Cost of third party installation of a reputable (like Flyin' Miata for ex.) turbo kit
 

Just looking for a ballpark figure to add on to the cost of the kit itself, understanding that there are a lot of variables (type of shop, area of the country, ability of the installer, etc.) I searched but didn't really find a thread with an answer.

I had a '99 for about 5 years until it was stolen. I'm getting ready to get back into Miata and am thinking about doing a turbo with whichever Miata I get. I'm trying to get a handle on final costs including installation as there's NO WAY that I'm going to do it myself <chuckle>.

Why NO WAY do it yourself? Turbo kits, especially with a kit from Flyin Miata or the like, are a bolt on affair.

My experience has been that a 'good' shop will charge $95/hr for labor.

If you find a skilled garage/home shop mechanic, you can probably get the work done for more like $30-$50/hr.

No idea how many hours of labor they would charge. I would think that, if everything is ready to go, they could do it in 8 hours or a long day.

I guess I would recommend that you find a way to do it yourself and save a lot of money. It seems like, once you get in there, you may find additional things to do, like heat shielding, replacing miscellaneous lines i.e. coolant, swapping motor mounts, etc. Either that or find a really slick shop that can make those recommendations for you although it may add cost.

If you want it done with a good shop, I would budget $1500 for the labor and misc. parts and things they might do while in there. You could always call one that has done turbo kits before and see what they typically charge.

Yes, but my head is a bolt on affair <g>.

Thanks. That's sort of what I was looking for (mostly time needed). The reason I don't want to do it is that a. I'm a bit of a klutz, b. I have no garage, c. I'm a bit of a klutz.

Call FM and ask them how much it would cost for a turn key FM2?

I'd rather do it locally. The Northeast is a loooong way from Nashville!

Why not?!?!?

1) Maybe they have a car already that is ready for you. Fly down and buy it.
2) Buy a car. One day down, one day install, half a day to drive back (see what I did there?).

You could probably find somewhere decent in the NE, but why not a road trip?

ALSO, regarding time needed - I was just throwing that out there. I would *think* that a guy that knows what he's doing can do one of these kits in a day. Maybe not, if there are things like mounting/trimming for FMIC, boost/AFR gauges, etc. Someone with skills can get a LOT done in a day, though, especially if they have a helper.

Who is in the NE or Nashville? FM is in Colorado last I knew.

Flyin' Miata will give you an idea on what a "name brand" (for lack of a better term) installer will charge you. Or you could call up these guys I heard about from a friend in VA PBC Automotive | Welcome! and ask.

One other thing - you may want to factor in a clutch job with this. You may slip the stock one if you don't swap it out. Would add a couple hours for the job, since unfortunately the work/disassembly is separate from the turbo kit.

Yes, but I'm in the South. I wouldn't mind a road trip, but not to take a car to get a turbo put on, especially one that far. If they already had one, I would consider going there to buy it, but, I'm a little leery of buying something sight unseen, even though I know that they know their stuff. I'd like to save the road trip for the finished project, especially when I'm buying a used car. Maybe if I wait a year to see how the actual car shakes out. But it's still a long way to go to have a turbo put on. We have some motorheads here in Nashville (Grooms Engines for example is here, not that they do that sort of work, but it's just an example of wrench turners here).

As far as time, I'm just spitballing here. Not looking for exact numbers. Just some rough numbers. I'd add additional hrs/labor per hour, etc. to any figure, as it usually costs more than anticipated.

Honestly, if you don't turn wrenches, you're much better off with a stock car. Unless you're Jay Leno and keep a staff.

If it's brand new, the parts are all correct, and there's no funny business in the electrical/engine compartment, I'd probably install an FM kit on a perfectly running car for about $800, clutch $200. My work is neither warranted nor insured. All prices are subject to change if something breaks during the install and you want that fixed too. The base FM tune will be more than adequate to get it to your dyno tuner of choice.

I've considered that as well. If I went turbo, I'd be going 1.6 (I had 1.8 before). I would keep the boost around 5psi because I don't want tear 'em up speed, just a bit more power. But it's certainly worth considering. I thought that 1.8 was pretty good for my needs, but could just use a touch more umph. I suspect that it would be even more so with the smaller engine. I've never driven the 1st series.

