NC Turbo kits for big power
 

Hi guys,

New to the site and to Miata in general. My good friend who is on this forum had a good power NA years back and is now doing a big power NA again.

We have more funds than we did 10 years ago so have the budgets to do things well.

Ive bought a 2014 NC and want to get a big power turbo kit. Ive researched and researched and its very limited for NC. The read up on the Fab9 kit was excellent however as my friends recent post has clarified, they don't get the best reputation.

Im now stumped. I want to build the car with variable maps. Maybe 200whp, 300 and 400.

Im now lost as don't know what turbo kit is best after my dreams being shattered with fab9.

What do you guys suggest?

Cheers in advance.

Steve

FWIW Steve has a track record of building stupid shit and spending way too much money on car builds (think s2000 full caged car, 600hp with $10,000 quaife gearboxes, Alcon 8 pot floating brake setups on his works van and you'll be getting close). I'd love to see this come to fruition. Talks of 400whp sound stupid but his 'daily' is a McLaren 650s so it has got to be a fun car with a bit of power behind it!

You could check out TDR, turbos done right (IIRC) not Track Dog Racing, but Im pretty sure everyone hears hates their shenanigans.

I think you mean Turbo's done Rong, or Turbo's done Retarded.

I'd go with FAB9 before that joker any day

It seems no1 gets a good rep haha.

we have bbr here in the uk. Maybe best to stick with them. Would love to deal with FM but they do not offer turbo for NC. I find this very strange.

FM aint even a little bit what it used to be. Even more sad and embarrassing is what BEGi has become. It's sad, but such is life.

The NC is the bastard stepchild of the miata world.

Wow friendly bunch.

unfortunately with Scottish weather, there isn't much left of the NA and NB cars. Most are piles of rust. Otherwise we I would happily build an NA or NB as oartsbare a lot cheaper.

they're nice cars, but the aftermarket for them for whatever reason is really limited, and not many good companies make parts for them.

what about an ND? with an EFR turbo setup :D

I was going to go with an ND but limited to 250hp as the high compression. We then decided no problem as we will build engine for lower compression. But with research the tranny and diff are weak. Can't handle more than 250-270. I need 400 😃

Have you thought about finding a rust free NA or NB and importing it? Must be some left in the US.

Or impress everybody and go custom

efr6758 :likecat:

We are RHD here. And driving a LHD in Scotland would be far from fun. Great idea though.

haha I've been down the road of custom builds and it never ends well. Massive amounts of cash and I never get to an end result. I just want a simple bolt on brakes, suspension, turbo etc.

We have bbr over here in the uk. Just found out they do a 390hp kit! Think I will go with that. Their reputation is outstanding.

Go totally custom with a turbo kit, itll be more fun and interesting that way.

Couple of us NC guys are making north of 300whp on pump (93) using the Fab 9 EFR 6758 on a stock/ECUTek ECU without much issue. On C20 fuel (unleaded non-oxygenated) I can see making 400whp without an issue until you blow up the tranny. But then just get an adapter and BMW tranny or the new Eco-boost mustang tranny and you're good to go again. Big problem with NC2/3 engine is torque. You can get around that for a while by running a 4 port BCS and then jacking up the boost in the higher rpms to make you hp "number". Torque can remain low saving the baby rods and crank. There is a fellow on here working with that type of setup now using the Jesus of boost controllers (Eboost-2). There's also the option of swapping in a 2.5 or doing a forged version of either configuration. There is some weird shit going on in TX with NC's, dedicated track cars and trannies, so gearbox failures can be solved. Diff issues can be solved by tossing in something from a CTS or CTS-V. Money solves problems. Jay-Z was wrong.

Also, Bryan offers the 7163 with the kit as well. There are a few things I would change with the Fab 9 kit but the manifold the Glease Manufacturing makes for the kit is spectacular.

That Texas and trannies statement up there... lol

jeff

Is the NC crankshaft a known weak point? That would suck, Im a NA/NB guy and sure the rods are weak but we have a pretty stout forged crank that noone breaks.

NC1 crank isn't great but the rods are so weak that they turn to dust before you get anywhere near crank stress. NC2/3 are much better but not as strong as something like a 4G63. I probably shouldn't have said they are weak, They're just not bullet proof like some stock 2.0L cranks have proven to be.

jeff

Moto East makes parts for the NC. I see their cars out on Pocono raceway all the time. Duno if it is still available as it says out of stock though? I would give them a poke and see what they have.

Their shop car is making 400+ and scares the crap out of me.

Moto East NC (2006-2015) Turbo Kit

This thread contains lots of bad news for me! I am actively shopping for a clean NC(2) 6spd that I plan to turbo and want to get at least 350whp on 92-93 pump gas.

Is the NC driveline (trans and diff) really too fragile to handle the level of torque that comes along with a 350whp turbo build? I don't mind installing stronger, lower comp forged pistons and a good HG but I am not interested in a non-Mazda trans or diff.

Any more feedback on which off the shelf turbo kit is the one to have for this level of power on an NC? Is the stock ECU + reflash a solid solution or do I need to look at an AEM or similar?

