I can say that I have never been so exhausted from frustration in my life in terms of modifications. AJ("gotryce") and I worked on this damn kit all day Friday, and almost 7 more hours the following day, only to face the reality that the turbo would not be. In fact, I had to drive back home on Saturday to get my headers that I took home on Friday, just so I could get my car back home. The piping doesn't match up, there was no flange on the end of the flex pipe to mount to the cat, not to mention there was no slot for the O2 sensor either(Tai just wizard wheeled it off before he sent it to me).
Needless to say, I now have an intercooler mounted on my car in the front bumper, with 2 pipes attached to it, and that's about it. Oh yeah, I have a tapped oil pan too now, so I had to rig up the oil return line to an oil pressure gauge- actually it was A.J.'s new one(which ended up being flooded with oil in the face- so I now owe him a new one). My car is a mess.
Actually got the POS AEM fuel rail on- whoever designed that thing needs to be shot- there is NO room at all between the rail and the 3 bolts to screw it on. We did after like 40 minutes, but ended up stripping it on there- so I am stuck with it(hope no one ever has to change my injectors- that will be a fun project!). Not to mention the damn thing leaked on up too- so we ended up Hondabonding the screws in there and sealing them(THANK GOD FOR HONDABOND- did that ever come in handy for about 1000 things).
Also the integra FAL fans are mounted in there, BUT are still taking up too much room for the intercooler piping to fit to the turbo(doubt if the turbo itself will fit in there either without pressing up against it.
On a good, but rather moot note- I ended up hooking almost all of the J&S Ultra Safeguard up- everything except the dual monitor because I couldn't find the O2 reference and O2 signal wires. But I got it on and the car started up- great so now I have an NA car that has knock retard sensors on it- boy that will sure come in handy.
So now I am going to go to the muffler shop and drop off my stock header down piece and the DP- so that they can cleave off the flange piece from my stock header and weld it to my DP, so in the hopes that one day I will be able to get it put on. Then I am off to Honda to order a new oil pan, along with some new header bolts, and nuts.
Looks like I may be going to King after all to have them put it on.... bet they'll say "I told you so"- but I deserve it. This kit WAS a PITA- I can't believe that Tai had this on his car before. HOW??? The driver's side intercooler pipe hangs down so low that I doubt I'll be able to clear speed bumps. Anyone know a shop that sells intercooler pipong- I may have to buy some and let a shop bend it for me to fit...
I was arrogant enough to believe it was just a "bolt-on" process, like swapping an intake and headers for a mani, DP, turbo and intercooler. Yeah right, there are like a bizillion other things to do too- like dremel out the WG gasket because it didn't fit(and it was a Tial too-NEW!), sand out you gauge pods to make you gauges fit in them(even though you ran out of time TRYING to get them installed), take off the oil pan(boy didn't that SOUND easy- HA!), etc. Unbelieveable. I'd like to sell the bastard off. Funny thing is, after all this(the added costs of HPC coating everything, rebuilding my turbo itself, repairing the mani; cutting the pipes to make them fit; taking the DP in to get the correct flange welded on) it is actually a GOOD kit now- but I am so fed up with it, that I don't even WANT to try to put it all back on again. Because if by chance I, I don't know, strip a critical bolt needed for the kit to work, then I have to take it ALL off again and run around with a half built wrecked Lude. Well, we'll see what happens...anyone with some turbo experience and the right tools could make this into one hell of a kit- I unfortunately don't have the luxury of a garage full of tools and all the downtime in the world to putz with it. Hard to get it all done in one shot and hope it all works out ya know?
good job for persevering. i too had similar problems w/ the DRAG kit. hehe.
the downpipe is usually not connectable to the exhaust. no matter, just run to the exhaust shop after the install to get it attached...can u say ear splitting open down pipe?
i dunno about the piping, but it was a nightmare forme too. just try to find otu what pieces go where, hehe.....
what material did you use for the oil return line? yo umite want to use a steel braided line and earl fittings for a nice setup.
make sure you tap tap the oil pan on the deep side of the pan as high as you can. this will ensure that the oil doesn't get backed up.
Spocko, sounds like that kit you bought wasn't all it is cracked up to be. Anyway, don't give up. I am in the process of getting/installing turbo parts on my lude as well. It takes lots of planning and patience, patience, patience!! If you are ever to the point of just throwing in the towel, just take a break and hit it hard the next day. The world isn't going to end if you don't get the kit on this very minute.
Break parts of the install into stages. Makes it alot easier.
No, it's a custom kit, but probably has the same ****ty "this doesn't go together very well" ring to it. Oh well, I guess what I will do is just sit on it, try to guesstimate the best I can about how to get the piping to fit, and then take it in to a shop and let them run up a bill on me- either that or sell it and just take it up the ass on the "boy did I EVER lose money on that transaction"- considering I already rebuilt the turbo and HPC coated it, and am in the process of fixing the other issues.(Like how to "stretch" my front end of the car so there is more room for my turbo to fit).
spocko, post some pictures and we will give you some idea on how to fix it up. actually, if you are willing to go the distance, I will be in IN this coming weekend, and i surely won't mind helping you fix it up. let me know. =)
*yeah, i know WI is far from IN, but it might be worth it.. =) *
spocko, not sure if this will help, but i'll have some f-max ic piping laying around in a couple of days if you need it. not sure if it'll work well with the kiwi manifold.
Dude, I would love to get some extra IC piping. The biggest problem I am having with mounting my IC front-style is that when we connected the piping together, the pipe that goes out of the IC towards the driver's side and then bends around into a "U" to connect to another piece which then goes to the turbo, well the "U" piece sticks down really low at the middle. Reason for it is that the frame or chassis gets in the way and forces the pipe to bend downward at an angle, instead of horizontially flat. Only thing I can think of, and I don't like it, is to cut a circular hole in the frame/chassis for the piping to go INSIDE and then connect it. Otherwise, if I hit anything bad on the road, it will most likely rip my IC piping right off(it is like 5 inches off the road connected- NOT GOOD!)
And here's another thing, it looks like there might have been room after all to squeeze my JDM fogs in there with the kit, but we'll see when it's on(if that ever happens).
Hey 98luder- I appreciate the offer, but unfortunately I must decline. This weekend is really busy, plus I still don't have the gaskets for the turbo or oil return line yet(jerk never included them and I didn't know I needed them- or at least what they looked like when I checked for the contents of the kit). Nice of you though!
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Live long and prosper, and god save the lude!
Spocko_1701a@yahoo.com > email me
My vouch thread> http://www.honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=919921
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