Kraken T25 1.6 turbo kit & budget build
 

Hello all, been a lurker for a few months now after picking up my miata this passed summer. My buddy has been into miata's for a few years so I've caught the bug from him. Anyways I bought it with the intentions of bolting a turbo on within a year or so. I always had the intentions of keeping it a pretty moderate build aiming for around 150-180rwhp with the intentions of turning it up to 200-220 or so in another year or so when i get time to swap in a 1.8 diff and bigger EV14 injectors. My initial budget was $3000 to get the car up and running on a very basic and mild setup. I'm not looking to break any records or anything crazy, just looking to make my miata much more fun on my daily commute and some spirited driving.

I forgot to mention that the car is already running an MS2 that is being tuned by @18PSI for the tan top injectors.

For the turbo i decided to keep it simple and go with a s13 sr20 turbo that i picked up for $200 off the forums here. Has some shaft play and will likely need to be replaced in the future, however for the cost I couldn't argue since it came off a running and boosting miata. I will likely upgrade to a s14 2560 in the future. $200

The intercooler is simply a 1.6 CX racing intercooler kit. Nothing special here but it works and fits easily. Was just looking for a bolt on solution ~$350

My temporary solution for injectors due to funds was simply 1.8 tan tops. I will likely run 7psi and keep it there until i upgrade these to FF or something similar in the future. $100

As for the clutch i'll be running 949 sport 4 puck sprung clutch with an ebay lightened flywheel that I picked up off a Miata facebook group brand new never used for a bit of a discount than new. Wanted to go with a Fidanze flywheel however I was really trying to stay within the 3k budget i set myself. $385+500 install. $100 for the slave and master and rear main done at the same time.

So after a bit of research and some good luck on timing, Kraken released a full kit hot side kit for a price that is hard to beat. This was right up my alley as it included the manifold, downpipe, full 3" exhaust, oil and water fittings and lines and the quality of the work looked quite nice. . I haven't had the time to fully unbox everything however I will be going into more detail on the entire install of this kit for others to see. They post a plethora of pictures on their facebook and are very good at communicating through out the entire process. The parts took longer to come than initially expected however Michael of Kraken kept me in the loop the entire time they were building the parts and once everything was completed and shipped it came in literally 2 days.. From England to NY in 2 days VIA DHL. $1100

Here's some quick snaps I took of the package when it came. I will be doing a more proper unboxing video on my Youtube channel and will be videoing the build process for my youtube as well. I'll share anything to do with it in this thread as well as i've always wanted to tackle a project like this.





Oh and a pic of my Miata. 1990 currently Plastidipped due to the Maaco paint job going dull.

My kit, but for a 1.8, should arrive today or tomorrow depending on how Cincinnati's Customs treat me. Are you using any specific drill bit to widen the turbo flange to fit the exhaust manifold? I think the turbo is m8x1.25 while the exhaust manifold stud's are m10x1.25

Kraken did give me the option of m8 or m10, however i went m10. I forgot i would have had to drill open the turbo bits however that wouldn't of been a large concern for me as my father owns a business with a machine shop attached. However I just checked my turbo and it seems the previous owner already drilled open the holes for m10 and I simply got lucky. If drilling them out scares you I would just bring it to a local machine shop and they'll have it done in no time. The things i'd do for a drill press.. Or a lathe.

Is there any particular reason you guys went for the M10's? Just for more bite so the turbo was more likely to stay put due to the additional clamping force with the motor moving around and the regular miata vibrations?

Never realized photobucket has become a corporate money grabbing nightmare, swapped out the pictures so they actually work now. sorry about that!

You are right about the clamping force, however i mostly wanted m10 so when i do upgrade/remove the turbo, the studs are less likely to snap and break and cause a headache.

Oh, I didn't get the option for m8x1.25 not that I mind.

Looking forward to finishing the tune on this with b00st :likecat:

Yeah, I was going back and forth between that. Still unsure what I'm going to end up doing.

Looking forward to the OP's build!

I saw that he mentioned it on their FB and I messaged asking about it out of curiosity. Standard is m10 for good reason however.

You and me both! If only i could figure out this stupid Kia VTPS wiring.

Me too! I'm hoping to have the clutch installed next week and then i'll begin the tear down process. I don't have many days off so it will likely take at least a week working on it for a couple hours each day.

Awesome! Good luck. Fitting everything in when you're busy can be rough. I'm actually nervous about finishing things in the timeline that I'm hoping for to be totally honest.
I think I might just go for the M10 as well. I can drill out the turbo flange. I'm sure the turbo can be used with M8 in the future with a washer so there's little downside to doing this!

I started breaking down the car today since I had most of the day off... May throw off the clutch install a bit but my mechanic seems a bit busy so it works for now. I'll have to baby it on the stock clutch as it already likes to slip sometimes when it gets a bit hot.

I always thought it was funny when everyone said the worst part of the install is getting the front bumper off.. I know now that they are not kidding. Whatever insane person decided that philips head screws were right to use in the amount and positions that they did needs to be beaten bloody.

Anyway after the hours spent removing the front bumper, My friend and I managed to get the CX intercooler mounted up and the cold side ran quite easily. The Cx racing kit definitely a pain in the ass to figure out with no instructions, however we managed to get it securely enough in place after playing around with it. Since my car has AC it was a bit more difficult to get it sitting decently however with some bending of the provided brackets it wasn't too bad. The quality is about what i expected but will be fine for my application. I'm still debating on how to run my hotside intercooler piping. I'm leaning towards going through the fender as it's just simpler with AC and no coolant reroute on my car.

