Hi all!!!

It's been a long time since I've been on. A lot of life has been keeping me from getting my 7 running again.

Finally though, I have some cash stored (yes, some of it's the tax refund) and the impetus to get my 7 running again. Only having one car for a family of four kinda sucks.

My 1990 GXL n/a with about 180K gave up the ghost a while back due to a leaking water seal and has been sitting for over a year. My plan was to pull the engine and rebuild it, adding a street port. However, reading around the forums I learned about the JDM option and now I'm considering doing the TII swap.

My problem is that going turbo requires buying not just the engine and tranny, but the rear end plus an ecu, plus either a TII hood, or more reasonably, a FMIC, a fuel pump and throttle cable.

I'm now at about the max that I could spend for the time being doing the swap. So here's my question.... for those of you who've done this swap, how much Murphy factor might I expect? I'm worried that I'm going to find out that I need some more stuff that I don't know I need right now and that I'll get nickeled and dimed to death.

I'm hoping that a few of you who've done this will be willing to chime in and point out the gotchas that you learned about during the swap process. If I do this, I'll be going through Japan2la who has good rep so I'm not too worried that the engine will be garbage.

Any advice?

Thanks,

-Mark

 

yes you need n370 ecu, n370 pressure sensor, 370 maf, turbo hood, turbo throttle cable, bov, you do not need the rear end mazdatrix sells a drive shaft that bolts to the turbo transmission and the na rear end, the jspec ecu n374 will not fire you rear rotor injectors,
get a warblo 255 fuel pump, i got my turbo II hood for 100, and one it great shape for 220
use your na wire harness you change 2 connectors which go to the same place in the ecu

 

Check the FAQ links and my sig.

 

Much thanks. I'll read it over a couple of times!

 

most people dont do this but you can keep the n'a tranny for the tiem being. most of your money will go to the little things you need here and there but if you say you wil be going thru japan2la he should be able to hook you up with just everything you will need. and all of his stuff is of good quality

 

i put a s4 turboII in a GXL and my car starts and runs but doesnt boost what can be the problem?both pressure sensors changed running an fd fuel pump and when i step on it it doesnt boost

 

whats all done to the car, do you have an fcd hat will mess our stock boost guage up.check all the lines around your turbo and take the intake duct off and see if you can spin your turb by hand

 

I would at say it will end up costing AT LEAST 20% more than what you think you will spend. You will always find things that need replaced/fixed, and there is a decent possibility there will be bigger things as well. I'm in the middle of a turbo swap and ended up spending way more (like approaching twice) than I planned on and its not even running yet.

I hate to burst your bubble, but if this is a car you want to rely on, you really should just rebuild the NA engine and get it street porteded. It will be within your budget, plus be much more reliable in the long run.

There is nothing worse that trying to complete a project with JUST enough money. You will always go over budget and skimp on something, which will inecitably come back and bite you in the ***. Trust me, it has happened to me several times.

 

It's good advice and something that I've been worried about, honestly. I've got the engine about 1/2 out of the car. I'm thinking that I'm going to tear it down and see what it looks like inside and go from there.

 

Is it just me or does anyone else see a lot of WTB n370 parts threads a lot?