Subbed to this, I've been following a few Kraken builds and the quality just seems top-notch.

Funny enough i discovered an issue with the turbo i had been using. I spoke too soon and the spool on the turbo went to Sh1t overnight. Basically, the sleeve that holds the wastegate arm came loose and the wastegate no longer over the port entirely so it can't build boost until 5500RPM. So i decided to finally rebuild my SR20 t25 and throw that back on in the mean time since I didn't feel like screwing around with that.

It's pretty fun at 12-13 pounds since it spools so fast in comparison to the other turbo i was running. Probably will keep it this way for a while as it's a lot more lively overall.

My buddies taking his 1.8 build to the dyno soon so i'm tempted to bring mine in on some dyno time to see what it's making.

I'm still diagnosing a sporadically slipping clutch. I'm guessing oil is getting in there somehow as it's not consistent but it will slip once in a while randomly and then grab just fine immediately afterwards. the 949 clutch shouldn't be slipping at my power levels.

hey irollgen4s, what did you do for the heater core hoses? i have the kraken kit with an ISR t25 and the Vband from the elbow to the downpipe touches and is slowly melting the hose away. no serious damage yet but the surface of the hose is starting to get smooth and shiny and I don't want to blow that thing randomly one day.

Go read the FM turbo kit install manual. It helps a lot. But onenof their instructions is to take the hard pipe that runs under the manifold and bend the end of it as far up and back as you can. I have almost an inch and a half clearance now doing that on the car with everything installed. With the engine out in the future I can likely get even more.

^ exactly what he said. I shoved a 3/8th extension inside the hardline and slowly worked it over until it was out of immediate burn range. Has been fine for the passed few thousand miles with an 1.5-2 inch gap or so. I do suggest some sort of heat shield for the brake situation right next to the turbo and DP just to make sure you stop when you want to.

I've been terrible at updates or getting any footage, i've been super busy with work and i've recently bought a house that is mid renovation and have been dealing with that in my free time. The car is my daily and has been completely fine, i nut and bolt check the manifold nuts and the DP bolts every so often but they're usually only a tad loose at the worst. I'm running 195KPA currently on the SR t25 and it's been fun! still diagnosing oil leaks.. I feel like they never stop on this engine.

I've replaced every seal on the engine sub the oil pan and it still looks like its leaking pretty badly from the intake cam seal. Oh well i've just attributed to cranking the boost up and swapping in another 1.6 or maybe even a 1.8 if i find another daily sometime soon.

Might not hurt to get some silicone tubing (with same ID as the hose's OD) and split it down the middle, and clamp it over your hoses.

Small update. Bought a nice boring reliable daily so the miata has become a toy. Since becoming a toy it has experienced a new style of driving that it never has before and it has been bulletproof. Lots of rev limiter and tire spin and fun happy times. I'm running the sr t25 around 14PSI and its a blast.

Now for the real fun, I bought a spare 92 long nose 1.6 that i was initially planning on just robbing the head, but after disassembly the 200K head, block and bearing actually look AMAZING compared to my 111k short nose 1.6(that has been boosted possible most of it life based off supercharger stickers under the hood).

So the new plan has already gone into effect, I'm doing a rods only build just to give myself a small amount more of head room, stock pistons, re ring the pistons, refresh the head(maybe throw some 264's in it?) and re gasket the entire thing. Initially i'm going to run it on that bigger ebay turbo that i have sitting on my shelf but ideally i want to grab a 2560 to give myself just that bit more over my t25 right now as the t28/ebay turbo is pretty laggy with the .86 hot side.

Shout out to all the 1.8 guys that will be yelling at me! Sorry for liking 1.6's and their mediocrity!

I am going the same rout on my build. I have what looks like a low miles short nose short block in amazing shape but with a bent #3 rod (bet it was boosted). I have picked up 2 long blocks, a short block, and a whole running 91 automatic for a total of $175. $240 set of Maxpeeding rods ("taking leaps into your engine!") And a couple hundred in gaskets and such and I should be set.

What turbo do you plan on running when all is said and done? I'm really leaning towards getting myself a proper 2560 since i really love the quick spool on my t25 but obviously it is tapped out at 14psi; but i think a 2560 will ultimately limit me. I'm unsure of how laggy a 2871 will be even with a .64 exhaust housing. the .86 hotside on my "t28" ebay turbo hits hard but the transient response really leaves a lot to be desired.

A limiting factor of mine that I realized after the fact is the FF640's, but i never really plan on running e85 and am aiming for around 250 wheel realistically to preserve my 5 speed.

Have been slowly ordering parts to get things off the ground but will be a while before everything is done. I'm working on getting the short block assembled and then i'll be sending the head off to the machine shop to be refreshed.

I have the TD04 manifold, so I am using a totally different set of turbos. The 2560 is probably right for you. I am currently running a TD04L-13T off a 2006 WRX (got one with only 20k miles on it). Long term, I plan to do the 19T upgrade which should flow enough air to make around 280 to the wheels. The 13T is going to tap out around 220-230.

