a noob looking at turbos
 

well im fairly mechanically inclined and over the last year ive been looking up alternative aspiration for my engine, both IRTB, or turbo, i was looking for the greddy kit but am thinking i just may be possible to built a better kit DIY for the same price or even less... what are your opinions, im not looking over 200hp at least until i rebuild the engine, im just wanting a bit more power in there and the ability to upgrade rather easy

It is without a doubt possible to build a better AND less expensive kit than the Greddy, but it will be much more difficult than throwing a Greddy kit on the car and tightening a few nuts and bolts.

It's even easier to build a better-than-Greddy-DIY kit for the same amount of money as the Greddy kit. This has been talked about ad nauseum, so I'd suggested searching past threads on this forum and www.miataforum.com . If your goal is ~200rwhp at most, then a T25-based turbo would probably be ideal, especially since they were found on many OEM turbo applications and can be found cheap.

GReddy kit
-Pros: for $1200 or so you can be boosting NOW! (Granted only 4-6psi)
-Cons: lots to upgrade if you are looking for reliable power that will cost more than a DIY in the long run and probably (but not always) make less power/spool later depending upon what path you take

DIY kit
-Pros: can choose the turbo you want to fit your needs, can design a much more efficient design than the base GReddy kit, often cheaper than upgrading the GReddy kit
-Cons: need to do all the footwork yourself (not necessarily a bad thing), have to piece everything together before you can boost (which can take awhile so need to wait)

i guess i should disclose more about me to see if this is a viable project, im not really worried about dificulty to an extent, im fairy mechanically adept, i have a couple friends that are mechanics that will help for free, plus a performance shop that pseudo sponsors me, (half off any labor, or dyno time or tuning)
only when it comes to electronics do i get confused, wiring in a ecu or programming it is where im going to use a shop, othersie i can tear down a v8 in a weekend and replace the heads and up without any problems.

basically im confident i can do it im just weighing out the task at hand, i look at it as far as a way to better learn my engine, and being i dont have the money now vs saving up i kinda like the idea of amassing the parts so I can see my progress (i have a habit of saving money and well wasting it so saving for a turbo has already included wheels and tires, flywheel and clutch, etc lol)

If wiring is your only hurdle, then I'd say do it. The rest of the job is like working on a v8, only half of that. A budget DIY kit will have only minimal wiring for timing control. Timing on a Miata is fairly simple. The device will most likely need power and ground leads run. The Miata timing leads will involving clipping trigger wires to intercept and send the signal. If you step up to a full ecu, get something that the performance shop sponsor is familiar with. Something they can get at cost and tune for you.

sounds good they are actually good with aem ems, haltec, e-manage etc im liking the looks and price of the e-manage and the fact that they can tune it and it controls a/f and timing seem to be about right for the project especially if i can use it to remove the MAF to a MAP based sensor

I think you can remove the MAF(AFM) only with the ultimate and MAP sensor.

As far as i've read and understand thats correct :)

Newbsauce is running without his AFM with the HKS VAC (uses a map sensor and air temp sensor and converts the signals)

hks vac? only thing i could find via a quick google search is the velocity advanced computer, designed to make an auto transmission shift better

I don't think that hks makes that unit anymore so it's pretty darn rare around here.