Flyin' Miata : Testimonials

Link ECU integrated anti-theft
I'm writing to express how pleased I am with my FMII turbokit. I already knew of the power and torque of the setup but yesterday the kit saved my car! The security system which means that the car cannot be started without the Link keypad connected prevented some little scroat from stealing my car.
(although it didn't prevent him sticking a screwdriver through the door
smashing the dashboard, and stealiing the radio) A very useful
immobilizer! Thankyou FM!!

Steve Morecraft
2005-11-08

Link ECU
One happy camper reporting for duty.... SIR!!! *lol*
Got it in and running... in about 2 hours... with absolutely no problems what-so-ever. I couldn't believe how well it all went. The instructions were in Klingon to begin with, but the judicious use of a mate with one already in, meant at least he could point out my follies before I made them. Actually, once I had the bits and pieces laid out in front of me, the instructions made perfect sense.
Anyway.... Cheers for your help and advice during the rather long-winded and protracted purchase window. Hopefully the next stage won't take as long to get around to... finances allowing!
Thanks once again to all the boys 'n girls at Flyin'Miata for this product.... and the service I received in getting it. I'll tell ya... the Europeans (especially the British and Irish markets) have a lot to learn about customer service, and could do with going back to school to learn how to handle a customer properly. My car feels absolutely amazing... each of the gears has moved down one (3rd behaves like 2nd used to, 4th like 3rd etc etc) and the induction growl from the K&N without the MAF restriction sounds even better to my ears. And this's still while normally aspirated! I'm in serious jeopardy of dislocating my lower jaw one of these days... I'm beginning to resemble the Joker from Batman.
AJ Butler
2004-09-01

Link ECU
Car is running great. It is totally hands-free. Haven't retuned it since summer of 1999. Runs perfectly. In fact, haven't upgraded to the air compensation and DLL just because I don't have the time to put into retuning...one day.
Even a bigger testimony to how "low maintenance" my car is....my wife drives it as a daily driver and she knows absolutely nothing about cars other than it should be warmed up before hitting boost. She doesn't even understand the purpose of a boost gauge!
It's a shame really, I barely remember all the zones since I rarely do downloads or use the keypad. There was a time when I could look at the zone on my laptop and immediately see any changes.
I am very lucky, I live in Victoria (cool dense air, no need for aircon, can use std radiator, sealevel, year-round driving) and I have access to 94 octane. So I set my timing as if I am running 15-17psi on a summer day then I keep it at 12psi unless I do a fast (ie. 3rd gear) AutoX with the Porsche club - then I just have to raise the boost and put on the old BFG-R1s. I believe my car is very reliable at 15psi, I just don't have the traction (no LSD) on the street plus my wife would no doubt freak out because the car is a little too frantic.
Paul Chan

FM turbos and engine management
I kept working on the M45 to increase power, added the Tony nose pulley, a larger crank pulley. I loved the immediate power and really liked the "aggressive" (I try not to call it LOUD :-) supercharger exhaust note (with JR header/cat/exhaust). It dyno'ed at 148hp/148ft lbs torque last December and I knew more power was actually attainable. But I do track events 2-3 times per year (and I drive the Washington, D.C. beltway every day :-) and just wanted more power. I also found that I had to have an intercooler. No flames, please, but my experience with an intake mounted temp gauge was that the J&S had to work really hard to eliminate the knock in the summer and in fact couldn't completely - so my foot had to. Added a Pierburg fuel pump and BEGI to combat weak fuel. Added a Saab IC, turned the J&S way down, and had no more problems with temps. I did have a problem with idle droop no matter what I did. It didn't bother me but my wife was known to occasionally scream things like "I hate your ******* car" and "that ****** car almost got me killed, *****". She just didn't have a sense of humor, I guess.
Removed the afpr and put in the Link and 440 injectors first. Tuned the link. The Supercharger was awesome! Ran with no idle droop, no hesitation - NONE!! , just ran great! Gas mileage went from 21-22 to 25-26 overall - guess I was running rich to overcome the lean fuel problem when I had an afpr with stock injectors. At this point I was wondering why it was that I bought the turbo! If I didn't want more power, then the SC with the Link was really nice.
I then put in the rest of the FM II and the FM race radiator, FM cat and FM turbo exhaust. The car is really sweet. It's fairly quiet unless I nail it; my wife likes it; no idle droop, no noticable turbo lag. Instant on power is virtually like the supercharger. And cars are much farther behind half a block from traffic lights; and I only use 3/4 throttle most of the time - that gives that nice satisfying turbo growl. With the SC I used full throttle a lot more. And my gas mileage overall is now around 27 with the turbo. Guess I'm just getting more mature :-)
So with the turbo I have more power, it's smoother, quieter (that might not be a bonus except when the gestapo is around), my gas mileage is better. I hope to dyno it this fall and should really know how much better I like it after doing VIR on Labor Day weekend (I've done VIR 3 times with the supercharger setup).
So that's my experience with a JR supercharger and FM II on the same 93 1.6 car. Hope this helps someone. I learned a lot about supercharger installations in my travels and now would do THAT quite differently. Now I know that the turbo is here to stay, I have to post all the Supercharger system components for sale.
One final note - credit where credit is due. I got a tremendous amount of support from Bill Cardell at FM both in determining how to set up the SC and installing the turbo. And in helping with some really stupid things I did, like in a timing belt install.... Oh, well let's not talk about THAT! Anyway, lots and lots of thanks to Bill.
Sam Highsmith

