Is Supercharging Safe for the motor

I have a 2002 Miata and I am interested in either supercharging or
installing a turbo. I am wondering what potiential damage can this do
to your motor. Is it worth going this way or just leaving it alone. I
don't want to track my car but I would like better performance. Any
opions are welcome.

Thanks,
Paul G.

wrote in
oups.com:

> I have a 2002 Miata and I am interested in either supercharging or
> installing a turbo. I am wondering what potiential damage can
> this do to your motor. Is it worth going this way or just leaving
> it alone. I don't want to track my car but I would like better
> performance. Any opions are welcome.

It's all up to you and the way you drive. You'll get reduced engine
life, reduced gas mileage, reduced tire and brake life, etc. etc plus
you'll probably have to use premium gasoline. All of these things
depend on you, if you drive sensibly you'll find the car will last as
long as a non-supercharged car but.... if you wanted to drive sensibly
you wouldn't have asked, right? ;-)

I won't disagree with XS11 as what he's saying is technically correct but I
think the effects (wear and tear wise) are exaggerated. If you do your
research you'll find that the miata engine was built for turbocharging and
that's partly why it's been such a bullet-proof performer. You'll also be
able to find thousands of people who will say that something like the
standard Jackson Racing SC is basically a plug and play upgrade, with the
likelihood of 100k trouble free miles. You'll also find that many of those
people believe it gives the miata the perfect amount of power.

Others are in that 'more is always better' camp and prefer turbocharging.
You can do a more exotic set up with substantially more power. Remember that
you will begin to effect reliability tire wear

You can do endless reading, every conceivable angle, in the forums at
miata.net. It'll be time well spent. Keep in mind the 'father of the miata'
is a believer that if you can't go fast with 90 hp, you won't be fast with
900 hp!

Hopefully you are aware that you can and should use the entire rpm range
available on your miata.

Good luck,
Chris

"XS11E" > wrote in message
...
> wrote in
> oups.com:
>
>> I have a 2002 Miata and I am interested in either supercharging or
>> installing a turbo. I am wondering what potiential damage can
>> this do to your motor. Is it worth going this way or just leaving
>> it alone. I don't want to track my car but I would like better
>> performance. Any opions are welcome.
>
> It's all up to you and the way you drive. You'll get reduced engine
> life, reduced gas mileage, reduced tire and brake life, etc. etc plus
> you'll probably have to use premium gasoline. All of these things
> depend on you, if you drive sensibly you'll find the car will last as
> long as a non-supercharged car but.... if you wanted to drive sensibly
> you wouldn't have asked, right? ;-)

"Chris D'Agnolo" > wrote in
:

> I won't disagree with XS11 as what he's saying is technically correct
> but I think the effects (wear and tear wise) are exaggerated. If you
> do your research you'll find that the miata engine was built for
> turbocharging and that's partly why it's been such a bullet-proof
> performer. You'll also be able to find thousands of people who will
> say that something like the standard Jackson Racing SC is basically a
> plug and play upgrade, with the likelihood of 100k trouble free miles.
> You'll also find that many of those people believe it gives the miata
> the perfect amount of power.
>

What about a 12 yr old that already has 165k on it? Are there any
additional concerns putting a SC on a more venerable model?

-Scott

Scott Hughes > wrote in
:

> What about a 12 yr old that already has 165k on it? Are there any
> additional concerns putting a SC on a more venerable model?

I'd seriously consider some motor work, particularly the bottom end.
New rings and a valve job couldn't hurt, either.

If you have worn rings and leaky valves, you're going to be losing some
of the gains the blower will give you and the blower will add a bit of
load to the crank and rod bearings so new ones can't hurt anything.

If you do none of the above, you'll probably still be OK, the engine is
pretty tough.

wrote:

>I have a 2002 Miata and I am interested in either supercharging or
>installing a turbo. I am wondering what potiential damage can this do
>to your motor.

