How many of you guys have running FI miatas? no, really
 

And with running, I mean, set up, tuned, reliable, FI miatas :)
I know how much downtime one can have waiting for parts, after breaking stuff etc. And on this forum ;) with a lot of "big power freaks" breaking stuff seems pretty common.

Please include, year, engine, management, cooling, type of FI (i.e. supercharger, turbo, model of turbo, boost level etc.), yeah, you know.
So come on, shoot, and be honest now :skid:

Specs in sig, reliable enough to let my wife borrow.

Mine runs great. Set up in vbgarage.
(knock on wood) Never a large failure or anything that stranded me. Had a wiring issue once that took 10 minutes to fix in a parking lot.

Ben

I turbo'd mine in 5 days, then after a 10 day shakedown driving to work every day, I took it on a 2000 mile road trip without any issues. I've since done some reliability and cooling mods and still no breakdowns after almost 30k turbo'd miles in 18 months.

Nice, the top dog in reliable is running 14psi so far :) and from what I can see only OEM internals.

It took awhile for everything in my original build to work itself out... but that's because I went CHEAP on almost everything and had to replace a lot of parts. Then I blew the HG and had to install a new motor.

Megasquirt TAKES AWAY A LOT OF PAIN!!! There is essentially no tuning to do if you don't want to. Plug it in, install bigger injectors and an IAT sensor, steal somebody elses tune and drive. I'm running Brain's map on my T25@8psi that he is running on his T3@14psi.

Turbo'ing your Miata essentially gets easier and easier every month. This forum has a lot to do with it. Even about 2yrs ago when I first joined, there were only about 15 people who regularly posted and shared... very small numbers, the most popular thing to get was EMB. You couldn't find a used Bipes for under $200, and 305cc injectors were HUGE! The turbo forum at m.net was a disaster... anything that didn't bob up and down on FM's knob was heresy... it really stifled the market. I found this forum and learned more overnight than I had at m.net in months.

Megasquirt has really changed the way we do business. If you can solder, you can build one with MAF delete and EBC for under $400 including all parts. Back in the day, you needed a Link for $1500 that does far less. This lets you spend better money where it counts if you're on a budget.

There's really only one way to do things now if you want quality parts and are on a budget.

First thing is to buy a Megasquirt and some injectors. 550's if you can, but 460's should support up to about 250whp. Fabricate a crossover pipe to mount your IAT sensor... but make sure your design can be easily modified to that your crossover pipe can be made to become your cold-side IC pipe.

You can take your time acquiring turbo hardware as things become available in the used market or get yourself a Begi"S" kit with Intercooler minus the few pieces you wont' need (like the AFPR).

Used Begi stuff is starting to become available in the classifieds, so I'd just wait until somebody was parting a mostly complete system.

My current setup is in my vbGarage, but the short is:
Begi Mani/DP
eBay IC setup w/Bosch BOV
SR20det T25 turbo @8psi
Megasquirt w/550's
Spec StgII clutch
Borla Dual's

Runs strong... a little EBC should see me sitting fat in the 220-230whp range.

JRSC w/5psi for about 7 months now 7k mi. No broken belts. Daily driven. I put an Oil cooler on to help the engines out. Gets hot in Georgia. I know, Not pushing enough boost to have concerns with any failure :slap:

Custom T3/T4 based kit, driven at 12psi most days. Only issues I have are my cold starts with the Hydra nemesis, and my exhaust has cracked twice due to a lack of a flex pipe. I don't really daily drive the car because I have a second miata, but I certainly trust it's reliability. Knock on wood It's never left me stranded!

I've had the turbo setup on for nearly 2 years now, and aside from blowing the seals on the chinacharger I used the first time around, I've had no issues that I myself haven't caused

Down for the count at Corky's right now.

I did drive it in there, as to if it will drive out, who knows.

Mark

Oh yeah, came up with one more q for this topic :)

DD, trackcar, playmobile, plywood hauler?

