What's Wrong with this Miata MK Turbo kit? | We Show You So You Can Make an Informed Decision!
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- Опубликовано: 21 авг 2024
- Again we have another video that turned out to be something different than what we expected. It went from a simple step by step Miata turbo kit install to why you need this video to make an informed decision before purchasing this particular kit. It's still a step by step guide but also includes all the problems and pitfalls that Brandon ran into while we made this video.
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For anyone watching, the kit definitely does fit with AC and power steering, there was no need to do the cut and welding of the intercooler piping. I have it installed on my 1.6, however it is basically the same kit for the 1.8 other than the manifold. The MKTurbo kit is definitely a cheaper "eBay" kit and there is no doubt about that, however tinkering is just something that comes along with these kits to make it work. As far as the oil return for the turbo, you drilled in the wrong spot. FM has a guide on exactly where to drill to not hit anything. You don't need to take off the subframe to drill or the bumper to install this kit. A quick google search would show you locations for the intercooler piping that others have done. I'm not saying it's a perfect kit, as mine was missing some couplers and bracket for the muffler needed to be slightly drilled to fit. But it's definitely worth considering for the price if you are okay with taking time to make it work.
Agreed with every part of this comment. MK is an inexpensive kit perfect for the at-home DIY'er who doesn't mind needing to massage a couple parts and most likely needing to replce the $200 turbo at some point. It's 1/2 the cost of the FM kit and can make equal power (The turbos that come with either kits are more or less limited by the stock rods anyways). The FM kit is absolutely worth the money as well, as are most of the the other kits on the market for what they're being sold for. In-depth forum research is really king when deciding what will suit your style best. Personally I think Kraken is a great middle ground, but I may be biased, lol.
I have the NA 1.8 on mine and it routed just fine around my AC and power steering. Yeah it was a puzzle to try and figure out where everything goes but it's doable with some patience. Now that I know how it all goes together I could route things much faster.
Haha, this is my car. I've got it running fine, but I still need to port the wastegate even more. Very happy with your work and I really do wish i had just waited for an FM kit.
❤ Stephen
I found this video extremely frustrating to watch. The fact that you didn't even try to figure out who the manufacturer of the kit was before you started installing was a pretty good indication of how this project was going to go. Did you even try to reach out to Lars once you figured out is was an MK kit?
Drilling the oil pan is a pretty well accepted practice in the Miata Turbo community and there is a set procedure on how to do it properly. You referenced Flyin Miata who has been selling kits for over 20 years requiring drilling of the pan and who provides detailed instructions on how to do so.
As for the air conditioning conundrum. FM certainly allows you to retain AC on their kit and MK markets their kits as being AC compatible. There are several pictures online of the MK kit being run with AC.
I feel like there are a lot of baseless accusations and claims being made in this video.
Drilling oil pans is accepted by idiots who don’t know better, I install parts brought to me by customers so I’m stuck with Shitty products all the time.
@@brandonwelsh2743 *accepted. It's common practice.
@atotalpro I think the factor at play here is the yootoob mekanik
Agreed. A lot of stuff was done wrong in this, and there definitely was no reason to cut the hood. Just takes a little bit of playing around to get everything to fit. Lars has been selling these kits for a long time, and there are plenty of forum posts to answer most of the questions one would have if you can't figure something out.
I have an NA8, and retained both AC and PS with Lars' kit.
Must have been a different kit. Lars needs to make instructions or stop making kits.
@@brandonwelsh2743 Nope. Same kit. Sorry you couldn't work it out.
@@msmola2002 if so, more reasons to actually make instructions. I can’t stand lazy people who won’t make instructions.
Holy Jumpin' Ju-Ju-Bees! I'm glad none of the gear I've had y'all install has ended up in a video like this!
Your E-Brake made it into a video lol
All hail the algorithm!
Even though I would not attempt something like this, it was fun to watch. I am a fan of naturally aspirated engines.
