Had to re-route some wiring that was out of place when the k-member went in on the RH side. And found one of the turbo coolant lines also on the wrong side of the k-member on the LH side. Corrected those (which took a while due to no space to move a wrench!), and moved on to the motor mount bolts. The RH side went in nice and easy. LH side was a Beeeyotch!!!! Had to phone a friend and Dave came to the rescue again. While waiting for Dave I reinstalled the cooling fans. Once Dave arrived it took the both of us to wrestle that bolt into place. Me reefing on the prybar moving the BMR motor mount, and Dave pushing on the bolt to slide it in. I was curled up under the car using my knees on the brake rotor for leverage. Whew! Don't need to workout this week. I am sore from all of this wrenching! I also bent my prybar in the process. I am like a mini hulk! Next item was to tighten down the starter.

Once that debacle was behind me I tightened down the manifolds to the heads and rechecked clearances under the car. Then I finally started installing the turbo charge pipes. Got the LH side set into place. Still need to finish the brake lines with the BMR K-Member install as the LH charge pipe bolts to the brake line bracket.

Also had another friend Chris (Irocss85 from LS1tech) stop by at the end of the night and finally got my fuel sending unit out so I can install my racetronix pump. Thanks man! That was a pain and just needed even more persuasion than we were already giving it. aka a bigger hammer!

Also snapped a pic of the radiator overflow bottle. Just looks too nice not to show off.

 

More pics from Tuesday.

 

mmhmmm likeing the pictures!!


and hurry up and run that thing off of the downpipes! hehehe going to sound like a fkking diesle truck!

 

the BFH is he be-all end-all tool.

glad its out

 

BFH is good .BFG is better!! But of course not in this application,tempting as it may be sometimes!

Sounds like you are very close to the end of the install now. I would run the car around the block with just open downpipes and no front bumper as am very impatient guy. I am pretty sure the system will still be loud enough to require mufflers maybe even cats but hard to say exactly until you fire it up and drive it a bit. Buddies sts car of course has no muffler and no cats and its pretty loud.Heard other buddies procharger with flp headers no cats and a corsa and it sounded terrible. Loud and terrible. He put the cats back on and its much better.
But turbos should absorb more sound. And since this system recircs the gates that would help too, although kind of like the chain saw sound my 97 talon makes with its big turbo and dumped 44 tial gate.
I am still wondering if will have to make up custom ypipe or what ypipe to by for my current non dual exhaust setup. I would like a stainless ypipe if possible since my catback and turbo downpipes are stainless.
I think you are are current best hope for getting his APS running first. KwikSS is doing his new motor now.
After reading and reading and reading the instructions so more the install doesnt' seem that intimidating. So starting to think again of just bolting on the turbos to the stock crank/rod/piston engine. Decisions,decisions.
Keep up the good work there Hugger and a few more days don't matter. Soon you will be hearing your new snails spooling up and feeling that nice kick in the *** that makes boosted cars so darn addictive.

 

Thanks for the kind words. Yeah I am looking forward to this and it will be on the road with the open downpipes. Gonna have to make sure to get a tune first though. I just know as soon as I hear some spool I am gonna want to hear more. The install is not that bad. There are some details that could use more clarification or pictures. But I have managed to figure it out so far. Just take your time. Having to re-route things is a pain in the rear once more stuff is on the car. I just have to be careful because I skipped all around in the install manual to keep making foward progress. I just need to make sure I didn't skip any steps.

I am still torn on the exhaust. I may have to add in cats and mufflers if it is raspy. I don't want that at all. I was originally planning to keep it emissions legal, but the AIR system on my 99 does not fit with these kits. The pump and connections to the manifolds match up with the 00-02 parts. My AIR attachments to the manifolds are 90 degrees off so they will not bolt up easily. Therefore all of that may just be coming off of the car. But I will be holding onto it in case I ever move and need to put it back on.

 

It is better to have a quiet car and then maybe some electric cutouts when you want it louder. Keeps the boys in blue off my back. There would not be really any restriction if you run dual cutouts after the downpipes of course. Then could use a stock catback even.

You can of course drive the car without tuning as long as you stay out of boost. Easy to do as your right foot controls that.

 

Yes this I know. But I also know that as soon as I hear (and feel some boost) I am gonna want more. And that would be bad before it is tuned. Self control will be VERY tough. I can't wait to just start this up again!

 

EPP beat him to it i think....they were only a few little thigns away from firing up their customer's Firehawk yesterday...i need to check that thread for updates on their install.

 

OK last night was another long night in the garage. Some good and some bad news.

I removed the fuel bucket so it would dry and I can swap out my fuel pump.

Got all of the intake system plumbed on the car. What a chore that was!! I seriously think they designed those rubber intake hoses that connect to the turbo's as a sick joke. Took me a while to wrestle each one on. And then the trick was tightening the clamp so it was actually on the neck and did not slide off the neck as you tightened it....... Anyway after a lot of finaggling and some explecatives they are on the car. Installed the stainless intake pipes that bolt to the roll bar. Not too bad except for when I started to cross thread one of the bolts. DOH, out with the tap to clean the threads. Then installed the air filters. Those fit fine on a Firebird. But the Camaro's have our fog lights right there and discovered the filter did not want to go on very easily. I managed to find an angle for the filter that sort of works around the foglights. Hopefully those will clear when I put the fascia back on the car.... Next were the blowoff valves. Very easy and no problems there. It is starting to look very good!