Even worse <g> (although I'd love to go back to Colorado as I lived in Co. Springs for a year). I didn't see an address for them on their site, but they were recommending NE installers, so I probably just made an assumption that i shouldn't have. I'm in Nashville.

Maybe I'll give 'em a call. I'm getting the idea that it will cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $1000 give or take $400 (but not on the downside - maybe a hundred or two on the downside).

VA is doable.

The 1.6 cars (89-93) had smaller rear differentials that broke easily, smaller brakes, and less engine. Buy a '94-up car of some kind.

If you don't want a crazy fast car, get an MSM and save yourself the trouble.

1.6 sucks balls.

Are you in new england? If so, call Lester at apex, he's a bit of an odd ball but the best miata general mechanic in the north east. Last time I was there to get an alignment he had a gutted and caged NA with a duratec in the engine bay in the shop. After that, call Flatout motorsports, Sarah will probably pickup, they charge 95 bucks an hour for pretty much anything, and have a dyno in the shop. Normally a spec miata shop with some rx7s and s2ks mixed in. Between the two you should get two reasonable quotes and they're the only 2 shops in New England I would trust my car with.

This. DO THIS.

Yes, because the MSM is an AWESOME turbo setup, and I've heard NO complaints about it.

It's a shame you're not in the NW area. I'd love to install a turbo kit and get paid for it.

I would take an MSM over a kit installed by someone I don't know and tuned by someone I don't know.

FYI, we charge 20 hours to install and set up an FM II, including some fine-tuning on the road. Find out what your favorite shop will charge per hour and there's your answer. The car will be ready to drive home across the country when we're done.

Tis all about context, captain slow. Let's check the boxes:

1. he's a klutz.
2. he only wants about 150 whp.
3. he's a klutz.

SOLUTION:

1. Buy MSM.
2. Exhaust, intake, tune.
3. ????
4. Profit, albeit kinda slowly but reliably.

Dont forget a ecu reflash on the snake oil list for 500 bucks :D

Yeah, probably going to end up putting the 7k or so into a stock NB. I had plenty of fun in mine even without turbo. There were a couple of ~3k NAs floating around the area and I was floating the idea of doing the turbo thang on one of them. Probaby better for me to get a tight, lower mileage stock car. The NB is my fav body style anyway. If I could go $8k, I'd probably snap up TF's. I doubt I'm going to run into an acceptable MSM before April, but heck, you never know.

I do not recommend going to PBC Automotive to have a FM turbo installed. At one point in time a long time ago they were a miata specific shop, they have since been sold and now work on everything.

Good to know. I don't live anywhere close to them but I'll let my friend in VA know.

My MSM is for sale.

Meet you in the middle (on price). Needs a tune.

Feel free to PM me with details. Understand though that I can't buy anything until my house closes on March 28th.

PMing.

Yeah, I'm pretty stuck on $7k as a max. I had said that $6k was my max, but I'm pushing the envelope at $7k. Not that I don't think that $7.5k would be an awesome deal, mind you.

My bad dude... i didn't see your price range. Let me know if you're interested or not, but i'm not selling my car for $7k. You won't be getting an MSM worth a damn for $7k, unfortunately.

I understand.

Concealer, do you have a thread for said MSM for sale? If you're selling it within his 7k budget, then there may be room in my life for two Miatas, temporarily.

Do your math of the cost of car+turbo+other crap. All set and done its going to cost you alot more than that.

Around here NBs go for 8-10k stock. Add another 3k for a cheap turbo kit, another 1k for ecu, another 1k for other extras and you're already looking at a pretty high final cost. Assuming it was built properly buying someone elses project (with good history) is definitely worth it (again assuming you trust the person didnt blow anything on it already)

Yeah, was kinda surprised to see your post. That's why I didn't even comment on the MSM suggestion someone made.