Link ECU
Hi all,
I just took my first drive with the FM ECU in my s/c'ed '92. The default setup really worked quite well. It started right up, I set the
timing to 10 degrees, and drove it. There were a few stumbles in the first 0.25-0.5 mi (no boost, mellow driving), but once I did a few saves, it was fine and I moved into boost and repeated the process.
Initial impressions:
1. Tip in response - YES! Admittedly, the AFPR that I was using was probably not set properly, but the "tip-in" response is now VERY crisp. My first reaction after poking the throttle was "damn, I better be careful" - subsequent reactions were less cautious - he, he, he :^O
2. Power. The SOTP dyno says a bit more and I think probably another bit more with tuning. The biggest difference is the throttle tip-in and above 5 or 6k RPM (no air flow meter). I noticed the difference more in 3rd and 4th than in 1st and 2nd too, I think.
3. Sound. Oh, my God! I connected a K&N filter to the metal intake elbow that comes off the s/c (thanks for the great website, Tony Cooper).
The sound is beautiful. The supercharger music is louder and clear/crisper (more high frequency coming through). I love it! The sound
above 6k RPM is magnificient and at 7.5k, well ya gotta hear it. ...now I gotta make this beauty as fast as it sounds.
4. Installation. I spread the installation over a few weeks (been out of town a bunch) and it was, sometimes, challenging to figure out where I left things. If you follow the directions and contact Bill C. with your questions, I think a hack (like me) could install the ECU, 4 wire O2 sensor, injectors and new intake without the AFM, in about 4-6 hours. I had some delays trying to get an appropriate filter from K&N - learned to measure BEFORE I order. Bill was very responsive and helpful. When I had a question or realized that I had taken a "creative detour" (a.k.a. brain fart) from the instructions, I emailed him and promptly got the advice I needed. Given my competency, I wouldn't have dared attempt this if I expected anything less!
5. Education. The ECU provides a great opportunity to learn about how the motor functions over a range of conditions and how it reacts alterations of the variables. This is very cool! Now Bill, I need a heads-up windshield display for the ECU!
I'm excited about it and would do it again. I hope I can get some good tuning time in before winter.
I'm not speedin', I'm tunin'!
Dan Rodier

FM turbo convert.
What do I say, it is fabulous. Performance is awesome, boost is progressive, bags of torque. Link ECU is beautiful and really a nice addition to the system. The turbo is quieter than the supercharger it replaces. Nice job, you won't be disappointed: nite and day versus the Sebring...
I'll let the SSCOR list know I have changed, offering my M45 for sale at the same time. Hopefully we won't flood the market with a stampede of used gear!
Philip Airey