Drilled oil pan, been 5 years of reliability. According to FM you drilled in the wrong spot.
The spot isn’t the problem it’s the shavings. It only takes 1 shaving to ruin and engine so count yourself lucky.
He 100% drilled and tapped in the wrong location, obviously not a Miata guy.
4:00 I'm curious about the Flyin' Miata technique, which is to pressurize the crankcase with an air compressor. The idea is that it blows the metal bits out of the hole you're drilling.
I bought the same kit second hand for $900 ended up making 233 wheel horsepower at 12psi
Thanks for giving your real life experience on this kit. In life you get what you pay for. Thanks for the reminder.
Hey Brandon, Guess what? You just made him an instructional video on tips to install his turbo kit.
Now all he has to do is edit out Brandon saying how his turbo kit sucks 35 times in the video.
Installed mine today. Ran a DYI turbo kit on a track for years. Got tired of downpipe cracking. The best part of the kit seems to be header/downpipe area. It seems rugged and tucked away from the brake lines so they don't heat up on the track. Intercooler and piping are definitely low quality and was worried they would leak boost. Time will tell. It took this video to finally figure out how to mount the intercooler the right way. This kit seems better than ebay or CX racing, but definitely not FM level quality (or price). Considering this is a one-man operation, Lars seems pretty responsive to customers. I would buy this again for a budget turbo build minus the intercooler add-ons.
Glad to have helped. They just need to change their website to not say it will work with a/c. Any instructions would have saved this kit.
9 month update:
I've been through less than 1 yr of street driving and a single trackday, here's everything that failed so far:
turbo manifold cracked at the welds on 1st trackday, ended up replacing with cheap ebay cast mani which holds way better, it's likely due to mismatched alloy expansion rates; the welds are very poor quality even if they look pretty on the surface; still no commitment from Lars to replace the cracked mani
turbo gasket MELTED! and cracked to pieces, now it leaks and I have to take the turbo off...again
all the bolts that came with the kit either backed out or fell off from vibrations; should have used stage 8 for everything from the beginning
BOV did not seem to work - replaced it with my old Greddy one
There's a huge diamaters difference between intercooler and connecting pipe diameters, it's a small miracle the silicone couplers hold boost - same for the pipe connecting to intake, tossed that POS and used my old one that actually matches the intake diameter
Oil drain line keeps leaking no matter how much teflon tape I put on or how many times I retighten the thread
Here is everything else I had to modify to make the kit "work":
Turbo to downpipe gasket had to be cut to work with wastegate
Turbo wastegate hole needed a lot of porting to keep boost under control - expected for a cheap ebay turbo
Turbo oil feed hole needed to be made bigger to ensure adequate lubrication
Silicone intake hose needed to be relocated, the suggested position behind the headlight restricts a lot of flow and the provided filter is way too small
Had to make custom mounts for the intercooler to make it work with my setup
Overall, there are annoying problems everywhere: the exhaust flanges don't really seal well, so you will have small exhaust leaks no matter what. Intercooler and the lines seem really thin and low quality. Had a to buy additional couplers to make the connections work. The intercooler routing suggested on youtube is really stupid, so I had to modify a bit. Apart from the 3in exhaust, there's nothing else good about this kit. Did I mention no real instructions and almost nonexistent customer support? Lars acts like he doesn't want to be bothered with your questions or issues. I've been waiting to hear back from him regarding the mani for over a month. A cheap cast china manifold on ebay is more reliable than the one from this kit. Since the exhaust itself can be had for under 1k, not sure where the rest of the money went. Most of it is just resold ebay crap. If I had done it myself, at least I would have picked better quality. Really wish I had gone with FM or similar setup. It's worth the extra 1.5k, trust me.
2024 update: cracked the downpipe on the 1st trackday of the season@10 psi on e85. Replacement downpipe currently not in stock. Hope this helps someone else make a better purchase decision
I got this kit a while back and have been running it for over a year. I put in a manual boost controller and am making around 220 whp on 91 at 5000+ elevation.