PS, contrary to the impression that I seem to have given, I'm not a Miata nOOb. I'm not even a turbo nOOb as I'm currently driving a '99 Saab 9-3 Convertable. I bought it with the insurance money from my stolen '99 NB (reluctantly as I didn't have a lot of time to buy a car when the rental from my insurance ran out). Never liked the Saab as I was used to the Miata. Big, heavy, bloated, like driving a big marshmallow even with the 5 speed, plus lots of unnecessary crap. Plus, it will eat you out of house and home. I'm ditching it shortly.

I have. Hence my post about probably just sticking with a stock NB. Of course, there are some for sale cars that come in under budget, but I'm leery about buying someone else's work.

Seeing that most of the cars sold here are well documented with everything thats been done to them i'd feel safe taking a mans word.

I purchased a used turbo kit that never really saw boost for my nb. Just follow the guys posts... It started from the installation, then went on to trying to tune it, then went on to other bandaids, then went on to raging that it wont work right and then came up the selling stuff threads which is where I came in and snatched it for quite cheap (1300 vs 2k).

Sorry, i missed the budget part. :(

If i was selling it within that budget i'd just keep it and do something seriously stupid to it.

Yeah, I said "leery", not opposed.

could buy chad jernigan's car. Kinda wish I had, just cuz it's more track oriented which will suit me better now. Ahh...

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1360349969

Yep, that one has been under consideration. My problem is the time frame. I'm not falling in love with anything at the moment. Just kicking the tires. Never know if my house closing will have any hidden landmines. I'll know closer to the end of March if everything will go smoothly. Until then, just looking at my options.

Also, my budget expands if I do it in two parts. Buy, drive for a few months and then install. $7k is my max all in at purchase. Especially if I get in at between $5 - 6k. I've got a line on a couple of local '99 in that range, one with a Hard S that I'll probably have to pay $6k for (pricey, I know, but it's in really great shape).

Seems like you might be able to get 'more for your money' if you wait a bit. As in either an MSM or a pre-modified car like turbofan's.

Would that be worth doing? Accrue a couple extra bucks over a few months in order to get the 'right' car?

Having Keith@FM quote the job at 20 hours means ~$2,000 in labor alone. I had no idea they'd estimate the job at 20 hours >.< Combine that with the turbo kit and other parts (ECU, clutch, etc.) sounds like an expensive project. It may be preferable for you to get either a pre-modified car, do the work yourself, and/or shop around for good used parts to keep cost down versus buying new.

I really need to ditch my Saab. It's cost me about $2500 in the last 18 months - new clutch, new front rotors, pads and one new caliper, and the newest surprise, $825 for a new key cylinder and shift linkage adjustment, and, to top it off, the top is inop and will need to be fixed. I'm going to try to dump it for 2 grand.

Yeah, I thought FM was high, but of course, they're thorough and no worries. I'd really have to go more budget oriented (read local) if I were going to get one of their kits installed. That's even looking less and less likely, but you never know. I just don't want to plow any more money into the Saab at this point, especially since I don't like it all that much. I've got the Miata jones back.

Fortunately, the $2k for the Saab isn't part of the budget so I don't have to sell right away if it doesn't move. If I DO sell it, it makes it more likely that I can go turbo sooner rather than later if i decide to go that route. I might just do the standard suspension and larger exhaust tweaks.

I love Saabs, have owned several... Give me Saab deets.. I don't really love Saab verts but hey, tell me more...

People don't come to us because we're the least expensive, they come to us because they're expecting the best. And that takes a bit longer. FYI, a Voodoo kit comes in at 15 hours due to the simpler engine management.

Right. I tried to acknowledge that.

Well, I've got the '99 2.0 turbo. It's not bad, but the Saab is a heavy car. It's also very "upright". If you don't like road feel, responsiveness, and "quickness", you'll love it. If you like being swathed in a cocoon, like a lot of electronics that can go bad, a master (or was it the slave?) clutch cylinder that's actually IN the tranny so you have to pull it, costing you hundreds of dollars in labor, a top that has something like 7 hydraulic units, any one of those hundred dollar units failing costs you your top down fun, and just LOVE having to be in reverse before you start your car, you'll love it. Fit and finish is excellent. Paint is awesome. But god help you if you need repairs. And it's only going to get worse in the future with the bankruptcy and the GM connection.

