We bought our first xr. Autox/street machine in the making.

[Ray]

Why not just cut the ends off that house the inlet outlet (just in that area), get some 2.5" or whatever aluminum tubing and some aluminum sheet, and TIG your in / outs where you need them? Given all that you are able to fabricate, should be easy enough for you

Merry Christmas btw, love the progress.

[catapultkid]

Ray much much nailed it. That is what I ended up doing, still a tight fit.

Hope everyone had a good christmas. I got some help this weekend from my brother, Pat, and we were able to get the nose of the car sorted.

The face lift continues by cutting the end tanks off of the intercooler.





Bars underneath were added for supporting the intercooler and radiator.





Pat then traced out the splitter design on a piece of cardboard.



Here is the potential design. I'm thinking fiber laminated plywood for cheapness.



The idea is to control the air coming into the nose and use more of it for cooling and some downforce. I can't go too low with the splitter like a true race car because it is still street driven, and it overhangs a bit. This is with 5 inches of clearance.



I believe I will be loosing the steel hood with this setup as well and going with a carbon/fiberglass setup because there is no room for a latch. Of course it will need to be home made so we will see how my fiber skills are.

[catapultkid]

Last night I was able to formulate the end tanks to the intercooler. Here is how much room I have to play with.



First attempt



Second attempt



Final result







Now I just need to convert this to aluminum but both my welding helmets have died...

[Ray]

I love it! To bead roll piping i use the vice grip / washer trick - not sure if you've seen that.

[itking]

Looking good.

[catapultkid]

I love it! To bead roll piping i use the vice grip / washer trick - not sure if you've seen that.

Thanks for the compliments Ray and Anthony!

I haven't heard of this technique but I'm assuming you put the lower portion of the vice grip jaws inside a washer and squeeze down. I actually have never had to have my boost pipes bead rolled. I only run 18psi or so and haven't had any pop off in forever, even with silicone couplers. I just use a impact driver to tighten the clamps makes them come off easy when necessary.

[catapultkid]

Happy new year. Some updates.

Here is the tacked together supports for the radiator and intercooler. I cut off all the old tabs that mounted the various coolers in order to clean everything up. I seriously rushed through the car last year getting it ready so this year I intend to do the things I never got around to doing last year.



Here is where I decided to mount the oil cooler. I had to tuck it slightly in order to get it behind the bumper. I stuck the catch can behind that vertically. All of this will be shielded from the tire before it is all said a done. Still need to find a place for the power steering cooler, I believe it will be on the passenger side as I nicked one of the lines with the sander anyways.



Then moved to a some bumper modifications.



Cut some garden trimming in order to fill the gap between the coming splitter and the bumper.



Here it is mounted.







Now here is the cardboard splitter again. It won't be this low when done. This is at around 3.5"-4" the finial result will be closer to 5" due to being a street car. I wish I could keep it around 3" for track use but it just isn't realistic.



Till next time.

[Ray]

I've been toying with the idea myself of a quickly removable splitter for my car as well. My problem is getting the car on the trailer with it.

[catapultkid]

I've been toying with the idea myself of a quickly removable splitter for my car as well. My problem is getting the car on the trailer with it.

I also have to remove the bumper every time I put the car on the trailer. Splitter will be the same way obviously, I document what I am planning for everyone to look into it.

Got a little done on the car this weekend.

Passenger side of the intercooler done:



Driver side done. It is very tight trying to get this over the radiator and between the light and supports.



So I bought this "ON SALE!... DIRT CHEAP!..." intercooler piping. That stuff is absolutely miserable to weld, I don't even think it is real aluminum. Not my best work for sure...

Here it is mocked up.



Here it is welded without the blow off valve and IAT sensor added.



I'm surprised but the stock hood closes. It doesn't work with the stock latch and rubs stuff. I've got a idea for it though. Or I'll make one, I've been wanting to do that for some time.

[Esteban]

What holds the splitter in place? And are you calculating the optimal angle for the best downforce?

[catapultkid]

Jeff, yeah I have a few ideas. I'm gathering stuff now, and most of it revolves around using hood pins to pin it quickly and turnbuckles up front. I should be starting to go down that road in a couple weekends as I am now focusing on getting the rest of it sorted first. I'm worried that my driveway is going to hinder the splitter too much to make it useful as it is steep.

Didn't have much time with weekend but I'll add some stuff just to keep up with it.

I started by mounting the new wastegate setup. Ben believed in this thing, so for 180 bucks I decided to try it out. You can see the difference in sizing compared to stock.





Mounting and building the downpipe is going to be tighter than I thought.



Next is just some photos of the fab work on the pipes, a tank for Anthony and the intercooler.









Going to get bead blasted next weekend. I like the matte finish.

[John Brennan]

What's the exhaust elbow replacement piece, and where'dja' get it?

[catapultkid]

What's the exhaust elbow replacement piece, and where'dja' get it?

Head over atp tuning. It is titled "the ultimate internal wastegate" or something like that. Pretty much a cosworth style internal wastegate setup for a factory 5-bolt.

[John Brennan]

What's the exhaust elbow replacement piece, and where'dja' get it?

Head over atp tuning. It is titled "the ultimate internal wastegate" or something like that. Pretty much a cosworth style internal wastegate setup for a factory 5-bolt.

Very interesting! This, along with perhaps a center-mount header to move everything forward and lessen the bend radius right off the turbo, should be a wonderful, spool-friendly upgrade to any T3. They list the price as $168.00.

http://www.atpturbo.com/root/releases/release103105.htm

[Esteban]

Excellent progress Paul!!! Does your bypass valve route back to the intake? Or just aimed downwards? I'm sure you can make good use of that vbanded turbo outlet.