FM turbo and Link ECU, after living with it for a few weeks
I thought you might be interested in my impressions of my 1.8L FMII after three weeks of usage (i.e., enough to get rid of the bugs, not long enough to do any serious tuning).
Having been NA for ten months since purchase (new) in 1995, I had a M45 on the car for about two years until recently when I installed the FMII.
The change to the FMII has been extraordinary. Don't misunderstand me, the
M45 is a fine unit, but I wanted the ability to upgrade, and, having got used to the M45 power delivery, wanted a "bit" more. The FMII kit is well made, looks great, the instructions...ok (I had an early version).Link (ECU) is easy to understand and set up appeared easy.
The install is certainly more complex, although nothing a "weekend" mechanic (me) being meticulous couldn't handle. The electronics and FI system upgrade are the easiest part of the install (thanks Bill), toughest part was removal of the stock header and cat which had rusted together (I replaced the cat with a free flow, also from Bill C).
With trepidation I started the car and...it idled, straight away.. evenly,if a bit on the high side (idle screw taken out a bit for the supercharger). After popping off the mandatory IC hose on initial accel, the car, a daily driver, has been in use ever since.
Setting up the car has been easy so far. Once you have figured out the ECU basics and called Bill C a couple of times with your dumb questions...
Driving impressions after three weeks:The car is as delightful as a NA Miata when driven with the first 1/2 - 1 inch or so of throttle. Use of part throttle seems to provoke 9 - 10 psi almost instantly. Lag really is (almost) non existent. Press the throttle pedal all the way to the floor and stuff really happens fast, 15 psi + from 3500 or so all the way up the band. Remarkable. Gear changing technique and reaction time at a premium. I haven't found much that will live with it so far. Second gear performance is amazing, fourth and fifth very strong: 80 mph, floor it and it pulls like a train. Bill's dyno after 20 minutes of driving showed 230 plus HP, and I've got to believe there is more to come (15? 20?). Even more impressive than the BHP is the torque. It is certainly sweet and I would recommend it strongly. You'll not be disapointed, guaranteed.
Few bugs (getting the hot idle right etc) have been easy to solve. ECU is really easy (and fun) to use/tune.
Going-in concerns which have been debunked:
Myth: "turbo is on-off." Reality: Power delivery is rapid and controllable.
Myth: "install would be too complex for a lay mechanic"
Reality: hey, if I can do this, you can.
Myth? No: ECU, in fact the whole set up, is "kinda expensive"; OK it is not cheap,
but recognize you are getting Porsche-like performance for a $4,600 investment. On a BHP/$ invested it equates to ~ $33/bhp of gain on 130 -140 incremental RW bhp.
All in all, a fun project with remarkable results.
Philip Airey

Reliability.
just thought I'd drop you a note about the car, in the context of a relatively long trip I just finished.
Over the course of four driving days, I covered ~3200 miles, from the SF Bay area to Vancouver, BC, then to Calgary, and then back down to SF. The car--running just about your entire catalog of goodies, including the FM2 system--behaved flawlessly the entire way. I took my tools with me but never needed to unzip the bag.
This was particularly impressive given the variation in altitude (sea level to ~6000 feet at times) and gas quality I encountered. The Link ECU is indeed a significantly cool toy.
Anyway, thanks for selling good stuff.
Toby Weir-Jones

Link ECU and Racing Beat header
I have been running the Flyin' Miata, Flyin' Miata ECU for almost a year now. Without any doubt it is a very impressive power improvement for the Miata. Mine is a 90 with 120000 miles. I can do 0 to 60 in 7.5 seconds with street tires. The car only has a racing beat header and the FM ECU. The suspension has also been modified for running SCCA CSP.
If any of you are considering a power upgrade for your car, you have got to consider the Flyin' Miata ECU. It produced the bang for the buck I was looking for.
I did a baseline test before I installed the computer. I timed a uphill run from 3000 to 7000 rpm in 3rd gear. In stock form it took 17.0 seconds and with the Flyin' Miata ECU it only took 14.5 seconds. No other change I did resulted in even a fraction of that difference!
I have been enjoying driving my Miatas (also a 94 M) for 8 years and thought about buying a 99 for the power, but after adding this new computer I have the power of a 99 without a new car payment!
Fred Uptagrafft

Link ECU on an engine swap
I used a FM ECU as part of my 1.8 swap and it was worth every penny.
I have posted this info to the Miatapower list numerous times and some of it even got reprinted in Grassroots a while back. Originally I used the factory 1.6 ECU w/RX7 flowmeter and adjustable fuel pressure regulator for the swap (see cheap HP at ttp://members.aol.com/solomiata/MiataCSP.html).
This netted a total of 115hp and 107 ft lbs torque on the chassis dyno (rear wheel hp). The FM ECU was worth a total of 15 extra HP after fine tuning. I'm using the 1.6 FM ECU so it was not calibrated to the 1.8 requirements out of the box.
Just plugging it in was worth 10 additional hp on the dyno and fine tuning got to 129.6 HP/109 ft lb.
The 1.6 Factory ECU settings are really not all that bad. They need to be a little more rich below 4500 rpm and leaner after 6000 rpm. This enhancement is impossible to do with standard fuel pressure regulators or larger injectors without affecting the other end of the rpm scale. The timing needs more advance below 5000 but the 6000 and over timing is about right (which leads to the compromise but free 14 before mod). The programmable ECU lets you do all of this without compromise and you can also adjust for each individual motor
as all are slightly different.
Randy Stocker