It's not a "slow" car by any means, but it's most responsive between 20 and 60. So it's a good passing car. It just stumbles around a bit like a whale because of the heavy chassis and upright nature of the car.

It's not a particularly fun car to drive, but it's not bad if you like that sort of over-engineered European thing. You could drive it at 90 for hours and hours and not feel fatigued at all. But then again, I could drive my Miata for hours and hours at 85 and love it lots more. Not that I couldn't drive it at 90 - 100 for long stretches, but it did get a little noisy and body numbing.

If someone bought this car for $2k, it wouldn't be a bad deal if they were looking for that sort of car. Put a grand into the top and new rotors and pads for the back wheels. I paid the going price for it a couple of years ago - $5k. It's only got about 112k. New clutch and master/slave cylinders. The motor and turbo has been the least of my worries, although it's supposedly got sort of the same weakness as the Miata (coil pack). Instead of a coil pack, it's got an ignition "cartridge" that fits on top of motor (it's that red or black (I think) metal strip. Supposedly, they can fail without warning, sorta like the coil pack on a Miata. Never had a problem with either though.

I've got a black 99 PEP i've been trying to get off of my hands for 5500. Recently had the rocker panel rust fixed by a classic restoration mechanic, otherwise body is 8/10. Mechanically/electronically it's flawless.

I appreciate that FM has an excellent reputation. I under-estimated the extent of the job and the work that must go into it.

Ahh, the 9-3. I recently owned a '99 9-3 5-door. White with tan leather, and everything worked except the air conditioning. I bought it with like 172k miles on it. Ran like crap. Replaced an intercooler pipe that was torn and it really ran pretty well. Ended up doing shocks/struts, brakes all around, belts/hoses, lower control arm, tie rods, etc, then taking it off the jack stands and driving from Utah, to New Mexico, to Texas, to southern California, back to Utah in a week. Ran like a top.

Then the problems started... that DI Cassette went bad on me. Thankfully I scored one at the local junkyard for $70 that fixed it. Finally sold it. I like it a lot, but the handling was pretty terrible and the power was very sleepy. Mine was also an autotragic, and it was, well, tragic. Not to mention it would only manage 25 mpg at 75 mph on cruise. It was incredibly comfortable though (as long as air conditioning wasn't necessary) and a really nice car.

Anyway... Carry on... Only Saab I'd consider purchasing is a classic 900 or an upper-level 9000... Guess I'd also consider a manual 9-5. Good luck!

Yeah, glad I don't *have* to sell it to get a decent Miata. In the 5 years I owned my Miata, the only things I did out of the normal tires, brake pads, etc. were replace the radiator (which I did myself), had the master and slave clutch cylinders replaced (at a cost of about $250 - I could have done it myself if I had had the time), and the final insult was the key getting stuck (guess I have a key problem!). Took me almost two weeks to source a new lock, and I had gotten down to trying to dremel those damn anti-theft bolts off of the sucker when it happened. A passerby noticed the key in the lock and stole it. Probably had seen it earlier and was just biding his time. I was still able to drive it, just couldn't get the key out. It had 171k and ran like a top. I should have just taken it in for repair. Police found it 6 months later in a nearby surburb. My insurance was generous, they gave me $6500 for it. This was 2 years ago. Also, when I first got it, about 2 months in, someone broke in. First they made a small cut in the top (thank you for doing that!) and when that didn't seem to be working, they tossed a cinderblock through the window. My insurance popped for a new top, a really nice camel colored cloth Electron Top. Fortunately, that's what my repair shop had recommended and that's what they went with. Brilliant. Looked great with the Emerald Mica/Black combo. That's probably the best top you can buy.

