Your thread looks like you're asking what everyone else would do for xyz. Which basically reads as your asking other people to do homework for you.

If you're asking what maintenance to do to your car before you install a turbo setup, then the answer is all the routine maintenance. If you're asking what things you should check before you start buying go fast parts, then it's to check your engine and cooling system health.

Your question seems broadly worded so you learn all the stuff that people have done without having to figure them out for yourself. Search for a few things on google and read a few build things to see what people did and what others gave as advice on those build threads to start building your knowledge.

As a noob myself, I'm aware that there's a ton of info on here and searches don't yield the exact answer every time. But what a search should do is let you come up with a fine tuned question which folks might decide is worthy of answering. "Can you tell me everything?" is not one such finely tuned question. I've been reamed out on here before and I'm sure it'll happen ad nauseum, but it's part of the fun.

The kid from school who has says he has done his homework, but actually hasn't.

What have you learned op. Ill help you if you help yourself

This is funny because who would exploit idiots for their superior knowledge?

Seriously tho, OP if you had done any research you'd find multiple "sticky" threads blueprinting turbo build requirements and what you should focus on.

What is your budget?
Goals?
Current mechanical state of your car?

You could end up spending anywhere between $1500 to $15,000, and have power goals between 170whp and 500whp. You could be building a drift car, a road car, a track car.

There are literally millions of ways to build your car, so starting off with such vague questions isn't the best way to go. Maybe if you provide some useful information as to what you want out of your car, that would help with drawing positive response.

I can say one thing I can help with is that I built my car in all the ways that ended up making the car unenjoyable, and I can give recommendations based on experience on what mods to do or not to do based on your goals.
Again, this requires having understanding about your goals.

If you're not scared off forever from the forum overlords, I'll have your thread in my sub'd list.

You did make the classic miataturbo.net mistake of saying you've done your homework and asking vague questions. Literally every noobie does this, that's why you took so much flak.

Read and subscribe to these some of these.. (Don't start with aidandj's thread.)
Build Threads - Miata Turbo Forum -Boost cars, acquire cats.

Save money.

Shop here..
949 Racing - Supermiata
and here..
Singular Motorsports

Make a proposal thread with your idea when you have money in hand and a list of parts you're ready to buy.

^^ This is doing your homework (in my book.)

Stay away from this area until you've completed your turbo swap. Then proceed with extreme caution.
Race Prep - Miata Turbo Forum -Boost cars, acquire cats.

As a noob myself, I'll tell you what I did. I had a 2000 base Miata and was prepared to buy a kit from FM. It was on backorder. The kit was around $6K. The I started looking at the need for upgrading cooling system and a 3 inch exhaust from the downpipe back Then I looked at needing better gears in the rearend. I had a 4.3 open differential. Then there was tuning the car after installing the standalone Hydra Nemesis. I concluded it was better for me to buy somebody else's Turbo Miata. One that had been sorted and tuned with all the goodies I would be buying for retail.

If you look at websites and search for them, you can find a sorted NA or NB for a decent price and you can save yourself some time, money and headaches.

Dan

Sigh. I kinda regret not doing this. There was a pretty solid car locally that I could have bought if I sold my stock NB1. Would have been so much cheaper...