Noob from Portland
 

Hey ya'll. I guess I'll go ahead and introduce myself. I'm Chris and I've been in the miata scene for a while now. I'm on clubroadster.net as well so I'm familiar with the forum thing (and yes I know how to search). As for the car, I have the pleasure of owning a '92 crystal white b-pkg roadster with 121k on the clock. It's stock atm and my DD. I'm saving for fun stuff like flexs and new wheels/tires and possibly a turbo kit. I'm on a college student budget hence why it takes forever to buy anything lol I'm also doing hpde's this summer (did one last week) so I guess the car is on the way to becoming a weekend warrior lol

I'm hoping to get more more info on budget turbo builds, like the greddy 1.6 kit. I had a chance to ride in another 1.6 with that kit and it felt pretty good.

My plans thus far are to buy the 1.6 kit, add an intercooler, along with good engine/fuel management and nice exhaust to bring it all together. I'm not looking for crazy balls out performance, just good reliable power. I think a modest 150 whp would suit me nicely on the street and still leave room for more power. I can always upgrade as the budget allows.

I hope that was a good first turbo-noob post lol

The Greddy kit will put you at about 146whp in stock form, and if that's where you want to be then great. But honestly, you're going to want 200hp or more ad the only thing useful in the greddy is the turbo. You'd be much better off picking up someones used begi, FM, or diy kit.

I was just looking over at FM's site and stumbled across a DYI kit for the mani, outlet, and dp. Would that be a better way to go and just add the greddy turbo? I'm sure I need to be asking these questions in the DYI thread huh? I guess I could always call FM and see what they say.

Again I'm on stock internals with over 120k. I should do a leak down test to see what my compression numbers are like and see if I can even turbo my car.

Your motor will be fine. I'm stock internals and putting over 200hp on mine. The FM DIY mani & DP is a great option, and I went with that myself after doing an HKS manifold DIY setup. The Greddy turbo uses and oddball flange, so you'll find it very difficult to find replacement downpipes and manifolds. The FM uses a standard T2 flange, so you have a ton of options. I went with a godspeed china charger for $300 and it works awesome.

But remember this is just a few pieces of the bigger picture. You need to think about drive line. The 1.6 differential is useless, you should get a new clutch with a heavy duty pressure plate, proper engine management (I have a spare AEM EMS for sale if interested, but lots of people go for megasquirt.

Once I get the extra $$$ I'm going to do a 99 torsen swap with the axles, driveshaft, ect. This project is going to be a long term affair so I'm in no hurry to get it done right away. Right now all I'm looking for is what things I'm going to need to get started and plan my budget accordingly.

PM me a price on that aem ems. Shipping might be a killer though since your in canada

Go ahead and keep the 1.6 diff in if you can, although be prepared for it to grenade (even on stock power) without notice. Mine managed to survive a number of track days, although as soon as I had some serious turbo power, it was only 2.5 track days before it blew.

You did indeed have a good first noob post, just drop the "lol"s.

Portland, OR, or MA? Put that in your profile so we know for future reference.

If it's OR, contact Cueball1 or myself for a ride in a turbo'd car. His is more powerful, however I'm WAY closer to the budget setup you'd most likely end up with. MS, Greddy turbo and manifold, rebuilt 460's, custom intercooler, and custom exhaust.

If you end up doing greddy, it's fine, however skip everything but the turbo and manifold. If you end up doing the FM DIY kit, ignore the greddy turbo, as it won't work with their downpipe, and get a china charger. In fact, unless you find an amazing deal on a greddy turbo/manifold/2.5 downpipe, I'd ignore greddy completely. These days with BEGI's and FM's DIY kits, it's not worth it anymore, since every other piece in the kit is crap, even if you only want 150hp.

Your current goal needs to be getting a new computer, which on your budget WILL be a MS. Contact Wayne_Curr, he'll build you a MegaSquirt for Mega cheap.

I'm in OR. I met cueball at my shop's track day at PIR on thursday. He's a cool dude and seems to know his stuff. I wouldn't mind going for a ride in another turbo miata. Cueball also gave me some good tips on how to seal the rad and keep air from escaping around it.

This is my shopping list as of now:

Megasquirt (if I don't buy dustin's AEM unit)
FM DYI kit
turbo
intercooler w/ piping
bigger radiator (koyo or mishimoto)
intake w/ air box
2.5 high flow cat and cat back (FM or Corksport)
1.8 injectors (949 fuel rail?)
new diff, axles, drive line, ect

Please feel free to edit my list since I'm not sure what else I'm going to need

If you don't care about getting every itty bitty bit of HP from your exhaust setup, a custom one would be much cheaper. I did a outrageously crappy job on my own, and then went to the muffler shop. They re-did it from the down pipe to the muffler for $100. The only thing they kept was the hanger welds, and the "J" piece out to the tip.

It's a good list, put the MS/AEM at the top. Get it running and tuned well before adding the turbo.

Cueball's car is good, but keep in mind it's the top end version of what you can do. Yes you can go more exotic, but that's no where near a budget build (no offense Casey). Like I said, if you want a ride in a budget setup, we can get together, for once both of our cars are working at the same time. The only difference would be the weight savings in mine, otherwise it's a cheap build with greddy parts, the custom exhaust I mentioned, and an intercooler kit I cut myself with pieces bought from CXracing.com.

Props on adding your location in your very next post.

The CS exhaust runs $350 and I can use it on my n/a car as well (I want one anyway) and I'd just keep it when I add the turbo. As for the ems I've been wanting to go with either a mspnp or aem, but as of right now I'm working on getting new suspension bits, so the build is lower on my to-do list. I doubt I'd get started on a turbo build this year, but I'd rather get an idea of how much I need to save and take my time finding the right parts. If I'm going to turbo my car I'm doing it right the first time.

I'll shoot you a pm Curly and we can set up something. And speaking of which, a bunch of guys I talk with over at CR usually get together for meets/drives ect over the summer if you would like to come with. We usually meet in wilsonville/sherwood (where I live)/newberg area.

My EMS is probably going to be way more then you want to spend, but I'd do $700 shipped including a bolt on variable TPS sensor.

Thats not bad considering they're twice that price new. I might go with a mspnp for starters.

Have someone around here build you one, and you'll save $200-400 over the mspnp price.

I'd meet up for a drive, if it's the typical cr.net group you'll all laugh at my ugly ass exterior, but at least it's fast. I know the Sherwood area decently, I worked at Allied systems for a while if you know where that is. Where do you meet?

Oh hi Chris. I like these lists and plans that always appear but never seem to get accomplished. Order your flex first! What's this talk of going turbo?

Don't listen to this crazy talk. Come to the dark(fast) side.

He's right though. I have lofty plans for the car, but I can never seem to get anywhere. I guess the good thing that comes out of these lists is it keeps me on track with shizz I want to buy. I need to desperately win the lottery or find a job that pays me more than $500-$600 a month depending on the hours I work. After 4.5 years and multiple employee of the month awards you'd think I'd be making more than minimum wage and working more than 24 hours a week :mad: I guess I am lucky to even be working

/rant

Curly - we usually meet at wilsonville sonic and go from there. Were planning a meet for tomorrow afternoon some time.

ignore this post. didn't mean to hit new reply