[Ness1216]

Ok I have a few..

Welder - I need some sort of welder... Any reccomendations on one that would be good basically for exhaust manifold, egr probe, flanges, downpipe, bov etc I want something good but not something that will break me. I know the more you spend usually the better weld you'll get, but anyways, any reccomendations?

Cooling Lines - The turbo I want (gt28rs) needs coolant lines, you guys know of any good spots for feed and return points?

I may edit this post later to add more stuff, I cant think right now.

 

[Seawulf]

My dad's got a Mig welder at his shop and that's what was used for the downpipe, but we sent the manifold out and I have no idea what they used. A guy on the Focus forums used a Tig welder, and that might be the best choice for a do-it-yourselfer. The Tig would have more freedom of movement vs the Mig, I believe. Though the Mig is a bit cheaper, I think. Don't really know much about welding.

As for water pipes, this might give you a little idea of where we tapped into ours.

Basically if you look at the engine there's a metal line going across the engine bay, we tapped into that for one end and spliced the other end into a line right under the thermostat housing, should be where that metal line went into.

 

[Afterhours]

Ness,

A Lincoln weldpak wirefeed gasless welder should be fine for what you need to do. That's the type of welder I have. It's a pretty good machine and it'll only set you back around $200.00. What's more important than what kind of welder you get.......is how good are you at welding. If you're inexperienced at welding, you could produce cold welds and burn holes all day long with either a $200.00 or a $3,000.00 welder.........:biggrin:

The easiest place to tap into for your turbo coolant lines is the thermostat/radiator by-pass line. Both Seawulf and I did it that way. The inlet of the by-pass line comes out of a short stand-off on the lower half of the thermostat housing. There's a OEM hose that connects to a 5/8" metal pipe that routes in front of the exhaust manifold heat shield and terminates at a nipple on the lower radiator hose.

The OEM hose is strange.........the connection to the thermostat housing is 3/4" and it reduces to 5/8". This makes it difficult to just use 5/8" heater hose for the entire turbo coolant line system. What I did was use the OEM hose..........and cut sections of the metal pipe to use for various sections of the turbo coolant lines. It worked out quite well as the original pipe had many smooth bends and curves that could be incorporated into the design. 5/8" heater hose was used to tie everything together.

 

[Ness1216]

Ok a little more questions... Afterhours.. Im planning on going the same route with exhaust manifold and ic setup so piping should be the same. Besides the piping from wastegate to exhaust.. What all did you get for piping.. from compressor to ic to intake manifold.

Also you guys are your BOV's venting to atmosphere or back into intake after the maf. Another question although this one is kind of dumb where are your guys mafs located at?

Regarding SCT. Im pretty much a noob to all of this would I be able to make a good baseline tune to be able just to drive it and then take it to say Tom's etc to get a better tune done?

Seawulf.. Regarding, when you had to replace your engine... Im planning on having a built motor for turbo. I have a spare that I took out of a fellow members totalled car. I know that it wasn that much fun although we were kind of rushing it. Any tips and tricks on how to switch the motors and how easy would you say it is if you have time to do it. Any good ways to get the lower control arm out of the steering knuckle, that seemed to be what we had the most trouble with.

Any issues regarding rev limiter and turbo, I might bump it when I go to track.

Any other things I need to know?

Thanks

 

[Afterhours]

Originally posted by: Ness1216
Ok a little more questions... Afterhours.. Im planning on going the same route with exhaust manifold and ic setup so piping should be the same. Besides the piping from wastegate to exhaust.. What all did you get for piping.. from compressor to ic to intake manifold.

Thanks

I'm running 2 1/2" piping for the charge side and 3" piping for the intake side. For me, my T-3 compressor outlet is 2", so I have a 2" diameter radiator hose that makes a tight 100 degree bend to clear the radiator and run along the front frame. The 2" radiator hose is coupled to a 2" to 2 1/2" coupler into 2 1/2" piping to the intercooler inlet. The piping is 2 1/2" from the intercooler outlet all the way to the throttle body. On the intake side of the T-3 compressor, it's 3" piping to the MAF and air filter.

As for the BOV venting, my set-up is recirculated back into the intake between the MAF and the turbo inlet.

 

[Seawulf]

We pulled the engine out from the top. We took off the main pulley for the accessory belt and picked up the engine at a slight angle and it just pulled up straight out. Bacically hook up a chain to the two main tow hooks and then chain hoist it up with the hook on the far left, not right in the middle of the chain and the engine should pull out, though you may have to jack up the tranny a bit at an angle and remove the passanger side axle.

Yeah, the knuckle on the lower A-arm was a [censored] to take out and we couldn't take it out without ruining the rubber boot. I ordered a new ball joint from BAT and replaced it but it's possible to just take it to a shop that specializes in that to fix it. We finally had to take off the axle from the wheel, you know pull that nut in the hub then pull the wheel out of the axle and that should make it easier to take off the lower ball joint on the control arm but it could still be tough. But like I said, it's possible to do it without taking out any axles or the tranny by pulling the engine from the top.

SCT is supposed to be so good that the when you tell them all you have, the base tune they send you is very safe. It won't give you optimal power but it would be good enough to drive around. Though I wouldn't drive hard till you get it checked out on the dyno with AF ratio check.

For intercooler pipe, I'd use no bigger than 2.5" from the turbo to the throttle body, and for the intake pipe from the MAF to the turbo I'd use no smaller than 3". My MAF is roughly in the same place as stock with an open element filter. My BOV is just that, and I do have an occasional stalling problem comming down from freeway off ramps and sometimes if I rev it hard then shift to neutral. Takes a little more awareness of my shifting and decelerating. But if you want the noise, that's the price you pay, and it's livable. But yes bypassing it back into the intake is best, but blow-off is cooler.

If you're using stock rods I would not move the rev limiter up. First off without tuned cam gears it's not worth it, as the power starts to drop off just after 6000rpms anyway. Second the stress on the rods in the upper rpms is way worse than the stress in the lower rpms. I don't know the exact equations but the stresses at 3000rpms may only be double at 6000rpms, but from 6-7000rpms it's triple. Like I said, I'm not sure the exact math, but the stresses start being multiplied not added if you know what I mean. Though if you have forged internals they you could do 7000rpms easy, I'm sure, maybe slightly higher, again with tune cam gears to make sure you're power curve is still optimal for you're redline. Just make sure you don't lose too much power down low tuning the gears.

 

[Ness1216]

Thanks for all the answers. When helping Batcougar pull his engine we got a pry bar and ended up ruining the rubber boots too. Just wondering if that was common heh. But anyways thanks to both for the answers.

Matt