Next on the list was to start mocking up all the coolers and see how they work together. Given the minor damage on the radiator that came in my car and that it had something inside of it, I opted to order a new radiator from Auto City Classics. I hadn't seen it before, but they offer a dual mount for installing radiators in either V8 or 6 Cylinder positions. What I'm hoping is that I can use the V8 mount in my 6 cylinder radiator support to center the radiator and sneak the heat exchanger between the condenser and set back radiator. This will require that I cut the core support cross bar and build a new one, but I think it will be my best bet.





This new radiator has a slightly smaller core than the old one in the car, but I'll be able to make my modified C7 fan work with a little bit of trimming or maybe different brackets. That's a huge relief.





And here's the heat exchanger on top of the radiator. They have nearly the same size core, so that should make for an efficient heat exchanger. Also, the distance between the mounting tabs is about 1/4" longer than the distance inside of the AC condenser brackets. This is supposed to be an upgraded unit for a Cobalt SS.



AC brackets are installed using the stock hardware and locations, so that made things very easy.



First test fit of the condenser was disappointing. The filler panel hit the condenser and required some clearance around a hump to fit. I was hoping that it would have fit in without modification, but that's how it goes sometimes. It was minor, but I didn't want to change the location of the condenser because it came with pre-bent hard lines to the dryer. I know this isn't the final location where I will put it, but thought it would be good to test fit to get some measurements. It's going to be very close, but doable.





I was also looking at different options for the heater block off that is needed for Vintage Air Gen1 unit. I found that Old Air Products sells a Bypass Heater Valve, Cable Operated, Pull to close 25-1019 that will close the flow to the heater box, but allows for recirculation. This is a better option for LS engines so that the coolant is still flowing through the ports. Some have had issues plugging them off so I figured this would be a safe option.



Last up was just a cool trade that I stumble on. I found a guy selling a Whipple supercharger that was disassembled and needed new rear bearings, so I picked it up really cheap. I found what it needed and slowly assembled it and got it all back together properly. I had it online for sale on FB Marketplace with an option to trade for LS parts. Some guy reached out and had a T56 transmission with new clutch, TOB, shifter and a few other new parts for trade. I had to meet him about 2.5 hours away, but it was much more useful to me than the supercharger. A company SWS motorsports sells an adapter plate for this supercharger to LS motors using the Holley Lo Ram which was an option, but I decided to stay turbo.



It's a little dirty, but should clean up nicely. Now I kinda want to find a cheap IROC or T/A 3rd gen roller and 5.3 motor to make a fun daily driver.



That brings me up to present. I'm hoping to get the hot side wrapped up soon, and then I can focus on getting the cold side buttoned up. I can't wait to hear all of the turbo noises!

Cheers,
Ryan

 

Continuing to make steady progress. After taking lots of measurements and getting the AC condenser mounted, I knew that was as far forward as I could go. I determined that with the dual mounts on the radiator support, that I would have just enough room to mount the heat exchanger right between the condenser and the radiator. However, that required some cutting. I made a jig for myself before I made any cuts so that I could make a new center mount with the same width before I made any cuts.



The big cut.



Now it was time to test fit the radiator using the V8 mounts in the 6 cylinder radiator support. This essentially centers the radiator between the radiator support and will give me plenty of room to mount the heat exchanger.



I just have the heat exchanger sitting in this position to confirm that the width will work for me. So happy that it all fits together. I'll rotate the heat exchanger 90* so that the outlets are pointing towards the driver's side where it's less cluttered. I'll mount the heat exchanger pump down low, so I'll find somewhere for that to live. What is even cooler is that by dumb luck, the distance between the AC brackets and the heat exchanger mounts is about 1/8". I'll be able to trim down the mounts just slightly and use the mounts that came on the heat exchanger.





It is fun building cars, but sometimes you take 2 steps forward and one step back. I think that I have a plan that will solve this issue, but I need to do a bit more research. If it works, it will also solve my turbo charge piping issue as well.



I'm fairly confident that a new or modified intake lid would solve my charge pipe and coolant hose issues. So, after a friend send me a picture of a really cool design he did on fusion, it got me thinking about was CAD options were out there. Then I realized that Chat GPT does a really good job of photoshop and asked it to modify the generic Holley lid. Here's what it came up with after I asked it to move the throttlebody opening to the front and added some ribbing.





