What's Wrong with this Miata MK Turbo kit? | We Show You So You Can Make an Informed Decision! 

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.

Your E-Brake made it into a video lol

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.

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.

Now all he has to do is edit out Brandon saying how his turbo kit sucks 35 times in the video.

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.

100% a full MK kit.

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.

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.

That's for sure. I have a slight amount of buyers remorse, but it's running pretty smoothly right now.

It was almost the same cost as the kit.

Not enough people understand this lol

It happens every day lol

Both those options are about double, or more than what the MK kit will run you. Apples and oranges.

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.

that's very possible, she is from that part of the US🤣

Couldn’t go a different direction without cutting holes in the chassis.