Fast Not Loud project car: The Crapcan (turbo) Miata -- Once More Unto the Junkyard

"Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To" (murdersofa)
06/02/2016 at 13:30 • Filed to: fast not loud, miata, turbo, crapcan miata

For many car enthusiasts overcoming adversary is a skill employed nearly every time they open the tool box. Overcoming tragedy is a skill that some will require, and the way they approach it differs from person to person. This is the build thread/story of how I have been making the best of a bad situation by completely changing my outlook and letting a part of myself free. A crazy (well, crazier than the rest) part of me that is still firmly rooted in the car-modifying mindset of Need for Speed Most Wanted is at war with the part of me that enjoys the pure experience of things, and the result is my 1991 Mazda Miata.

Tired of Kinja? !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , a blog by and for car enthusiasts.

As I bought it the car was a case of Crouching Deal Hidden Shitbox. I gave $1000 and my salvage-title bought-for-$500 Honda Civic for the Miata which soon had a myriad problems stemming from some fairly obvious front-end damage. After fixing it up a little with the intention of “restoring” it and enjoying the purest form of a 25-year-old Japanese roadster, I had a bit of an incident.

Here is a quick list of things Miatas should not have:

Positive camber on the front passenger wheel

Positive camber on the rear passenger wheel

Scrapes on the passenger door

A huge-ass dent in the rear quarter panel

Some new ball joints, control arms, and a mismatched $50 salvage door later and the car was back in half-decent condition, but after the financial outlay of fixing all of these issues I decided to throw caution to the wind and make the car mine , ‘pure’ be damned. Everything I had ever wanted in a car would happen to this unsuspecting Miata. While it was in the shop I bought a replacement, a 2005 Ford Mustang, and later my ’97 Buick Riviera, so the Miata was no longer required to schlep me to and from my nine-to-five. At this point there were a few mods done to the car:

Switchback LED front turn signals

H4 headlight conversion

H4 LED headlights

Rockford Fosgate door speakers

Passenger seat reupholstered

Replacement OEM catback, ebay-bought longtube header

As well as general maintenence stuff like

Synthetic 0w30 oil

Air/Oil/Fuel filters

NGK spark plugs

NGK wires

The seat reupholstery was replacing the awful cloth seats with some fake leather replacements from the internet.

The stockers were in good condition, but Miatas have old soft tops, and old soft tops leak, and cloth absorbs water which then finds its way onto my waiting bottom. The result here is an unhappy Jake and wet pants.

A few hours of wrestling with hog-ring pliers and cutting dykes resulted in this. Far more comfortable. The leather’s tendency to not stretch helped reinforce the aged collapsed foam in the bolsters, an unexpected bonus. Not bad for $155 from Amazon. Thank you to Sierra Auto Tops & Seats for making a quality product. I actually purchased a soft top from the same company which, as of this writing, still sits in its box due to Kansas weather being uncharacteristically cold and rainy.

Once I finally got the Miata repaired after its wreck and drivable I took it for a spin and was appalled at how slow it seemed after daily driving the Mustang and Buick. Those two are no track monsters, but they might as well have been compared to my lowly 1.6 liter Miata. The sudden appearance of a free Mitsubishi turbocharger and my lack of dependence on the Miata for transportation made up my mind to wring a couple more ponies out of the anemic mill with forced induction on a budget so tight I can’t even afford the shoestring.

Tired of Kinja? Want more articles? !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , a blog by and for car enthusiasts.

So I hacked up my ebay headers, bought some stainless steel bends and tees, and welded the whole mess directly to my exhaust housing. Hey, one-piece turbo manifold/exhaust housings work for Koenigsegg, so they work for me. Some random hose spotted sitting in a junk pile in the shop and some fittings bought off the interwebz got me an oil feed and return line, and I bolted the mess into my car.

Wow that’s a tiny snail. This is the stock turbocharger from a Mitsubishi 3000GT VR-4. In that car two of these would be feeding a 3 liter V6, leaving each turbo with 1.5 liters of displacement to feed. The Miata being a 1.6, and the turbo being designed by an OEM for that size, I figured I would get quick spool times and calculated roughly 7PSI peak and roughly 170 horsepower out of the little Miata engine with this setup. Just getting to this point took so long that I slapped the vane airflow meter onto the car and drove it around for some time naturally aspirated, with the turbo spinning happily attached to the manifold just blowing air around the engine bay making choo choo noises.

As of this writing, that is the state of my powertrain. I took the manifold off and wrapped it in fiberglass insulation in order to avoid cooking my oil lines, and replaced the toasted ill-fitting gasket that came with my Chinese headers.

The nice thing about exhaust wrap is that you can’t see my terrible welds and I can almost pass this crap off as “professional”.

Next up on the saga of Crapcan Miata: I get distracted.

Tired of Kinja? !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , a blog by and for car enthusiasts and check back for updates, videos, and other content such as reviews, opinion pieces, and thinly-disguised bullshit.

DISCUSSION (23)

Life and Times of Magoo: The People's Champ > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
06/02/2016 at 13:52

Surely you mean *adveristy*, old boy.

Enjoying the “adjusting as I go” aspect of this project for sure.

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > Life and Times of Magoo: The People's Champ
06/02/2016 at 13:59

In my defense words are hard.

Life and Times of Magoo: The People's Champ > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
06/02/2016 at 14:02

I’m with you, just noticed because first sentence....and I still spelled it wrong LOL

Is this the same Miata with the stickers on a door panel and orange wheels?

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > Life and Times of Magoo: The People's Champ
06/02/2016 at 14:06

Yup. I haven’t gotten to the part where I go nuts on the styling yet. Though this is the first mention of it being turbo I’ve made on Oppo. I expected more of a response. Oh, well.

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
06/02/2016 at 14:35

Yes turbo! I might go this route with my e36 some day. Have a lot of bodywork to do before then though... What are you thinking for engine management/ injectors, I know the miata turbo scene is pretty big and there are some good budget solutions out there.

Roadster Man > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
06/02/2016 at 14:41

What are you planning on doing for engine management?

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell.
06/02/2016 at 14:43

I’m running less than 7psi, so a rising rate fuel pressure regulator and retarded base timing. That’s about it.

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > Roadster Man
06/02/2016 at 14:43

Less than 7psi of boost, so a rising rate fuel pressure regulator and retarded timing + 91 octane fuel. That’s all that’s necessary for these power levels.

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
06/02/2016 at 14:54

Good cheap and simple way to get some power then. Make sure to post the choo choo noises it makes when it’s finished.

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell.
06/02/2016 at 15:01

I’m finishing it tonight. Video maybe tomorrow. More articles this weekend. Whooo~~

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
06/02/2016 at 15:04

Kinja'd!!!

DynamicWeight > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
06/02/2016 at 15:59

Do the new speakers help at all? I kind of want to try to get some sound in my miata as the current 23 year old speakers are basically useless. But I am wondering if a new head and speakers is even worth it since it’s so loud in there anyway.

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > DynamicWeight
06/02/2016 at 17:54

eh, a little bit. What really helped was new speakers + seat shakers. I bought four of these and stuffed two in each seatback, wired them in series to each other and then both seats in parallel, and wired them up to a small bass amp hooked up to my head unit. It was a bizarre sensation but it very effectively augmented the (nonexistent) bass coming from the door speakers.

http://www.amazon.com/Dayton-Audio-T…

Roadster Man > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
06/02/2016 at 19:53

Yeah band-aids are probably all you’ll need for 7psi. Just don’t tell anyone at miataturbo, they’ll burn you at the stake for not using a megasquirt.

To their credit, band-aids are a bit outdated, but not all of us have $1000 sitting around just for engine management on our cars. And new megasquirts have awesome stuff like flat-foot shifting and super high-resolution fuel tables.

What year? You probably already know about the possible short-nose crank issue in the older 1.6 engines. I think they solved the problem in the ‘93 cars.

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > Roadster Man
06/02/2016 at 20:08

Seriously, fuck Miataturbo so hard. I’ve got a ‘91. If anything at all happens to this engine I’m swapping in a 3800 V6. Sure, it’s almost as heavy as an LS1, but I already have a 3800 sitting around and they’re tiny-ass little engines, physically.

daender > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
06/02/2016 at 20:41

V6 swap? Have you thought about learning how to do fiberglass and making your own M2-1006 “Cobraster” ?

Kinja'd!!!

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > daender
06/02/2016 at 20:58

holy mother of effort

Roadster Man > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
06/02/2016 at 21:16

Miataturbo is not for everyone- including me. I’d rather go on clubroadster, and that is saying something.

V6 swap? nice! That’s creative. You’d be surprised at how much the iron block of the BP engine weighs. I remember reading that an LSX block isn’t THAT much heavier than a BP block. I forget the number, it might be as low as 100lbs.

The short-nose crank issue can be fixed with loctite, so I don’t think it’s a crazy job. It might be worth looking up, but if you’re just going to run it until it pops then do a swap then screw it.

daender > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
06/02/2016 at 21:18

Yes, it’s a horrible idea, especially to get fenders as flared as it. That said, I would put my NB2 under the knife to make the unneeded M2-1006 successor that never was or should be...once I have enough funds (and equal amounts of poor decision making).

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > Roadster Man
06/02/2016 at 21:37

BPs are fucking huge. People like to whine about how the 90 degree 3800 Series II is massive compared to the 60 degree 3400SFI but compared to a BP the 3800 really isn’t that much larger. Thing is I would have to get a different oil pan (from the RWD V6 2000s Camaro) and probably intake manifold (from the same) as well as a Camaro auto or manual transmission. And, really, it’s gotta be a manual, which is impossible to find, expensive, and can’t handle the power of a boosted 3800 if I slap an M90 supercharger on there. Ugh.

I just went out and checked and I must have a 1991 1/2 Miata because I have the big nose crank. Phew.

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > Roadster Man
06/02/2016 at 21:38

I’m pretty active on Clubroadster. The ricer/hellaflush scene there is totally gone nowadays and it’s a very laid-back community.

DynamicWeight > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
06/03/2016 at 11:20

Oh what a cool idea! It reminds me of some headphones I bought semi accidentally. I bought these Skull Candy Skull Crushers not realizing that the “Bass Enhancement” was that the headphones would sort of shake/vibrate with heavy bass. I was skeptical but ended up loving them for EDM and dubstep. Thanks for the idea! May steal it.

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > DynamicWeight
06/03/2016 at 11:22

Skull Crushers are rubbish at “hifi” sound reproduction but god damn they’re fun.