Extremely likely. Locking hardware is a must. The included copper nuts are a no go. One legit melted.

 

Ahh yes, makes sense. When I went to swap in the Stage 8 hardware on mine, a couple of the copper nuts no longer had any threads lol. Bummer dude

 

Got the turbo and manifold both off the car. Got everything on the mill, ARP studs, locking hardware and replaced the back end gasket with a OEM gasket from Nissan. This gasket actually moved the downpipe farther back which I hope will mitigate the downpipe contacting the steering shaft on high g right hand corners.

 

I was experiencing some high temps on really hot days especially lower speed tracks. While I can agree that the airdamn is better in every way regarding performance, I am one who really respects the original look of the Miata. I went ahead and did some ducting with some sheet metal. Hopefully this keeps the temps down on 90F+ days.

 

The inconsistent gap in the relief cuts have me worried about the exhaust manifold warping. @Z_WAAAAAZ had the same issue just before discovering his manifold was a crackin' Kraken.

Emilio posted a very neatly done turbo brace that he claimed likely would eliminate the need for ridiculous locking hardware. I'd consider something similar if I were you and struggling with locking hardware.

What would you say was the normal torque you exposed the 5 speed to on track during this time? Just the wastegate PSI you had the dyno chart above? I really want more power, but if it's a time bomb at 185 lbft at the wheel... ugh. I've seen as much variation in how much torque a 5 speed can handle as I have seen in peoples opinion of the 6 speed shift quality.

 

Yup they got me worried too. We will see if it will last.
Those brackets seem clever. I wish I had seen that before I got everything back together.
I was running my high boost setting constantly so my transmission killed it self at at 234ft/lbs. It broke the day I decided to not give it any empathy. I can't recite exactly what happened but I recall the transmission starting to make a wonky sound when I seriously jammed it into 3rd, like it broke one tooth. It was making a tad bit of noise and 1 corner later 3rd was gone.

 

Funny @OptionXIII would mention it, I was just thinking that's how my manifold looked after developing its crack. #2 and 3 runners seemingly moved inward towards each other.

I assumed my failure was due to running the 2560 basically maxed out on track. 17psi with around 10* of timing at peak torque probably had that sucker glowing haha.

Glad to see the car's back together! Keep the thread updated.

 

I had a similar issue with a warped FM manifold. Both the original and second owners raced my MSM on tracks in Nevada. When I purchased it Fall of 2019, it had less than 22k-miles. I have no idea how many were track and how many were street miles but the FM2, Garrett upgrade kit for MSMs was installed in 2010. Nine years to race. Anyway, back to the manifold. When I removed it to reinstall everything on a built engine, at least one relief crack was closing up from warpage. All the exhaust studs and nuts were tight, just had a slight trace of carbon in the upper right corner near the firewall.

Once I got everything separated I used Dremel cut off discs (reinforced or cheap diamond wheels) with a flex shaft to open the closing gap...might have also used a demolition saw and old metal blade. I drove around to local shops looking for a place that could machine it flat and one convinced me to allow them to flatten it using their large belt sander as their milling machine clamps didn't seem like they could hold it securely. So far so good, I don't see any leaks but it's only been running for a year, maybe 1500 or so street miles. The last 500 have been pretty hard but not abusive, lots of WOT runs learning how to tune CL EBC. I recently got it as close as I'm likely to get for a reliable 18 psi (GT2560R). I think mine will be ok for harder street use with a better tuned MS3. The Hydra Nemesis that was on the car didn't have the best/safest tune which might have contributed to running hotter and warping.

 

Took the car to Thunderhill this weekend. One of the turbo to manifold nuts already started to back out, locking hardware already started to do its thing.

The 6 speed paired with the 4.1 seems to be a okay. I got some more accel on the straights and more flexibility in what gear I should shift down to for the corners, I don't know if I can justify all the shifting, got to see if I can break or meet my old times.

Ducting seems to be solid, it was about 75-80deg on the last session. I got my temperature sensor in reroute blocking plate where the turbo feeds back into the engine. On track never saw temperatures above 200. On a 85 degree day I was hitting 240. Being that I got 40 degrees of room I can hopefully assume I can keep pushing on 90+ degree days... time will tell.

 

Sick! Glad to hear everything worked well for you this weekend.

I ran a 6 speed with 4.3 in my car for a while, so much shifting. I ran a 3.6 for a while and think that a 3.9 probably would've been a happy medium for most of the tracks down near me. Lap times will talk. I didn't do any back to back testing running the 3.6 vs 4.3 at the same track unfortunately. Interested to see what you find vs the 5 speed in the long run.

What were your coolant temps before installing the ducting? Having the temp sensor at the coolant inlet is going to tell you the temp of the coolant that just exited the radiator, not the coolant temp exiting the engine. What reroute do you have? If it's got a port for it, mounting the temp sensor in the reroute housing will give you more accurate temps.

 

Before installing the ducting, I was seeing temperatures of 240-250°F at the back of the block. I agree that placing the temperature sensor at the back would provide more accurate data. At the front plate, the temp sensor is reading both cooled water from the radiator and hot water from the turbo. The thermostat shows 180-185°F when the OEM sensor reads 196. So there's a 10-15°F difference between the front and back of the block. While I agree that placing the sensor at the back is better, I'm too lazy to install it in that tight space. On the track, I my sensor was reading 190-195°F.

I have an RPM cut at 240°F coolant temperature at the back of the block to find out what temperature is being read at the front of the block if it overheats. Fingers crossed.

 

Tight, sounds like you're on top of it then. What reroute do you have? I remember the spare port on my SuperMiata reroute being pretty accessible.
Damn, yeah 240-250 is sketchy territory haha. If you're down to ~220 or so, that's good news for sure.

 

I bought a triple pass stock car radiator. Had it custom-made. It worked out well but an oil cooler was still necessary.

 

This is such a great build, thanks for sharing

 

5 sessions at Laguna Seca, 1 even 40 minutes. The good news is that the cooling system is up to par. At 85°F-90°F, the coolant temps didn’t exceed 210°F. The bad news is that the turbo to manifold nuts backed out again, despite locking hardware. I’m gonna retighten when hot and send it.

 

Look into the locking washers from Full-Race.com. Are you using inconel studs?

 

I have ARP studs, thought they would do the job. I am going to purchase the Full Race Kit for the T25 turbo.

 

Good stuff man. I saw your in-car footage on IG. Looks like you're having fun with it haha.

Can't remember, was this your first track event with the locking hardware? Mine settled in/loosened up after my first track day or two. Gave 'em a hard snug up while hot and didn't have the issue again.

 

Nice work man and good to hear your car is running well! That extra ducting you did looks like it's working.

 

I run a Kraken manifold with an EFR turbo. Here is the "all of it" solution I've used to keep the manifold hardware happy. So far, I've got two full race weekends (4-5hrs track time) with no issues. I want to pull the turbo off to port the wastegate, but I don't want to prove to myself that it is a solid solution.

Easy: Inconel studs (from Kraken kit) w/ Resbond thread locker
Easy: Titanium cross-drilled flange nuts safety wired in place. Similar to these: Titanium Flanged Nut M8x(1.25mm) Drilled | Pro-Bolt (probolt-usa.com)
More involved: Turbo brace similar to what Emilio added to the low mount setup. I made a bracket for the turbo, bought a turn buckle meant for tensioning alternator belts, then make a bracket on the block side using the AC bracket holes.
Most involved: Downpipe brace. I used an axle clamp meant for F-body axles. Then I made a bracket that shares the bolts for the bell housing (similar to a stock downpipe bracket) to hold the f-body clamp.