Project:Soarer by megamax

8 minute(s) of a 462 minute read

Well it's been a while. went to a dyno day(mustang) and had a surprisingly **** poor performance. granted i have a stock ecu and a stock injectors. but i never expected a crappy result like this??

the guy told me that i had no boost till 6k. so either i needed to raise my redline or i had a boost leak. well until now i never really did a boost leak down test, so i was kinda stumped, i made sure all my hose clamps were tight as they could go. so i figured my 50mm outdated(and later to be found rusted) external waste gate was to blame?

so i brought a more modern eBay 46mm v-band waste gate.





it is so boot-leg it has tial on it. it was a sturdy unit and the construction was good quality. came with 2 springs and no id on how many lbs they are tho..

so when i did my swap i DID NOT replace my exhaust manifold gasket. they looked okay but obviously over time they needed to be replaced. so i figured this was a cause of my boost pressure leak. 

But as a major surprise to me i found the cause of the leak. 

so fml x7 times. i wasn't expecting this . ive been rolling around on this manifold for the last 3 years. no telling when this came apart. and i was in a bind because this is my only daily driver. so i had to act fast and attempt to weld this mfer back up until i could get a new manifold.

I didn't have stainless steel wire but i just had carbon steel, i cleaned it up pretty good for a still newly novice noob. 

so i had to use the old gaskets as i plan on buying new ones when i get a new manifold. the v band is perfect i can take off/on the waste gate with ease.

i brought an oil catch can. and thanks to my welding experts austin and mike, they shortened it so i can fit it in a certain corner in my engine bay. 

i also picked up a new power steering pump because mine was going out. i would like to replace the rack to, maybe down the line...

here is the turbo manifold that i brought from cx racing.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/CXRacing-Top...9Srpuo&vxp=mtr















it is way thicker and seems to be more sturdy than the cheaper thinner silver manifolds.

i also picked up a down pipe and a mid pipe that i plan on v-banding to finally shore up a exhaust that doesn't hang and is tucked properly.




and here are the new gaskets and here is a t4/t3 adapter. i couldn't afford the borg warner turbo like i want to yet. so in the meantime i will rock the holset.

so when it came to installation time. it was a brutal but learning experience time. it was a 2 part thing i later finished my exhaust off but ill get to pics of that later. the manifold costs almost 500 bones, BUT.... the holes DID NOT LINE UP!!! so i had to take all night and make the bole holes longer, and i had to cut some of the studs to make it work.

i also had to literally shave off some material to clear the coolant pipe.

for starters i welded in the studs on my adapter so the studs wouldn't turn.







and here is the end result on my adapter.

so when i cut into the mani to weld on the v-band. it is in fact way thicker. it didnt cut as easy as the cheaper stuff did, even with my chop saw.

so here is where the effed-ness happens. i needed to again make the holes slightly larger so the mani could sit properly on the stock studs. and i had to cut these studs for clearance.




and again i had to shave off material for the first runner to clear the coolant pipe/nipple(barely clearance).








i don't have any leaks because i didn't take off THAT, much material, still id like to move the runner one day.

here is the downpipe. i made a v-band on the end and i had to install a oem toyota o2 sensor bung. other than that here is the finished product. 

so i finally installed my oil catch can. first had to get my holes patched with alum welding and i been had some steel braided hoses for this occasion.














now i have a oil odor in the cabin of the car. not sure if i need to "t" the hoses to an intake vacuam sorce yet. can and prob will later???