When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Hello, 1990 miata, owned for 3 years, ready for power.
Hi everyone I wanted to get started on posting more in the forum, mostly to use the classifieds, but what better way to start than to do an introduction post. I am a 20 yr old, third year mechanical engineering student from long beach. I have owned my NA for 3 years now, done one track day at Streets of Willow with a time of 1:38.9 (ik slow), and have a good amount of fun canyon driving. I won't explain the car too much in this post because I'm going to do my signature after so soon all that info will be there.
Why did I join this forum: 3 years of consistent work on the car and I believe that I am at a stage where its time to finally put some more power to the wheels. I am not looking for any crazy power because this is a daily/canyon/track car. It's a 1.6 and I want to keep it on the 1.6 for now, so my end goal is to have a decent and reliable turbo setup for not super cheap but also not that 5k minimum everyone talks about through going with good deals on 2nd hand parts. For turbo stuff all I have right now is the car on a MSPNP2, wideband, and vtps. I am also looking for advice to see if I need fueling/spark mods, but I was going to do some reading for that and make a post if I couldn't find anything. If anyone reading this could link some posts regarding that it would be awesome, or you can call me retarded and tell me to use the search feature. Either is fine by me.
Thats about it though I'm excited to see what kind of information I can find and hopefully decent deals on parts in the classifieds. Thanks for reading september 8th track day (no longer have these wheels)
Your NA reminds me of mine before it went full tracktard... Looks great!
You've probably heard this already, but don't spend a dime on the 1.6. Swap a 1.8VVT into that thing... you're already most of the way there with the MS PnP. After running one for 7+ years, I can tell you an NA6 with a VVT 1.8 is a lot of fun, and can be decently quick on track. And it's a much better platform to build on than the 1.6...
I actually was thinking about swapping in a 1.8 and talked about it with a lot of my miata friends, but after all my conversations and research I think that for my application a turbo 1.6 would get me where I want to be faster, and at a lower cost. I tried to rationalize swapping in a 1.8, but for my goals I don't really see it necessary. My goal is ~170 whp, stock internal, relatively reliable, for around ~2kish probably more (excluding price of the ecu because the money is already spent which means that its free ). I have driven a couple miatas too and the 1.6 turbo that I drove is pretty much exactly what I was looking for. My friend has a built 1.9 L ~350whp miata and its stupid fun but not exactly what I want. It blows the tires off at full throttle, slips the stage 2 full face clutch it has (forgot what brand), and has some reliability issues. Then I've driven a stock 1.8 which is pretty much on par with my tuned 1.6 (We raced them and my car pulled away a few times, could've just been a better launch), a mazdaspeed nb which had pretty much what I was looking for motor-wise, turbo 1.8, but since it was the OEM header and ecu felt kinda slow/boring, and finally my other friend's turbo 1.6 with about 160 whp. He has had no issues with it running only a couple psi for years, tracks the car regularly, and it was pretty cheap for him as he bought it as a non-running project with the fm turbo kit already installed. It is also a SNC like mine, which ik crank wobble. I already know my 1.6 is solid (I bought it at 97k) and finding a good 1.8 at a decent price is not impossible but something that would take time that could be spent going turbo. Then my last point is if/when my short nose decides to **** itself, no one wants 1.6s so I can snag up a long nose 1.6, do an oem+ rebuild on it, then throw it in for cheaper than what a 1.8 would cost.
Thats just how I've been thinking about it though, if there's anything that I missed and should be thinking about / you think would sway me to a 1.8 swap let me know! I am just a college student so budget-ish and reliable is the name of the game for me right now lol.
Hello, 1990 miata, owned for 3 years, ready for power.
0
). I have driven a couple miatas too and the 1.6 turbo that I drove is pretty much exactly what I was looking for. My friend has a built 1.9 L ~350whp miata and its stupid fun but not exactly what I want. It blows the tires off at full throttle, slips the stage 2 full face clutch it has (forgot what brand), and has some reliability issues. Then I've driven a stock 1.8 which is pretty much on par with my tuned 1.6 (We raced them and my car pulled away a few times, could've just been a better launch), a mazdaspeed nb which had pretty much what I was looking for motor-wise, turbo 1.8, but since it was the OEM header and ecu felt kinda slow/boring, and finally my other friend's turbo 1.6 with about 160 whp. He has had no issues with it running only a couple psi for years, tracks the car regularly, and it was pretty cheap for him as he bought it as a non-running project with the fm turbo kit already installed. It is also a SNC like mine, which ik crank wobble. I already know my 1.6 is solid (I bought it at 97k) and finding a good 1.8 at a decent price is not impossible but something that would take time that could be spent going turbo. Then my last point is if/when my short nose decides to **** itself, no one wants 1.6s so I can snag up a long nose 1.6, do an oem+ rebuild on it, then throw it in for cheaper than what a 1.8 would cost. 
