A warning for those considering the ebay kit
 

I got the ebay turbo as an xmas gift from my fiance, I'd rather have had one of those ugly sweaters. It was not worth spending the money to return it. (would have cost me over 150 bucks to send it back and eat their 15% restocking fee) I'll just spend the cash on the FM manifold and downpipe and use the intercooler and turbo.
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1388791560

Turbo no hit block, hit everything else.

This kit I can honestly say is the biggest turd you could spend 500 bucks on, hopefully anyone searching for the ilovetacotaco kit will see this and NOT give them their money.

If the picture isn't enough detail, the manifold interferes with the coolant pipe, if you have P/S if just baaaarely misses one of the hoses and don't even get me started on their downpipe.

Pretty much this kit is pieces from other cars (Protege manifold, SR20 downpipe, and generic FMIC kit.)

I honestly wonder how many people have actually got this on their car with zero fuel management as I don't think you could fully install it without at least some knowledge which might explain why you see so many of them on CL unused. I figure a warning with pictures showing that the kit fails on just the install is more then enough, I don't even want to think about it cracking.:facepalm:

Time for a new fiance?

Nah, they know nill bout cars so honest mistake

FYI all the other kits also interfere with the coolant pipe, but yeah, what a turd.

Ah why does the valve cover vent (not pcv) go to the intake manifold...

it doesn't.

4 years here and you still attempted to install it?

Installing this thing will be a waste of time. The manifold might last a month, same with the downpipe. The turbo.. check to see if its glued together.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1388811560

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1162391891.jpg

I say what the fuck. If you're stuck with it and you don't mind turning a few wrenches it's a fun afternoon of gaining perspective. If the junk somehow fits up and runs, see what it takes to break it and toss it. The IC should catch any big chunks of impeller, right?

And props to the OP's chick; While uninformed about her purchase, she did buy the cat a turbo kit for christmas. Points for the spirit of the thing.

This is the kit I started with, before I was a member on here. I had zero fitment issues with this kit, except for the fact that I had to fab up a downpipe. Only issue I had was the manifold (which is made of the thinnest, cheapest grade of stainless steel known to man and welded by a 6 year old in a sweat shop) cracked, and the ball bearings flew apart inside the turbo's chra and caused the turbine impeller self port the turbine housing. If this manifold would've been made with quality products, and the turbo wouldn't have disintegrated after 200 miles; this would've actually been a decent setup.

Glued together turbo is magnificent.

You would think that since the failure rate for the paper thick manifolds is near 100%, after a few years the distributor feedback to the manufacturer would be "make 'em just a bit thicker so they last at least a few thousand miles" but I suppose they sell enough to not care.

China don't care lol, its cheaper for the seller to replace the item and throw it away then return it normally if they have 1 out of 10 sold returned. Plus you can write them off on taxes without returning them to china, so if most of these items fail outside of their warranty period they are turning profit.

As for the glued turbo.. wow

I guess you get what you pay for!

I guess so! quit spamming the forum with useless posts.

least of your worries. I'd rather parts be touching/interfering than a manifold that cracks after use.

[quote]Pretty much this kit is pieces from other cars (Protege manifold, SR20 downpipe, and generic FMIC kit.)[/qoute]

what'd you expect?

You say this yet...

OP, make it fit...

bending the coolant pipe isn't a big deal and clocking the turbo to make your IC piping isn't either.

The ic piping you can either do with the bends and couplers or take it to a fab shop to have the aluminum pipes welded up so you only have 4 or 6 couplers total.




Glued turbos is a thing of the past (I believe). that was from the first of chinachargers back in the 90's

Considering there is a huge user base of chinachargers on this site (including myself), posting one of the first turbos to come on the scene back in circa 2002 or so, from a company that it no longer in business, and an "issue" that's not an issue is a bit of a stretch.

At least attack how bad most perform compare to the genuine thing, otherwise...

You think i'm trolling about some companies selling glued turbos dont you? No sir, that turbo is in fact real.

We all know it's real. It was all the headlines across forums over a decade ago.

He's saying that isn't an issue currently, or any time in the last couple years.

no, but im saying if you are going to poke fun at chinacharger, poke at a legitimate issue, not one that's a decade old and is not a real issue anymore.

just an update lol the intercooler has a leak, I know many run the ebay intercoolers with no issue so just more a point out at quality control from the seller especially since they only warranty stuff for 15 days.

