Project: Mavro Gato - 99 Turbo'd 3L

[FastCougar]

Originally Posted by cougarprophet

that looks very very awesome!...but u can flame me for this wats that part for? im assuming for the turbo e/ piping

It's the y of the y-pipe, joining both banks into one.

[DanG]

Originally Posted by FastCougar

I may have to have some help from you Dan

TIG = FTW.

[Topik]

Robot>DanG :D

[SpookSVT]

What material are you using? Looks like 16g 304SS. Are you running the cross over tube around the oil pan as well?

[FastCougar]

Originally Posted by SpookSVT

What material are you using? Looks like 16g 304SS. Are you running the cross over tube around the oil pan as well?

Yes and Yes ... the two banks will merge under the transmission/engine mating point and then turn up the turbine inlet flange.

[SpookSVT]

How tight of a fit are the 2" pipes between the frame and pan? The reason I ask is accesability to the oil filter to change, or did you relocate yours? Are you removing the stab-o-shock as well? It looks that if you ditch it, it allows for a much smoother bending up-pipe to the charger, and who needs it with solid mounts anyway?

Also, what ID and length are the primaries on your headers? They don't seem to be equal length, but what did your fabricator shoot for? I just punched in the numbers into an online calculator and got 1.75" ID x 11.5" primary, I don't know how accurate those numbers are and wanted something to compare.

[FastCougar]

It follows the stock exhaust routing, but instead of y'ing and going back, it y's and comes forward ... nothing needs to change. I have a Cougar and Cougar's don't have the stab-o-shock.

[warmonger]

Your weld looks just fine to me!! Of course mine look about the same since I use a mig welder for stainless too.....but they are strong! lol


Can't wait to see the full piping deal.

[Colleptic]

Wow, I read through the whole thread…all by myself!

Great job man! I am looking into something that extreme or buying a new car; I want more power! The car here is, well not rare, but not common; thus getting someone to do something this extreme to my car hard to find. I either have to drive a WRX/Evo, BMW, Camaro, Mustang etc., to get any sort of attention something like this requires.

Anyhooo, I look forward to reading more.

[FastCougar]

Got a good semi-hard 17 miles on the car today. Last night I kept seeing the front header smoke and knew is must be oil related since the back header stopped smoking after ideling for 30 minutes. Got under the car and sure enough, when the engine is running, oil is shooting out of the oil return line for the turbo, so I capped it with a flare cap ... Problem solved!

I still have a few issues to clear up before I can get it inspected, like getting the washer tubing run from the bottle to the squirters. However, after getting the bottle in and the bumper back on, when I filled the bottle, it started to leak ... damnit! So, tomorrow the bumper comes back off and I need to pull the bottle and fix the leak and then run the tubing from the bottle to the washers. Also noticed the wiper blades where shot, so I picked up some new ones today.

Upon test driving today, I had the cable ends fall off the shift tower in 4th gear ... doing a U-Turn to head back home was really fun! Got home, jacked up the front and removed the driver's side wheel. I never fully pressed on the cable ends during install, only set them on the end ... dumb mistake, but it only took 3-5 minutes to fix (including jacking up the car). Got that fixed and went back out for another test drive ... car handle awesome, but idles extremely high! I had the AutoTap plugged in and monitored the TPS sensor and that's fine, so I think I have a shot IACV.

I also kept getting a CEL for the IMRC being stuck. Got out, popped the hood and squirted all the linkage with WD40 and then manually actuated it a couple times. Then I noticed the bolts holding down the IMRC box where not torqued down the box would move during engagement. Torqued those down, reset everything and whalla, no more CEL.

So, I have a 1/2 day left tieing up loose ends and the car is ready for inspection. It has a nice exhaust leak where the rear header mates to the Y-Pipe because the headers are ever so slightly off ... about a 1/2". I will be able to account for this with my turbo kit by using some 2" flex tubes to allow some flex before the "Y" collector. This also means that I will need to fabricate a good solid braket to support the turbo's weight better ... plenty of bolts and holes to anchor to in that area, so no big concern on my part there.