I had a BRPerfomrance modified Jackson Racing supercharger installed on my 99 Miata for a brief period. It is not worth playing around with other bolt on modifications as they cost more money than the good that they do. I chose the Jackson Racing kit because it integrates very well (has an almost factory installed look), it has been widely sold, it has proven long term reliability and most of all because it is smog legal here in California. The BRP modified kit is much better because of the performance increase due to the bump in boost level and because of the Jackson Racing PowerCard, which addresses the increased fuel requirements much better than the piggy back injector with auxiliary fuel pump. Needless to say, this was a very clean install. I also added the Jackson Racing Boost Timing Controller in order to maintain maximum ignition timing advance. There are higher boost kits available but they are not smog legal.
Here is the kit as supplied by BRP.
The air filter supplied with the Jackson Racing kit leaves a lot to be desired. It appears to be under sized, has a very thin layer of foam and is close to the exhaust manifold.
I addressed this by replacing the original filter with a known good aftermarket filter. Using an oiled gauze filter (like the well known major brand) was out of the question for me. I chose ITG because they are supposed to filter as well as the stock paper filter yet flow as well or better than those oiled gauze filters and over a longer period time. I purchased model JC60-67. There are two sources for this filter. Be sure to purchase the filter cleaner and oil as well.
www.itgfilters.com
www.eurosporthighperformance.com
The 2.75" x 2.75" 45 degree silicon hose I purchased is from:
Replacing the filter actually reduced the intake noise somewhat (a good thing in my opinion) and now draws in cooler air from about the same location as the original factory air box. Here are some detailed pictures that you probably won't find elsewhere on the web. You may want to add a heat shield for the ultimate JRSC intake upgrade.
This is the factory tube header (from a 2001 model). The tube to flange welds were inside, obstructing flow so I had a local muffler weld around the outside of the tubes and grind away the internal welds. I never had the header installed without this modification so I don't know how much it actually added. The next step will be to wrap the header with header wrap to reduce engine compartment temperatures, and specifically intake air temperature.
