- So you turboed your car.
Nice. You're ready for some more power,
some big noises, and lots of dudes' attention.
That's awesome, but there's more to turboing a car
then just picking the right parts
and getting them installed.
You gotta tell your car's brain about the new parts
so you don't blow it up.
I'm talking about tuning.
I'm Zack, and this is "Money Pit,"
and today we finally make some more power, baby.
Hopefully, about 225 horses worth.
(car engine revving)
But before we do that, we've got a few things to do.
First, we're gonna talk about the different options
you have for tuning.
Then I'm gonna install boost control
so we can control our boost.
And then I've got a few little other things
left to button up.
So we're gonna do that stuff,
then get this thing fired up and then we're off to the dyno.
Let's go.
(upbeat music)
All right, so when we're talking about tuning your car,
there are kind of two different options.
There's flash tuning and there's standalone ECUs.
And we've talked about this on this channel before
but we'll just cover it real quick.
Flash tunes basically replaced the software
on your stock ECU.
A company will send you a little device
that you plug into your OBD2 port,
and they'll also send you a tune file
that you replace your factory software with.
But for something like the Miata,
there really is no flash tune option
for the setup that we've got.
But luckily, we already went standalone, as you may recall.
That is your other big option.
It gives you power over everything.
You take control of all the controls.
It's kind of a big responsibility.
So if you're gonna go standalone ECU,
really most of the time, what you're gonna wanna do
is find yourself a local and reputable tuner
that's comfortable with your platform and your ECU
and then you're gonna wanna get your car to that person
so they can put it on a dyno and build you a custom tune
without blowing anything up.
So that's exactly what we're gonna do today,
but before we do it, I gotta install boost control
so that we have control over our boost levels.
I'm about halfway there.
I got the wires routed into the old cabin.
Now I just gotta get 'em to the ECU.
Now, to connect them to the ECU is pretty easy.
MegaSquirt comes with all these leads
that already have the correct connectors on the end of 'em.
So all I gotta do is splice this wire
to my wire from the boost solenoid
and then plug it into our little auxiliary connector
on the back of the MegaSquirt.
Now, to figure out which of these pins I need to use,
I just need to go to their website.
It's all listed out and it should be really easy.
So I'm just gonna splice these together
and plug it in.
(upbeat music)
All right, so at the other end of those wires,
we've got our boost control solenoid right here.
I got this from DIYAutoTune, same folks that make the ECU.
I think it was about 50 or 60 bucks,
and this is gonna let us control our boost.
So I'm gonna eventually get this thing mounted right here.
But first I gotta put these little barbs on,
so we can pump vacuum lines to the solenoid.
All right, now that we've got our boost solenoid in place,
and I'll mount it up,
it's time to plumb our vacuum lines.
And this is the important part.
This is how this thing works.
I'll show you how to hook it up.
It's really simple.
All right, so we've got this vacuum line
connecting to the bottom port on the wastegate,
and then it's gonna also connect
to the outlet on the turbo.
So it's gonna see whatever pressure
the turbo's making immediately.
Okay, so we're using a lot of adapters down here
which I do hate, but it's okay.
It's gonna work.
The fact is, we gotta switch our vacuum line sizing.
The ports on the wastegate are huge.
The outlet port on the turbo itself is pretty small,
and then the barbs on the boost solenoid are tiny.
So we gotta go from small line to larger line.
So basically what we have going on here
is a little solenoid.
It kinda goes in between the manifold pressure
and the wastegate.
So it lets us manipulate our manifold pressure
and change what the wastegate actually sees
to manipulate our boost pressure.
So we can trick the wastegate
into making whatever boost pressure we want.
All right, now we've got our boost control solenoid
hooked up and all in working order.
And with that, we're almost ready to go to the dyno.
I do have a couple other things left to do.
I'm gonna put some new plugs in this thing.
I'm gonna gap 'em down,
and I gotta put oil in it still,
fire this thing up and then we're on the road.
Let's go.
All right, so we're gonna yank out
the old plugs that are in here
and replace them with a fresh set.
Now, it's always a good idea
to have a nice new set of plugs,
but apart from just having new plugs,
we need to change the gap on our plugs
because we've added this turbo.
When you add a turbo to a car,
you increase the cylinder pressure with all that extra air,
and all that extra pressure in the cylinders
makes it harder for your spark to jump the gap
in your spark plug.
So a way to remedy that is to make the gap
on your spark plug a little bit smaller
than what it should be.
Got my slick Harbor Freight feelers gauge here,
for measuring thicknesses and things.
Ooh.
All right, so the stock gap is like 44 thousandths,
which is even bigger than the biggest feeler gauge on here.
We're gonna be shooting for 25 thousandths.
That's a pretty small gap, but it's gonna help us
avoid misfires and keep our spark nice and strong.
That's what I want.
So I'm gonna do that on all four.
(bell dinging)
With that, all these plugs are gapped down
at 25 thousandths, which is great.
They're ready to go in the car,
but before I put them in the engine,
I'm actually gonna go prime the turbo,
which means I need to put oil in the engine.
One of the most important things
for the lifespan of the turbo is that it gets oiled.
So the first time you start it up,
if that thing is dry in there,
you could really damage your turbo
and really short its lifespan.
So you need to make sure there's oil in the turbo
before you start it.
There's a few ways to do that.
For one, I always fill this thing up.
Even before I put this fitting on,
I'll fill the turbo itself up with oil,
sorta like one of these jobbies.
The next thing that I'm gonna do
is arguably more important.
I'm gonna get this line filled up with oil.
So the spark plugs are out of the engine right now.
So the engine should crank really easily,
'cause there's no compression.
So I'm gonna basically crank the engine
which will prime the pump,
build oil pressure and get oil pressure from the turbo.
Okay.
Well, that's enough of that.
All right, so now our oil system's all primed up.
Turbo's got oil in it.
We let it run with pressure for long enough.
So now I gotta put the plugs in.
Now it's time to fire this thing up.
Get it off jack stands, finally.
Let's go.
(upbeat music)
All right, spark plugs are in, oil's in, turbo is primed.
God, if I wasn't any smarter,
I'd say it's time to start this thing up.
I was trying to call myself dumb.
Did I call myself smart?
Okay, (chuckles).
- Hear things, turn it on.
(dramatic music)
- You ready?
All right, let's fire this turd up.
- [Man] All right.
(car engine stuttering)
(car engine revving)
(upbeat music)
There's a lot of smoke coming out the back.
- That's interesting.
I wonder if we're just dumping fuel.
My concern is that the dead times and stuff
we put in from the new injectors,
like I said, it was a little convoluted for MegaSquirt.
Maybe I didn't do it right.
Maybe that spreadsheet did me dirty.
So I got to figure that out.
All right, so after our first startup,
well, it runs pretty poorly.
It's running really rich.
It's running like nine to one at idle, super rich.
That's because we've got our big fat injectors in there.
And there is a chance that I put
the injector dead times in incorrectly,
since it was a little bit different in MegaSquirt.
But the big deal right now,
well, we sprung a coolant leak.
That's not what I thought was gonna happen.
See, there's this bypass hose
that goes from the heater core to the water pump inlet.
And you have to move that to get your exhaust manifold
on or off.
Well, I guess that little O-ring in there
wiggled its last wiggle and now it leaks.
This is the way she goes, baby.
The way she goes.
(dramatic music)
All right, so I called the dealership back
to buy the parts that I need to fix the coolant leak.
And they were like, "Oh, we actually have one in stock."
So I just went and got it.
It's only a couple hours later.
And I think I fixed the leak.
Took everything apart, put a new O-ring in
and I think we're back in business.
She's bone dry, baby.
She's bone dry.
I think the coolant leak is fixed,
which means there's nothing stopping us
from tuning this hog, except for getting it to the dyno.
