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What have I done to my child (miata) the novel, also hello
Hi all,
Ill just go right into it. My name is Ryan, i'm from Portland Oregon and I am an Service Technician for a access control and CCTV commercial security company. now that's out of the way into the fun stuff...
I got my 1991 base model Miata 5 years ago stock with 200,000+ miles. I auto-crossed the car quite a bit the first few years, and was lucky not to wrap it around a tree on the touge.
Over the 5 years I did some suspension and handling mods, and just normal wear and tear items were replaced. Lets see if I can remember all the car has on it...
- VMAXX classic coilovers (cut bump stops)
- FM front sway bar and OEM rear
- Extended lower ball joints and an aggressive alignment
- 205 tire size upgrade (Derezza crap tires because the spring rate is so soft on the vmaxx's)
- Frame rail support (FM)
- hard dog roll bar
- Recaro pole position bucket seat, schroth harnesses, Garage star rails
- full racing beat exhaust
- some sort of K&N hot air intake from prev owner
- 1.8 break swap and braided lines
2 years later I knew the 1.6 250k mi engine was going to have to go soon, and more power would be nice... so I picked up a 1995 1.8 with ~150k miles, with pretty much everything attached. It sat in my garage while l was in school for 3 years and life happened.
Fast forward 3 more years of the 1.6 taking an amazing amount of abuse and the clutch started slipping. So I figured now would be a good time to swap the 1.8 in. I took it to a machine shop and told him my goals. I want to run a turbo setup on the engine, and I wanted to make around 180-200hp or around 10psi.
He selected Manly Rods, wiesco pistons (lower compression), and arp hardware. For now I am going with the non VVT head . Hes going to build the motor from pan to head and I will do everything else. Also hes going to install AN10 fitting on the oil pan for turbo return line. I'm getting the full specs of the engine tomorrow and will share them on this post.
Meanwhile my plan is to replace as much as I can since most on the car has never been replaced.
Other things I'm doing while i'm in there.
-Depowered steering rack to replace my manual one
- NB Heater core, replace all cooling components.
- transmission seals replaced and cleaned bell housing
- Supermiata Organic clutch
- Diff and mazda comp mounts
- shifter rebuild
- replace clutch hydraulics
-Wire tuck and paint the engine bay black
I'm probably forgetting things but you get the picture. As far as turbo setup goes I still need to do more research and talk to whoever would be tuning my car. I would like a responsive sub 200hp turbo setup that I can thrash on and hopefully not destroy transmissions. Most likely will go with the MK turbo complete kit for 90-97 NA8 but still waiting to see what the craigslist gods offer up.
Ill end this with what the car looks like now. Thanks for reading.
Last edited by ryry503; 09-15-2019 at 05:41 PM.
Reason: adding turbo kit to build list
Welcome and congrats on the project. There’s another thread that is collecting and consolidating some good notes on “what else should I do with my engine out”. I thought I had put in enough heat management/protection while I was rebuilding and assembling but see now it was only about 50% of what I should have done the first time.
Ill probably get the DIYpnp since I have experience in soldering in my profession. If I have enough funds I will buy one of the pre-built DIY autotune kits. Hopefully I can source enough parts off CL and such to not have to buy the complete MK turbo kit, but we will see once I get the motor back.