I pulled my exhaust and stock intake off on June 1st, '07. Took me a month to amass all the parts (virtually nothing was ordered aside from a few components). Fired the car with an open downpipe on June 30th, welded up the exhaust and drove the car for the first time on NA maps July 1st. Dyno-tuned using Ben's maps as baselines on the 3rd of July, and drove the car 200 miles to SLO on the 4th, then another 100 miles to Buttonwillow on the 6th. My dad and I double-stinted the car both days that weekend, then I drove it back to SLO on the night of the 8th. Drove the car around that entire week, then drove it to LA (another 200 miles) on the 13th to have Jerry tune the car. Drove it back to Ventura that evening, then back to San Jose the following day.

I worked it all out once, and it's something like 1450 miles in 11 days, including 350 miles or so of track time. The only mechanical malady was a blown IC pipe after the first session at Buttonwillow. Car ran like a top the rest of the time.

It spent 3 weeks down hunting a ghost problem (ended up being the wastegate flapper door catching on the DP), and another 3 weeks upgrading to 10mm studs. I've done 9000 miles in the last 7.5 months, including 6 weeks or so of downtime.

From July to December 1, the car did 4 days at Buttonwillow, then 2 days at Thunderhill, then 2 more days at Buttonwillow before the 8mm studs failed at Thunderhill in December. It is my everything car (only car I have down here at school).

'94 engine, stock internals, MSPNP controlling a GT2554R at anywhere from 13 to 15psi. Big radiator, now has an oil cooler (2 months old).

Mine has been very success full except for 1 failure do to negligence and greed al togehter i am very satisfied with it though.

1994 with 180k on the clock.
MP62 Hotside running at 13psi.

EMU, 440cc Injectors, WI, (DO pump, AM HSV), custom IC, PLX R-500 WB, TurboXS KnockLite.

Had my Eunos 5 for 5 years, been FI'd for 3 of those years.

I track the car as regular as i can, it's used everyday as my only method of transport, i do between 20k to 30k a year mileage.

Cars let me down once due to the fact i used the wrong bolts for the crank pulley.

Not one other failure in all that time.

Oil's changed every 3k, i never boot it till my oil temps reached at least 80c.
All the work and tuning done by myself.


Cheers
Mark

mine has been running solidly except I can't drive it more than 10 minutes or the clutch goes wonky.

It was running...until i decided to ditch the emu for a ms.

Mine has been running over 1k miles, which equals over 2 years since I don't drive much. But when it is driven, it's usually lots of boost. Only real boost catastrophe was a chinese turbo failing in the beginning. It's only down now when I "must" mess with something.

Y8s - I thought you had the ultimate clutch setup for all to envy? :confused:

1995 1.8L with Link EMS. PWR radiator to keep things cool, going to add another fan in the a/c slot before summer (don't have a/c or p/s, mine is an R-Package). Cusco 1.5 way LSD. Turbo system started out as an FMII kit with a GT2560R, still have their manifold, but switched to a BEGi divorced gases downpipe, and working on a new IC setup.
Car is a daily driver that when driven to work and back Mon-Sat sees 300 miles a week. Boost is set at 15psi on stock internals, although it doesn't see that too much, I drive it pretty nicely.
Only issues I've had were a leaking heater hose caused by a CAS seal leak, the clutch line (upgraded that to a SS line, a highly recommended $30 piece), and one of the coolant hoses feeding the turbo (which I really should upgrade to SS lines, but haven't gotten around to it yet). Like Ben, I'm knocking on wood, but nothing major to report.

hey i'm not too proud to say it's not perfect.

I'll give it one more shot--possibly with a hydraulic release bearing. I think the problem this time around was using the Ultra high ratio pressure plate instead of the standard high ratio pressure plate. The Ultra requires 20% more stroke and I suspect I killed the diaphragm spring by overstroking it. (isn't that always how it goes?)

Four (4) Years straight with no problems. Still going strong as a Daily Driver.

No problems with mine so far. 36k miles on the factory microscopic turbo with boltons and running great.