:laugh: wowww

fixit
 

I'm with Pinky and shammed- make it work. That $150 it cost to return can buy you a MIG/flux core welder (HF new or CL used), a grinder, some cutoff wheels and other miscel supplies. Certainly enough to fix the problems and fab a brace for the manifold. And you'll come out the other side of the project knowing a lot more than not to buy the kit.

You can use aluminum brazing rod and a good propane torch head to fix the IC hole.

+1 from me. Not only for the learning experience, and the fact that you just might be able to make something happen with it, but also because I'm sure your lady friend will be super duper bummed if she finds out you just scrapped the whole thing.

She was probably really excited about this, and she spent quite a lot on it (relative to most gifts--if not relative to most full turbo kits) and I'm sure we've all "been there" where someone just straight up didn't like a gift we gave them..

Put it on the breakup list just incase.

I have the kit on the car, I wanted to see how long before the first crack happened. thats how I found the intercooler leaked lol

Don't know how to describe putting something you know will break on your car.. On the bright side the turbo sounds nice spooling up.


waiting for it to break and then just be all like "hey babe I need an FM turbo manifold"

You're using some type of engine management i hope. Or at least some fuel management.

Of course, an MS1 with an lc1 WBO2 I built a while back for my 1.6 turbo.

It ran great tell I had a backfire through the intake start a random fire, fortunately only hoses damaged. People call my paranoid for insisting any modified car carry a fire extinguisher, today it paid off and saved my ass. I think my fuel line cracked or fuel injector grommet, time to just rehose the entire engine.

From this angle it looks like it touches the frame too? :dunno:

its very close, I've got it installed on the car now though and intend to run the thing tell it falls apart lol


I decided with an AWIC to help save space since I had a pump, and such laying around and the FMIC leaked pretty bad. https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1395590114

i can help you out! ill buy your headlights, and send you my pop ups. more funds= more fun
definitely not buying headlights on ebay after seeing this

200 miles on it and my first crack, weirdly enough it isn't on the piping but the turbo intake flange the rest of the manifold is just fine. I went ahead and welded a washer onto the flange as well as patched the crack. I'll be ordering a DIY log manifold soon though.

I think I overtightened a bolt on it, but oh well lol

SO? How is everything holding up?

So much fail going on. What are you using for Engine Management?

:hustler:

I dont weed good

As bad as it may seem I have used many parts form ILOVETACO and most of them have been decent. I learned a long time ago that the ebay mini ram or ramhorn or basically any tubular manifold is to thin and junk. With one exception witch is the XSpower manifold for my 2jz witch is still holding strong along with many other people with the same one.

Ebay parts are good and bad. I have had two china chargers on my 1.8t volkswagen both have gone just over 100K at 15-20 psi on a daily driver one was a mild upgrade stock turbo other was an ebay 50 trim. They do not make the same power as a real one but work pretty well.

I guess I am with Braineak. Ebay parts rarely bolt on perfect and always need tweaking and I would not trust anything other than a cast manifold from them. Other than that look at all the build threads from hondas to toyotas, even here universal inter cooler kits work but are not as efficient turbo manifolds and turbos work but make less power than Garrett. Use the china charger on a cast mani throw a good gate on it and use the china bov and make 180whp at 11psi. Thats what they are good for decent power at a decent price. If you want 100% perfect fitment and the absolute most power you can get from a setup buy they best of the best and spend 10X what you can build on an ebay kit.

My old civic made 200whp on 12psi with a ebay turbo

with the same size turbo but a true garrett gt30r ball bearing it made 200whp on 8psi. That being said one turbo was $150 the other was $1400 I would expect more from the $1400 turbo. Ebay is cheap replaceable throw away turbo parts made to last 50k miles max in most cases. Dont buy ebay parts and expect a begi S3 kit to come in the mail.

I hate the beef everyone has with ebay parts. Look closely before you buy buy parts that have been known to work by other members and then expect to fab everything. If you dont want to deal with all of the above spend 3K and forget about ebay.

end rant.....

So you're telling me you had a 1.8t go 200k, 100k with each turbo?

:bowrofl:

Stock turbo died at 80k first eBay turbo went from 80k to 175k second eBay turbo is still on the car at 270k and going strong yes my 1.8t has 270k on it and it's still together and I have never replaced the engine

You lost me at vw