Lurking more actively. HELLO WORLD!
 

Hello from SE Michigan! I am on my second Miata, low mile stock white 1990. I added 97 brake calipers/brackets/ss lines new rotors and ceramic pads. I have also been doing a bunch of maint stuff, low miles or not... the car is 20 years old. Doing the TB etc next month, then I have to replace the top and exhaust. I was finally able to get my first Miata last July (red 90) but in December a typical asshole lawyer ran a red light and turned into me and killed it. Bought this one in Feb and like I said have been mostly doing maintenance.

./donning flame suit...

I would like to boost the power a bit to make it more driveable and would like to also autocross. I don't have the time or interest in drag racing or track time. I am also more intersted in lower end power than top numbers. Having said that you can prob guess that I am thinking of SC rather than turbo. I am not an expert but from what I saw I was thinking that SC was more appropriate to my needs. However I have seen people say that turbos are more suited to Miatas, or that the Miata engine is inherently better able to take advantage of a turbo than a SC, but I couldn't figure out why. My car is a daily car and I don't want to spend more time wrenching than driving. No offense meant but I think that there are many people here who like to build as much as drive. I just don't have the resources for that.

Anyway here is a picture of my pup with the dead red car. Not too much sense posting another picture of a stock white Miata is there?
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Thanks In Advance for all the help.

you can have instant power with a smaller turbo setup, just because you want moar lower end power doesn't mean you have to go SC....

S/C are for faggets. Real men have turbo


Thread/

Well I have 10.5 psi at 3100rpm with a GT2560R. If I had a tubular manifold and 3" exhaust/downpipe it would be even lower. Replace that with a 2554 and it would be pretty damn early.

My car has not been down for more than 2 days at once since I installed my turbo. That was only when I installed 3 large parts at once. I daily drive it, and have taken it half way across the country three times getting 30mpg.

Oh and how dare you, post pictures of your car!

^^^ what he said....

there are guys on here that can build you a tubular turbo manifold at very fair prices! if i would have known about their quality and prices i would have bought their mani to begin with....

a nice tubular manifold, 2554 turbo, 3" exhaust, IC and a few other things you will have a good fast spooling lowend set up with mid range and a lil top end performance as well.

Hmmmm maybe a Begi SSM? Says that the SSM can be built up to full S4... so the SSM is kinda pre-S1? Maybe I could get the SSM, then intercooler/tubular mani/ 3" DP later? I need the exhaust now, might be till next year that I boost... but I hate replicating costs... go with 3" exhaust now? Will that have neg effect while still NA? I need to replace the mid pipe also, which do you guys reccomend?


I guess that my dislike of turbos stems from my only experience with them in the 80's. I rode one turbo bike (Kawi GPZ Turbo) and a couple of turbo cars. The cars made no power then it was like flicking a switch and it was all at once. The bike was much worse, No power... then it tried to KILL YOU. So that was why I was thinking SC over turbo. I really didn't want the lag, and the all on at once power. But again, that is 25 year old tech... and I am not really seeing that in BEGI's dynos. Although lag won't really show up on a dyno will it? I really like the response of the stock Miata PP, I would hate to spend one buck killing that.

I stopped reading you post in the first paragraph. If you want to do it right start with engine management, and do things one step at a time instead of doing a mass modification that leaves more room for mistakes and less for proper diagnose in case something fails.

If you want to go with a kit, the ssm or the shangai are perfect to start. If I had to do it all over again I would use a chinacharger, they're cheap and so far reliable. The turbo is probably the most expensive part of the kit, as new Garretts cost $900+. Chinachargers in the other hand can start at $180 (braineacks, 2560ish)

Once you have proper engine management, and hardware working, you're golden. Also there's no need to spend +$400 in an intercooler. Most people here opted to use Ebaycoolers, which once again are cheap and reliable. Im speaking with a cost effective perspective that will required research and fabrication, if you have the coin to get a full kit, then by all means do it. However youre mind set is not the most ideal one. My advice

Engine management (NOT bandaids)>WBO2>Injectors>Boost>upgrade exhaust add WI etc....

Yeah I stopped reading after you first post. Real men don't worry about what "makes a real man"... they just are.

/ignore all the buffoon's :giggle:

I will get the MS and WBO2 first though. I like building stuff and I wanted to buy a MS kit and tester to builld but I didn't think that you could add it before anything else. Adding it first makes a lot of sense to figure out problems if there are any. I will do that, help spread out the costs also. Thanks for that.

This is miata forum, you know how real we are here. Also if you like to fabricate your own stuff piece your own set up, is more fun that way. Also is what real men in MT do ;) :dancegay:

'like to fabricate" and "skills to fabricate" are two different things... and i fall into the latter cat. I have basic hand tools and torque wrenches, but not bigger stuff... or a place to put them. I also don't have a garage so anything I do has to be done in a day... or at least taken off of stands (if necessary) and cleaned up so that it doesn't look like I am doing any major work. I have a small driveway and no garage. One of the big reason I was looking at kits. But I like the idea of stages. Spread out costs without hopefully duplicating them too much. First up will be the MS. I do have the ability to assembly that.

So anyway this is my car:

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This is my copper shift knob. Not usually into shiny stuff, but this came from the copper mines from the UP and I had relatives that have worked those mines.
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sweet!

needz moar lower and rollbar!

Cute dog. Was that car originally red??

i think the read one blew up

Naw... red one got hit, frame damage. I don't plan to lower it, here in MI we have potholes bigger than Miata's!!!

I started out thinking like you are, want ing a kit because i was scared of all the hassle of piecing together something... got over it.

My upgrades started with exhaust (2.5"), then wheels, tires, suspension, rollbar, frame rails... basically everything to help me enjoy the car and learn it before I added power.

Unfortunately the leap to a turbo setup is just that, a leap. The most you can really do is engine management and injectors, which was what i did after all "n/a mods" were done. I'm also working on coolant line stuff since i'm going low-mount, but odds are you wont need to worry about that. I'd be happy with either an FM or BEGI cast manifold, and dont forget about the sr20 t25/t28's, they're dirt cheap. FM and BEGI are nice to stick with b/c they dominate the market, and you can find used manifolds, bownpipes, intercooler setups, and lines that will be drop-in compatible

*oh and a clutch depending on the power you want, forgot about that b/c i havnt done it yet

also, check out he spool thread... there's also one comparing turbo dynos to supercharger ones somewhere

Dude I also had a red one, that was totalled. Then I ended up with a white one. :makeout: