boosting on a low budget

[zossy1]

Wrecked SE?

He'll be waiting years. They are rare as hen's teeth. I have seen one, and one only, in the past 12 months.

I did see a NB8A with a JRSC in Melbourne a few months ago, and a NA6 with a Greddy kit at Milperra about 6 months ago. That's it.

Much easier, as ND says, to source the parts from a US seller on MT.net.

And yes - they will often ship to Oz, if you offer to pay for shipping, pay their paypal fees, and don't be a dick. I have never been turned down and have bought of mt.net at least 5 times in the past 6 months or so.

EDIT: I think I saw one or two in Brisbane after the floods - but they were FUBAR.

[NitroDann]

Its hardly fair to add the cost of a turbo rebuild (of 700 dollars) to the cost. It got dropped. Thats NOT part of a turbo conversion.

...Step 13: drop your turbo and destroy it.
Step 14: tell everyone it cost 700 more than it did.

And 350 in guages? Your tuning software doesnt have a guage page?

And then you included the price of a diff and rebuild, that didnt end up on the finished product.

...Step 35: buy a crap diff.
Step 36: pay 700 for rebuild
Step 37: replace with another diff anyway.

Theres another thousand that doesnt count.

On top of that you paid heaps for your final diff.

My list is complete, possible and uses NO dodgy parts, nor is it 'half assed'.

Dann

[Orphan]

Cheapest way possible, and reliable..

Megasquirt, 500.
Borrow an lc1 for tuning, 1 six pack
Rx7 550s 150 or fuel pressure reg 25
2nd hand begi mani and dump, 250 shipped
Second hand s13 t25g 200
Oil feed 100
2nd hand volvo or xr6t IC, 50 bucks.
Homemade IC piping, 100
Ducting to cool it, 20
Clutch 250
100 bucks for misc

And there is your budget reliable 200rwhp, with zero dodgy parts.

Dann

As already pointed out you will want a 2.5-3" turbo back exhaust with high flow cat, wide band o2 sensor, bov, decent boxed air intake, right there you have already left off $1200+ and a lot of time. How much air can the stock MAF read? If not enough then there goes another couple hundred on either another MAF or changing over to a MAP sensor. Even for a pretty rubbish-average tune most places charge $600-800. Yes it can be done cheap if you have the ability, time and experience but for most it is not possible. You have left off at least $2000 in other items needing to be addressed by most not to mention that to have it all LEGAL requires an engineers cert so another bit of cash on that or even more changing stuff around to pass. What you have listed sure is budget but it is not the most reliable and it certianly doesn't include a lot of items most people would deem nessisary to do a good job.

[jerrah]

Every megasquirt I have ever seen has a built in MAP sensor.

With a bit of learning from the many online resources you can do a pretty decent road tune on a Megasquirt these days.

[zossy1]

Every megasquirt I have ever seen has a built in MAP sensor.

With a bit of learning from the many online resources you can do a pretty decent road tune on a Megasquirt these days.

The GM IAT is the staple MAF removal option, is it not?

http://www.diyautotune.com/catalog/gm-c ... p-115.html

Cheap as dirt.

[Uncle Arthur]

Cheapest way possible, and reliable..

Megasquirt, 500.
Borrow an lc1 for tuning, 1 six pack
Rx7 550s 150 or fuel pressure reg 25
2nd hand begi mani and dump, 250 shipped
Second hand s13 t25g 200
Oil feed 100
2nd hand volvo or xr6t IC, 50 bucks.
Homemade IC piping, 100
Ducting to cool it, 20
Clutch 250
100 bucks for misc

And there is your budget reliable 200rwhp, with zero dodgy parts.

Dann

As already pointed out you will want a 2.5-3" turbo back exhaust with high flow cat, wide band o2 sensor, bov, decent boxed air intake, right there you have already left off $1200+ and a lot of time. How much air can the stock MAF read? If not enough then there goes another couple hundred on either another MAF or changing over to a MAP sensor. Even for a pretty rubbish-average tune most places charge $600-800. Yes it can be done cheap if you have the ability, time and experience but for most it is not possible. You have left off at least $2000 in other items needing to be addressed by most not to mention that to have it all LEGAL requires an engineers cert so another bit of cash on that or even more changing stuff around to pass. What you have listed sure is budget but it is not the most reliable and it certianly doesn't include a lot of items most people would deem nessisary to do a good job.

