A few months back, I bought a miata as a fun project car. I found a well used 91 who changed hands a few times in it's life, but unfortunately none of those people had good taste



This is how she was when I first bought it, rather ugly huge wheels, a bad paint job (in more than one way) with some slight front end damage, nothing serious. The entire front end was shot and sloppy as hell, and the stock shocks had seen better days.

I got after replacing a lot of stuff, namely new balljoints, tierods, all the boots, poly bushings, some cheap coilovers, "big" 1.8 brakes, and some stainless lines. Finished it all off with some wheels and tires that don't weigh 100lbs per corner.

In progress...



After all that work and an alignment, this is how she turned out. Not bad, and not very expensive either. I love miatas



To test the new setup, I drove to Colorado. My Miata hates elevation, but going downhill is a riot! This was Mt. Evans, the next day was Pikes Peak, Loveland pass was friggen closed, but there were awesome roads everywhere...



At some point my door decided it didn't like paint, so I scraped off the bondo and huge flakes and gave myself another racing stripe.

So, elevation sucks, I can't keep up with a mini cooper OR a ford focus. The only logical answer is a turbo, right?

To start with, I figured the computer probably ought to be the first thing I mess with, so I bought one of these



Wiring everything up was pretty fun, besides undoing previous hack-jobs, everything was pretty easy. I picked up a cheap MTX-L, a cheaper boost gauge, and a double a pillar gauge pod.



Feeding wires through the dash, fun



Seems like the easiest way to feed the wideband and vac line. I did a little trimming on the plastic grommet to fit things without crimping them. T's off to the MSII behind the cluster.



First start! And it actually works! I used a fan while I was setting the base timing, don't know why it wasn't in front of the car in the picture lol

Now the plan is to get it running good before the turbo, because I don't think it will blow up as soon n/a while I noob about TS.

As for the turbo, I've been doing a lot of research before I even bought the miata

I'm going with a cheap ebay T3, with the cast ebay manifold, mainly because I'm cheap. If things break, I can always order a new one on ebay and swap it out, right

Pictures, I like pictures.



Found this cool oil feed fitting, m10x1.5 - 1/8NPT



The turbo is a T3 50 trim...





Other fun parts include...

2.5"-3" downpipe, V-band turbo
Gonna try and mig a decent 3" setup
magnaflow 5x11x22
RX8 yellows
warb 190
e-bay intercooler - maybe
Cheap oil feed/return kit
Might try and "alumaweld" hot/cold side - otherwise I'll just do it in steel

One of these days, a nice NA8 will roll across the auction lot, and then I'll make her look pretty again. Till then, I'm cheap!

Oh, cheap ebay intercooler is supposed to look like this...



But looks like this...



Boooo!

More to come soon, hopefully, hopefully real soon!

 

Stolen turbulators ftl. I'd send that back- clearly not as advertised. And pointless to install.

 

Ilovetacotaco customer service -

And the reply...

Classic!

It appears they may have been right at one point in time, and actually halfway decent, but they probably got all cheap at some point...

 

this is what happens when your standards are to high for eBay products I suppose he could've come back with something about how it flows much better than the others with all the "blockage" in the tubes.

 

Fun! I love budget builds. I also love baller builds. I just don't like boring builds.

I like what you are doing so keep us posted.

 

I'll be following this build very closely. Similar to the build I'm about to start. Be sure to take lots of pics, and be very detailed so it'll be easier for me lol jk

 

Just curious, do you have a link to the specific turbo you are using?

 

Wow you got shafted on that intercooler haha. My buddy bought one that actually looks like the pictures, I guess he got lucky.

 

They do mention the super low drop this intercooler is supposed to have, I guess they weren't lying

Thanks!

Budget baller, how I live my life

Links aren't always that great since they go dead, this is what to look for. If the compressor doesn't have a big boss sticking off the snail, it's too big.

Intake: 2.5 inch
Inlet: 2.25 inch
Compressor trim: .42ar
Compressor Wheel diameter: 43.20 / 60.41
Turbine Wheel diameter: 45.74 / 62.86
Exhaust Trim: .48ar

Godspeed GSP T3 Internal Wastegate 48AR 2 5" V Band Exhaust turbocharger Turbo | eBay

I'll try and keep a good log of what's been done, but I suck with pictures. Hopefully have her all done by mid October, I plan to go disrupt mini's of the ozarks

I've heard of a few people getting the right one, I'm hoping ordering from a different seller might have better results. This guy on e-bay is being a tard, you can tell they just want you to keep it and hope it takes longer than 30 days to get on your car...

 

Deleted my AFM today, finally. Also replaced the high side driver that I blew up. They say to pull the st sig fuse first for a reason

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My racing beat intake is gone, sooo strutbar! And everyone knows you ain't serious till the zip ties come out

Miata is running a little bit better every day, my VE table is pretty dang close now, except the higher rev limit cells I've been avoiding. There's a dyno shop, or two, not far from my shop, but they seem afraid of megasquirt. I don't get it, I've done HPtuners, and I've done MS now. I don't see how they could be that different!

I should probably install the larger injectors and fuel pump before the turbo, right? I'm using yellow RX8 injectors, which I believe are a direct plug and play all around. Weekend project, maybe

About to order a bunch of bends from summit too, since they look cheapest. Any suggestions on cheap mandrel bends? I think I've hit the big easy google results, summit still looks cheapest with shipping.

