yes.

 

I for one like the use of the velocity stack on the intake. You can find me suggesting exactly that all over this forum.

 

It is also partly that we only see the people who complain. I ordered my customized Begi S1 setup back in 2007. It took a little longer then expected to ship and came in 2 different boxes over 2 days. Everything I needed was there. I had 2 issues with the install. First was that the oil drain line was a bit tight, I called just to let Begi know they might want to add an additional inch to them in the future, I had a new hose shipped to me without any asking for it. Second was that I could not get my intercooler pipe to fit around AC/PS. I know the pipe fits, I was just to incompetent at the time figure out how to do it. I have also seen people have that same issue with the FM hose in the same spot, so I don't feel to bad.

I am not trying to say Begi is perfect, as they are far from it. They are a small shop though. I think they have 7 or 8 people in total and maybe half actually care about miatas. Their biggest issue as far as I can tell is that they need a good operations manager.

 

This is exactly it.

 

My AVO turbo kit intake had one since 2000. Yer miata wasn't even a gleam in its daddy's eye.

 

operations managers are scary and look like large expensive overhead jobs.







but when they are good, they will often save you more than their salary.

 

Note to self:
1. Vow of celibacy
2. Switch to Scotch

 

You guys have worked me over pretty hard here. Much of it I earned with pretty hard work. Some came easy. Don’t even hint to me that this group of turbo terrorists has not influenced me.

There may be a thousand ways to ship parts faster, but only two have significance for me. One is to have the assets that would create and renew an adequate inventory. Two is to simplify the items to build and reduce the number of parts we have to build for a system. The latter is the only option available to me.

With regard to any fit problems, simplicity helps, as does better jigging and documenting. All of which were on the new system bucket list. As for specific fit difficulties, I know of a few consistent problems, but I’ve probably got 100 letters of “thanks for the nice parts” for every one problem you “TT’s” have reported (over and over ) on this forum.

You guys advised me against it, but please tell me why you might think this approach to fixing some problems is not a good one.

404, here is some meat for you to chew on. Is it fair to request that only your specific experience with us be commented on? the pile on tag..................

4 into 1 Exhaust Manifold.
Made a carefully contoured 4 into 1 with the flow path to the wastegate as accessible as it is to the turbo. Enjoy a few more Hp’s and banish creep. The patterns are made, but not yet sent to the foundry. The cast manifold is configured so that we can machine the turbine flange into a V-Clamp set-up if one wishes. Ceramic coating is standard. You guys are all aware enough to know that FM duplicated our turbo position when they went off on their own. A really bad idea, as that position requires cutting nearly an inch out of the frame structure to allow any turbo bigger than a 2554. We fixed it. FM still requires cutting the frame.

Remote Wastegate. Send boost creep packing. Enjoy a few percent more hp due to a gob smoother exhaust gas flow path. The net cost increase was under $60. I also think you fellows are sharp enough to know that welding the wastegate to the side of the turbine housing, as FM has done, only accomplishes making a bigger valve in what essentially remains an integral gate turned 90 degrees, but does little else.

Air intake. Asking anything that is supposed to flow air to breathe through a hole in wall with square corners is just not quite the best idea. Study up on “ideal air inlets” a bit. Estimates I found offered suggested gains of 2% to 18%. So I made a die, and pressed out an aluminum air horn. Managed to squeeze the diameter out about 175%.
Making one from start to finish is a 12 minute chore.

Tried to make the intake as straight as possible, but the flow meter got screwy, so we kept the straight inlet for the speed density stuff. You guys know all this stuff.

Metal Charge Tubes that always fit.
I made them aluminum, all of them. Connected them with fiber Els that adjust in length over about two inches, and can rotate anywhere you want. Found a new path and stayed away from the 37 different configurations of the AC lines. With all joints adjustable in length and twist, how do you miss? A small additional benefit of about 6 F degrees less in the intake manifold at 8 psi boost.

The Downpipe.
A better and simpler dnpipe was certainly needed. I had to keep the tapering aft feature but made the conical swages much more gradual. It starts at the diameter the exit of the turbo requires, usually 2.25, then expands to 2.5 and the either 2.75 or 3.0, depending on customer wishes. I came up with a turbine exit flange that can rotate about 5 degrees. With a connecting swage in the “down” segment of the tube, and another farther aft, the dnpipe can now be rotated, swiveled and twisted. Then clamp it up with the full wrap, cross bolt, sealing type clamps. It is a piece of cake to install and has gobs of clearance.

The wastegate vent tube is no longer attached to the dnpipe and it, too, can be adjusted for clearances and then clamped down. The vent tube can be straight to the atmo if desired.

Both of these are about 1/3 the fabrication times of previous pieces. All stainless, of course.

Oil/Water Lines.
$90 more dollars in cost to build the well anchored stainless lines could not be compromised.