Pretty impressive actually! I don't mind it at all. Then I noticed that people were using it to export to CAD and AI would be able to spit out a model. So I gave it a shot... Well we're not quite there yet with AI haha



Moving back to the hot side fabrication. I thought that the pipes were welded enough that I could unbolt the downpipe to finish up some welding in tight spots, but unfortunately it still warped and moved on me. So, this time I took no chances and kept it all bolted together to weld and cool. I decided the best course of action was to cut the pipe that recirculates the wastegate back to the exhaust. This also gave me an opportunity to get a burr bit into the hard to reach spots to clean up any flash and excess exhaust piping that was hanging out there. Hopefully this avoids any strange sounds or whistles.





Once that was done, I took it all back apart and confirmed fitment on the car and it all fit together just like it came apart. Very nice! Now it was time to start connecting the rest of the hot side together. This took a lot more effort than I thought, but I now have all the pipes tacked together and things fit great.





That's all for now. Hoping to get some time here and there throughout the week to get the hot side pipes all welded up now that I have it all cut and fit. I'm also going to add an exhaust hanger at the rear where it goes around the transmission to support the weight. Once that is finished up, I can work on the rest of the downpipe and get the muffler hooked back up. I'm probably going to just keep the muffler and side exhaust to keep things simple. If I have time I may try to mock up a pipe to go over the axle.

Thanks,
Ryan

 

Solid progress!

Andrew

 

What about a ford lid for the hi-ram? like this:

https://www.holley.com/products/engi.../parts/300-301

 

I've looked into those options, but my brake booster will be right in the way unfortunately. I'm going to either get a fabricated lid from 417 Motorsports or modify the stock lid to have the TB flush mounted with the front of the lower intake.

 

I've been continuing to work on the down pipe and decided to add another vband near the frame, so that I could remove the pipe much easier. I put a few tack welds on the pipes, then my old welding mask died on me. It was a cheaper unit I got on Amazon probably 10 years ago, so it's served it's purpose for me. When looking around I found a Vulcan unit that was on sale so I picked that one up. What a huge difference it made being able to see. The viewing window is significantly larger than the old one I had, and the auto dim is much more sensitive.



With the practice I've been doing on the pipes and with the new helmet, I was able to lay down some of the best welds I've done so far. Pretty happy with how they turned out.







I still need to weld the O2 bung to the pipe, and that section will be done. Then I am going to redo my tailpipe and the full hot side will be fully welded. I'm going to wrap the crossover pipe and add a hanger that will attach to the transmission. Then I can call the hotside completed.

I started to test fit my other components and the turbo drain that came with the VS racing kit wouldn't allow the fitting to be tightened because it hit the housing bolts. I bought an extended drain fitting and that one was too tall. So I opted to trim off the one that came in the kit and weld the -10AN bung I had to it. I've only welded a few things that were Aluminum and I definitely need more practice, but it's stuck together.





Right about this time we were hit with a huge snow storm that brought 7" of snow and about a 1/4" of ice on top of it all. I had to move my tractor into the garage to keep it from gelling up as the temps dropped to sub-zero. My welding station had to be taken down to fit it inside.



The temps finally came back up this week and decided it was time to move the tractor back outside. With that outside I decided to tackle the mounting of the heat exchanger and see what the final fitment of my cooling blocks will be. I started by locating the heat exchanger within the vintage air brackets. It fits perfectly in between which makes me very happy. I had to cut some holes into the driver's side to allow for the heat exchanger lines to come out.



Once I confirmed fitment and ensured that there was enough room for me to tighten the VA condenser fittings, I drilled the side mounting holes. It came together really cleanly. The radiator will tuck in nicely as well. Very happy with this setup so far.





I still need to finalize the fitment of the cooling fan which should fit about 1" closer to the radiator once mounted. The radiator hose will be tight, but I'll be able to sneak it up and around once I trim off a bit of the hose inlet and move the radiator fan.