I see that makes sense. I debated going with a TD04 setup but ultimately decided against it after weighing out options.

I bolted on the "bigger" ebay 2560 turbo. I fixed the wastegate issue with a couple tacks and it actually isn't very laggy at all. The power really hits around 4k RPM but i see a couple pounds of boost below that and the power delivery is very linear. I have it running 15PSi right now and the engine has been fine... Besides the fact that its blowing oil from every seal on the block at this point LOL.

I finally got some time to start putting together the spare 1.6 engine i bought. After teardown I learned it was recently rebuild,(ring gap was .15 top .014 second ring) and all of the bearings look fantastic with good cross hatching. It was also .020 over with new OEM pistons(for lack of better words). So i decided it's getting a set of ebay rods, a dingleberry hone and fresh rod bearings and have been working on finishing that up. I got the head completely refreshed at a machine shop and will be using ARP head studs.

I ended up setting the new rings to .018 top and .020 on the bottom after a lot of reading and speculation. I figured this was more than good enough for ~300whp without being to extreme. Please let me know if anyone feels otherwise so i can tear it apart again LOL.

I have 1.8L diy kit with kraken t2 manifold to downpipe kit，isr sr20 replacement turbo，cxr intercooler piping，fab9 tuning st2 intercooler，flowforce 650cc injector，mspnp2.

I'm guessing you aren't from Kentucky.

Have been chipping away at the engine build. Head is on and torqued and so are the new rod bolts and I have the intake manifold fitted loosely and am waiting on the oil pan from the engine in my car otherwise its nearly ready. got a 1.8 water pump by accident so have been waiting on that and a few gaskets. Hoping to get most of it done this weekend and perhaps start taking apart the car to rob some pieces off the other engine.

Everything is up and running on the "new" rods engine. Around ~250 miles on the engine and all seems well. Have been running it around 9psi for break in but havent been running it too hard. No significant amount of metal or anything concerning so far but really waiting for the clutch to get some more miles before i push it very hard. The main reason i decided to swap and rebuild was because the old engine was leaking oil from everywhere and it ate up the 5,000 mile old 949 clutch with it slipping constantly.

The ebay turbo appears to spool more quickly on the new engine. I'm still running stock pistons and the head has been skimmed and fully refreshed so i assume around 9.5:1 or so for the compression ratio. Like i said i haven't pushed it hard yet but will get logs once i do.

The tune required a lot more fuel compared to my old engine as well, i'm guessing the old head had some leak down or something along those lines as this one feels peppier everywhere.

UPDATE:

1.6 went boom. Not surprisingly considering it ate a compressor wheel and ran for a couple thousand miles after with a noticeable increase in oil consumption. down to 80PSI on cyl 1 and enough blow by to set the damn car on fire.

The good news, i FINALLY went 1.8. Swapped in a 96 60K miles 1.8 that i didn't bother opening up. Went for another Kraken manifold(had it to me in 2 days from Bulgaria!) that fits decently well with my current downpipe and exhaust setup. needed some massaging on the steering shaft but nothing major.

I also had a tuner go over the car. He found that the Map sensor in my MS2PNP was bad, which i've sinced had fixed and I just had him retune it yesterday. I'm still running the Shitty 949/supermiata 1.6 clutch that won't hold ANYTHING over 200Ft/lbs so i'm running a 7psi actuator right now. It makes 196hp/175tq at the wheels on the 7 pounds at about 18 degrees of timing. at 10 pounds it makes 215hp/200tq at the wheels but the clutch gives up the ghost in the midrange at peak torque.

the 1.8 overall feels better in literally every way. I HIGHLY recommended going 1.8 first instead of wasting time to turbocharge the 1.6. I now entirely understand the entire forums hate of the 1.6 and will continue to push that myself. That being said after having my butt dyno calibrated for 200hp, i believe i was making around 250wheel on my 1.6 when running the ebay 2560 with the ,86 exhaust housing. It ripped hard as hell but was far too laggy for anything other than roll racing.

Still working on getting a FM or ACT clutch in the car so i can run it around 220 wheel until i have the funds to build my block and throw on a 99 head in the spring if its in the card. I'm just happy to have my play car back.

We need pics of the 1.8 swap!

I don't have any at the moment but will have to get some! I have a video of the final 7psi pull and potentially a 10psi pull from last time on the rollers.

My main issue at the moment is that my Aem x series is reading quite a bit different than the Dyno wideband. at WOT my wideband is reading about a flat 11, versus the dyno wideband reading a steady 12.2.. for this reason the entire VE table is on the rich side to make sure it's safe. I'm going to replace the entire unit to eliminate the chance of the gauge or sensor being bad as I'm really sick of having issues at this point. it was a brand new gauge and sensor when i first went MS2 but i believe some downpipe rattles on the steering shaft may have porked the wideband sensor.