Grabbed a RS232 to bluetooth adapter, and tried to hack it to work with the megasquirt. No go just yet, but I know it'll work eventually...

IMG_20140828_005625_zps013a854d.jpg?t=1409205463

 

Yes. Get the car running right on them, tune your unboosted cells, then install turbo and adjust as necessary.

 

Cool, gonna toss those in this weekend, along with a new pump. I stayed up waaay too late last night reading about deadtime and volt correction, lol

Installed a Wells TPS201 today, which was actually pretty damn easy. It was tight, super tight, but I was able to fit the new TPS, solder to some "reworked" internal pins, and still fit the stock cover. I should have taken pictures, but I was trying to hurry...

It was easy-peasy, now I get to play with TPSdot and TPS limiting overrun. Had it pretty close on MAP alone, but it would still hit while cruising at 4th/55mph which was pretty annoying.

I thought it might have fixed my launch control, but it still appears broke. Figured you couldn't have a "TPS above" 0% without a TPS, guess it's something else.

My cruise box got stolen at some point, but I still have an upper limit switch that appears to ground out when the clutch is in at all on diagrams. Seems it would be best for launch/flatshift. But, I think I'm already tapped into that switch, the neutral and cruise clutch switch, different than the "on the floor" starter interlock switch, right? That one doesn't even appear to go to the ECU on my diagrams.

I must have the in/out switched or something, I should see the green light "launch" in megasquirt light, I imagine.

I should just leave it alone and not break things, but that's no fun

 

Did you read the other guy's thread about ventilating his block with a connecting rod using launch control the fourth day he had it? Or some such similar nonsense.

 

Oh yes, I know better but I still try haha

Figured out my idle valve tonight too, stalls the car anywhere from 10-40% 40-60 seems good, and anything higher doesn't seem to increase revs. After all that, figured out that I can close the bypass valve completely and just use warmup at 40%/160 to hold ~850rpm. 10% more for AC brings it to 1K, and it works soo smooth!

Except my revs like to fall from 1000 to 750 before jumping back to 850 when you shut off AC, don't see a setting to ease it back out, not that big a deal though.

Closed loop idle next

 

Closed loop idle is easy, even with the AC. I even got brave and put it into closed loop PID EGO at idle, and it stays smooth without hunting, surging, or any other funky stuff. Any other reason why you wouldn't want to run closed loop at idle?

DIYPNP base map TPSdot is much smoother out the gate than I ever had MAPdot, TPS WOT curve seems to help a lot. TPS limited overrun is nice too, I don't hit the fuel cut costing down a gentle slope at 45-55 any more.

I finally mounted the DIY today too, since I've just been letting it slide around on the floor. I used cheap strapping and just used the factory locations.

IMG_20140830_191358_zpse8780657.jpg?t=1409448423

Little hex nuts tacked to the other side of the strap, I should be able to remove and reinstall as many times as I need.

IMG_20140830_193106_zps0061e646.jpg?t=1409448412

I cut my carpet when I started with this megasquirt, It's **** and needs to go byebye anyway lol

Launch control still don't work, and I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that the clutch switch grounds like it's supposed to. Maybe it's a sign to quit while I'm ahead, or maybe there's a trick to using flex as a LC input?

 

It helps if you install the transistor for input 2 lol, launch control works like it's supposed to, though I haven't tried actually using it yet.

Also figured out that I can 1/2 the req. fuel I was running and double my VE table, I've got a lot more resolution now, still not above 255 in any cells, and it was still pretty close after scaling it. Ought to help a bit with the larger injectors, had me a bit nervous how far a 1 point change would skew the AFR with the tiny stock injectors and something like 16 for req. fuel.

Finally got LM Programmer to work as well, so I locked the MTX-L output at fixed voltages a few times and fudged the calibration numbers in TS to finally get them to match in the middle, where it counts.

This thing is too much fun to play with

 

I installed my new fuel pump the other day, still haven't tackled the injectors or sequential injection yet...

Had a cold snap, and a old problem reoccurred. Won't stay at running temp on the highway, but does fine in the city. It's only like 60 out, not that cold. Was at temp, running some errands in the city before I went on the boring roads. I noticed the heater kinda sucked halfway through the trip, so I shut it off and it held at ~130. Never even got to running temp on the way back, but popped right back once I got back to stop and go city traffic. I love wasting fuel on WUE!

Cheap thermostat? I don't know, need to read more still.

 

Ordered some of the last pieces I'll hopefully need, bends, bends...



Still need a new intercooler, finally got my money back on the last one. Ebay removed my negative feedback, but didn't tell me about it. Ebay is bogus, all around....

 

Just a FYI, for those that care, I am all but 100% certain that Ilovetacotaco and Miragepower2008 on ebay are the same exact person.

I'm no longer allowed to purchase things from ilovetacotaco, and it seems to have blocked miragepower2008 as well. Them being one in the same is the only thing that makes sense.

New cheap intercooler on the way, hope for better results this time!

Hope to start throwing things at the car next week, getting excited!

 

Why are you no longer allowed to buy things from ilovetacotaco?

Is this because they sold you an intercooler that clearly wasn't as advertised? If they've blocked you for that, you can absolutely hit up Ebay and make their lives hell.