alright alright I'll give you that.
you got screwed by the PO and the shop then.
And if he told you he tracked it for 10 years with that tune he is 100% lying.

Well definitely going back to them and throwing this in their faces to see what comes about. Most likely Ill buy a new 1.8, build the internals, then swap it in. Fuck my life.... It does serve me right for not doing all the research on tuning but with 3 shops saying they wouldn't build the car any different themselves, having it dyno tuned by a shop that has done a few turbo'd miata's before with an AEM certified owner who's been slapping turbo's on cars for 30+ years, and having a stack of receipts/notes/conversations from the previous owner with the owners of 949, flying miata, and Bell Engineering about timing and turbo set ups.... I figured i was in the clear :/ Guess not........

I'm still in awe at how shitty the torque curve is, and at how little torque it made with that much boost.

I mean... you don't get that bad by accident. That shit comes with years of experience.

30+ years bro

He had a Jackson racing Supercharger on it for a year but didn't like it, then had a t3/t4 hybrid for a few years, then went to this T3 for the last 5 years. He actually even had his time sheets and all the other telemetry from each of the tracks he went to which i saw.... so I know he's done a ton of track days with this set up. Plus with two stacks about 6 inches thick of data on the build. Plus he's an 50 year old engineer turned doctor with more money than you can shake a stick at so you'd think he'd have done it right. Honestly I checked out all the parts and seemed like he did everything right EXCEPT for the tune.....

Again, still my fault for not doing previous research on the tuning. BUT I learned my lesson and time to start either re-building or build a new engine. Any advice on where to start?

compression and leakdown
inspect plugs
drain the oil and check if its premixed

take pics of everything and post them here.
for the lolz

I'd do a "ghetto-built" BP that everyone has been talking about in the last week.

Stock pistons, forged rods, new bearings, ARP fasteners, new rings, run E85 and ALLOFIT.

I'm definitely going to him and giving him MASSIVE amounts of shit for this! At the very very least he should be returning the money I spend on the tune, if not helping me pay for the blown engine! This is what happens when you trust other people. Honestly I just feel used and dirty.... If you don't know how to tune the car, why pretend that you can? That's bullshit.

who turned up the boost?

^ the previous owner had it at 18psi, then the shop kept it at that and did "slight tuning" I left it at the shop for a week just so they had time to mess with it, apparently they didn't "need" to change much. I'm pissed as they should've seen any mistakes in the tuning if they knew what they were doing.

The previous owner didn't run it for years on 18psi. It would have blown up.

he probably had it at 10psi

Yup, again No idea. Just going off of what he said.

WORST news is that I'm moving at the end of the month so have to find a place to store/work on the car until that's all settled.... serious FML

ONLY good news is at least i have another fun car to drive in the mean time and it's a little better for winter time

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1377535639

I'd suggest parting out the Miata and just working on the GC.

why did you leave it at a shop for a week for "slight tuning"?

because it takes a long time to have a random number generator create your timing map

I was leaving town for a week, Dropped it off Wednesday then drove down to Oregon for my cousins wedding, then couldn't pick it up until the following Wednesday. SO they had it for a week.

but why?

i usually have a purpose in mind when i drop my car off at a shop (not really, I wouldn't ever do that)

I did have a purpose in mind, to have them check over the car completely and make sure everything was running at 100% efficiency as well as nothing needed to be fixed and/or replaced and to make sure the car was reliably tuned. I told them I don't care about a ton of power I just want to make sure every morning the car will start, and if I push the car as hard as I can it won't break. I told them the previous owner tuned it but i'd rather have a "reputable shop" look over the car and the tune. The ONLY reason I took it in was to be extra cautious since the car seemed to be running perfectly smooth with no hiccups since I've owned it. Apparently they did not do that.