Thanks! I got a busy next cpl of weeks, but hope to have the car on the dyno and track soon!

 

WOW, just read your entire thread and my eyes hate me, you do great work and our builds have some similarities. Building a T/A as well, however its not red so you might not like it, haha. S480 front mount, and i cut the front of my car muck like yours, think i took a little more off. I do have one question, your crossover pipes crossing each other, is that just for ease of angles or is there some other thinking going on there? Other than that, your build is incredible man!!

Dennis

 

Thank you. For the merge we did extensive flow testing in cad and came up with this as the best possible solution ok im kidding. We wanted the kit to look good, which we think thr pipe crossing over does, and we also tried to make it closer to a more equal length side to side.

Thanks chris

 

I wondered this too, and the only thing i could think was equal-length
Couple more questions - first, why did you chose aluminium for downpipe? Did you research it and came to conclusion it will not deteriorate fast? No big gains in weight I think over some 16ga stainless. I'm putting big turbo on my Silvia now and thought about making aluminium DP too.
Also, your idea of fixing turbo to the chassis is a big no-no, that's written in every book I've read
P.S. Great and inspiring build! Keep the nice work guys!

 

Well.. With the length of the downpipe, and having a muffler i bet the weight difference is decent. I know my 4 inch aluminum muffler weighs 2 lbs. And when it comes to weight ever little bit helps. Plus its what all the serious race cars do.

I am having the entire turbo kit ceramic coated. Im guessing the dp will hold up just fine.

As far as mounting the turbo the frame rail, this is a no on if you have normal mounts. Because you will brake welds with the motor moves. I have read once you go to solid mounts, you can tie the motor to the frame rail. Just think of it as a 3rd motor mount At the end of the day if we brake a weld, we can fix no biggie.

Thanks, Chris

 

Yes, as long as you have solid mounts, you can mount the turbo and pipe to it. I have done it before and i am going to do it again when I build my new kit this year.

Dennis

 

sideways240sx, are you sure Alu is OK for downpipe? Any links to the info?
I'm toying with the same idea for my 240SX to counter huge turbo weight... was going to do Alu exhaust but not downpipe though

 

My new downpipe is 16 gauge steel for 4-8" then going to 11 gauge aluminum for the rest

 

I dont have anything that says its ok, but lots of people do it. So.. aluminum will start to melt around 900 degrees surface temperature. And while the egt are around 1600, what is the surface temperature? I am having my entire turbo kit ceramic coated. Intercooler pipes, merge pipes, and the downpipe. The ceramic should help keep the surface temp down, and if it melts a little. i will replace it. Im not daily driving this car, so not really worried about it. The downpipe is pretty easy to make on my car also.

Chris

 

Yeah, it's cheap and not that hard to do that, but I'm afraid if downpipe fails, turbo might set the car on fire also in my 240sx if downpipe fails, turbo will be blowing straight onto brake cylinder scary

 

Maybe I missed it but, are you stock computer? Oh and this is one of my favorite build threads on Tech!

 

I was on the 98 computer for a while. Last year i upgraded to an 02 ecu. Still have it laying around but needed it for the 3 bar ecu. This yr i got the new holley dominator setup, still need to put it on the car.

 

Well its update time (finally)!!! Things have been pretty slow on the car, but we were able to get back on it this past weekend. The last couple times we have been out there, we had been working on the truck that we use to haul the car around with. The trans was acting up for a while, and it needed some TLC. After we sold that boat, that freed up the funds to finally fix that. So we had the trans rebuilt, new converter, plugs, wires, cap and rotor, (all of which look they were never done in the trucks 130,000+ mile life). While we were at it, we threw a cheap intake on it, and a flow master exhaust to help free up some power. We finished that whole project up on Friday night with the exhaust.

After the truck was all done, Chris painted some of the parts that were going to get bolted on for the last time. While he did that I finished welding the radiator, and the radiator support.

Before I get to the work on the TA, I have to mention the turbo kit. We had sent it out to Dunn Rite Q.C. Coatings in MI to get fully ceramic coated inside and out. Let me just say they did an absolutely killer job on it all, and you couldn't beat the pricing. After talking with them for a while we decided to have the insides coated with a silver coating that performs better than the black. On the out side we stuck with the black for the looks, so we have the best of both worlds. They were able to get inside all of the parts, all the way through with no issue. The turn around was very quick, and it all came packed as if it was ready for WW3! Enough talk, on to the pics!!!

All of the hot parts with the exhaust.


Hot parts alone


Back side of the crossover


Downpipe, and "exhaust"


All of the intercooler pipes


The two pipes from the intercooler to the throttle body


The two pipes from the turbo to the intercooler


And lastly a detail shot showing the inside of the tubes


You may notice that there is not exhaust housing in those pictures. When they went to sand blast it for prep, it developed a hole in the side where it is machined. The whole area was actually VERY thin, as I found out when I welded it. Chris ordered a new housing, that came in on Thursday. You will see it being used for mock up in the pictures, but it will be sent out to Q.C. this week for the treatment!


Now that we have THAT out of the way, on to the fun part! I will try an shut up, and just let the pics do the talking.

This was the start of Saturday morning


I started with the manifolds and crossover, then the exhaust housing and down pipe.


Quick shot of the new exhaust housing


Once the bulk of the pipes were in I installed the freshly painted intercooler mount


Followed of course by the freshly painted intercooler. We used the same Eastwood radiator paint we used on the last intercooler. We saw no decrease in performance with it, so we did it again!


And finally a few pics of the entire kit back on the car!






After that was all done I pulled the turbo so we could send the housing out for coating. I also mounted the radiator, but I didn't bother with pictures of that.

After all that excitement I moved on to the fuel system. Technically I tried finishing the rear sheet metal first, but I cut it out so it doesn't count On with the pics, though there are only a couple.

Here is a nice size comparison shot of the line I made from the cell to the inlet of the pre-filter.


Here you can see the plumbing up to the pump (crappy pic)


We are running -12 from the cell to the pre-filter, and from the pre-filter to the pump. From the pump to the filter, and filter through the rails will all be -10, and the return will be -8. We wanted to do the fuel system once, so its a bit overkill. I finished all the way to the post filter, but didn't take a pic before I left.

Last thing I did before I took off was finish welding the new aluminum catch can I had made up a while back. Just a quick pic.



That's all for now, its really starting to come together! The next update should have the car almost ready to fire! As always thanks for following along!


Sean

 

this is sick... i love how you cut out your trunk.. i have been debating whether to do that... you made it look pretty simple lol

 

With some money, and alot of time everything can be simple

The plasma cutter we borrowed was key, and thr saw zall in a couple spots.

Thanks, chris

 

yea i have both of those at my disposal. so cool... what gauge metal did you use to fill?

 

this is just such a badass build

 

Thanks guys!

Sean

 

20 gauge. It was cheap and light.

 

great job you guys!




(...RACECAR!!)