Still gotta do that.
Cue the tow truck montage.
(upbeat music)
All right, we are back at my friend's EF1 Motorsports.
We're ready to get this thing on the dyno
and actually tune it.
Make some power, make all 225 of those horses.
I hope.
I do have a few concerns.
First off, I'm a little bit concerned
about the head gasket.
I mean, it's 25 years old in there.
Who knows how much life it has left in it?
My other concern is that I'm still running the stock cat.
So that's gonna be a bit of a bottleneck
in the exhaust system,
and it might make it difficult to make my power goals.
Hopefully not, but I don't know.
We might have to fab up a test pipe real quick.
My other concern is that I am kind of cutting things
a little close.
We're trying to go to a track day on Sunday with the Miata
to redeem our last track day.
Now, right now, it's Thursday.
So I've got today and tomorrow to get this thing tuned
and then shake it down on Saturday
and hit the track on Sunday.
It's a little ambitious, but I think we can do it.
So we're gonna get the thing strapped down right now.
Start tuning, start making some tweaks
and hopefully, we can make the track day on Sunday.
Also, hopefully it doesn't blow up.
Hopefully, we make 225 horsepower.
We're really hoping to pull
a lot of things together right here.
So, wish me luck.
(mellow music)
All right, so the first thing I'm gonna do
is account for our new injectors
and get this thing just idling and running normally,
(car engine revving)
sort of like that.
And then we'll work our way towards higher RPMs
and actually making power.
All right, we just got the boost control all sorted out.
We're making boost,
we're running 13 and a half pounds right now,
which is about as much boost as I wanna run.
So that means that it's time to make some power pulls
and see what kind of horsepower and torque
this thing actually makes.
(car engine revving)
(dramatic music)
We (beep) did it.
We made 227 horsepower,
which means that we met my goal
for maybe the first time ever.
I've never been so excited about 227 horsepower
in my whole life.
But unfortunately, we're not done tuning yet.
The fact is making power pulls like that
is kind of the easier part of tuning.
There's a lot of work left to be done
as far as drivability goes.
So I'm gonna leave the car here overnight with Gibby,
and tomorrow we'll get it on the fancy dyno.
And then, finally then, I can drive a 227 horsepower Miata.
Oh baby, I'm excited.
(upbeat music)
All right, so we're almost done with the tuning process.
So the car's really drivable now.
We've got a lot of the little bugs ironed out.
And also, because I'm a man of safety,
I'm having Gibby make me a map
that only runs 12 PSI of boost.
We were running 14 and a half last night.
That's what we're running right now.
That's what we made 227 horsepower with, which is awesome.
But I think it's probably a good idea
that I have a little bit safer of a map than that also,
for things like track day,
'cause I do want this thing to not blow up.
So we've got a few things left to wrap up on the dyno,
then we'll get it off the dyno and finally onto the road.
I'm so excited to drive this thing,
I can't even tell you.
I can't wait.
(upbeat music)
(car engine revving)
Yeah, baby.
Woo!
This thing's finally quick.
Oh, it's all coming together, baby.
And just in the nick of time.
Tomorrow, I'm going to the track.
So I gotta take this thing back to the shop.
I gotta clean it up 'cause it looks terrible.
I gotta check on my nuts and bolts,
make sure everything's tight.
Top-off all my fluids
and get this thing ready for the track.
We're going back to Willow Springs tomorrow.
So I can hopefully redeem myself
from the first track day experience we had in the Miata.
This thing is ready for the racetrack now.
I'm not even worried.
I mean, maybe I'm a little worried,
but that's normal, right?
So thank you guys so much
for watching this turbo saga.
The Miata is finally turbod.
I can't believe it.
227 horsepower, baby.
This thing shreds.
And I hope you're having a good time.
I'm having a blast.
Follow me on Instagram, @ZachJobe.
Don't forget to follow Donut Media while you're there.
I'll see you guys next week at the fricking racetrack, baby.
(car engine revving)
(laughs)