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The Engine Swap
Page 1 -- Page 2 -- Page 3 -- Page 4
The lasts little details of the swap proved to be the hardest of all. Running the modified RWD manifold posed many issues, the biggest of which was positioning of the turbo extremely close to the radiator. I had tried before to clock the compressor housing upward like a U12, but to no avail. Since it remained clocked downward and the clearance between the compressor housing and radiator was minimal, the factory compressor outlet pipe would not fit and I was forced to fabricate my own. I was leary about doing this because I have never attempted metal fabrication before. However, I had no other option. I started by having a flange made at a local machine shop and acquiring some 1.75" mandrel bent pipe from a local performance shop.
A friend came over and we fabricated the compressor outlet in about 2 hours. Using the portaband, we cut about 6 sections out of the mandrel bend and pieced it together. I had the end piece flared to 2" to match the hot pipe. It clears everything, the radiator, crossmember, and downpipe--I was very relieved. We mocked it up with tape to keep it in place while I took it to get welded together.
I got the final welds done on the compressor outlet and the hot side pipe that I modified and put the finishing touches on the engine.
The only thing left to do was finish fabricating the downpipe back to the cat. However, for purposes of starting the engine and setting timing, etc., I ran open j-pipe initially. It was early evening before it was ready to turn over but she fired right up and sounded GREAT! I took her for a little spin up the road just to see how the car drove and the DET felt VERY solid and strong considering it was in no way tuned. I only boosted about 3psi max and never made it past half throttle but even at that it scooted. It was funny, the turbine was really tight and it took a little while for some hot oil to run through it before it "unlocked" and started whistling at me.
I have run into some snags since completing the swap. Among them are errors in the MAP sensor calibration, a bad injector driver inside the EMS, and a leaky oil feed line. However, I was able to work through all of these issues without too much trouble. It is all part of doing a major project such as this.
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