No - look - forget doing any other work to do it right. I've seen some lovely homemade pipework, that would look perfect being dropped back in to the scrap metal pile. I paid too much for a TORSEN rear end apparently - I'll just toddle back to Richard at MX5 Plus and ask for the difference back. No problems. Rebuild a 2nd hand turbo? Why bother - even if it's second hand it'll be right - no shaft play, all the bearings true, no oil carbon/crystalisation anywhere. He's absolutely right - why bother doing it right when you can just do it?

Listen everyone - NitroDann has another opinion to share, on the cheapest easiest way to do a turbo conversion - an opinion he wants us all to take notice of.....

and we all know what they say about opinions.

[NitroDann]

Hehe.

Dropping a turbo just doesnt count towards a build cost. Either do parts not on your car. And yeah your torsen wasnt cheap.
I didnt even mention the cooler piping, you were the one who noticed its price...

To the other guy, bov is NOT needed. Megasquirt has a map sensor. The wideband IS on my list. And if you want an exhaust add another couple hundred.

Also op already he said I provided the perfect answer for him hahaha.

Dann

[Orphan]

What you provided the OP was affirming his dream which will never come to reality for the price figures you quoted. What the OP wants is to spend very little and get a lot more than possible with his level of experience and industry connections. Please stop leading him on, you didn't provide the OP the perfect answer you just told him what he wanted to hear even though it is far from the truth in his case.

[NitroDann]

How cant anybody buy from mt.net, bolt on an exhaust manifold and find some rx7 injectors and stick them in. sh*t add a couple hundred for the ic piping if you wish to make your point, even a few hundred more for an exhaust. Im sure there are plenty of nice friendly people here on this forum who would lend him an lc1 etc. I know people dont like finding out there is a better way but sometimes there is.
Give me a real example of something anybody is unlikely to be able to do themself, or with help from one of the many helpful forum members, on my list.

Also your statement about the maf and blow off valve show everybody how qualified you are to argue this, you need to read the MT.net faq and then come back. You didnt even know the lc1 is an oxygen sensor.

Dann

[ampz]

I'm on your side Dan
But one day you too will get tired of reading/writing the same posts.

Apples aren't apples on the internet.
All sorts of keyboard warriors think they're mechanics.

Stick around long enough and you too will come across some tales of woe and realise not every man is the same.

[NitroDann]

Yeah I know. But you cant withhold good answers because your worried someone may take offence.
Cheers mate.

Dann

[ampz]

My response wasn't without merit.
In my experience, it would be easily followed by the average Supercheap toolbox ;)
Your solution is cheaper, but needs more knowledge and honestly, probably an effort from mates or even strangers.
In today's time precious environment there's barely enough for yourself, let alone taking time out to help others.
Don't get me wrong, I've done my fair share of charity work, but in the end it takes time out of other things that need attention.

[NitroDann]

Spikes from this forum just left. Met him for the first time tonight. He is the guy from the PS vs Manual steer thread. He came to have a drive of my car. Hes going manual for the record. But it only took an hour out of my evening.
This is normal for my group of enthusiast friends.

Dann

[bootz]

Damn, I love this thread, some great ideas out there.

Obviously, you need to spend heaps of time, months, years, sourcing the best parts at the best prices.

Obviously you need to be very, very careful in what you do. Don't drop the turbo, I will remember that one.

Obviously you will put in tons of hard work and the car will be off the road for perhaps a long while depending on your expertise.

Obviously you will have legal issues if this is going to be dríven on the road.

But the question was how to do it cheaply as possible and you gotta say Dann has cut to the bone dirt essentials. Excluding exhaust and air intake which he assumes is already fitted.

[Uncle Arthur]

....... the question was how to do it cheaply as possible and you gotta say Dann has cut to the bone dirt essentials. Excluding exhaust and air intake which he assumes is already fitted.

Yes he has - no argument there.

The answers we all provided cover the range of options from:

boosted, and cheap but don't ever hit anything...
boosted, and cheap, but don't count on reliability...
boosted, and cheap but ghetto (or at least not pretty)...

right through
boosted, and less cheap, but done right....
boosted, not cheap, and done very very right....

and all the way to just buy an SE.

So until the OP defines his limit of expectations, I think we've given him lots to think about. Now he can head across to miataturbo.net out of the US - and have a look at what others there are doing - it is perhaps the biggest dedicated turbo MX5 forum anywhere I've seen.

Just make sure to use the search function BEFORE asking "How do I cheaply boost my miata?" - they eat newbies like rednecks on roadkill there, and they don't use cutlery.