Got the top end of the intake all installed. I think this was another joke as there is NO way to get those hoses on there in the limited space. Intercooler does not move nor does the intake. I had to remove the throttle body, loosely fit all hoses, MAF, etc and then finagle the whole thing back into place. While not impossible, not as straight forward as the install manual would have you believe.

Ran into an issue with finishing of the BMR K-Member install. They call for bending and re-routing the brake lines a little. When I followed the instructions and picture they provide, my flexible brake hoses are stretched way too tight. There is not enough slack to steer the car. I know this is not right and am wondering what anyone else with a tubular k-member did with their lines. I have a few ideas to try that I just brainstormed this morning such as flipping that bracket to move the attachment down and give me some more slack for the flexible line. I am a brake engineer and the tightness of those hoses worried me last night. Let me know what others have done there.

Also pulled off my AIR hoses as I don't think I am going to hook that up after this install. The manifolds have provisions for them but they are for 00-02 vehicles and mine is a 99. The attachments are 90 degrees off and I would have to rotate and rebend my lines to get them to line up correctly. No thanks. Easier to just take them off. I will also have to remove that EGR mechanism from the RH head too. And get a block off for the intake portion of that EGR circuit.

 

More pics.

 

Hey Tony I'll bring my car down tonight and you can look how I did my lines. I believe I did put the one bolt in at the top but I had to turn it and flip it? I know I have a lot of tie straps holding the lines on now. I havent had any problems with them its just not as clean as I would like.

Install looks good.

 

Well more progress. What is now left to do on your car? Is it close to firing up now?
Good to hear some ideas as more guys do their install. Maybe try a few emails to tex and ask them a few questions on install? Be nice if EPP also chimed in with some tips and tricks.
Have you tightened the turbo manifolds and things where you were very tight for clearance yet?
Also I think it said to drop sway bar for some of that intake piping stuff? Could be wrong I have just been reading my instructions over and over again trying to install it in my mind first since don't have my engine yet anyway.

Sounds like pain on intake hose. I think am going speed density maybe that will go on better with no maf in there.

 

All that is left are the vacuum lines, oil PCV stuff. Some more of the front end items to bolt back on. Then reinstalling the plugs, coil packs, wires etc. Finish up the fuel pump and reinstall the fuel tank. Top off all of the fluids (Speaking of which anyone know what kind of oil is considered a turbo safe oil? Can I still use my Mobil 1? THe manual says a turbo safe oil but does not specify anything.). And then she is ready to fire up! I can't wait!

Needs an alignment and exhaust and then the tuning and hopefully I will be on the road very soon. May still need my gauges too.....

 

James, that would be awesome! I was worried about those lines, but think I may be OK if I can flip those brackets..... Yeah it doesn't seem very clean. I may have to try to tidy things up this winter until I am happy with them. But for now just want it to be safe to drive on the road.

 

almost finished man!!

 

subscribed. what effect would not running a MAF have? couldnt you just tune it to were you wont need a maf? i expect a boost controller could take care of all that but maybe im way off. chime in please. thanks!

 

You can run the car speed density with no maf with lots of tuning. You sure can't not run a maf cause you are running a boost controller. Boost controller only controls boost. You have to have your car tuned no matter what with this and most all turbo systems. Forced induction requires very rich compared to NA especially on pump gas. And usually timing has to come down as well. Not tuning a turbo car would likely result in quick engine death especially on crappy hypercrap stock pistons.Its not usually necessary to run no maf until pretty far up the power output numbers. Think around 700 and up engine. Lingenfelter offers a huge maf for their twin turbo cars.

 

I run Mobil 1 5w30.

 

OK more progress. VERY close to getting it fired up again!

Got the Recetronix fuel pump installed in the stock bucket. Very straightforward install. And the Racetronix instructions were so easy to follow. It went VERY smoothly.

James (n20junkie on LS1tech) came by again to lend a hand. Thanks a ton for your help man! He tied up my brake lines while I installed the fuel pump. We did not use the routing shown in the BMR installation instructions, but found an orientation that seemed to work and still allow my flexible hoses enough slack for steering the car.

Next we put the fuel tank back in the car and plugged everything back in there. Tied up the extra slack on the racetronix hotwire line so it does not hang down or get caught on anything.

Then we moved to the front of the car. Installed the NGK TR6 plugs. And started trying to route the vacuum sensing lines to the BOV's. However we discovered that my 99 intake is not like the newer intake shown in the APS manual. So I will need to figure out a different method to attach into the vacuum circuit. Either splicing into the stock line or attching off of the nipple on the back of the intake and then clamping the stock line onto the T-fitting. We tried that last night but the stock boot was too big for the t-fitting. Maybe if I clamp it that would work...... We pulled off the old PCV system and routed the APS set-up there.

So we moved on to the rest of the front end hardware install. Make sure you install the foam on the sides of the intercooler before putting all of this on. I missed that step initially and had to do some disassembly and then reassembly. It happens when you jump around with subassembling stuff. I should have checked off the steps as I completed them so I could look for missed X-marks on the pages.... May still have to do that to make sure I didn't miss anything else.

Lastly we took off my EGR pump. Now I need to find a block-off plate for that opening on my 99' intake. Any local performance shops carry those?

I still have to remember to attach the racetronix wire to the back of the alternator. Last time I tried I could not get the nut to loosen on the back of the alternator. It just spun the wire that is on there..... Vacuum lines need to be run and the boost sensing hoses to the intake tubes. Put my coilpacks and wires on. Top off fluids and it should be ready to fire up! Very close now!!!!