Hey all,

My name is Sandy and a little over a year ago I happened to go to a car auction to check out a miata because a buddy of mine loves them and had got me excited. Well turned out it had already been through the auction twice with no buyers. It was a a flat black right hand drive 1991 Eunos roadster with a very nice new canvas top! I got the auction house to call the dealer as it was a trade in... insane! and cut a deal for 2600 bucks. WHAT A DEAL

I've loved turbo's for a long time and had previously turbo'd a 1984 rabbit GTI with very good success. Ran original Megasquirt built myself and all sorts of other frankenstein goodies.

So shortly after buying the Eunos I wanted to turbo it and started buying random DIY parts to fab up my own kit because I'm cheap. WOAH that was a mistake. I'm too old for this **** now but I guess I didn't realize that. I sure do now.

Anyway, I collected a bunch of crap for relatively cheap. T25 turbo from a SR20, Begi manifold, 460cc injectors, BMW TPS, oil line etc. I had lots of old shitty piping around from other turbo projects and my favorite Volvo blow off valves which are the cats ***.

So I decided to just drive it for the first summer instead of taking it apart and took it on a 2600km road trip which was the highlight of my year for sure. I also spent a weekend polishing my hood to silver which looks bad *** with the flat black!

I did find time to put in Tein SS coilovers because my rear shocks were blown. I was a little disappointed because they weren't too stiff but I've got 9/7kg in there now and its just right. The car also came with a bunch of other aftermarket goods like an upgraded front sway bar. Rear lower brace. Super nice japanese intake cone thing. Wind deflector. Sportmax wheels. and JASMA header / full exhaust. And a strut tower brace.

So fall hits and I take it apart in hopes of a quick turbo build. Left it for the winter after I got lazy and in April got back atter. It was a death build as I was hoping to do it in a 3 day weekend and it probably took me 2 fricken weeks with both weekends and a few nights each week. DANG. I built the downpipe from scratch using the T25's stock outlet and an old Mazda 323 GT 2.5 inch mandrel bent stainless pimp one i had lying around. It was more of a bitch the I thought it was going to be and took forever. i also built a bunch of little brackets here and there and now that other things have happened i can't quite remember why it was such a pain.

Anyway, So I had purchased a Brian MS and was super excited to drive it back to my apartment downtown. I plugged in the MS and started it up. It ran unreal great for a first MS start. It was late so I hurried and calibrated the sensors and stuff and tried to set the timing. Long story short somewhere along the way I broke the MS and spent the next 3 weeks at least trying to fix it. It wouldn't start the car :(

One day it hit me I had bought a Vortech FMU initially cause I was going to ghetto rig it with the stock ECU. So I gave the MS one last good try and when it didn't work plugged in the FMU and ghetto rigged it up with ducktape and one way valves and other hilarious crap.

BOOM she runs! And fairly well too. I had kept my DIY wideband I used in my rabbit and had installed it. The car runs very very rich all the time but other then that great. The wastegate opens at 7psi and my fueling just covers it. When at 7psi and getting into the high revs i'm hitting high 12's sometimes 13 even so still fairly rich.

Brain spent a lot of time helping me out after i broke the MS he built me so a shout out to him as I've appreciated him taking his time to try and help me.

I've got a bunch of stuff to do in order to reduce the ghettoness but all in time and my new side mirrors are giving me motivation!

My to do list is as follows:
Fix oil drain line from leakingFix coolent leak from heater hose connection
Rewire and clean up cop harness
Reweld downpipe to raise rear exhaust and create more flex movement
thread wastegate and make adjustible to try and lower boost to 5psi
Install boost guage

Anyway. Throw down some comments or laugh at my ghettoness its all good. Hopefully soon I'll get my MS in which will reduce the ducktape and get all the to do's and kinks worked out so I can make this thing quasi reliable.

Oh yeah and I have that damn transmission grinding noise when you decel in gear and its super aweful. I've tried dicking with the PPF to no avail and have read up on it a ton. So we'll see how everything lasts. I'm planning to run 5psi initially and then maybe going up to 8 later in the summer if i get Megasquirt in and working. I think the clutch is stock and its holding up thus far. I have spare one kicking around incase it goes bad quick and a spare diff. Haha we shall see.

Let me know what everyone thinks!

Sandy

 

I know exactly how you feel. I have been through 4 different setups. Each time I sold one I said that I would never do it again. But, then a few days/weeks/months later i'm putting together another kit.

Face it. Your a gear head. It's an obsession.

 

Lol. It's never done!

 

Oh yeah... You guys are totally right. It started running a bit poorly and stumbling a bit so I open the hood and fuel is spraying everywhere! AHHHH So I had to change the injector seals. AND it sounds like a lawn mower because my damn turbo to manifold gasket is leaking... I tried to tighten it last night but I might have to take the turbo off and redo the gasket and nuts.

THEN while testing it out again I start smelling coolent and seeing it leaking below the car! its coming from the heater hoses... but only a little bit... I pull up my carpet and there is coolent all over my passenger footwell! **** lamard. So I had to bypass my heater core and now I'm going to have to pull the bitch out to solder it or replace it if necessary.

And I need to get another O2 sensor welded in because its running crazy rich without the O2 sensor feed with the pos Vortech FMU installed.

BUT! I did make a super nice piece of kit on the wastegate. I cut the lever in half and threaded both sides... Cut another wastegate I had lying around open... Stole the spring and put it between a washer and the back of the wastegate pod thus applying a small amount of pressure enabling the wastegate to open easier. 5.5psi driving home last night! Sweet action. I'll post up a pic of the wastegate mod cause its helpful if you just want a small bit of boost for a while.

 

High 12's sometimes 13 is not fairly rich at all. It's actually leaner than you should be. At 7 psi you should be at 12.0:1, I'd say, but definately no leaner than 12.5:1. I'm running 11.8 right now at 7psi.

 

Yeah, I'm aiming for 12.5:1 but ****... with the Vortech FMU beggers can't be choosers... Its hitting pretty close to 12.5 and generally way richer... Low 11's but creeps up towards 12.8/9 at the peak. I've got an intercooler and there has been no audible pinging whatsoever so I'm not too worried about it. I've also just lowered my boost to 5.5 and might drop it another psi or so till I get my Megasquirt running and can get more exact AFRs going.

 

I have a 2000km roadtrip coming up and I was wondering if anyone has any feedback in regards to reliability of running toyota cops on the stock ECU. I've been running them for a couple weeks now with no problems but I'm sort of worried about doing a long roadtrip and having one of them blow from the stock ECU overdwelling them.

Anyone wish to share their experience running these on a stock ECU without a dwell reducer?