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Finished putting the car back together on the weekend and ran it a bit on Sunday. I can't believe how long it took, but proves my thinking in wanting to buy kit parts instead of fabbing from scratch. It's much harder to work on things around here compared to down in Detroit, also compounded by the fact I'm only home on weekends. The big issue is, anytime I run across a situation where I need a special part of some sort, I pretty much have to order it, and wait. So work stops. In Detroit, I could source just about anything in 24 hours. Even if it meant ordering it for overnight delivery to my office. Ordering overnight into Canada is prohibitively expensive.

The issues I ran in to were: Wanting to use SS fasteners instead of zinc coated. It's just the right thing to do on hot parts, and reinforced by the fact I had to cut off some bolts on the exhaust system which weren't SS last time. You can't get SS metric fasteners easily. And then I ordered the wrong length. Twice. :o

I also thought I needed an SVT dipstick and tube since it's an SVT setup. I mangled my old tube getting it out of the corrosion swelled hole in the block. And then turns out you are supposed to use a Zetec tube anyway... The SVT guys have to switch over. No mention of this fact in the instructions. I put the mangled Zetec tube back in... so far so good.

I was terrified bolting up the exhaust, because I had the Xios manifold and downpipe, Random Tech high flow cat for SVT header on a Zetec, 2.5" aftermarket flex pipe, and then a Borla exhaust. I thought it wouldn't all match up, but that came out ok.

The new setup has dual SPAL low-pro fans, which seem to move a lot more air than the stockers, and sound pretty sweet too. ;)

I also took my time to heat shield some things that needed it. Hopefully this winter I'll actually get into the wiring harness and start pruning it, because there are a lot of redundant wires.

Anyway, I fired it up last night, and it ran well. I'm really surprised at how responsive it is compared to the AC. It's hard to tell exactly how good until I drive it more, but it's definitely in the same league as the AC, if not *maybe* a little faster spooling. I think maybe it starts making boost a little sooner (I was seeing almost 5psi at 1500rpm) but is not "all-in" as fast as the AC. In any case, I was worried a conventional turbo is destined to feel like the WRX (not good), but it's just not the case.

I was surprised at how well the car ran just on the existing tune. I also retarded the cams -2/-4 on the Ex/In just as a leap of faith that that's a reasonable setting. Some people go more, but it's in the right direction anyway. A little retard helps the Zetec at the top end, and spreading the lobes a bit is good for forced induction.

Here are the pics, they are clicky. First, the Xios downpipe. Beautifully finished with a nice bellmout discharge from the turbine. Flange is decently thick.:



Top quality welds throughout, nicely formed bellmouth:



Downpipe outlet flange:



Here is the ram's horn manifold. Positions the turbo within a fraction of an inch from the oil seperator. No, it's not a modified version of the Ford Racing manifold as I suspected.



Here you can see the brace between the head flange and turbo flange. Fantastic welding throughout. It just doesn't get any better than this!





Here is the finished installation on my car. Obviously the entire cold side is my own Air/Water intercooler setup. You can also see my hood vent. Works fantastically, the heat pours out, you can see it when stopped. I used a perforated steel instead of cheap looking chicken wire or expanded metal sheet. The edge of the hood is lined with "Cockpit Coaming" from a model airplane shop. Rubber edge that finishes the cut edge nicely.



The manifold is turning a beautiful straw colour.







The downpipe and Random Tech Cat hang much lower than I'd like. It's pretty much the lowest thing on the car, which is never a good thing to be. To be sure, this is the factory location from the SVT, I just think it's too low for my "tarmac spec rally car" setup I'm shooting for. I will probalby have to do something about it eventually.

BEAUTIFUL SETUP!!!

Yeah, she is swinging a tad low eh? That's a gorgeous setup you've got there man. Way to go!

Vids soon enough? :P

looks very impressive.

very niiice....

Awesome setup! I'd be worried if that were a street driven car considering how low that flange is, but strictly for the track you should be okay.

Nice!!

I have the Random Tech cat in the SVT location on my SVT header setup and it does look low. I believe the SVT stock cat is a much flatter design then the RT cat.

My car is a daily driver and with a 1.5" drop I have not noticed any dings or scrapes on the low end of the cat. It may drag through the deep snow, but I drive so slow in the snow that it probably melts the snow first. :lol:

Superb!

that's it!!........i need to go F/I

a rough idea on expected dyno numbers?

what psi are you running this set up at?

P-51,Aug 19 2007, 12: Wrote:... metric SS fasteners...
[right][snapback]247060[/snapback][/right]

P-51 where do you get these, and how do you figure out what size you need to order?

naz,Aug 23 2007, 03:54 PM Wrote:

P-51,Aug 19 2007, 12: Wrote:... metric SS fasteners...
[right][snapback]247060[/snapback][/right]

P-51 where do you get these, and how do you figure out what size you need to order?
[right][snapback]247450[/snapback][/right]

You could always use a caliper and measure the size yourself.

HP? I'm hoping to put down 220-250whp. It's supposed to be running at 10psi, but I just found out that it's been overboosting to 18psi. Not sure what's going on yet. Not sure what the inside of the engine looks like now. :(

Naz, SS metric fasteners are available by calling pretty much any fastener supplier in the yellow pages. But, sometimes they might have to order them in. For sizing... well you need to measure DIA and thread length. Thread pitches are pretty much common, but you're best to measure and confirm to be sure. I have thread gauges to get the pitch.