[GT4LIFE]

I think they are all interchangeable but there are some differences. I forgot to grab the picture of the engine mounts before sending them off to be powder coated. 2 weeks wait on powder coating.

[GT4LIFE]

I put a few hours in to the turbo ram horn manifold to get it ready to weld. Because I’m brining the turbo flange up ⅝″ it is some extensive changes. Once I get every joint prepped and the ⅝″ spacer put in I will tack everything. After that I will remove three runners from the merge collector and flange and have them weld up separately the three runners back purged with argon. The fourth runner with the flange and merge collector with be separately welded while back purged. Even then it is a numbers game where specific runners need to be then tacked back in place and fully welded in order to make sure the best welds can be made between the runners and the flange and merge collector. What a pain! I will have the welder put a lot more heat into the welds this time so the penetration is solid. I’m not going back in to this one again.

[GT4LIFE]

I got the ram horn manifold prepped and back together bringing up the turbo flange ⅝″. I left it with the welder with the ends sealed with high temp foil tape. Adding the ⅝″ and the prep was about twenty hours of work. This time I had three of the runners detached to get the best possible welds. Now though there will be a better vertical drop for the oil return line. There was only about 1 ½″ before. ⅝″ doesn’t seem like much but I think it will help. It will also allow me to run a bigger turbo. The manifold barely slides on underneath the top cross brace. The runner spacing is better than before and I shouldn’t have a problem with the wrap.

My powder coat parts should be done today with my engine mounts.

I have some brand new carpet to install which will be here hopefully in a week.

I settled on YOKOHAMA ADVAN NEOVA AD08 R
205 /50 R15 86V SL BSW. As soon as I have the manifold back I will order these up. I settled on these because they are a 200 tire with 9/32 tread and they are .1″ less wide then the Yokohama AD502. The AD502 is a better performance tire but a lot less geared for daily driving. At 7/32 they just cannot last as long and the AD08 have a better thread pattern for standing water against hydroplaning. I think I can get about 25000 daily driver miles out of them considering how light our cars are. I will still have to roll the rear fenders and probably the front. They are only 1 lbs lighter than the BF Goodridge sport comp2 195 50 R15. I think the added cost of the tires is worth the extra traction and braking performance at over double the cost.

[GT4LIFE]

Ram horn manifold is back together fully welded. I just hope the new welds hold this time. I’ll hopefully have everything back together by next week.

I also bought a Kinugawa internal wastegate to replace the thirty year old IHI one. It has a set of seven different spring options. I figured since I won’t get to the turbo upgrade this summer I will at least replace that to give me a little bit more control over the wastegate.

[GT4LIFE]

I got everything back from the powder coaters. Everything looks great. However, they went a week over their estimate date which was two weeks longer than I needed them done originally. That is what happens when you put in the smallest order; they keep pushing it to the back of the line. I’m going to ship everything down to member on Geometroforum.com next time I want to do powder coating. His rates are a lot less, and if the company I have been going to isn’t going to do it any quicker than they won’t get my business.

I got the new 75 blue/purple poly mounts pressed in and ready to install. They look great and I took some photos. One of the three will press in snuggly by hand, one of the three will easily press in using a vice, and the third one you have to fight to press in with a vice. This is with the mounts being powder coated on the inside.

My Wilwood brake calipers look nice gloss black and more importantly they will be protected for years to come. I should be able center the calipers now down to the precision I want. I finally found a single adapter for the calipers to go from ⅛ npt 27 to 10mm x 1.0 with plenty enough flange to support the copper crush washer (there also powder coated black aluminum). The company that I got them from is called AnHoseFittings.com. Not only do they have that fittings which no one else has but they have free shipping which is amazing.

I’m trying a new return line with some RaceFlux Nylon 10AN hose fro AnHoseFittings.com. It should take the Summit Racing fittings that are reusable. I’ll find out shortly.

I have to test fit today an see if the downpipe needs to be modified to adjust to the ⅝″ difference. I’m hoping that the flex pipe will eat up the difference.

I’m going to wrap the ram horn manifold with the Titanium DEI Wrap. That should keep things a little cooler up top.

I’m going to come up with an new lower turbo mount also. Maybe something with a spring attachment.

[GT4LIFE]

Poly engine mounts have poly crush tubes. You cannot torque the bolts down to factory specs as this would simply crush the poly crush tubes. I’m going to add a lock washer on the outside and maybe some blue locktite to make sure the bolt doesn’t back out.

I’ll keep an eye on these mounts to see if the bolts back out. I put a lock washer and some blue lock thread on them. If they do back out I saved the metal crush tubes from the original mounts. I would have to clean them up but they should fit.

There will be a lot less engine flex. I’ll post up how they feel when I’m back on the road.

[GT4LIFE]

I got my windshield wiper arms back on after powder coating gloss black. I really like the look of them. I also put a coat of the Car Guys plastic restorer on the cowl trim. It went from grey back to black.

The carpet arrived yesterday. Looks great. I’m at least a week out before I can install it though. Hopefully, I will get a full day in today to get most of the engine bay stuff back on.

I’ll take some pictures and get them posted here shortly.

[GT4LIFE]

Engine mounts before install:

[GT4LIFE]

Ram horn manifold revision rewelded. Hopefully, this will hold up longer with the hotter welds (It was back-purged with argon this time). With the solid poly mounts and revised lower turbo brace I was comfortable wrapping it. I brought the T3 turbo flange up ⅝″. The highest bends clear the hood, and the lower bends I had to slightly modify the engine bay top brace for clearances. With the wrap I’m not to worried about heat temperatures. This is the first time I wrapped anything. The hard part was the clearances between the pipes otherwise the D.E. Titanium wrap really clings to itself and allows you to tighten it as you go. I tried wrapping the merge collector but didn’t want to cover the wastegate and decided it wasn’t worth it at the moment.

[GT4LIFE]

The engine bay including turbo is mostly back together. I just have one hold up on the intercooler hose out. I had planned on the same angle coming out of the turbo just longer but I couldn’t get it to align because of the ⅝″ rise in the exhaust manifold. It is like Tetris, but I much prefer the new clearances for almost everything else (note to self: put the inside heat shield on before mounting the turbo and manifold). I should have the right coupler in a few days.

Stuff that is left:

1. turbo hose
2. oil cooler
3. tighten radiator hoses
4. coolant
5. battery tray/ battery
6. front bumper skirt
7. brakes ( I want to try installing the larger brake booster from the Suzuki ?? since I have the brake lines apart due to the new front fittings).
8. rear struts
9. alignment
10. new tires