Hit a milestone and still making changes.

Problem with the twin charge system is again the S/C, it ends up becoming a bottle neck and limiting your boost potential, that and not alleviating the parasitic loss from driving the pulley off the engine, like turbo only does.

Honestly the only real advantage to twin charging is not losing torque, but with today's tech in turbo chargers, that isn't near as much of an issue as it used to be.

 

So, last weekend Good, Not so good, Good, WooHoo

Good - Radiator came back from my fab guy, installed and everything fit properly, fired the car back up and all seemed well, but it was Sat night and storming so no test drive.

Not so good - Came out Sun morning to a small coolant leak, seems that my fab guy accidentally burned a pin hole in the core, so back out it came and off to the radiator shop.

Good - Back from the radiator shop, got off work an hour early last night, so everything went back in and filled. Came out this afternoon to no leaks, so I'll fire up the car this weekend, pressure test the system as well as bleeding and topping. All the other systems so far have been leak free (knock on simulated faux wood grain).

WooHoo - Shifter got here Tues.....

So, this weekend:
-Finish the EGT gauge install, plus cleaning up some of the under dash gauge wiring.
-Burp, bleed and check all the fluids.
-Update some tuning software
-Install the shifter
-Fab up some fire extinguisher mounts

Besides all that I still have to install the W/M system, figure out the nitrous controller mounting and plumbing, and install my new DT-BBK.
Besides this, the car needs a few non performance item's worked on, but none of that effects driving the car at all.

Fortunately all but the EGT gauge and software update, are things that can be done while we're doing the DD and pump gas tuning.

I'm really stoked to get the car on the road this weekend, and work today won't go fast enough.
New pics this weekend.

 

Unfortunately I only ended up with 1 day to work on the car this past weekend, so didn't get near as much done as I wanted, but the car is together, and out of the carport, starts and idles perfectly normal.

Only issue is a simple mistake on my part, I neglected to add the intake manifold vacuum into my external vacuum manifold, therefore not enough vacuum for MAP Sensor, BOV, and more importantly for now, the brake servo, so I was only able to drive a block and back.

At idle the cooling system is working perfectly, and it only took 1 Qt to top off. Idled for 20 min, up to 185° fan kicks in, thermostat opens, and right down to 165° .

Sorry, but only a couple of pics:

Here's why I keep the "good" packing foam...



This way the air is forced through either the Radiator or the I/C.





It's always satisfying when the inner fender wells go back in...



Fortunately adding the vacuum line shouldn't require any disassembly and be pretty easy, I will however have to wait a week or so for a piece of tuning hardware I need upgraded, but no big deal, still have those other jobs to finish, plus I want to form some shrouds and covers for additional air flow management under the hood.

Big outdoor project this coming weekend, so I'll just have to work on things when I can.

 

Correct, same idea as what the factory uses between the core support and sides of the radiator.
For those who think it wouldn't matter either way, consider this... Air will travel the path of least resistance, and if that flow is great enough it will actually create a small vacuum in the surrounding areas and draw some of that flow as well. This way it's forced to travel through the radiator and Intercooler.

I do however have a shroud planned for between the radiator and engine as well.

 

No, factory 185° thermostat, 165° is just where it dropped to after the fan kicked in and thermostat opened up.

 

No new pics, but did get some time this weekend after all, had to tap a second vacuum source from the Intake Manifold to run only brake booster, isn't as good as OEM, but works just fine (just a slightly stiffer pedal)
Only thing to really deal with now is if the vacuum in the vacuum manifold is enough to let the MAP sensor and fuel regulator function properly, the factory vacuum connection is now running, fuel regulator, MAP sensor, crankcase and BOV, and after my test drive late last night the BOV is functioning perfectly. If I need to I'll tap another direct line to single out the fuel regulator, but so far seems good.

Tuning piece is on its way and hopefully I'll be able to take my first real drive (not just up and down the street) later this week.

 

As a supplemental update to last weekend.
Vacuum system is now working perfectly. Ends up that with the turbo you want to either alleviate the crankcase/PCV from the system or add a vacuum pump.
Since our engines are just fine with this turbo configuration and a simple crankcase vented to atmosphere, that was the fix.

With the crankcase in the mix I was getting 1-2 psi vacuum at idle, now without, 11-12 psi.

So configuration is as follows, fuel regulator only to the factory port.
The port I added connects to the vacuum manifold with MAP sensor, Brake servo, Boost/Vacuum gauge and BOV all attached to it.