One last thing that is unexpected, but super cool is the rear battery relocation. A guy I've been messaging on line with for a few years works with a restoration shop and did a 56 Nomad and designed this really cool rear battery pocket in CAD. I've been wanting to do that every since I bought the car, but didn't want to take the time to build one. I paid him to let me use his file, then sent it into Send Cut Send. Was very impressed with the company's site as this is the first time I've worked with them. They offered options for me to add bends which is super helpful. In under a week it was delivered to my door. I also picked up a Gen6 Camaro battery cable which has a factory rear mounted battery. Is very heavy gauge wire and will make relocating the battery much easier.





I bought a bunch of TIG Filler rod too so I'm hoping to use this project to get more seat time. I'm still up in the air at this point about how I'm going to do my cold side. I'm either going to buy a new lid that will line up the TB with the turbo outlet, cut and reweld my stock lid, or build a cold side pipe two really tight 90* bends. I need to decide soon.

Cheers,
Ryan

 

Dang, those TIG welds...little details like that end up making the whole build look fantastic.

 

It looks like all the pieces of the puzzle are starting to fit together, the welds look nice too!

Is that a BX series Kubota?

 

Thanks guys. Yes it's a BX2670. I picked this up last year to do some projects around my house, but it worked amazing for the driveway.

 

I decided to take a break from working on the exhaust pipes to get the cooling fan mounted onto the new radiator. After tossing around several ideas, I finally decided that I needed to add a few tabs to the radiator to hold the fan. That meant that I needed to bite the bullet and start practicing on my aluminum welding. I've been welding steel/stainless steel for many years, but aluminum is new territory. I had some coupons from a tig welding kit I bought a long time ago and surprisingly the beads looked pretty good after I dialed in my settings.



The first two tabs were a bit hot so they melted too much, and I was getting used to how the puddle reacts.



The next two turned out pretty good IMO.



All ready to install now. Thankfully the wiring and everything is the same, so there won't be any changes needed there.



With the final fitment after I trimmed the fans a bit closer, it clears by about a half inch now.



Now back to the exhaust pipes. After fumbling around with the fitment this whole time I pulled the trigger on a set of these exhaust fitment tools for tack welding pieces together. These are worth it and wished I had them from the beginning!



Got the O2 bung welded in and then fit up the final location for the muffler. I'm running the same Walker Quietflow stainless muffler from the beginning. I moved it slightly closer to the frame so that it cleared the ebrake components. When I first built the exhaust I didn't have that installed and it contacted the muffler, so ever since I had to have it twisted down which I didn't like. Now it's nice and flat.







[img]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/55110885772_b472b1a4a7_b.jpg[/img

Glad that is finished up now. Last thing that I need to do is wrap the crossover and downpipe with Titanium exhaust wrap. Then after going back and forth a bunch of times, I decided to take some final measurements and modify the stock lid. I bought a 1/2" 92mm TB flange online because from what I could see the 102 flange would be too wide for the angle that I was going to have my TB at. Plus I'm running the factory 90mm which I do not plan to swap out.





The big cut... I won't lie, I did hesitate for a minute. No turning back now!!





When I made the initial cut, I measured about a half inch longer than I needed to account for any changes that I needed to make. Then I slowly crept up on the final location. I ended up cutting an additional half inch to recess the flange, but kept the outer sides to help locate the flange. This helped out a lot when I tack welded it together.



Since I paid the Holley tax on the parts, I wanted to make sure to keep that logo intact after all the modifications.



My initial measurements were close that I may not need to add pieces to the sides, but the way the inlet is shaped, I didn't have an choice.

I had some thick pieces of aluminum left over from another project, and they worked perfectly as filler plates for the sides. Once I shaped them for a nice fitment on the sides, I tack welded everything together.





And the final test fit is just what I was hoping for. Everything fits everywhere and I'm very happy with the charge pipe angles and the stock radiator hoses are now a great fit.



Needs a little trimming, but will clear everything! Huge win.



To be continued...

 

At this point the intake lid is ready to be welded. I was having a bit of trouble getting the weld to puddle up on the thick 1/2" TB flange, and I had been in contact with a local guy who does some great fabrication on racecars. I reached out to see if he'd be interested in welding the flange to my TB and he was extremely reasonable so opted to have the professional do this job. His own personal turbo car has seen as high as 40 psi and he assured me that I won't have any issues with the 8-12psi I'll be running.





He was very careful around the TB holes on the top of the intake so I didn't have to take a whole lot of effort to tap them. Nice touch.





Very quick turn around as well. I dropped it off Saturday and picked it up Sunday night. I think what I'm going to attempt is to sand down the welds and very lightly needle scale the surfaces to replicate a cast finish. I'm going to do a few test pieces to see how the results are. I'd love to make it look like an intake lid that Holley never made and fool some people.

I dug out the CWA50 heat exchanger pump I bought quite a while ago. They are off of 2012ish BMW's with factory turbos and is a Pierburg unit which flows a lot of coolant. They are a great budget option to the universal CWA50 pumps.



One unique thing is that the inlet uses a quick connect fitting. You can buy a piece from URO that's made for a Volkswagen heater or radiator hose.





I placed an order from Summit for hopefully the last pieces that I need for this turbo swap. I grabbed a supercharger reservoir from Magnuson, AEM click dial, Low Dollar wastegate/BOV plumbing kit and the pipes/clamps for the charge pipes. I also bought the Sloppy Mechanics Dial a boost unterminated kit since they were sold out of the full kit. I'm not sure if I'll ever really run it on the low boost setting, but I really like the idea of being able to change the boost level with the click of the dial.

I'm down to just a handful of plumbing items such as turbo drain/feed, radiator hoses, heat exchanger hoses, and mounting the heat exchanger coolant reservoir and pump. I'm sure there are a bunch of other little things that I'll need to knock out, and I'm getting very excited to wrap up the winter upgrades. Hopefully within the next few weeks I can the car started up and see if it will make any boost.

Cheers,
Ryan

 

What's the control strategy for the aux water pump? Just going to run it full speed all the time with Ignition on?

 

Good question, I'm going to run a 1k ohm resistor that is supposed to run it at 3amps. I ran this same pump in my Camaro, and I just ran it full speed all the time and it would aerate the water causing the water to be less efficient. I'm hoping that this solution will flow the coolant, without causing turbulence. If X Max could control PMW+, I would use that strategy, but only the Dominator can do that.

 

Nice work on the aluminum welding. Did you use any sort of protection as you were adding the tabs to the radiator to ensure you didn't accidentally warp/melt/whatever the closest radiator tubes?

The race car fab guy did a great job on the intake! I've never welded aluminum (and only done a couple hour class on welding steel), so I'm no expert or anything, but from what I understand welding cast aluminum can be really tricky.

 

Really nice job on the aluminum welding. You do impressive work Ryan. 👍👍

 

AAIIIC, Yes, I slide a piece of steel that I had next to the parts as I was welding so that the heat only went where I needed it to.

Thanks Jimbo!

 

Been slowly chipping away and checking things off the list. I'm close enough to the end, I decided to make another punch list to keep me on track. I'll probably add a few things as I go, but hoping to possibly get the car out this weekend if it all goes to plan and the parts I ordered come in.



After a bunch of thinking on how I wanted to mount the heat exchanger pump, I finally decided to just make my own bracket. I copied the idea from the catch can mount I have, and this worked out great. It's solidly mounted, with a rubber isolator so it should be happy there. Also doesn't interfere with the overflow tank so that won't need to be relocated.





With that mounting location finalized, I could plan for the hoses and where they will need to be routed. Notched the lower and used a hole saw on the upper hose. Will have a nice gentle curve for the lines to follow. I bought a few Dayco hoses that have a 90* bend with about 60" of hose length that I'll be able to use to avoid any tight curves like the lower hose.





Next up is the Magnuson heat exchanger swirl pot/ reservoir which I found as a necessity when I was building my Camaro with the LSA engine. The heat exchanger pump needed more capacity to avoid draining the lines and creating aeration. This should help to get all the air bubbles out as well. I haven't finalized the mounting location yet, but it will be somewhere on the driver's side inner fender making sure that it's located higher than the Tick intercooler brick.