Gripes:
I had to get creative with the intercooler piping, I never had A/C but I ended up cutting one pipe short to route it better, I also bolted the intercooler bracket directly to the hood latch and not the sides lol It worked but definitely makes more sense the way it was done in this video. I also had to get creative with the wastegate actuator mounting, the included bracket didn't put it in line with the flap on the turbo.
Of course instructions would have been nice but overall a good kit. For the most part everything I needed was there. The standalone and full 3" exhaust are a plus, giving more flexibility down the road if big power is your goal. In hindsight I would've just opted for the FM Kit but they are never in stock.
Kraken or FM is the way to go. I went with the Kraken for mine. Beautiful system.
Alternate video title.... "Angry Man Polishes Turd!!"
Don't hold back man! Tell us exactly how you feel about this turbo kit.
Is this the actual mkturbo kit? I thought that it was pretty well sorted. I haven't installed one but everyone I've met that has one has no complaints.
100% a full MK kit.
Should of got a kit from Kraken or Bofi.
You would think this kit should bolt straight on seeing they built like millions of these cars, by the way you guy’s have a great business model, being able to use your shop, I can do it or you can do it. I hope you’re business is kicking ass
Sounds like the car's owner would have been turboned without your help.
That's for sure. I have a slight amount of buyers remorse, but it's running pretty smoothly right now.
I automatically cringed at “ the customer “ got everything 😂 . Sorry but that rarely works out.
Awesome video
Not enough people understand this lol
I've run no locking washers on my turbo flange for years and I've never had a problem.
I do go back and recheck them every once in a while though.
I have a 07 focus as a second car, do really really need an intercooler, I understand how they work and it’s car that I don’t care if it blows up
You don’t “need” one. Having one will allow for better power, more reliable power, and will help keep coolant temps down with colder IAT’s. But ford actually sold turbo cars without intercoolers.
My Merkur XR4Ti had a factory turbo without an intercooler. I believe it ran about 7psi stock.
How much was your labor to fix everything wrong with this Turbo kit? Could your customer just have purchased a better turbo kit?
It was almost the same cost as the kit.
Remember when you go cheap you give up a lot in quality, need extra labor, reduced reliability, poor or no instructions, and no customer service. You get what you pay for is not always the case when you go cheap, sometimes you get less. How much extra labor went into this turbo kit that could have been saved with a proper kit, and you have a lot more versatility if you want to upgrade more.
Eh, I went pretty cheap and still got excellent value out of the cheap route that I went, even with extra labor $$, but it helps to have friends that do stuff lol. I got 2 years out of my first set up. I ended up upgrading my hotside for better flow along with a new turbo.
So a bit of background on the kit itself. Its just one guy who makes everything, and he mostly sells it through his website and miataturbo. The quality shown in this video is the norm for what you get. Honestly, you're better off going for a Kraken setup, or get on the waiting list for an FM turbo kit. Both of those are far superior in terms of quality and fitment.
Both those options are about double, or more than what the MK kit will run you. Apples and oranges.
Fun one today! 😅😂
Great job, especially with what you had to work with. Dr Frankenturbo.
Turbone 😭😭 I’d run it
Yeah idk what people are thinking
Imagine needing instruction to turbo a miata of all cars, must suck to suck...
Who poured metal flakes in Brandon's Cheerios? 😂
It happens every day lol
If you're going to complain about a method/kit, at least be competent enough to properly use the method and properly install the kit. Cannot believe people pay you good money to do a hack job on their cars.
You dont have to drop the subframe...you drilled the return in the wrong spot. Obviously winging it. Ima stop watching right there
is that Sarah-n-Tuned at 12:45 to 13:05? Sure is tall.
that's very possible, she is from that part of the US🤣
that top pipe is so ugly lol. A low mount would have been cleaner
Couldn’t go a different direction without cutting holes in the chassis.