Stock ECU with flash works great. You can make your power goals without issue on a stock NC2/NC3 engine. The transmission will hold up as well at those levels. The problem is torque when it comes to the gearbox. At 350 whp you wont be close to 400 torque at the wheels so nothing to worry about. The gearbox will survive at 400 torque as well but it lifespan is determined by the driver as well. If you are beating the crap out of it on a lot of track days or drag racing with sticky tires then it's not going to last long. If you aren't beating the crap out of it every other weekend then it may not ever break a gearbox. Bryan at Fab9 runs a built 2.5 with the 6758 over 400whp and he beats on it as a shop car. I dont know that he's ever killed a rear diff. Jay's car "Black One" from TDR makes over 400 wheel and Mike from Moto-East is well over 400 wheel. These cars all get driven pretty hard.

At 14 psi I'm somewhere in the 260-285 whp range just based on gorilla math and metered air. My car is a blast at this level. Still on stock 3 inch MAF and not running it in hybrid mode with the 3 bar MAP sensor. Stock ECU with ECUtek RaceROM. I can probably get up to around 16-17psi before I overrun the stock MAF. There are guys running MAP/MAF hybrids and 3.5 in MAF tubes and each owner and tuner have their preferences. There are a lot of choices in how to get to your end goal and it's pretty easy if you can turn a wrench and have some time.

Dont let my previous post about the driveline discourage you. I just wanted to point out where and what would become the weak links at certain levels.

jeff

I'm not sure if you were referring to my car but i'll add what i've learned from my car. Might help someone. I went the custom route on my turbo kit b/c I had a few requirements that nothing on the market met at the time of my build. The most important for me was making it easy to work on. Access to every nut/bolt and being able to remove the motor with the turbo attached has been nice. I'm sure It could make a little more power with a more complicated manifold design but it turned out to be pretty efficient making a little over 400whp at 18psi. Looking at the driveline the 6 speed is a must. With track use I would recommend getting the gears REM'd to bring oil temps down. The gears are pretty stout but 6th gear is not. I stripped the teeth off 6th with limited use on full power. I have limited power in 6th to 250whp and have had no issues since. Over kill but reliable. Swapping the rear diff to a Rx-8 unit works well but you will need to slot or build a PPF. Again REM the gears for oil temps if wanting to stay on track for 30min. A 400HP NC without aero is a handful to drive so count on needing good shocks. Here is a bullet point of what I have found to work.

2.5L (stock)
GTX 3076 .63ar
400HP 380TQ tune to reduce peak TQ in lower rpms to keep from kicking a rod
6 speed trans
Rx-8 diff/axles with the lowest ring and pinion you can
Boost by gear to reduce power in 6th gear
Boost by throttle position to make power delivery driveable
All the radiator and oil color you can fit

Here is the FB link if you'd like more info.
https://www.facebook.com/TXTrackNC/

BBR
 

I believe BBR in England makes a turbo kit for the NC that should be able to achieve your goals

Yes. I was speaking of your car as well as another who is rumored to be trying to mate the gearbox from the ecoboost mustang to a boosted 2.5L. I followed your build on Track Junkies like many others and was curious of how well the stock gearbox was holding up. I'm assuming you're using the Haltech to control boost by gear x rpm. Us factory ECU guys are still trying to get a grip on which boost controller works best for limiting torque in the lower rpm range. There has been some success with both the E-Boost 2 and the Profec B Spec 2 using dual port actuators. I'm using a SCG-1 and using the gain function to get a bit of boost creep once peak torque has been achieved at a lower boost level. It's not great but decent enough . Thank you for posting the info about your setup here.

jeff

NC1 weak engine is easy to fix with a 2.5 swap, not sure how many of those are available across the pond, but over here I trip over them compared to BPs in the junk yard. Way easier to find them in fords than mazdas even though its a mazda engine.

Tranny theres always the T5 like I've done with the quad4rods bellhousing. Its not great and you have to make your own clutch and trans mount. But as long as you buy a matching flex plate and starter combo and send the flexplate and $800 to quartermaster you'll be fine. You'll have to dig through my build thread on how to do it, I'm pretty sure I'm the only person who knows what teh internetz is that has used this combo in any vehicle. To get the T5 better than the mx5 6 speed for torque you're probably going to want to get one built by astrogear, which puts the price up a bit. But as long as you dont launch in 1st it should still last quite a while at 400ftlbs.

EFlove, did you have valve spring issues on your 2.5 with boost? I was getting float at 4k rpmish as low as 7psi with the stock valve springs and cams and nc2 intake manifold. But it would clear up and then float again at like 7k at any boost between 7 and 14psi.

Its sad that the nc hasnt had much aftermarket thrown at it. The MZR, and especially the 2.5 is a monster motor. The K series that no one's heard of. Put it in perspective, 4pistons just made over 400whp on straight methanol with a no rules K motor. Theres a shop in mass that has been building ranger motors (literally the 2nd worse mzr over the 2.slow) for mini sprints and has been making that much power for like almost a decade on methanol with unported head and stock valve springs (weird circle track rules). And with my janky ass lick my thumb and stick it in the air basemap, half my shit not working, valve floating, oil pump spinning by hopes and dreams because the bolt backed out still made like 280 wheel under an hour on the dyno. I cant wait to get that back together and get a real dyno out of it.