It was at this stage in the journey that we discovered the TT in the project tittle is now invalid. The next stage of this car build saw it go from a twin turbo to a single turbo. Having removed a pair of twin turbos off the beloved JZ engines in our past (Danes single turbo conversion) we knew all too well how much of a nightmare the removal of the twins were. Nic could not be convinced that a) this was a hard job and b) its at least seven times harder when the engine is shoe horned into a E30 BMW engine bay.
After Nic changed his own timing belt and water pump without the removal of the front pivoting bonnet he had concluded nothing was too hard for him. This did not detract from the amusement that was Nic losing his mind at how hard the removal of the twin turbo set up actually was. After a solid few days he had it all apart and the plan for a single turbo was well on its way.
Next Nic verbally abused a conglomerate of drift sales frequenters in an attempt to land a massive turbo for the same price as retro glow in the dark shoelaces. Some western suburbs resident was inadvertently talked into ripping himself off and sold Nic a GT3582 Garret turbo for peanuts.
A bit of time and multiple calls to Rocket Industries were required to organise the blocking off of the secondary oil supply, oil return and various coolant lines that were required for the twin turbo set up. Only half of these were now actually required.
Nic and his usual love for things purchased online allowed us to have access to a pleather of cool looking nylon lines, braided hose and alloy piping. Nic loves the stock look so almost everything in the bay is black, less shinny chrome tends to attract less attention.
The true challenge for this stage was the exhaust set up. All the other components are just a matter of making sure you order the correct bolt on parts, but the new dump pipe and waste gate pipe required custom fabrication almost from scratch.
Nic increased his skill level with the MIG welder and made himself a complete dump pipe set-up down to the existing exhaust system. The task of making this is one short sentence but in fact took Nic several days of trial and error. A feat that is somewhat impressive, granted his welding is not Street Faction standard but its better than most and the only road to improvement is practice.
Turning our garbage bin into a makeshift spray booth, the much loved stock black look was applied and it all bolted on.
The finished product is, it started first go. Awaiting the next stage.
A short clip of the car running on start up, before the air filter assembly was finished.
The Video shows the first test drive the day he finished it.
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