When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
I've been a lurker here for a while and decided to make a build thread.
I bought my 03 Garnet red base model 3 years ago. It was my first miata, all stock.
I did some cosmetic stuff and exhaust and was happy for a while but I eventually wanted more. I didn't know anything about turbos and the FM kit was the easiest way for me to learn. I wasn't quite ready for a standalone ecu so I went with the voodoo kit.
I loved it. It was a massive difference in power and the setup couldn't have been easier. I had a lot of fun with it at autocross events, added a Supermiata crossflow rad, FM oil cooler kit, and some Singular hood vents, and took it to the dragon last year.
The voodoo kit was a champ and I didn't really have any major complaints about it. But, as you can tell by the title, this story isn't all good. 2 weeks after going to the dragon, most of my city flooded and my car was left stranded.
This was taken by my neighbors before they were rescued by boat. This happened without warning and by the time I realized that it was happening, it was already too late to get the cars out because the streets were already flooded. I jacked my car up as high as I could and hoped for the best. I wasn't able to return to my house until 2 days later and I was left with this, along with a destroyed house.
It didn't look good. With all the stress and having to clean out my house I couldn't really think about the car. I loved that car but it had some rust and cosmetic issues that always bothered me and I always wished it had a 6 speed and LSD so I decided to replace it and make it better the second time. Enter this absolute gem of an 03 SE:
All stock again and with the same mileage as the garnet when I bought it, I really am starting back at square one. Just with a better base this time. I already had all the cosmetic stuff so I got it looking right.
And now it's time for boost again. I took the turbo off the red car and it sounded like this:
So I sent it off to get rebuilt. I'm doing the turbo build better this time, though. I'll be reusing the hardware from the voodoo kit but with this as the brain:
It's an enhanced MS3 (even though it says extreme) that I'll be using along with a set of flow force EV14 injectors. This is pretty much where I am now. I have the car running well on the megasquirt (without much work at all by me, thanks Reverant!) and I'm waiting for the turbo to come back from the shop. I can't wait to get back into boost and I plan on getting everything installed before the summer.
Thanks for reading! I've gotten a lot of information from this forum and I've been asked to make a build thread before so I thought I'd share my story.
Wow. I drove through the worst of the BR neighborhoods right after all that happened. The devastation was real. I'm glad you found a clean one to move forward with, though!
Wow. I drove through the worst of the BR neighborhoods right after all that happened. The devastation was real. I'm glad you found a clean one to move forward with, though!
It was devastating. That was almost 6 months ago and lots of people including me are still not back in their houses yet. Baton Rouge has never seen flooding like that at all and a lot of affected people didn't have flood insurance.
The new car is great! Not a speck of rust anywhere and the paint is in great shape. I bought it from an old lady with only 76k miles
More boost! I plan on getting a full 3" exhaust at some point and I'm keeping the flooded engine to rebuild with forged goodies and I'll swap it into the blue one. I eventually want to change to a borgwarner turbo but that will be a while off
I have dealt with you on facebook about the spoiler.
You are an honest good guy and good things are coming your way!
If you need any help with anything don't hesitate to ask. Good luck.
I got the turbo back today! It looks like it's got a new turbine housing or maybe they just cleaned it up but it looks brand new now. I'm super excited. I'm gonna order the clutch and then I'll have everything I need to get the car boosted again!
Progress! Have you thought about possibly driving out to the MMRLS event in October?
I want to but I doubt I'll be able to. It's a really long drive for me and I'm still in school so it's not an ideal time. Maybe I'll make it in a year or 2 though. I really want to meet everyone
Nice build! Is the oil catch can a Mishimoto? How do you like it? I have a 01 blue Miata and would like to do the rear bumper cutout as well. I like the lines you used for your cutout it looks really good. Good luck with the new build!
Nice build! Is the oil catch can a Mishimoto? How do you like it? I have a 01 blue Miata and would like to do the rear bumper cutout as well. I like the lines you used for your cutout it looks really good. Good luck with the new build!
Thanks! I've done the bumper cut 3 times now so I'm getting pretty good at it lol.
It's an eBay can with no baffling that I modified so that it would actually catch oil. Unfortunately I didn't have it on long enough to see if it actually worked before the flood but I'm putting it back on the blue one so I'll see how it goes
Last edited by jpaguillard; 02-09-2017 at 10:47 PM.
Oh not much at all. The can was like $15 and I just bought some copper tube from Home Depot and stainless scrub pads from Walmart. Probably around $30 total
The last few pieces came in yesterday! An FM level 1 clutch and oil drain hard line. When I took the old rubber oil drain line off of the turbo, it was hard as a rock and cracked pretty easily so I didn't want to use a rubber line this time. I'm hoping to start installing this stuff this weekend!
02-08-2017, 06:19 PM
NB2 FM Voodoo Kit Flood Resurrection
3
