so why in the world would you buy a turbo that does not have a standard T25 flange on both ends?

post a pic of said flange, and your downpipe flange. people here are super experienced with all turbo matters and will recognize the flange in a sec.

and why would you pay $500 for a shit downpipe when you can get a real one from FM for about the same price?

EDIT: I think you are talking about a skyline type flange or RB flange or something like that, its also 5 bolt like T25, but bolt holes dont line up with a normal T25.

... do you think I would have bought it if I had known it wouldnt have fit? And I paid 500 for a nice mandrel bent piece from a local exhaust shop. If I had purchased the one from FM I would still have had to pay someone to finish from the FM downpipe to the exhaust and it would have been another 200 or so. I'll post pics when I get home.

EDIT: So full story. I called cxracing asking for a flange and the dude looked at my order history and created an order for the "right" flange. I waited almost a week for that one and it didn't work. I emailed them back and forth and they finally gave up and just refunded me and stopped answering my emails. I contacted vivid racing with all the measurements of the back of the turbo and they said they didnt have anything that would work and I could probably drill out new holes in one of their flanges. I don't have access to a drill press so I passed. I went back to the cxracing site and looked up the part number of the flange and they had sent me a different one so I ordered the flange on the website so hopefully the idiots get me something that works. Its been a week but their packages dont track right so I have no idea if it will be in any time soon or not.

Put an actual T25 on it, and have a downpipe made (or just buy one off the shelf) to match. I don't get the problem. You're making this hard for yourself, and it seems like it's deliberate. Who hurt you?

Can you post a link to the actual turbo that you bought on cxracing website?

is this the flange you have?

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...6f3f40848b.jpg

That looks like the turbo yes and the flange I just ordered last week. The one they sent my last time is a lot bigger in several spots with all the holes a few mm too far apart. I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to take the turbo off yesterday and get pics.

I had made the same mistake early in my turbo lyfe, this is a non standard t25 exhaust flange. Luckily I didn't mount the turbo, so I just returned it.

If you insist on China turbos, you want cxracing gt28 turbo, they have several to choose from

Word of advice, if you care about cost and time, the best way forward if you make a mistake isn't to double down on it!

What was my original mistake? The damage was primarily caused by an exhaust leak between a quality gasket and a flying miata header. A quality turbo might have survived the explosions inside the manifold, turbo, and downpipe but I don't see that working much better.

only thing an exhaust leak will do is make spool slower. it will not blow up your turbo.
Its just hot gasses escaping earlier in the exhaust path.

what engine management are you running?
exhausts dont ignite unless you were dumping unburnt fuel into the exhaust due to running pig rich.

I am assuming the new turbo was not bought new, nor from cxracing, thus you didnt get the funky flange that comes with the turbo.

you also dont need to run any gaskets between manifold and turbo. the surfaces should be machined flat.

I have an old FM link and yea im a bit rich but not black smoke out the tailpipe rich. I popped the exhaust leak at the very end of a 4 hour trip and when i got to my destination 15 mins later manifold was glowing pretty bright. I got the turbo from cxracing.com and declined to order the flange because I already had a t25 downpipe ready to just bolt on. I know there are several variations in normal t25 turboes which is why some flanges have a notched hole but I figured I could file it if it was different. Well...it was a bit too different like even if I got the holes to work I would have a huge hole between flange and turbo.

Bottom line is this: you put together a really bad setup using terrible parts and got terrible results. Now you want to switch platforms altogether rather than actually put together a decent miata, and considering two very different cars neither of which will provide what a "Miata" does (though the Honda does have some cool features).

In a case like this, it just seems like you want to go the lazy route, in which case yes you should just go buy a "factory faster" car and not modify it, just drive it. It takes a lot of reading, learning, and effort to be able to build a proper turbo Miata. link piggyback and cx racing turbo kit are considered bottom barrel trash around here.

Nah man it was the legit link standalone. I mean even Keith would say its trash now but it was a marvel of its day. It's ancient now though like its last update was in 2005. Yea what I am fighting with now is having something that drives like a turbo miata just with trunk space and reliability. Yes I know a well done turbo setup can be reliable but I do not have the mechanical skills to do a turbo well. I would be looking for a newer turbo miata done well if I could like the look of the NBs and NCs but I just can't. Right now I am just using what time I have left before switching jobs to look for something that can get me to and from work on time every day to a work environment where being late a few times is instant termination. I am just trying to be picky. I am even considering going for a 2005 model mustang GT and keeping the miata and just deregistering her till I get everything sorted permanently (which would probably be a v8 because my mechanic buddy would love to work on that).

The problem is a heavily modified car usually should not be a daily driver and the only available vehicle to get to/from work.
Unless you are an expert with the platform and can solve what ever issues creep up quickly and get back on the road.

most people with turbo miatas do have a second main vehicle.

Can a nicely setup turbo miata be used am a main vehicle reliably? sure, but that requires having good knowledge of the platform mechanics and using good quality reliable parts.

It would be wise to get a reliable beater, and if you truly like the driving experience of a miata, keep it as a long term project car to modify and learn on.

Psyber ran his 400hp miata as a daily for years until he got a daily this year.

as i said, he is an expert in the platform, with quality parts.

a noob, with shit parts will not have similar results. as evident in this thread

even a n00b can have a reliable turbo Miata if he gets quality parts and follows "the MT brick road" to not sucking :)

Glowing red = major problems with tune.

You should buy the z4m. My sales manager's wife has one and it always gets her to pilates just fine.

The s2000 is a good choice if you just want a quick-ish, light-ish, reliable roadster that doesn't need to be tinkered with. Sometimes when you have a bad experience with a platform, it's best to just move on.

I don't have any interest in the Z4m personally, I am sure it is a nice, comfortable and quick car with very little personality.

Yea I drove one of the 3.0is and the clutch was way vague but it was powerful. I'm sure the z4m would be way more power since it should outrun a mustang GT but it would likely not have the personality unless im drifting it. That's kind of why I am leaning towards a mustang or the s2000. I would prefer s2k but they are way expensive for what they are. Even if I leave miatas for a while I will be back because they are way fun to toss around a mountain road.