Miata Mailing List: March 1998, Message #80

sponsored by

Hi all,

It finally happened after all these months, the FM/II Turbo kit arrived a
week ago on Saturday AM.  The kit was complete except for two exhaust
manifold studs (which Corky had warned me about) and one piece of silicone
hose.  The kit is packaged in large ziploc bags, each with a label telling
what should be inside.  The instruction manual also has an inventory so it
was easy to determine what was there and what was missing.  Corky FedX'd
the missing parts and no time was lost waiting for them.

I ordered my kit with the plumbing unpainted as I wanted to do it up in
Sunburst Yellow to match the car.  Corky will powder coat it in any color
you want as long as it's red or black.  Two and a half days were spent in
prepping and painting the numerous pipes. heatshields, air scoop and
brackets.

Installation is straight forward, no rocket science involved.  The
direction book I got was a combo of previous kit's books and not the final
version.  With these instructions and the aid of some pictures of Bill's
installation I downloaded from the net, I only had to call Bill for help
four times.  Bill is putting together a new book with better pictures and
more detailed instructions.  Bill also accepted some suggestions from me to
make the kit and installation easier.

The installation was about 90% complete when the Cardells and the Sharps
arrived for the '99 Turn Up the Heat event here in Denver.  After the
event, Bill and Sam pitched in to help me complete the install.  The car
was fired up Friday evening for the first time. It started immediately and
with the exception of a leaking injector ran well from the start.

The waste gate came set to 7 1/2 psi boost and we did some dialing in at
that level that evening to get the lower rows of the computer set.
Saturday, we started upping the boost incrementally, testing each time to
tailor the advance curve to get max performance without pre-ignition. We
stopped with 11 psi of boost and I decided to drive the car that way for a
week or two before moving on up to higher boost levels.  I want to savor
each incremental rise in HP as it happens rather than have it all at once.
A twelve step program for boost junkies might start at 1 psi boost and go
up from there in 12 easy steps. ;-)

Drivability of the car is excellent, but it takes a little getting used to
not using as much throttle when driving in traffic.  This car wants to
gooooooo.

WOT acceleration is truly awesome.  No numbers yet, but the club is having
a dyno day in two weeks and I'll post some numbers then.  Bill estimated we
were getting about 200 hp at 11 lb boost.  Not in Shiv territory, but I'm
not planning to there anyway (not yet at least).  I hope to have it dialed
in at 14 psi by the dyno day.

Bill took some pictures of my installation and will post them on his web
site in the near future.

Thanks to Bill Cardell, Corky Bell, Sam Sharp and Carl Hunsaker for all the
time they put in to making the kit and helping me install it.  I'm a happy
camper with an ear to ear grin.

Skip Cannon