The Intercooler.
I think our intercooler was in good shape, but I did strengthen the mounts, and smooth out the internal streamlining some more. Also, found a way to add about 6 to 8% more internal flow area without increasing the cross sectional area. Then moved the inlet tube to better center up on the core. I retained the internal distribution baffle for cores taller than 7”. The tube lengths, that represent the efficiency of the IC, remain at 18 inches. That is 20% longer than the other guy’s. It’s also buffed with scotchbrite.

So, there you have it. It is vastly easier to make, solved creep problems, gained a good dose of power, is considerably simpler, looks better to me, and almost installs itself.

corky

 

When do you expect this kit to hit the market?

 

It is in production now. The 1.6 does not have a cast manifold, rather, its is a weld el fabrication to the same design.

corky

 

"Real artists ship". - Steven P Jobs
Folklore.org: Real Artists Ship

 

I wish Corky luck as well with this new kit. I've never talked to him but I made a lot of money off building BEGI replacement parts.

I've spoken to Steph "a few" times and she has always been very helpful and BEGI always made it right. But yeah, it'd be better if I never HAD to speak to stephany to fix an issue.

 

Speaking to my own experience, the S4 kit with external wastegate (used to be called S6 kit) has the external wastegate dump pipe returning to the downpipe 2 inches down stream from the turbine outlet. This is a 100% boost creep fest in the making! With a 4 psi spring in my 38mm tial external wastegate I get a minimum of 7 psi now that I have a BOV that isn't leaking. An 8 psi spring gets me 12.5 psi of boost. Your new system may work great, but your old setup was no better, probably worse than the Flyin Miata setup with external wastegate.


My intake pipe for my S4 with external wastegate (used to be S6) is still jacked up after going back and forth with you guys multiple times. The turbo I have has a 3" inlet, but my inlet pipe is 2.5". If anything were to push back on my intake pipe, it is small enough that it would go into my compressor inlet and impact on the compressor blades. It also has a molded in dent that looks like it was meant for clearance... but there is nothing for it to clearance around. If it was a 3" inlet it would need the clearance dent.


I have many other comments, but don't have time to go into them right now.

Keith

 

Hats off to Corky for defending your product well.

Engineers tend to flounder when forced to interact with the public, especially on a message board comprised of aging white men who loathe themselves for driving miatas.

Taking your lumps, speaking your peace, and continuing to innovate anyway is a tough tightrope to walk, I think you've done it admirably Corky.

 

Except the FM kit was plagued with boost control issues, especially once the exhaust was opened up.

this is more of a function of having a efficient low-backpressure exhaust setup. If you want to fix it, install a shitty exhaust that increase backpressure greater than the reference on the EWG.

 

The guy tuning/installing the S3 kit on mine said, and I quote: "This is one of the best fitting, most complete kits I've seen." He's in the U.K. Skuzzle Motorsport. Been doing this stuff for years. I get the car back on Saturday; I'll let you know.

Let's see what Begi did for me:

1. Shipped via USPS when most stateside vendors wouldn't.
2. Shipped fast.
3. "Hey, I got a problem with the motor I'm going to use for the turbo... no, the turbo isn't on there. Yep, I'll hold for Corky..."
4. Shipped Complete.

They say there's a 30 times variance on the amount of people bitching about something versus the reality of customer satisfaction. Sucks that folks had a bad time. I didn't. I can't honestly think of another turbo kit manufacturer I'd go with. BEGI bent over backwards to get mine to the U.K.

 

I know that's the rule.... but i still don't get it.

I can hold 5psi rock steady on my DD, and the exhaust doesn't get any better flowing than that. I can see my turbine blades from the end of it.

 

Hell, any setup that has the wastegate dumping right at the turbine outlet will have poor boost control. My last setup that had an external wastegate was a GT35R on my 05 EVO, with a dump tube the rejoined the exhaust stream about a foot from the turbine outlet. Anything under 20 psi I had a small amount of boost creep. This was with a 38mm Tial wastegate.

In simple math it goes like this... the lower the boost you want to run the bigger your external wastegate needs to be! I am not sure that even dumped to atmosphere will be enough flow on the Tial 38mm gate to avoid boost creep completely when running a free flowing exhaust and less than 14 psi of boost.

Keith

PS: Still no response to my last e-mail about the heat shield sent to Stephanie sent on October 20th. I called them out on not having a pattern for the heat shield and asked for some "stick on" heat protection... how bad is it when you wait a month with no response? When you expect the "annoying customer" to go away as your method of dealing with problems eventually you win. I admit it, Stephanie has won.

 

2D, the shield is made and will be on the way shortly. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Your 'simple math' is not exactly spot on, in my view.

corky

 

Well... except that he's right.

Technical Articles | Wastegate Myths | Turbosmart USA

That said, if placed properly on the manifold, the 38mm dumped to atmosphere should have no problems giving rock solid boost control.