Question on Turbo :D
 

Hey everyone had a quick question I am going to be purchasing a 1990 Miata Stock, I am looking at getting this http://www.bellengineering.net/produ...roducts_id=242
I hear good things about it... Should i add an intercooler?
And what else should i upgrade it to?

Thanks- Dylan

If you plan to make more power then yes, you should have an intercooler. There are various different ways/sizes to go. The ebay intercooler route seems to be the most popular. Air/water is pretty trick, or you could always just get anyone from BEGI.

I'm not sure where you "have heard good things" about the entry level BEGI kit. It has a decent ball bearing turbo and a durable cast iron log style turbo manifold. For $2K, you get only one of the required bandaids for using the stock ECU (BEGI adjustable fuel pressure regulator). You still need an O2 clamp for smooth throttle response through boost transition and you still need a wideband O2 to tune it safely. Then, if you want to increase to 8psi..you need to add a Bipes unit (to retard timing), the booster fuel pump and an overpriced small intercooler with small charge tubing. You'll probably still be too lean @8psi using the stock 90 injectors and running 100psi of fuel pressure (which means upgrading to set of slightly larger injectors) and your top end is still going to be strangled by the stock air flow meter. At the end of the day you'll have a ton of money invested in a suboptimal turbo system that is held together by BANDAIDS!

Don't waste time and money on the bandaids, get a megasquirt or used Hydra or even a used Link for your car before you add a turbo.

Buy a Megasquirt from the forums, install it, learn to tune it then order your turbo. It makes life so much easier! Plus don't forget you can get a cheap SR20DET turbo and send it into BEGi and they'll shave some $ off the cost of a kit.

The eBay intercooler route can work very well with an afternoon of DIY and some planning.

I'm running the 1.8 Begi S kit, quality is great although without inter cooler its nasty to run but so is any other non intercooled kit.

As was mentioned by Rokomis, your best bet is probably to start with a megasquirt and get the car running reliably on that n/a. At that point, you can pretty inexpensively start to acquire parts to put together a DIY setup. It's a bit overwhelming to think about piecing it together yourself, but there is a TON of info here, and if you're not in an absolutely huge rush, you can likely do it for a pretty reasonable budget.

You'll end up with a better system, and learn a lot more by the time you're done, which will make doing upgrades and whatnot a lot simpler in the future.


That said, if you ARE impatient and want the kit, that one will do what you want, but you definitely will need to add an IC if you want more power. If you have the ability to measure, draw lines with a sharpie, and use a hacksaw, somehting like this will save you a buttload of $ over adding the IC option to the begi kit:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/UNIVE...item2564395ff2

Up to you, but if you can take things a little slower and start with MS, then DIY a turbo, I think you'll be happier over the long haul and end up spending less money total.

Welcome and good luck either way, though.