To Do List

Alright so the turbo is sitting in my kitchen just taunting me every day to be installed. But there's still a few more things to do before I feel comfortable putting it on:

1: Replace left tie rod end
2: Fix whatever is causing my steering wheel to shake once I hit 50 and other misc front end vibrations.
3: Find and fix my damn oil leak!!!!!
4: Replace the a/c compressor because I'm 99% sure that's where my belt noises are coming from and why not just replace the whole thing when I found one on ebay for $40? My a/c hasn't worked in years anyway and i've had people tell me it's the clutch in my current compressor. That's gettin your cake and eating it too! :)
5: Buy all new gaskets (ie, turbo, wastegate, bov, manifolds, exhaust)
6: Replace all blue couplers with red ones
7: Sand down and repaint IC tubing silver
8: Before the car can go down in the garage.... I must have a new bike motor so I can have transportation.

Once the turbo is on, I have to have exhuast pieces made. The cat-end of the downpipe I got is for a 3" exhaust with a 3 bolt flange. I need to get an exhaust shop to modify it to bolt up with my stock 2 bolt cat. During the install I will most likely be getting a full cat-back with a test pipe to make it a full turbo-back exhaust.

Turbo Pics!

First off is the snail itself.



Turbo Manifold

Wastegate

BOV

Intercooler

Lower intake manifold with bilet fuel rails and supplementary #30 injectors custom bunged in

034EFI Supplementary fuel injector controller & Golden Eagle vacuum manifold

Aeromotive 1:1 fuel pressure regulator

Wastegate dump (I'm junking this and making my own w/ better welds)

Wiring mess for EFI (I will be COMPLETELY revamping this disaster!)

Tubing and stainless steel lines (this will all be redone too)

This end will not fit my exhaust, I have to redue this end to fit with my stock exhaust until I upgrade.

Speed Sensor Gear Is In!

Got the gear today! Only cost me three bucks and my speedo works again!

Wheel Hub & Prosport Gauges

Finally got my boost & oil pressure gauges hooked up yesterday (cause I was bored!!!) It's a crappy phone pic. The gauges are only temporarily on the A-pillar until I get my bezel pod with the rest of my turbo kit that'll ship out tomorrow!

Also I got my right rear wheel hub today so hopefully the weather will be nice again this weekend (like they say it is) so I can replace that!

Got The Sensor, Need The Gear!

I got my speed sensor today........ and it didn't come with the damn gear on the end of it that I lost into the abist of the old tranny! So I ordered that and it'll be here Friday. Luckily I only drive to and from work during rush hours so I can't speed anyway :)

Almost Ready For Boooooost!!!

Finished up the tranny yesterday and it worked like a charm! No more grinding, no more slipping, no more chatter, no more leaks! I'm a very happy man!

Now just a few more things before she's ready for the turbo install:
1. Replace right rear wheel hub (Ordered, will be here Thursday)
2. Replace A/C compressor
3. Replace left outer tie rod end

Also I've got the following interrior parts coming on Monday so everything can be pretty and right inside:
1. Stock radio bracket
2. A/M radio bracket
3. HVAC bezel
4. Passenger air bag cover

These should be here this week and turbo will ship out friday!

Oil Sending Unit & Turbo Line Install

I ordered a Prosport oil pressure sensor that I figued I'd install w/ the tranny out since it's easier to access the stock oil sensor on the back of the block. Below is a picture of the assembly I made for the stock sending unit, the gauge sending unit, and the turbo oil line feed. Thanks to Dougy Fresh for his Ace expertise and employee discount!

The top thread goes into the back of the block, the stock sending unit plugs directly behind that and the gauge sensor is teed off to the right. The final end to the right is for the turbo line feed wich is capped for now until I get the turbo.

Here's a pic of it installed via "transmission" view. You can see the flywheel on the bottom left hand corner. The turbo feed sits at a perfect spot right next to the lower intake manifold, easy to access when the time comes!

Transmission Swap

The tranny in my car had a bad leak a while back so I pulled it out one weekend, replaced an axle seal that was leaking and replaced the clutch & throw out bearing while I had it out. Once the car was all put back together and I took it for a test drive I found out that it was STILL leaking! And not only that but my TOB was chattering like hell too! Instead of paying a shop to rebuild it for $3000 I found a used tranny on ebay for $400 shipped.


Since it was in the 60s all weekend I decided to put the new tranny in the car. My girlfriend and I spend most of Saturday getting it ready to drop and all of Sunday pulling the old one out and putting the new one in. There was barely any fluid left in the tranny when I drained it, not even 1/4 of a quart (it's supposed to have 2.1).



Once the tranny was out I quickly realized what was wrong w/ the TOB: The one that I installed which came with my clutch kit (shown on the right side of the pic) was the wrong shape & size. The new OEM one I got is on the left, not only are they shapped differently but the a/m one has a bigger outside diameter and didn't fit in the fork quite right. Hence the clickity clack noise it was making before.


After a few failed attempts at jacking the new tranny in we finally got it! I got all the bolts put in and started plugging everything in where it needs to go and noticed that the speed sensor plug on the new tranny was different then the one in my old. I figured I could just pull them and swap them but when i pulled the old one out, I lost the gear on the end of it inside the axle gears. There's another $70!

I didn't get it all put back together Sunday night so I'll have to finish tonight after work. Hopefully this fixes all my drivetrain problems!

My grease monkey! Couldn't have done it without her!

Walbro 255 & B&M Short Throw

Got my first little turbo package in the mail today, it had the Walbro 255 fuel pump, the B&M short throw shifter, and the "missing link" map fix. I installed the fuel pump tonight. The short throw will maybe be this weekend.

Here's the pump installed on the bracket:

Indiglow Gauge Face & 3D Bezel Install

A few years ago I had this "brilliant" idea to put glow-in-the-dark pot leaves on my gauge faces and put a black light on top to illuminate them. They turned out really good and I still think they look cool and original. But I've turned a few new leaves since then and decided that the leaves had to go! I bought a set of indiglow gauge faces off ebay and put them on tonight. They look so good!

I had to cut slots in the cluster backing for the wires to feed out and had to cut out and use the needle stoppers off the OEM gauge faces.

Here's the old gauges w/ the black light.

It looks like an F1 car now! :)

Here's what they look like lit up

I will be doing all the wiring for the gauges tomorrow and will take more pictures then.

New Tires, Wheel Balance, & Allignment

When I painted my wheels the other weekend I noticed that my front tires were shot! To the point where they wouldn't stay up or roll w/o falling over! My rear tires were still in pretty good shape so I only bought two new tires. Got them put on today along w/ a 4 wheel balance and 4 way allignment. Now all I have to do is replace my right rear wheel hub and all my suspension woes will be gone!

Here's a scan of the spec sheet I got from the tire shop. I'd say I needed this realy bad!