GRM Favorite + Turbo?

Would it be completely stupid to turbo charge a perfectly fine running 91' Miata?

Right now my daily driver is a 91' NA with 145k and climbing. It doesn't burn any oil and the compression is still good (180psi avg). I am a noob to turbo charging. I have read about it, and under stand the basic concept, but haven't owned a car with one. I am looking at an intercooled greddy setup and my main concern besides grenading the engine is blowing up the 1.6L rear. I'll be doing a clutch job once the weather turns nice so I'll have a stock 1.8L clutch to back up the engine and Im going to replace the cas and valve cover seals as well. Since it is my daily driver I would like to get solid fuel/ign management but how easy is it to tune megasquirt for cold weather so I can use the car year round?

Shucks. I thought this was gonna be about a Turbo P71.

That being said, I think you'd be fine, so long as you went with a full kit like as sold by Flyin' Miata. They did an article a few issues back regarding FM's kit, and, while I've never owned a Miata, I was sold on it.

Hie thee to the Flyin' Miata web site post haste. All thy questions shall be answered.

Nitroracer wrote: Would it be completely stupid to turbo charge a perfectly fine running 91' Miata?

Actually, as of 6/24/07, in most states, I believe it's now a 3rd-degree misdomeanor to NOT to throw boost at a Miata!!!

But as the good Reverend and Billy said, check out FM's website. The initial cost may be a bit more than the Greddy, but overall it's pretty damn hard to beat their different packages. Their tech-support is awesome, as well!!!

I bought a '93 with 215k on it and turbo'ed it for trackdays. I did one trackday stock and then two more boosted. I, like you, was a complete noob to turbo'ing cars. Correction - I am still a complete noob but I have a running and street reliable turbo'ed Miata. Track reliable is still a goal I'm working towards.

I bought a used Greddy system. It was cheap, for a reason. It does the trick but right now the only part left from the kit is the turbo. If I were to start over again I'd go with a Begi-S kit. It's less expensive than FM's stuff and can be upgraded over time. FM makes great kit but their buy-in price was high for me.

So far I'm running this setup: ~TD04-15 turbo (stock greddy)

~etd racing manifold (greddy cracked even with relief cuts)

~stock greddy downpipe (soon to be replaced by the Begi Greddy piece)

~1.8 injectors (more fuel to get ready for 6 - 7 lbs boost, currently 5 lbs)

~ Vortech FMU (crap but works so far)

~ Bipes ignition

~ RX-7 intercooler with associated piping

~ Porsche 944 blow-off valve recirculated in front of the turbo

~ crap manual boost controller (mbc - soon to be replaced)

~ Stock drivetrain incl clutch, rear, trans, etc.

For information I would recommend going to miata.net. Their turbo section is very good. You can go to miataturbo.net but that place is full of jerks, malcontents, elitists, and power tripping admins. I can't recommend staying away from there enough. They suck, suck, suck. The one part of the forum I would say is a good read is Braineck's FAQ on DIY turboing. It's informative and, in my opinion, the only page on that site I'd dirty my monitor with.

So far as reliability - mine has been great on the street. Even with the larger injectors. It starts and runs great. Gas mileage, for me, isn't great. I could do better by ditching the bipes and the FMU and going with a megasquirt. I'm cheaping out in the meantime. It's not a daily so mpg isn't a great concern for me. I did have an issue with heat on the street once I upp'ed the boost to 6 - 7 lbs on the stock radiator. It was at that point I did some research on miata.net about a cooling reroute. I routed the cooling away from the heater water return pipe under the exhaust mainfold. I cut the upper rad house in half and routed that return hose, from the out side of the heater core, into the top radiator hose using a copper tee from Lowe's. Works great except that it takes forever for the car to warm up now. Ah well. I'll work on that later.

Check the October issue of your favorite magazine, too. It sounds like our car was pretty close to yours before we boosted it using the FMII setup.

We considered lots of options for our turbo setup, but in the end it made more sense (and was cheaper!) to use the all-inclusive FMII setup rather than source/fabricate all of the components individually to achieve our power goals.

The Hydra ECU that we used probably offers the greatest opportunity for cost cutting, but it's been very reliable and tuning was very straightforward. I like it a lot, but could see the argument for using something like MegaSquirt instead.

The results are...satisfying.

I haven't encountered a mazda yet that didn't beg to be force fed. I've now got my wife asking what it would take to turbo her protege, that's how addictive boost is.

Good olde planet miata was selling the kit I was interested in, on eBay, and now its no longer for sale. So it'll have to wait until another day. My car finding sickness has uncovered a GLHS and its turboed goodness but it might have to wait too.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/90-93-MIATA-GREDDY-TURBO-KIT-WITH-EXTRAS-USED_W0QQitemZ310111585754QQcmdZViewItemQQptZMotors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories?hash=item310111585754&_trksid=p4506.c0.m245&_trkparms=65%3A7|39%3A1|240%3A1318

I autocross my friend's turbo miata. i believe it is a 91 or 92. It puts down 240 WHP and weighs 2400lbs. It runs the DIYAUTOTUNE.com plug and play computer along with a T25 turbo.

This thing is crazy fun!