Hello all,

I'd say I'm new to the forum but I guess I made an account eight years ago and never posted once... That's about as long as I've had my red 1990, it was my first car and is still my (mostly) daily driver. Engine is bone stock, but I've put a lot of work into the suspension and chassis. I went through an autocross phase for a few years. I also used to be a fairly active member on miata.net, but don't hold that against me. I'd say I used to know just about everything there was to know about stock NAs and quite a bit about suspension theory and modification, but I've probably forgotten more than I know now.

Anyway, like I said I've had my miata for about eight years and honestly I've never really felt like it was too slow, even N/A it's been an absolute blast to drive over the years. However, the idea of going FI has long been in the back of my head, mainly just because it's cool af and more power is always good. The largest barrier to actually going for it has been money, and I'm happy to say that it's not really an issue anymore (finishing school and getting a real job helps with that). So here I am. I finally decided after cruising with my friend who drives a Mk.7 GTI, and getting absolutely blown away by him (on the straights at least) that I want to seriously look into a turbo.

I'm not a total noob to turbos. I know the basics and have somewhat of a general game plan for doing this. It's mainly the details I come here looking for advice on. I'm shooting for around 200WHP and figure before I even think about turbos I'm gonna need a few drivetrain upgrades (clutch, torsen, tranny?, etc). This isn't going to be something I can do over a weekend. It will probably be next year before I'm making boost if I have to guess, maybe even longer. I really like the idea of getting a complete kit from the likes of FM, BEGi, etc. just because it seems like there is less chance for headaches with a complete kit, but I'm guessing a lot of you are going to tell me that I'd be throwing money away / not getting the best value by doing that, and I'm not afraid of a little DIY. I plan on doing all the work myself, I have access to all the tools I'll ever need and a lift so really I have no more excuses NOT to.

Anyway, that's about it I think. I look forward to learning, and maybe eventually teaching.

 

A bit more about my car:
1990 A package with about 125k mi. The car is in excellent shape and the motor seems very healthy (I havent done a compression test but I've never had engine trouble, no odd behavior, smooth from idle to redline, no smoke, starts right up 100% of the time). I'm the second owner and the previous owner took as good care of it as I do.

Drivetrain is stock except for a Fujitsubo catback. Replaced the VLSD about four years ago (autox killed it I think).

Here is a list of mawds.
-XIDA Clubsport coilover system 600/350lbs/in+NB top hats
-Racing Beat tubular front bar+ rear bar delete
-ES poly suspension bushings (worst thing I ever did)
-15x7 RPF1s currently wrapped in 205 Star Spec ZIIs
-Hawk HPS brake pads+Stoptech rotors+stainless lines
-Fujitsubo catback exhaust
-Hard Dog HC single diag rollbar

I think that's about it. Here are some pics.





And I just realized I dont have a lot of pictures of my car, these are pretty old but nothing has really changed since then.

 

Welcome to the forums Mecon90. I like the red on black wheels, it looks clean! There is a wealth of knowledge spread throughout here including everything from the conservative daily drivers to full out track junkies with serious boost addictions.

 

Welcome to the forum. There's a step by step guide to going turbo posted by Shuiend around here somewhere. It's a good road map.

MK Turbo setup is right for your power goals. Check it out in the vendor section.

 

Thanks guys! So I've been reading the forums during pretty much all of my free time. I'm thinking the first thing I'm going to tackle is cooling. I'm definitely going to get a reroute kit, and most likely will buy the 949 bundle with the reroute and the Supermiata rad. Seems like it might not be absolutely necessary to upgrade the rad with my power goals and usage, but I'd rather have some overhead. At the same time I do this I'm going to finally remove the AC, which hasn't worked since I got the car. There's only a handful of days every year where I really wished I had it (today was one such day actually) so I'm not going to miss it, plus I'll have more room up front without the condenser in the way.

So that's my first goal, after that I plan to upgrade the clutch. For now I plan on the FM happy meal kit with the 13lb flywheel, but I'll probably be looking into other options as well.

My reasoning for doing these things first is that I'm already completely comfortable doing them. I've done clutch jobs before, I've replaced radiators and messed with cooling systems before. Aside from what to buy, I dont really need to do much research into how to do these things. Also, these items dont really affect the order of the rest of the build. This will allow me to be more efficient with my time since I can make progress towards the complete setup while still researching the things I am not familiar with. I want to have the car pretty much ready to handle the added power before I touch the engine, though I'm not gonna touch the VLSD right away. I'm gonna wait until either the diff dies or I find a good deal on a torsen to worry about it.

Once I get these things out of the way I will start at the top of shuiend's list with some flavor of megasquirt and then fuel system.

If there's any reasons for NOT doing things in this order that I have overlooked, I'm all ears, but this is the general outline for now. I want to get to the point where I'm ready for the MS hopefully before the season is up. I still have a lot of research yet to do.

 

Well, just dropped a whole paycheck on cooling upgrades and an FM clutch kit. This is going to get expensive fast...

I've revised my original plan a little bit. I plan on pulling the motor in order to make a bunch of things easier. While I have it out I'm going to do the clutch, install radiator and reroute, replace water pump and timing belt, remove the AC, depower the steering rack, and give the whole engine and bay a really good cleaning. Should be a fun weekend (or two). Can't wait to get started now. I'll be sure to document all my work and start a build thread.

 

Random question: How much are torsens going for these days? I found a 4.3 locally that includes driveshaft and halfshafts for 1000 bucks. Seems a little steep to me but I dont know. I reeaaally wish I could have afforded the 600 dollar torsen setup I found years ago when my VLSD blew up. But broke college student me didnt think it was worth it at the time.

 

Decided to bite the bullet and got the torsen. Paid 900 bucks with the shafts. It's originally out of a 99. Guy was parting out his racecar, so I grabbed a drivers side armrest while I was there to replace my cracked one.

I'm also talking with a guy selling his red hardtop. I've been casually looking for one for years, might actually do it now. Hoping to bring him down on the price a bit since the paint on it looks really dull and will need some work.