Toddcod

iTrader: (8)

Man, it starts out like this. Cheap used turbo, bandaids, I'll be done in two weeks.
Then you find out you need more parts, then I'll upgrade to that, etc. etc.

And before you know it you have spent a butt load and accomplished nothing.
And it has been since Oct 2007.

How long did it take you. Or how long have you been working on getting turbo?

hustler

iTrader: (6)

I bought everything in April 2007. I travel for work though, so its been a slow process. My engine is on the stand right now, almost ready to go in. I still need a couple parts though.

so 1-year plus.

Zabac

iTrader: (39)

There are two schools about it.
One-do it the way you are doing it and upgrade slowly etc.
Two-do it right the first time. Not bashing you, but that's what I am doing. I made the decision to turbo when I joined last year and have been compliling parts and knowledge. Only road block I ran into was my motor blowing up and having to rebuild it now. I have everything now (almost a year later) just waiting on motor work.

Braineack

iTrader: (62)

let's see. I bought every thing in the Summer of '05. Took a three day weekend to get it all installed, had to modify a lot.

Took all of 15 minutes to blow the motor, then another few weeks to replace that one and change things around a tad

jayc72

iTrader: (14)

Bought a used greddy kit. Two days after showing up I was driving a boosted car. Since then I've gone through FMU/Bipes, FMU/EMB/O2 Clamp, Link. I've gotten rid of the entire greddy kit and gone with an BEGI/FM/China setup. 3 years to get where I am now.

I like the way I went about it, learned a lot along the way. I had a boosted car for ~$1200 and many miles of fun.

SloS13

iTrader: (1)

Built everything from scratch. IIRC, took about 3 weeks of weekends and after work here-and-there. Spent about $1300 or so. Got about 13k of trouble-free boosted miles so far. Driven almost daily.

IcantDo55

iTrader: (11)

Bought a front end wreck Miata in June of last year, fixed front end and drove it stock all year then November started buying up parts, March went to dyno any Auto-x with a car with a full suspension, highly modded greddy, kit torsen, clutch, paint and a MS standalone.

All about how deep your pockets are....its only $$$

Milton Tucker

iTrader: (2)

I cheated; I bought a car that already had a greddy turbo. It was mostly a stock setup, and I have spent the last 12 months modifying the hell out of it. I wonder where the car will be in another 12 months.

Toddcod

iTrader: (8)

I have ms and injectors. And I just bought an old laptop so I could tune it without a serial adapter. That adapter sucked.
Now 7 months later, a lady I work with just aproached me about an old z car her husband could never get running. It has been setting in the garage for 10 yrs. She was going to give it to me, but her husband wants $500.
Then I found out it is a turbo car. I was like yea. Then I found out it is a 90 model. Oh YEA!
If it is as nice as everything else she owns. I'll be rolling it.

I'll pull the race equip off my miata and put it on my girls. And put my 5-speed in the garage in her car. And turbo it. !YaY! says Special Ed !YAY!

Two turbo cars. And cash money for my yellow miata to get the Z going. She said she had a new motor put in it. And it still wouldn't run. It just keeps getting better.
Thank God.
I will love a silent targa top!

bradlee

iTrader: (7)

I cheated even more. I bought a car that already had a setup capable of 300whp.

samnavy

iTrader: (7)

Installed these things before I even bought a turbo:
RX7 AFM
Bipes
02clamp
1.8 injectors
Walbro 190hp
Begi 2025
IC (mounted)
Boost gauge

Then all I needed was Mani/DP/Turbo/ICpiping (did all of it in one day).

Full build documented here: https://www.miataturbo.net/forum/showthread.php?t=4455
First part purchased: 26August2006.
Engine started able to boost: 14Nov2006

I did homework for months before I decided on my route... full bandaid. EMB was the hot-ticket budget EMS at the time and I was salivating to get one... but simplicity won in the end. That build lasted about 3 months I think before my 4-1 DSMT25 kicked the bucket. Then I got my SR20det T25 and haven't looked back. Other than upgrading the turbo straight off the bat, all that's changes is swapping bandaids for MS/550's. Manifold and DP work like new. OEM Bosch plastic BOV from a Saab has been the best purchase I've made ($30 on eBay).

You ******* have it easy now. $1k for MS/LC1/EBC... another $150 for cleaned injectors... then the hardware you can pick up in the classifieds any day of the week. It took me 2 months to find a used Bipes back then.

In about a year, I'll be building a '99 and there will be an epic thread as the whole forum will help me decide what to build and buy.

Braineack

iTrader: (62)

$300 + $189 :doesnot: 1K

Arkmage

iTrader: (3)

took me about 3 years of shopping around for the best deal I could on all the parts (student budget). once i actually started fabricating stuff I think it took me 4 weekends.

rleete

iTrader: (21)

I haven't even finished reading all the posts, let alone decided on what combination of parts. I've only had the car for a year (and it sat in the garage over winter), so I'm still sorting out all the other parts like suspension. It'll be another year before I finish, at least.

Joe Perez

iTrader: (8)

Hmmm...

I started ~ August 2006 by installing an EMU. Then a WBO2, then 465cc injectors. Took about a week of evenings.

About a month later, the Greddy turbo kit went in, along with a TurboTony DP. That was a weekend project. Drove that for about a month.

Over the course of about a week, I fabbed up a FMIC mount and custom piping.

After that, the MBC went in.

And nothing happened for a while.

In early 2007, I decided to install water injection. Started out simple, just a DO progressive kit and the stock washer bottle.

After a few weeks I got tired of having to refill every single day, so I constructed a very elaborate system with a trunk-mounted tank and a transfer pump. That was a solid weekend.

Then I added a failsafe system to bypass the MBC in the event of WI failure. A couple evenings' worth of electronics.

At that point, the system was "stable" until Jan 2008, when the Megasquirt went in. The MS build and bench-testing took about two weeks, and the install happened over the course of a weekend.

Then I started having trigger problems. Killed a lot of time experimenting with various input circuits, finally decided my CAS was junk.

Wound up doing a full custom crank-trigger setup, which was about a solid week of evenings fabricating parts.

At this point I've pretty much run out of things to tinker with, so I guess the car is done.

The_Pipefather

iTrader: (5)

I joined this forum primarily for ms-related information in November 07. Bought my MS in December, but the turbo bug bit me hard in January 08, started collecting my first part (the turbo itself) for a fully DIY setup in early Feb.

Installed MS and injectors in march and been running it NA ever since. Memorial day weekend was when I started installing turbo parts. I hope to be done in a fortnight's time working only weekends on the project. When I am done I will have a setup that will whoop BEGi's top system at a BEGi-S price. Of course, until my clutch starts slipping and/or my 1.6 diff breaks.

SamS

iTrader: (2)

I was given a GT2554, big intercooler, and all the associated piping for an Impreza turbo kit by my dad when he sold his car.

I spent about a month researching, then 5 days to install parts. I wanted a reliable setup that I could always remove if need be. This made things a little more expensive, but I'm happy with my decisions and have never had a major problem after 2 years/25k miles.

Loki047

iTrader: (6)

I bought the car when i was 15, saved enough money to buy a FM kit in HS, instead went on spring break every year in college on that money. Built a ghetto kit, ran it for 15 minutes. Now on my second kit. Im 23. Hope to have it finished by the time im 25. Would hate for the car to see 20 years before I get it boosted

Saml01

iTrader: (9)

Bought my turbo in september of 07. Left the country for 2 months. After I came back I built my megasquirt and installed it and the wideband in december, but in the meantime I was still gathering parts. I drove stock while gathering parts and at the same time learning the megasquirt. Sometime in january I had install my 460cc injectors, sometime in february I had upgraded to COPs. Still gathering parts, and learning the megasquirt, re tuning and etc. March 23rd I had gathered all the parts I had needed to start installing the turbo and I completed my installed april 19th. Took so long because I got screwed over with downpipes four times, otherwise would have took half the time.

In actual physical labor this little project kept me busy from November of 07 to April of 08. But I was in the forums since July of 07 hijacking threads and asking all sorts of questions I can come up with before taking the first steps.

5 months to do it all, pretty much starting from nothing and no experience all DIY no kit stuff. The most interesting part is that it took less then 2000 posts on this forum.

miataspeed1point6

iTrader: (1)

I bought my car supercharged about 4 years ago. Found this site a while after and picked up a used greddy kit + emanage.

This winter I ripped everything out besides the turbo and mani and I'm still working on getting it back together. So far it has been a pain. Working on the stripes kit right now. Then it's on to suspension and then the clutch. Then I get to work on MS...it could be a while.

I think the worst part is not driving my car at all so far. This weather is great, by time it's on the road it will be high 90's.