Yee Yee! Kentucky Custom 91 Miata/Lotus turbo!
 

Hello, all.

Ralph here from northern KY, Had a 1991 Miata for about three years now and last week decided it was finally time to turbo it. Found a pair of old turbos, still new in the factory plastic, intended to go to a Lotus Elan. found an old section of snowplow blade, high carbon steel, good stuff. bought some plumbing weld ends, schedule 40, 1/8" wall. got the stick welder fired up and made a manifold.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1422278730

Front end is some roof flashing sheet metal and 1/4" plywood, marine grade. no interior, pair of Corbeau seats, takata harnesses, hardtop, rear underbody removed...
MSPNP2.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1422278601

had some problems with the factory waste gate wanting to run 14 psi (i'm looking for around 9 at the moment) so bound up a spring to counteract the factory spring, works for now.

http://i1379.photobucket.com/albums/...psqlryfw6s.jpg

Trying to find out why i'm NOT overheating running a CX radiator meant for a civic but its what had sitting around so it works.. keeps ~190 degrees all the time.

In closing a photo of my miata with my dad's NA.. Sorry for any grammatical errors I'm typing this on a laptop from 2004uu with a broken keyboard using the little scroll pad dingus to type using the onscreen keyboard.. it sucks.

Attachment 184452

Welcome to the forum, Ralph.

Sounds like you have a stripped out track car. Is it your purpose to do some track days?

Hey sixshooter!
Though my reasoning is questionable, I usually use this car as something if a "Sunday driver" when the weathers nice. I have an 04 RX-8 for a daily, and an 03 RAV4 for rough weather.

I do run it at local autocross events and would be absolutely eager to run it at any available track opportunity. You could say the interior is stripped... I'm going to be fabbing something of a three-quarters cage (sans head-bash bars) to stiffen up the chassis and provide real side impact protection. It's on KYB AGX shocks, H&R race springs, fatcat aggressive bump stops, home made frog arms under the fenders, and you've seen the winter tires. I have a set of 205 Dunlop Z2's on BMW BBS 15's for summer use.

It's quite a thing, this miata. Just rolled over 100,000 miles, today.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1422277673

Welcome to the site Ralphnapierii, thanks for joining up!

does that warped DP flange at the turbo leak? certainly looks like it will.

I highly suggest using different coolant lines to the turbo - Those look like a forsure failure point imo

Interesting setup non the less!

Pictures weren't working for me when I first posted but they are now.

Those hoses are not rated for the heat and will fail in dramatic fashion. And, unbeknownst to many, glycol in antifreeze will catch fire and burn.

Oh yea, glycol burns well. Just gotta hit that flashpoint... Wouldn't be using anything like that near the turbo... but hey, he must be into his turbo setup for dirt, anyway ,right now. Not bad

And YEE YEE indeed.
https://www.pinterest.com/destoney/e...les-jr-yeeyee/

Yeah, but understand that I usually use those nylon hoses for a temporary mock up of sorts, so I can physically see the movement of coolant. The car had about an hour of run time on those lines, and they got switched for the proper diameter hoses rated for coolant.

Yes, that warped flange leaked like crazy. Took a belt sander to it and flattened it out, leak be gone.

Today, I installed a recirculating BOV from a 2004 VW GTI.
Works for now, got it for $40.

Quick question for you all.. That turbo is an IHI unit based on an rhb5.. Ball bearing. Well, the only oil feed line I could find locally was 6AN, probably far too large.. So, put a 3/16 rivet head inline with a fitting, as a 1/8th was to small on the outside diameter. The car still runs good oil pressure (with rotella 10-30)... But my question is, is the turbo getting too much oil, still? It's getting 28 psi at idle, to the top of the turbo after the restrictor, but still getting 55 psi or so at WOT. the oil drain is sufficient, tapped the pan and I have a 7/8" ID hydraulic hose going straight down and in well above oil level. Don't have any perceivable smoke or oil loss at this point, but still... Am I hurting the turbo?

nice setup buddy glad to see the people up and over by Florence get off there asses.+1

Seriously? Magna showed up? OP is blessed by MT royalty posting in his thread! That is a rare occurrence.

His last post is from Sept 2013. Wow.

You're from northern ky? Near Cincinnati I assume. I used to live in ft. Thomas in a previous life.

Grew up in Madisonville, here. Spent 10 years in Lexington.

Car looks good!