I then moved on to tackling the exhaust. I provided a picture of the small amount of tools i needed to get the entire exhaust off.. I forgot the penetrating oil which was soaked on every bolt before i even started the front bumper removal. Everything came off pretty easily considering it looks like it hasn't been removed since the car was made.

Once i got the entire exhaust off including the headers i simply slapped on the Kraken turbo manifold and loosely held the turbo up to it while i figured out which way I'm going to clock it. The kraken manifold+the s13 SR turbo can't have the compressor outlet facing down like i originally planned so for now it's clocked towards the fender.

Next time i get a good chunk of time to work on the car I'm planning on tapping the intercooler piping for the GM IAT sensor, hanging the 3" kraken Exhaust and actually torquing down the turbo manifold. Perhaps i'll commit to going through the fender with the IC piping but i'm still trying to weigh my options. I think i'm sh!t out of luck with any other options besides getting a coolant reroute which I don't care to do right now(i understand the benefits).

Got another chunk of work done. Not as much as I wanted to but after buggering some threads and needed to run around to find some thread chasers I managed to install the studs into the manifold, get the manifold installed and torqued down, the turbo installed and torqued down, and the IAT sensor installed and the cold side of the IC piping tightened up.

PRO TIP for the Kraken manifold. Get ALL the nuts on the manifold hand tight before you snug any up even remotely. It's a very tight fit for the center bolts, you'll see what i mean. be VERY careful when getting the ones ones to the let and right of the bottom center stud, if they catch the manifold at all you WILL bugger up some threads by accident without even realizing.

PRO TIP 2, When installed the turbo keep the compressor housing off otherwise you will NOT be able to get to the turbo nuts. Ask me how i found this out!

Other than that, Everything provided in the Kraken kit is very high quality and so far the fit and finish is fantastic. I've hung the exhaust underneath but everything is loose right now until i get the downpipe on and all that.

Hoping to finish this up by this weekend if i get the chance, I'm currently waiting on some more intercooler piping since i've decided against going through my fender for the hot side.

For the record, I've never installed anything to this capacity on a car before but have been wrenching my entire life on dirtbikes, motorcycles, and doing coil overs and other basic car things. It's a learning process so everything takes me longer than someone who has done it before but it is entirely possible if you research and are prepared for headaches.

Sorry for the lack of updates, been busy with work. I have the car finished up and running, all of the kraken parts really fit nicely and i can't find anything to complain about. You do NEED to put the DP on the turbo at least loosely before putting the turbo on the manifold. Otherwise it will hit the shelf and be generally impossible to fit on.

Anyway, i've been fighting some boost leaks and what i feel is slow spool. The car will build 2-3lbs until around 5000RPM which is when it finally hits 7psi. I can't find any dyno charts or anything on 1.6 as far 've looked around so someone please chime in on this.

At 7psi, the tan top injector are running out of fuel on my car. Stock fuel pump as far as i'm aware and the duty cycle is hitting 117% if i push it. I've been babying the car and waiting for my Flow Force 640cc's to come in. 18PSI will work his magic on the tune and it should drive better than every. I should have gone for EV14 bigger injectors to start, LEARN FROM ME!

I'm also still running the stock clutch as i'm awaiting my mechanic to free up some time to fit me in. Hopefully next week it will get taken care of and in a week or so of my normal commute should have the clutch broken in. The stock clutch will definitely slip if i bang gears too hard or if i put a lot of load in 4th or 5th gear- no surprise i could get it to slip on the stock 1.6 haha.

No pictures this round but i will get some more once i finalize my intercooler piping routing, right now it's pretty ugly just to get the car up and running. Need a welder to make a wastegate bracket to make things fit how i would like.

I'm also still looking for a solution for the stock heater core return line. Right now i just have a license plate jammed between the rubber line and the downpipe to keep the line from burning. I have a Hawley Performance coolant reroute that will get put on in the spring as I cannot take anymore bloody knuckles until it's at least warm out in my garage.

How are the coolant and oil lines that came in the kraken kit? Did you get fittings from him too?

The coolant lines are regular hoses, nothing special. The oil line feels really well made but they are m12x1.5 fittings and not the normal -4an. He provides all the oil and water lines though so this isn't an issue for most people.

Despite being rubber hoses they're pretty great quality compared to anything you would get at a general auto parts store. Nice thick rubber that is very difficult to get over the thermostat nipples. The oil drain was similarly quality rubber. All was more thani needed by a couple inches, which let me route it somewhat nicely. I'll grab some more detailed pics of the setup soon.

I put the new FF640 injectors in today. can't wait to see what it's like without fuel cut. Also borrowed my buddies MBC so i can see if the lazy wastegate can be tricked to see if that's the issue. Still waiting on that borrowed welder.

If you are thinking about getting Kraken's kit, I do highly reccomend it based off of fitment and how the welds look. I'm no welding expert but they are visually apealing so that must mean for something.

Grabbed a quick pic while i was trying to figure out some better IC piping routing. Can't do much unfortunately as i can't get enough clearance in any other direction with this turbo. If only the compressor housing outlet was in the opposite direction. Oh well it works for now! The Manual boost controller fixed the lazy wastegate spring and it finally hit 7PSI around 3500 or so instead of 5k+rpm.

Definitely not the nicest engine bay, but i'm working on getting new heater core hoses so i can finally bend the return hard line so i can remove that license plate.. er the custom heat shield i made!

7psi at 3500 on a sr20 turbo is very late, I hit double that on a 2560 s14 by 3500rpm.

something's not right

You forget he's on a 1.6