Hi! My name is Brett from Columbia, MO. Im about to turn 23 and recently finished college. I've been into motorcycles for a while but had a friend get me into cars about a year ago. I spent a while looking for a miata, as they seemed like a cheap, fun, two seater. I picked up my 96 Montego blue in october of last year. I've tried to read a lot so I don't get flamed too hard as I've seen many have happen to them. So far I've done fresh fluids just after buying the car, hard dog ace roll bar, fm vmaxx coilovers and sway bars, Advanti s1's 15x8 on 205 s drives. That's it for now, but I just bought a ms3 and 640cc flow force injectors off the classifieds in the path for boost. If anyone has some good advice other than read more which I plan on, I would love to hear it! Sorry for the long post

 

Welcome. What is your degree in?

 

I have a dual major in Psychology and Sociology, so basically worthless lol. I tried doing some work in a psych hospital but it just wasn't for me. Probably should have figured that out before getting the degree. Hoping to continue working till I decide to get a masters and do more research oriented work or something totally opposite

 

I have a worthless psych degree, too. B of S in anything would have been smarter.

Welcome to the forum. Do you plan to track the car?

 

Haha true that. Thanks! I don't really have plans to at this point. It's my only vehicle so I'm just having it in DD mode for the time being. Maybe when I get another vehicle I could look at tracking the car, seems like it would be a lot of fun. Till then just spirited back roads.

 

Car looks clean. Smart move on buying that combo. Learn to tune on these injectors and ecu before boost.

 

LOVE Montego blue. Car looks good. awarded for thoughtful first post.

 

Thanks guys! I love the montego blue as well, wish the hood and front bumper weren't all fucked up though... So I should install the injectors at the same time as the ecu? Shouldn't just tune it first on stock injectors? I'm kind of nervous. The ECU comes with a base map for the previous owner's boosted car and ive never tuned before. Any good videos I could watch or tips? I've been browsing the Megasquirt threads and stickies so far.

 

Welcome!

 

Step 1: Install ECU.
Step 2: Get it running and driving and idling well.
Step 3: Enjoy it a bit and get the fueling down.

Step 4: Swap injectors
Step 5: Repeat step 2 and 3

Step 6: Bewst.


I'm a noob too. I just installed new injectors and did the above after just about everyone recommended it. It makes life easier to be completely stock other than the MS3 if you're trying to troubleshoot. Also helps to learn to tune on the setup stock for a bit so you can find your way around tunerstudio and get used to things since bewst ups the ante re:mistakes.

 

I think you should do a basic tune on the stock injectors. That way, if something turns up bad, the stock ECU can be put in until sorted out.

The next step, to the larger injectors, is pretty easy; so the time spent tuning on the stock ones will not have been wasted. If you have a PNP MS3 (or appropriate harness adapter) then the stock sensors will be brought in, and you only need to add the WBO2 and MAP tubing, neither of which disturbs stock parts, as long as you add a separate sensor bung.

 

As I just recently turboed my mx5 I can also agree that doing things in steps makes it a lot easier to narrow down any mistakes.

I followed a similar recommendation of:
1. ECU(of your choice) + WIDEBAND - tune a bit and learn to look at logs
2.Any necessary ecu mods (TPS, AIT)
3.Injectors
4. Intercooler setup while N/A just to make routing easier
etc until you are ready to bolt all the turbo stuff on
5. Clutch and other supporting mods if necessary
6. Bolt on Turbo setup that you've been carefully piecing together over a few months

Can't comment on megasquirt but tuning seems a lot scarier than it actually is. With a bit of guidance/reading and reviewing logs and not redlining your car on a base map you can get your car starting and idling consistently and work on reaching target AFR's.
A kit will be less of a headache if you don't want to hunt for used parts/deals but will cost a bit more than a pieced together one.

Good luck
It's worth it

Edit: basically what the guy a few posts above me said

 

Okay thats about what I thought. Thanks for advice guys! I thought one post said ECU and injectors at the same time which went against what I had read somewhere from I believe Braineack. Now will the base map for the PO's turbo setup make me tuning it more difficult? I was trying to find just a standard 1.8L base map for a 96 somewhere online but couldn't seem to find one. Guess these are questions I should really be asking in the MS section of ECU. Just gotta be patient for the MS3 and AEM UEGO to get here and read more in the meantime lol

 

Brain's basemaps here: https://trubokitty.com/#/tuna

 

That site is incredible, thanks so much! The error picture is too funny as well

 

Nice car, man! Good to see my ECU and injectors going to a good home. I second everything said here, you made the right move buying those things first. I did the MS3 after installing my turbo kit, and then I was afraid to learn how to tune because I didn't want to risk blowing up my car. Obviously when you're still making just over 100WHP, mistakes won't be deadly.

The only things I touched on Reverant's basemap were putting in the proper injector dead-times for the FF640's (using this thread: https://www.miataturbo.net/diy-turbo...or-help-86901/) and a bit of auto-tuning for the fuel map. I also messed with the warm-up enrichment a bit because my car had a hard time starting in temps under 60*F or so, but I never quite got that down. Maybe save a backup of that tune for when you do go turbo and start with one of Brain's basemaps in the meantime. Good luck!

Edit: This site may also prove useful for you, particularly the TunerStudio reference manual: http://www.msextra.com/manuals/ms3manuals/