It can potentially melt down your pistons, if improperly set up. But
of course there is no requirement to do so.

I put a supercharger on my 96 when it had 4 kmi on it and it now has
over 135 kmi. The car has seen lots of adverse conditions. The
supercharger gave the ghost after 100 kmi on the dot and was not
rebuildable due to being sandblasted by the poor air filter provided
by JR. So I put on a new supercharger. The engine is probably also
sandblasted, in any case it is smoking oil through the exhaust, using
about a quart in a thousand miles I think.

> Is it worth going this way or just leaving it alone.

That rather depends on what your priorities are, I would say.
I was unhappy with the amount of power of my 96, and have never
regretted putting on the SC for a second. I would do it again
if I would get another one now.

On the other hand, the 2006 Miata I am getting with 170 hp may
have enough hp to satisfy me, in which case I will certainly leave
well enough alone. Putting on a SC is an additional complication
to deal with, and gas consumption and engine wear will suffer some.
Also, it puts you in the wrong class for autocross.

> I
>don't want to track my car but I would like better performance. Any
>opions are welcome.

Opion, OPION, oPION, OpIoN

Leon
--
Leon van Dommelen Bozo, the White 96 Sebring Miata .)
http://www.dommelen.net/miata
EXIT THE INTERSTATES (Jamie Jensen)

I would have to think real hard to find a blown engine in a Miata - doesn't
happen often. They seem to be rock solid.

Check out Miata.net and ask around, they are the experts!

XS11E wrote:
> wrote in
> oups.com:
>
>> I have a 2002 Miata and I am interested in either supercharging or
>> installing a turbo. I am wondering what potiential damage can
>> this do to your motor. Is it worth going this way or just leaving
>> it alone. I don't want to track my car but I would like better
>> performance. Any opions are welcome.
>
> It's all up to you and the way you drive. You'll get reduced engine
> life, reduced gas mileage, reduced tire and brake life, etc. etc plus
> you'll probably have to use premium gasoline. All of these things
> depend on you, if you drive sensibly you'll find the car will last as
> long as a non-supercharged car but.... if you wanted to drive sensibly
> you wouldn't have asked, right? ;-)

Actually, I'm seeing about the same fuel economy pre-S/C and post-S/C
in my 2002 Miata, and I do not drive sedately. Yes, you need premium
gasoline, but you really need to run premium in a 2002 Miata, anyway.
Tires and brakes seem much more influenced by driving style than by
S/C vs. non-S/C.

The words of caution I'd offer a

- if you've never S/Ced a car, or a Miata, before, there's a learning
curve. Don't tolerate pinging (much). In the higher-compression 2002,
you will absolutely require electronic timing control (the J&S Ultra-
safeguard works well for me). You'll also require colder plugs (a deal
at sparkplugs.com) and you'll really want the DDM cold-air duct.

- if you don't heed the above advice, you'll either end up with a car that
always thinks it is running poor fuel and will have highly-retarded timing
all the time, or you'll melt pistons and/or plug electrodes.

- the stock JR nylon idler pulleys have a dreadful reputation; it took
23k miles for them to self-destruct. Track Dog Racing has steel pulleys
that are likely much better (mine are on the way - the pulley death took
place last Saturday).

- don't go crazy with a smalley pulley for more boost - you're running a 10:1
engine already.

A turbo-charged motor will have similar issues, I believe.

I love the additional power that the CARB-legal JRSC provides and my motor
doesn't drink oil yet.

Cheers,
Dana

Yeah the engines do seem to hold up. Mine of course gave up the ghost,
but it was the short crank and not the engine. The lady that lives
across from me has one with a little over 700,000 KMs and it was still
running okay until just before the new year...hard to believe eh?

"90miataca" > wrote in
ups.com:

> The lady that lives across from me has one with a little over
> 700,000 KMs and it was still running okay until just before the
> new year...

So what happened "just before the new year"? Did it die or did she
sell it or????