darylat8750ft

Hello everyone. I'm a newb to Miatas and I'm just barely (or not quite) computer literate. I raced motorcycles in the '60s and vintage sports cars in the '90s. Still have an Austin Healey 3000 that my uncle bought new in '65, the year I turned 16. When I got out of college I told him when he was ready to get rid of it to let me know. I bought it for $4000 back when that was a reasonable price. Neat car but when I beat on it I get the feeling that I'm useing it up. I bought a '91 last year from a friend that has an early turbo conversion. I has only 41,000 miles on it but has spent a lot of its life in an unheated garage in WI. I've chased down a lot of intermittant electrical gremlins caused by corroded connections. I missed a couple because coming up the hill (I live on an 8700 foot ridge obove the highest point on I80. The grade up from Laramie gains 1700 feet in 10 miles and kills a lot of trucks.) the water injection failed and the ignition retarder didn't retard. I believe I got the head gasket. Compression 90,110,120,120 then after driving it another 20 miles compression 80,88,120,120. When it warms up a little I'll get the head off and see what it is going to need. I'm thinking I will go to a progressive type water injection system because coming up the hill it often gets to the point where it retards the ignition but the full shot of water is really to much. I've learned a lot by reading here already and I thank you for that. Comments on the pros and cons of the different brands of progessive wi systems would be appreciated. When I get it back together I will be looking for recommendations on dyno tuners in the Denver area. I know about Flyin Miatas if I can't find someone closer.
Darylat8750ft

WonTon

iTrader: (17)

dangit! another noob i cant pic on! :(


welcome to the forum! A+ on doing alot of reading, alot of people on here hate it when people sign up and start asking questions that have already been asked a million times before!

enjoy your stay and remember the search button and Google are your best friends!

curly

iTrader: (25)

I'm not experienced with water injection systems, but everyone else is going to ask what engine management you're using. If it's older and around FM, is that the Link?

darylat8750ft

Sorry I didn't include info on the build. One of the problems I have is that the build is not well documented. I think that most of the components for the original build came from Ca. The car was originally built in Wisconsin. I will take pictures and include as much info on the build as I can. The wires under the hood obviously don't look like the Miata diagrams. I spent a lot of time last fall following wires around cleaning up connections, replacing cooked and broken wires and trying to figure out what they do. I am a little over my head with these "new fangled" eletronicly controlled systems. (I am trying to sound like your Grandfathers so maybe you will cut the newb oldster some slack.) The water injection sprays in front of the turbo so I already know I need to change that. I was thinking about port injection as I will have the intake manifold off anyway to do the head work but it seems that an individual injector clog will be hard to know about until the damage is done. This will be my summer daily driver not a track toy so reliability is more important than max performance.
I did add a turbo to the tractor last year but there is nothing fancy about turbo diesel. More fuel more power, less fuel less power. It was so short on air at this elevation that adding the turbo without adding fuel actually reduced EGT. I figure I increased HP by about 40% and doubled max tourqe. I really handles the 7' snow thrower now. I got a turbo for free off a wreaked end loader. Total build cost with gauges, manifolding, exhaust and everything was less than $500. We have 4 feet of snow on the ground, its 20 degrees, snowing and the wing is blowing. My barn in not heated so the mechanical projects are on hold. It may warm up enough next week to accomplish something.

swimming108

iTrader: (3)

good to see you here man. I grew up in Cheyenne, so i know the hill up to Laramie very well. if i remember correctly there is a dyno in Cheyenne called Outlaw Performance. They mostly deal with mustangs but you never know, they might be able to help. (this is an assumption that they are still around. I moved to PA in 2003) Actually, i still have a free dyno card for their shop when my old nova won the high-school division of their local car show. i doubt they would redeem it though at this point.

enough of my rambling, good luck to you sir.
-Jared Goldbach-

dustinb

Sounds like a good project. Post some pictures up of your engine bay and we can probably identify most of your equipment.

darylat8750ft

I'm still digging up info on my car.
What I've found so far: The car was built around '96 using a Performance Techniques kit. I think the engine internals are stock. If you believe their ads it should make 222BHP. I assume that is a little optimistic. It does zip right along. The turbo is a Garrett. The numbers that I can see on it are 80 M24. I can't see if there is something before the 80. It makes 12 to 14 pounds of boost. It has a stainless steel heat shield. There is a HKS AIC. I can't figure out what model it is. The one little book that says HKS on it is all in Japanese. Water/methanol injected with the tank and pump in the trunk. Don't know the brand yet. I haven't gotten that opened up to see the pump yet. It is a very neat instal with the pump covered by nice looking panels. I will change to a progressive injector and move the injector from in front of the turbo to before the intake manifold. There is no inter-cooler. The exhaust system is Borla. Strut tower braces front and rear. The anti-roll bars look like aftermarket but I haven't measured them.
I took some pictures but it was so dark in the barn they didn't come out. I will try again in a couple of days.

Thanks for the welcomes. Swimmming108: Outlaw Performance is still in business. Thanks for the heads up. I'll check them out in the spring.

Daryl

Turbo_4

iTrader: (6)

Some pictures would really help solve some of your wiring issues.

darylat8750ft

Hi Guys,
I'm not very computer literate and am having some problems getting pictures uploaded. I got the head off and it appears the head gasket was leaking between cyls 1 and 2. I matched the ports, knife edged the port separators and cleaned up the head. The valve job should be done today. The turbo is an old T2 and it has seen better days. Most of the numbers and letters have been ground off. The only thing I've found is a "ratio .68" on the turbine housing. Performance Techniques, the kit manufacter, advertised 222 B.H.P. Their literature says " The T2 retains a standard turbine housing and wheel with a highly-modified compressor wheel and housing so that compressor output will more closely match the requiremants of the overall system. The modified compressor housing's A/R acturally changes as air flow increases." I know this is a small turbo compared to what most of you are running now. So my question is, will a T3 bolt on to my manifolds and does anyone have a used but good condition turbo that is small enough to spool fairly quickly for a daily driver. I'm not looking for more power than I have, just good response and 220-250 would be great.

buffon01

iTrader: (9)

Open a photobucket.com account. Upload your pics there. Then post here.

Get a caliper and measure the inducer, and turbine wheel. Then you can compare it to a Garrett for better estimate of power output.

darylat8750ft

I'm embarrassed to say that after taking it apart and cleaning the parts I have more information:
Garrett T2,

Standard turbine housing A/R .68 and also has a M4 and a L stamped in it.
Turbine wheel outside diameter 2.065
Shaft diameter where bearings ride is .362

Compressor housing is modified but it doesn't look like the intake diameter or contour has been changed. There is some polishing in the scroll and the outlet has been changed to a different angle.
A/R .80 M24 D on housing.
Inducer O.D. 2.025. There is an A and 511 cast into the inducer.
Shaft diameter where the inducer slides on is .236.
The inducer has obvious erosion on the leading edges of the taller vanes.

I broke the shaft trying to remove the nut from the end so it makes sense to me to replace all the moving parts. I will need turbine and shaft, inducer and bearings. Any suggestions as to parts supply other than ebay?

I will try to get the picture thing figured out this weekend. Gotta go get my head now. Thanks for your input.
Daryl