what power the stock motors will hold what the weak points are. I have read about the compression ratio differences in years of cars. I read about the tuning options of these cars. I read about everything I thought would be vital information.

I didn't come here to start any arguments. He just seemed pretty standoffish... sorry if i was the only one that thought so.

Also I didn't even post for the last week because I've been doing so much reading... That's why I had only 2 posts prior to this thread.

SO.. with that all aside I am hoping for some suggestions as well as tips anyone might have for me.

gearhead_318

iTrader: (1)

There are soooooo many noob threads exactly like this. Have a good attitude, except that people are going to be dicks to you until you do some research for yourself and start to sound like you don't have an extra chromosome. Look through the Noob introduction section and you'll see that some are labeled as good noobs and some are given ****, it's all about attitude. If you say something dumb you'll be made fun of, if you say something smart or ask an intelligent question (WELL THOUGHT OUT & RESEARCHED) then you might just get an answer, but always do search here and google your quandary, always.

Thats better. When you didn't know what engine your car has FRT_Fun probably thought something along the lines of "Why doesn't this numb-nuts know what size engine is in HIS OWN CAR"?

Where did you get your power goals?

thesantaman

I'm actually only buying the engine right now. So i'm merely getting the block/head combo with the alternator and some other misc parts. I thought I'd start by separating the block and head and having a good look at them to determine the condition, then probably have them cleaned at the machine shop.

So that's kind of where my starting point is. It's a 95 motor so I believe it's the lower compression in the 8's so it should be fine for a turbo application. I want to build the motor first mount the turbo then have it put into a shell or DD when it's ready.

I know you guys probably get loads of noobs in here so i can see where the quick frustration comes from. But I thought it couldn't hurt to get some extra info.

curly

iTrader: (25)

Pretty sure you don't need anything more than an OEM head gasket. If you read anything about upgrading the head gasket, it was most likely for the 1.6, which uses a composite gasket. Your '95 engine uses a metal one, and would be fine for your application.

gearhead_318

iTrader: (1)

Yeah, we get a lot of noobs here and that's what the harsh posts are for, scares the dumb ones over to CR.net where they do the most awful things.

What are you planning to do for engine management? MegaSquirt is very popular here and there is a great deal of support and knowledge. Personally I'm building a MS3X pretty soon to install before turbo charging, that's another thing I'd recommend. Get your engine management figured out and running before adding a turbo.

thesantaman

I've seen a lot of stuff about megasquirt on here. I honestly don't know a ton about tuning, but there's a lot of good shops in my town that do. Tuning is the one thing I need to read more about. I have gotten some general information about how it works. Having to scale up fuel pressure and a/f management.. Hopefully i'll have a better grasp on it as I work on the motor.

gearhead_318

iTrader: (1)

Read , it contains lots of knowledge regarding turbocharging that will make everything a bit easier, I'm getting it as a Christmas present.

Also, your gonna want to put your location in your information and info about your car in your signature so people don't have to ask where your located or what car you have.

curly

iTrader: (25)

If you're reading about fuel pressure, than you're reading about bandaids, not MS.

And with the current auto tune available with tuner studios (one of the pc interface programs) and decent base maps, you can do that to get running, then make a "I'm a MS noob" thread here so we can help you fine tune.

hustler

iTrader: (6)

What's up with all these homofag, headgasket elitist newbs?