Holy thread revival!
Been a year since I did an update on here probably because nothing much happened but most likely because I’m a lazy git and always find out excuses such as it’s too cold to work outside, it’s too warm to work outside, it rains, it is not raining so let’s have a brew and generally you know this thing called life always getting in the way...
However managed to find some time during the last year to do some stuff, mainly spending moneyz on shiney Chinese things of unknown quality.
So... by the 5th time I took it off my radiator was leaking badly. Following my motto that everything that need changing gets changed with a
performance part something twice as expensive I bought myself an all-aluminum radiator and after almost 2 months of waiting a big parcel awaited me on my door. Winner… racing…. quality… this must add at least 20 hp.
Almost immediately I understood that there is something wrong with my “direct replacement radiator”. I thought about returning it and claiming my money back but after waiting all that time for it to arrive I’ve decided that I don’t want to wait anymore and I’ll modify it myself. Partial refund was claimed and received so everybody was happy. By everybody i mean myself.
Then resorted to buying new go fast snail for my car. Found very cheap one advertised as a stock Fiat coupe 16VT turbo in good condition and bought it. Better stock than sorry right?
Wait a minute…
F@kin’ell a BMW 2,4 TDS turbo with a smaller exhaust impeller. Returning it wound have cost me more than what I paid for it so now I had a non-running car and a paperweight. Oh whatever… entered the bay of E and bought this beauty on the right. Slightly bigger that OE
Also during one of my trips around the countryside came across this beauty but unfortunately after finding the owner found out that it has some serious problems with the paperwork and unfortunately is destined to the crusher. My dreams of Arese V6 automatic swapped Thema SW disappeared in an instant.
During the time I was waiting for the new turbo to arrive there was one thought that left me restless – will it fit?
It fits!!!
Well there is no space for the original radiator fan to be installed but there must be some way around that!
Fast forward to November last year when I finally decided to take the car to a place where I can work on it without the need to hide my tools every time I need to go to the restroom.
Remember the funky colored Recaro seats that I bought for this car? Well they were from a 3 door car and they do are not a direct fit for a 5 door car. Ask me how I know. I managed to swap them for the correct version in slightly less impractical color combination. They need a retrim but will do the job for the moment.
I dug out the magic metal gluing machine and started stitching the downpipe.
Please don’t laugh at my welding, I’m new at it and still learning.
Managed to reweld the wastegate actuator bracket so the actuator itself points at the wastegate.
New high pressure oil feed hose was made since the Fiat OE one had very little wiggle room in terms of the angle it can be mounted to the turbo. Very useful for the time when I need to change the turbo again – probably after 1000 miles or so
Finished the downpipe with some sexy V-band flanges and bungs for the O2 sensors.
And then the winter came
And that brings us up to date - March this year when the birds started singing and SWMBO let me play in the sandbox. I quickly added some high temp blue silicone hoses,
finalized the mounting points of the radiator fan,
mounted,
put back together the charge pipes,
Put the radiator hoses back on their places and started pouring some antifreeze and immediately a leak has sprung. Realized that haven’t blanked off the water inlet for the turbo on the radiator. Oh well I just need to find a suitable plug, add some more coolant, prime the turbo with some oil and I guess start it?
Next weekend, time and weather allowing… fingers crossed…
