Buying a used turbo miata, Advice
 

For the past year and a half i've been looking for a miata i planned on turboing it eventually recently a few have popped up and one in perticular i was interested in. Seemed to be built fairly well but i haven't checked it out in person because it's about 400 miles away...

The ad said "With 250HP and 131 lb from a T3/T4 turbo set up pushing 12psi of boost (dyno tuned by Modern automotic). Turbo spec: 60trim on cold side and 63trim on hot side oil cool with large front mount intercooler. Turbo manifold is a begi cast turbo manifold. Fuel supply by 1000cc injectors (plenty of fuel to support any power you can throw at it).Exhaust system is a 2.25 inch which can be upgrade to a 2.5 inch or even better a 3 inches and this will free plenty of power at the current boost level. The car has installed boost gauge, uninstall fuel ratio which is included, has an 02 wideband ($300) which is not install but include too. installed working boost control manual, new alluminum racing radiator. The car is run by an AEM computer ECU($1,000) in place of the stock ECU. this is where you can program and tuned for POWER.The built which is used all original parts; pistons, rings, seals, bearings, blueprint and balance cranshaft, 5 angles ported and polish valve job, with the exception of after market Eagle Rods wich is stronger than stock rods that can handle more boost than stock rods if desire. APR head bolts to mate the head and block. Clutch Master Stage II clutch"

Sounds good to me. minus the fact the guy cant speak english or type well but whatever.
now i do some research because it would be a long journey and begin with calling the tuning company.. they had the car tuned their twice. once this year once two years ago... and the ad said the car had been rebuilt about 2k miles ago... well the tuning company sent me the dynos...
two years ago it was pushing 20psi.... and had over 300 whp
Attachment 239771
my guess is they blew the engine. rebuilt it and lowered the pressure
Attachment 239772
now it "ONLY" put's down 250....

I feel like this is something i should run from but what's you opinions on it?
i'm looking for something that i can track as well and would prefer to run a smaller turbo but for 5.5k what's your opinions?

First of all, your links don't work. now you have turned me into a liar.

Second, people who put speed rather than RPM on the x-axis need to be shot.

Third, I'm not entirely convinced you know how to type well, but whatever.

Fourth, if you do buy it, don't drive it until you tune it yourself. Tow it the 400 miles or don't bother.

Fifth, I know I didn't answer all your questions, but it's more fun to learn yourself than it is to have everything spoon-fed to you. The rest of your questions can be answered by the stickies in this and the DIY section.

Edit: holy shit shooting for 300whp with a 2.25 exhaust, I'm honestly surprised that the torque curve doesn't look like a bell curve.

I know I'm horrible at writing, always have been was tutored for just about my whole childhood it never worked.

I hate the speed as well. The only thing I know is where 5250 is and that's it using standalone i have no idea if the guy put the rev-limiter to the sky.

I do enjoy learning which is why I wanted to do the entire build myself working out ar and maps my self as well as tuning but I dont think I can properly build a Miata for under what he's asking though I dont know if i'd call his properly built

What's the issues with leaving a shops tune on the car?

P.S. I didn't modify the links they worked on mine

Well, if you suspect the motor blew up once...

For the right price...

If i knew then what i know now...

I know stupid cliches but it's true and they exist for a reason. realistically ask yourself what you want or plan on doing to the car. I bought a 90 with intentions of just ragging on it for a fun/cheap work car for mileage. I wanted an 85 corolla coupe to rag on since i'm a huge toyota fan but because of the gay drift scene I was unable to find one for a reasonable price. My friend joked about putting a turbo on and I did. Seven years later my car has grown with the community and as the go fast parts have changed so has my car with them.

If you're the kind of person that is practical and wants fast and reliable but are not always striving for the best. Settle and get something that makes you happy. Could be this car... could not be.

I personally like the projects and building something to be what I want it to be. I like everything to be done like it came that way from the factory. If you like the components that are on this car and the builder did a great job then buy it. If they are in good shape and it's a good deal you can always transplant the stuff you want and part out the rest of the car. If you don't have space for doing that it's another story. In my opinion the best way to build a miata is to buy one and start going through the motions. Install and tune ECU > Safety Stuff > Suspension > Turbo. If you do things in that order it's not the most fun but by then you'll have read a million things on the forum hopefully and gotten really familiar with the car. In the end you'll have less headaches (still a bunch) and a working reliable car hopefully.

I did not follow that process and i went Suspension > Turbo > Safety > Ecu and because of it i've killed two motors and had to deal and learn all kinds of lessons in the process. Stay away from band aids.

I'm going to just start linking this post in every noob question thread because i think it addresses everything except very specific questions.

https://www.miataturbo.net/diy-turbo...k-links-56507/

I don't think i'd ever buy a turbo'ed miata unless i A) new the person and they were a baucccccccce mechanic or B) it was a member on this forum that had a great reputation. C) planned on using it for parts cause it was a steal.

told the guy at this point no.
If someone on here is interested it's in the Minnesota craigslist.
I'll end up building one my self which was my original plan. only probably different order then you had.. most likely >safety>suspension>turbo
Rollbar>seat/harness>sways>koni>ecu>turbo(non china small quick spool shoot for 200 as a max upper limit)(though i always wanted a turbo that could handle an ALS)

Thanks for the link i've read it previously. the original goal which has changed was to get a 200hp miata for under 4k that goal was a year ago i did a bunch of research and ended up buying a firebird which i sold now but my dad raced a miata when i was 12 and have fond memories. My original goal was china everything and megasquirt leaving money for when stuff blew. but now i'm looking for a reliable miata to track maybe if i can get a turbo with almost no lag to do that eventually.. we'll see time will tell. I knew my platform needed to start as a rust free and 1.8 would be a lot cheaper then a 1.6 i'm still searching but hopefully with winter upon us i'll get lucky and get one for cheaper

thanks for the advice everyone

Make an intro thread in the noob section and start reading. I knew nothing about this stuff 5 months ago. Any questions you may have can be answered by some time reading. If you want to do this right, that's how to start.