I picked up some Lava Rock heat wrap from Summit and wanted to wrap up the crossover, log manifold and downpipe to help keep the heat inside the pipes and drop underhood temps. It's also supposed to help with the spooling of the turbo, so hopefully it's worth the effort. It was a much bigger pain than I thought... The metal zip ties that came with the kit were junk. I ended up using some stainless steel hose clamps which I read work much better. Glad this is over, but very happy with the results.







I didn't get any pictures, but there was a lip inside of the intake lid after I had it welded. I took some carbide and drum roll disks and smoothed out the transition so the air had a nice path to flow. I also started planning out the hardware that I'll need to attach the lid. With the angle of the tubes on the side of the intercooler, it wasn't possible to get the bolts into the lid. I realized that if I used a burr to allow the bolt to go in at a slight angle that it would fit into the slot and work. So after carefully clearance the hole, I was able to sneak a shorter bolt in there. Win! Untouched on the left, and clearanced on the right.



I'm getting very close to the point where I can start installing parts for a final time and I'm very happy about that. The weather is starting to turn here in VA and I'm so ready to see how the turbo responds. I think the last task that will be a pain will be making new transmission cooler lines. I originally routed the cooler lines on the passenger side, but with all the pipes and lines that I added on that side, it's too crowded. I'm going to loop them around the rear and come in on the driver's side. I'm still unsure of where I'm going to mount the cooler, but it will likely be right in front of the condenser on the driver's side. This time I'm going with aluminum lines with adapters to go to the 6AN fittings. I'm hoping that in addition to the cooler, that the aluminum lines will also help to dissipate heat.

Thanks,
Ryan

 

Great Progress!!

 

The progress continues. I wasn't completely happy with the AN transmission lines that I made when I first got the car going, so I decided to take a different route. I bought a roll of 3/8" Aluminum seamless tubing with some AN fitting adapters. It was a lot of up and down, measuring then making the bends, but I'm very happy with how they turned out. I picked up a nice bender from Harbor Freight and it did a great job on the bends. I made sure to install the exhaust to be sure I wasn't going to be in the way of the pipes.









I originally had planned to run them to a bulkhead fitting and then run flex lines to the cooler, but changed my mind. Many OEM's run the hard lines right to the coolers without issues, so that eliminates several leaking points. With the placement of the lines finalized, I could notch the closeout panels and get some components bolted down for a final time.

Next up was deciding how to mount the transmission cooler. After some thought, I opted to just keep it simple and bolt on a 1/8" x 1" strap steel. I welded some studs to the back side, then ground them flush so they laid flat on the condenser.





Once the brackets were finished, I painted and reinstalled them on the condenser. I ended up pulling the grill out so that I could do a proper job bending the transmission lines. I tried to take my time and keep things as symmetrical as possible.



The key word was that I tried. I was thinking ahead and put the tube sleeve and nut on the lines so that I wouldn't forget them before I flared the line. However, I was thinking too far ahead and made a 90* bend and trapped the sleeve onto the line. Being the line is aluminum, you can't bend it straight and rebend it. The metal will work harden and collapse. I very carefully cut it off and had to order a new one from Jeg's. Hopefully it comes by Wednesday this week.



Next was to install the AC Dryer and bracket that came with the condenser kit from VA. It's really nice to just bolt stuff together without having to build your own bracketry. It also came with pre-bent lines, that only required a slight tweak to fit perfectly. I had to move around some of my electrical connections, but everything fit together just like before. Very happy about that. Still need to tidy up the wiring, but that's almost back together for a final time.

Lastly for this update is the condenser/heat exchanger/transmission cooler assembly installed for the final time. I'm very happy with how symmetrical it turned out and love the aluminum lines coming off both sides contrasts with the black cooling units. Once the new tube sleeve comes in I'll flare the tube and then I can reinstall the grill.





I checked off a lot of items on my list this weekend. The biggest was the transmission cooler relocation with new lines. I'm still waiting on some 3/4" hoses with 90* bends so that I can finish installing the heat exchanger/intercooler hoses. I also swapped all the plugs to a NGK TR6 for a cooler heat range while the turbo manifold was off the car and much easier to access. I'll be tightening up all of the exhaust connections and firing up the car very soon. I'm hoping the next update will include an update with a test drive!

Cheers,
Ryan

 

Great update once again Ryan. A/C will be a great addition.
jim