Hi guys,

New to miatas and turbo-tech (normally lurk over in the e30 forums) and would love some help identifying brands and models of parts on this car. It is currently parked at a friends house so I can't give any more information other than these pictures for now. If you guys know any information on anything you see and have any links to useful posts I am all ears. It is only running on two cylinders right now according to the PO, which doesn't surprise me based on how long it has sat. Might be as simple as old fuel...but thanks for any suggestions!

Since this is my first turbo car I will be doing a lot of general turbo-related research just so i can understand what I've got!

-Evan

P.S. it has a FM link ecu, that much I do know.

 

What pictures/

 

Welcome.

Attaching pictures from google docs was a colossal failure.

Start over lol

 

It was worth a shot, no access to photobucket on work computers and my laptop is in the shop. Guess the pictures will have to wait until I get my laptop back

 

Welcome, ecc3189. Check out the Miata Gallery and post up some pics!

 

Thanks for the welcome. Fixed the pictures finally >.<

Does the turbo look like a T25? I will know for sure when I get back to the car and read the nameplate...

 

Am I looking at this correctly: You have you water plumbing for the turbo looped through a signal source off the upper hose?

 

The PO set up everything on this car so i don't know what the original intention was but I traced the lines to coming from the back of the head, splitting with one loop going through the turbo and a parallel loop bypassing it. Then they join again at the front of the engine as you see in the pictures.

Seems like a strange set up to me so I'm curious to hear your opinion.

 

I don't even have a shop manual for this car yet so I don't even know which way water flows through any of these pipes... oh the joys of learning the mechanics of a different manufacturer

 

I'd have to see a crude drawing of it all.


I'd replace the turbo studs and actually tighten the turbo to the manifold. then all that shoddy wiring.

 

A lot will get replaced with this car...too much rust to keep. I've never had a project car that wasn't a daily before so this will get the slow rebuild treatment. Take my time and do things right

 

Since it has been so long since I started this thread, I guess I should reintroduce myself! I fnally have a garage to work on the miata and I am really excited to get this beast running

Here are some actual pictures of the car:





There are a lot of electrical and mechanical gremlins to work through since the car has been sitting for a while, but it has lots of potential!! Do you guys think I need a new main relay??



I've been lurking around here a lot lately and I've already learned a ton. One thing I have to investigate is why my ISCV is buzzing like a utility transformer when it is plugged in. Probably need to replace it with the main relay. One plus side is that the gas tank looks like new inside I was expecting sludge...

 

Well, well, well....

Red Beast - Lightweight Miata

 

yep, that's the one. I'm the second owner after that guy

 

I don't know why I didn't think to check the PO's build website but here is your "crude drawing" of the coolant route:



He got rid of some intake manifold water passages so he had to re-route the coolant. He explains it on this page.

 

Second gen DSM T25 turbo on eBay manifold and downpipe. And I'm sure I've never seen that much hardware store plumbing under any hood, not even a DSM.

I hope you can get it all sorted out.

 

Thanks! It is weird how he lists the turbo as a T25/T28 hybrid but then says on his website that it is only a T25...is the compressor not a T3 housing?

 

Yeah, I missed that at first glance. The comp side looks a little big for a stock DSM T25. I just figured the PO had trimmed off the cast elbow so it would point down instead of forward.

Either way, that mani is most likely short-lived. There's no quality mass produced DSM footprint manifold for the Miata market. You'll have to go custom once that thing cracks in half if you want to keep that turbo.

 

There are a bunch of things on this car that probably won't last too much longer and are only on there to get the car back to running. My plans are to change out the turbo to something that will give me 300 reliably with a fast spool-up. I haven't gotten into doing the research yet on what that will take but I'm hoping it is reasonable with a 1.6 with 9:1 compression pistons.

 

What a colossal mess.

Your water lines are improperly routed, your ecu is ancient and possibly dangerous, your zip ties are fornicating, your hose clamps are trying to keep up with the zip ties, your cam gears are jaundice, and the potential leak points are too numerous to count.

Time to get to work.