It will never happen. If you are spending $6,000 on a turbo kit, we recommend spending the extra $800 on a healthy low-miles 1.8 liter motor.

Ouch! That's an expensive kit then!

It's not as cheap as $800 but I see where you are going.

Equally, if I was spending nearly $7000 on top of my existing NA6 then perhaps I should sell it and put all that money towards a later model turbo and upgrade it... Or even consider a whole range of alternate options.

G

the lack of a 1.6L kit makes it more legit.

I would have said the same thing 3 years ago but after building a kit from scratch that is safe to put down the kind of power we're talking its not a bad deal at all. (especially considering that 1400 of it is going into the turbo..) i'm at almost double that price currently.

Once you "option out" an FM2 kit to include all of the things the TSE kit will have as standard, the cost difference will be negligible.

Yeah I noticed this is where the price increases for the base kit as well. They atleast recommend the studs, hard lines, and stage 8 locking for a budget build.

If the kit is that top end, then a 2nd hand 1.8 isnt the right option either, a rebuilt 1.6 or 1.8 with stronger internals is.

Hey, if you're happy to disregard a global market of 1.6 customers (cause outside the USA the 1.6 was sold for longer periods) and content with the volume of sales you'll get in the local domestic market then all is good. Happy to move on.

G

And then the minuscule savings of keeping the 1.6 is even smaller. You keep the crank and the block, that's it.

For sentimental value, sure, for cost, nah.

I could understand it if you were after the smaller displacement for classing reasons. Or if you want to play with a "1.6 VVT"...

is there a 1.6L vvt? 1.6L is weaksauce, no one who's anyone drives one.

Recognizing the inherent sarcasm here, I just realized that rouhgly half of the Admin / Supermod crew are rocking 1.6 engines, which is statistically improbable given the known distribution of Miata engines.

What does this say about us as a group?

Sortof
B6 + ZM-VE

Gslender, 1.8s in perfectly good condition ARE 800 or less. Even in australia.

Dann

You all are cheap?

Pretty much

I prefer to think of it as "we're not paid enough".

Y8s apparently really knows how to please Rick.

You sure do whine a bit.


The 1.6 was sold but the 1.8 is the superior engine. Should I make a turbo for the v6 GM cars or the LSX cars. Simple choice unless you are forced by engine classing.

And I loved my 92 1.6 miata.

I love my 1.6l miata considering I've done every mod to make it on par with a base 94...now todo something with all that loss of torque and spool and inferior boner ppower.

At the end of the day, the 1.6 is an inferior motor. It doesn't have the displacement or the port flow of the later 1.8s, and if you are talking about spending a bunch of money on a world-class turbo setup, we don't see a reason to put it on an inferior motor. In general, we don't work with 1.6 motors - the swap is not difficult at all and the benefits are significant.

Put a check for $60k in my hands and I will build 10 1.6 kits. Until then, let's keep this thread on topic. Thanks.

Yes, I was thinking along those lines.

Actually, saying "you are all cheap" is rather more polite than what I had in mind.


No question about it, and I would not seriously expect a company working on a turbo system of the caliber which you have in mind to pay the 1.6 engine much thought.

To be honest, I'm a little bit surprised that the 1.6 still receives the attention that it does from folks like Bell and FM, given the age of these motors, the relatively small number of them which were produced in the first place, the even smaller number of them which are still on the road, and the fact that the cars in which they are fitted are probably most likely to be owned by the biggest cheapskates within the community (eg: those least likely to spend $5000 turbocharging a $1,000 car.)

no replacement for displacement. /discussion