First test drive was a great success, the car runs perfectly normal and everything functions exactly as it should, both in traffic, stop light to stop light and open hwy. For normal driving, except for a code related to the change, you'd never know I did anything to the car at all.

Only issue to be addressed is heat control related, I need to add a little more of the DEI Form-A-Sheild to the cowl and bonnet.
And for anyone interested, that stuff works stellar, while the metallic side gets just as hot as you'd expect, I can actually touch the back side of the piece that rests almost right against the downpipe and it's only warm to the touch.

Hopefully I'll have time Sun to work on that and some of the other items, but tuning should commence shortly, either way.

 

Sundays work, the heat situation is sorted, while the ceramic heat coating works well, it alone just isn't enough for the exhaust side of the turbo, so the addition of a turbo blanket, and a strip of Form-A-Shield under the cowl has taken care of the issue.
With that done, it was time for the next phase of testing, and made a mildly hard pull in first and hard shift into second, which brought up a few issues...

First being that this wastegate actuator just isn't enough, it's only a .75 bar which translates to 11 psi max, and while 11 psi breaks the tires loose at 5200 in 1st, even doubling it with a boost controller isn't going to give me as much flexibility as I'd like, so there's a 1.2 bar or 18 psi actuator on the way.

Second and larger issue is that I miscalculated the amount of engine movement under hard shifts, (even though I'm running Ireland upper and lower bushings along with a TSW top motor mount) and the shift from 1st to 2nd pulled the upper radiator hose loose. Since I do all my testing really close to the house, the car never got above 200°, but of course this needs to be addressed, so there's a new, longer, flex hose on the way as well.

Maybe not the ideal result, but this is what testing is all about, esp with the amount of custom fab involved in a project like this.
Some updated pics this weekend.

 

Well, it's been a while since an update.
Everything is moving forward with only minor issues, but nothing more than expected.
The engine movement and radiator hose issue was an easy fix with the flex hose install.

Tuning is coming along well and hopefully won't be long until we can start on the power aspect of things.

I've been driving the car back and forth to work and I'm seeing under bonnet air temps and even intake air temps of only 10-20° over ambient with normal everyday driving, even in the 95° heat, so the I/C setup is working phenomenally.
But I am seeing under bonnet temps in the 150-175° range if sitting idle in traffic or a drive thru for more than a few min., so I'm thinking about some kind of system to help pull air from under the bonnet for those occasions, but again, space is an issue...and while it's probably not absolutely necessary, couldn't hurt if I can come up with something, I'll let everyone know if I do.

I've also added a manual boost controller and temporarily mounted it in the engine compartment, along with the new wastegate I ordered. (I still plan on an electronic controller and gauge so there's no reason to permanently mount this one)
While the new wastegate helped, I was still only seeing 16.5 psi (granted it was only with ¾ throttle in second gear) but again it wasn't what I was looking for, not with this engine, so the boost controller went in.
With the heaviest spring and opened all the way, at ½-¾ throttle in 2nd gear it's giving me about 26.5 lbs, so it's just where I want it to be, and of course it can always be turned down. (Which I may just have to do, since that pull was up a ramp onto the highway, and at 5k rpm the tires broke loose.)

Had a small setback with a minor oil leak at the turbo return fitting, (the first couple of hundred miles always brings out the bugs) causing me to have to replace the blanket due to oil getting into the original one.
Pulled everything apart, and since I had to wait on parts, I also studded the exhaust manifold just to keep everything as secure as possible. While disassembly is simpler than an S/C, it's still a pain so I also replaced the two piece oil return flange and fitting with a billet part that has the fitting machined into the flange, just to alleviate one unnecessary junction point.

With the repair time slowing down the tuning, I have decided to wait on the shifter and BBK install until tuning is done, just don't want to slow things down again unnecessarily.

Next will be the W/M install and the engine cover for rainy weather, plus I still have to do the fire extinguisher brackets.

My other project at the house got more involved than first expected, but it's finally almost done so I can hopefully devote more weekend time to finishing the car at a quicker pace than lately.

Again thanks for reading, and there's only a couple of new pics because of the recent changes not really changing the appearance of things that much.

First to the left is where the AFR and EGT gauge now live:



New wastegate actuator:



Temp Boost controller:



Turbo Blanket and new additional heat shield wrapped under the cowl:



R56 turbo studs and nuts: