Thought this might make an interesting thread. So how long did it take you to actually collect your parts? How long did you expect the install to take? And finally, how long did it actually take to complete the installation?

For me, I started gathering FI parts in January 08' with the purchase of my MS2 stuff. By November 08' I had everything I thought I needed. Pulled the car down on December 20th to begin the weekend turbo install.... 10 days later I finished. Took me over 3 times as long as I thought it would, assuming worst case scenario. How'd everybody else do?

 

I bought a flyin miata kit 2 summers ago, totaled the car and had to return the kit. Since then I've been trying to get parts together and I'm still not boosted. I give up if I'm not FI by this summer, but I feel like I'm damn close.

 

gathering parts took a few months, during which I spent about 4-5 days actually looking/buying/planning......the install is 2 weeks in, though we only have about 4 days of actual work in it, the rest of the time its just sitting there: no time to work on it every day. I'm about 9/10ths done though so hopefully another week (1 day of actual work lol) and its done. Just picked up another car (subaru) and it may take me a bit longer to finish the miata.

 

Gathered parts over a 4-month period, probably researched it for almost a year. Downtime was around a month.

 

Turbo'd the car less than two months after purchasing it. Install took less than two days and the car was tuned the day after install. Now come the upgrades.

 

Started buying parts May 1st '08, got everything together by December 10th. Murpheys law is alive and well when it comes to a DY turbo.
I would have been ahead time wise and money wise if I had bought a used kit for my first time around.

 

Mine went in several stages, with periods of uptime in between.

I put the EMU and WBO2 in first. That took a full weekend.

The injectors went in the following weekend.

Then I did the Torsen upgrade. Another weekend.

The turbo went in a week or two later (it was a new Greddy kit at the time, but was missing several parts which took a while to track down.) That took a weekend, though I'd pre-drilled the drain hole.

The intercooler went in a few weeks later. That was the most time-consuming part, as there was considerable welding & fabrication involved. Took several days.

A few months later I added the WI system, which took about a day the first time, then another couple of days later to install the expanded tank and transfer system.

Drove the car for quite a while like that, then built and installed the MegaSquirt. The build took a couple of weeks of relaxed evenings, install took one day, rough tuning another. But then there were CAS problems that plagued me for over a month, and I finally built the 36-1 crankwheel setup.

Along the way I've had to rebuild the heat shield twice (cracks) and I've upgraded the MBC, swapped the AEM for an LC1, lots of little ****.

So all in all, the turbo project took about two and a half years. Of course, I don't ever consider it finished.

 

I bought turbo parts for the car before I bought the car... For the rest of the story...search.

 

https://www.miataturbo.net/forum/t21641/

 

Downtime was 2 months for me.

 

I started collecting parts in August of 08. I'm waiting on a new manifold and turbo but otherwise it's done. It's been down for about 3 weeks so far. It will probably have another 3 weeks to go since I usually never have time to work on it.

 

I ordered a Greddy kit literally a couple of days before I joined here. Once it came, I installed it in my (then) apartment's parking lot in two days. Of course, it's not still in that same configuration so total downtime has been much more than that.

 

I'll let you know when it is finally done.

Accumulated parts for about six months.

Actual mechanical build including fabbing mani and other parts, installing clutch, etc has been going on since 12/31 when I started over the long weekend. Figured I could knock it out in four solid days.

I suppose I have 80+ hours into it. Done except for the Adaptonic.

 

My first turbo project took about 2 weeks, and that was mainly because of unexpected problems. The one I am working on now is 14 months and counting. There just isn't enough spare cash these days to buy the parts I want, so I am having to piece it together as I can find the money.

I hope to have it complete before summer arrives.

KMag

 

greddy kit installed about 6 years ago installed it in a weekend

 

I bought this:



for $1100 IIRC (too much, I was a n00b)

then 5 days later this happened:







sure gave me a good excuse to install that ACT clutch :P

 

amassed parts over a year or so.

built the whole thing in my driveway over 6 months. that includes welding up a complete turbo back system and whipping up a air/water IC and installing a Tec3 with all the relentless wires.

 

2.5-years.
I bought the turbo kit in April '07, had the motor finished up in November '07, then the car sat from February '08 till Thanksgiving day. I also spent 330 days in Marriott hotels in 2008, so working on the car wasn't really an option. Now I just take the car with me.

 

Bought the car Dec 07...started doing research first though...that's what the big holdup was, trying to do it right/cost efficiently. Bought the Begi-S kit June 08...did find a guy on this site selling a good portion of what I would need when he de-turbo'd his car, so that helped out a lot-got a lot of items all at once from him. For about three months I worked on suspension stuff and didn't do anything turbo related. Megasquirt took me some time to sort out on my car in NA form...Then just about three weeks ago I started putting the bigger injectors and turbo on-haven't started it yet, waiting for some silicon couplers to come in. So, it took me about a year. But I'll still have more to go, future plans-hopefully done by next summer depending on how my engine holds up:
1. 6 speed and regeared diff
2. ACT clutch (already have)
3. mild build on a 99up 1.8L

 

started this build in May of 08, it is still sitting in the garage...