In contrast, the Saab has had to have the clutch, master and slave done (whichever one is in the transmission was of course the one that went bad). Since we were already in, it was about time to replace the clutch. Price? $1050. That's more than I spent for all of Miata repairs right there. Replacing the bloody key cylinder is going to be $850! The cylinder itself is about $350. I'll be interested to see how they break down labor. I thought I could do it myself because there are some really clear instructions on how to do it. Problem is, to release the cylinder, you have to have it in "off". I couldn't turn the key out of "lock" and so I couldn't release the cylinder. It had to do with the shift linkage being off a bit (I had noticed some lateral place for a few months). Basically, it was locked in reverse. At least I've had a rental car from the shop, which probably basically turned this from a $500 to an $850 job in labor as we all know there's no such thing as a "free" rental.

If the top hadn't stopped working at the end of last summer, I'd probably have just kept if for a couple of years and suffer that float through the twisties. But not now.

Funny thing. I've been driving a new Jetta as the rental (two weeks next Thursday). Lots of turbo lag on that sucker. Oh wait, no turbo. Are you kidding me VW? Really shocked. I'm sure it's got the base engine and all that, but it feels *just* like turbo lag. It's kinda zippy once it "spools up" (for lack of a better term).

Anyway, I guess we could call this my intro to the forum <chuckle>

Here she is at the police impound lot.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1360425618

Someone got a really nice car for cheap at auction (assuming that my insurance company auctioned it off). Even though those are only 14 inch wheels, they were really nice customs that the previous owner had put on. Polished chrome. I never bothered to replace them with larger ones because I liked the look of them so much (as I said, I'm not a huge racer type - these, coupled with the Bridgestone Potenzas worked just fine for my needs).

Tried to post another pic. Don't know why it didn't work. I don't see where I can delete this post though.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fb...type=3&theater

is it actually a base, base Jetta with the 2.0? Or is it the 2.5L 5-cyl? The 2.0 should absolutely not exist in that car. I sold VW's early last year and what a shameful thing VW did to bring that car back. It's even only rated at 29 mpg highway with the auto. The 2.5 is rated at 31. Just such a shameful thing.

If you're driving the 2.5 then I don't know what you're talking about. Liked that one a lot.

I'm assuming that it's the base engine. Don't know why the shop would have a small fleet of anything other than the base engine. If I were them, that's what *I'd* get for loaners.

Let me go check. Let's see, there are four thingys. Yep. 4 cylinder. <chuckle>. Gas mileage does suck.

That car is a flaming pile of dog poo. I'm something of a VW fan (currently own an '04 Jetta TDI and an '01 Jetta with that same poo engine, bought it for nothing for a beater). That engine was acceptable in the 80's, pushing it in the 90's, and beyond obsolete in the new milennium. Almost as bad as the "tech 4" GM foisted upon its customers through 2004 or some ridiculous modern year like that.

VW should be ashamed to bring that engine BACK to the lineup in 2011. It's like $1500 to get the 2.5 and a bunch of other equipment. Just... frustrating.

2013 should be the last year for it. GOOD RIDDANCE. It's reliable and durable, and that's all well and good, but these days everything else is too.

Yeah, like I said, it's like having a turbo without any of the benefit.

Damn, looking at my Miata again makes me all misty-eyed. And now I understand why they call it "Saab". <sob>.

You should get an NC. I've been looking around to get one for my teenage daughter. There are some really nice ones out there and they are depreciating nicely.

I just don't like the styling. Looks like a bar of soap. I like the NB's family resemblance to the FD RX7 (the car I'd have if I had the money - I owned a 79 SA in the early 80s which was my favorite car up to the Miata, and still might be a touch over it). I never could quite get behind the NA because it doesn't have that sleekness and slight coke bottle waist that I like about the NB. I like the integrated lights better as well, although I know that some people prefer the NA because of the popups. Although, if I found a really clean one, I might compromise and get it for a lot less and save some serious money.

And that 1.8 motor is a corker. I like the easy access and the British look to it with the exposed twin valve covers. The 2.0 looks shoehorned in there and it looks like every other modern motor. I know, I know. Not the best reason for not liking a car. But what better reason is there if it doesn't hit you the right way?

Still, at $7k, I'd be compromising on quality as opposed to getting a really nice NB at the same price. Plus, I know the NB and its quirks. I'd have to start all over again.