My LS-Coupe Turbo Build

[dville_gt]

Had some time to play with the car today.

Turned some solid motor mounts for the AJE k-member (needed with frame mounted turbo).

Here are the poly's

Here is what I turned:

Here they are installed:


And here are some turbo pictures got a lot of the hot side stuff done, mounted both wastegates, finalized a bunch of welds, tapped the front cover for the -12 oil return, finished my cam swap, etc.:

[turbostang]

You gotta get a camera, man. That cell phone is bleh. Otherwise, good progress!

[joes01bullitt]

subscribed.....

[dville_gt]

Ran out of argon today so I just cleaned up some welds and made my air filter opening along with a few little odds and ends.

[turbostang]

Next piece of free advice.

Don't grind welds, learn to weld 'right' on a piece of scrap before you weld the finish part.

Grinding welds almost gaurantees a place a crack will start.

EDIT - you need to add a brace to those gates, with them hanging out that far - it will crack on the weld, even if it's 'right'.

[dville_gt]

Next piece of free advice.

Don't grind welds, learn to weld 'right' on a piece of scrap before you weld the finish part.

Grinding welds almost gaurantees a place a crack will start.

EDIT - you need to add a brace to those gates, with them hanging out that far - it will crack on the weld, even if it's 'right'.

Would it be better then to lay a bead down over those that i grinded?

[turbostang]

Would it be better then to lay a bead down over those that i grinded?

It would take a wide bead to make up for grinding marks, I'd probably leave it as is and hope for the best. It will end up looking like hell with a bunch of 2x width welds if they're not needed.

[dville_gt]

How much clearance do I need with the down pipe near the fan and crank pulley/belt? Currently I have maybe a half inch or so between them. I could "clearance" aka beat the down pipe in around those, but otherwise I don't have any options. I robbed as much radius from the 5" 90 that I could, it is just insane how much room this damn thing eats up, when I have the turbo/hot side out it looks like I could hop in there with the engine, when it's all in there there is absolutely no extra room anywhere! I assume that the down pipe gets pretty damn hot and the proximity to the belt and plastic fan housing makes me worried (I even cut the fan down to gain some clearance)

[turbostang]

How much clearance do I need with the down pipe near the fan and crank pulley/belt? Currently I have maybe a half inch or so between them. I could "clearance" aka beat the down pipe in around those, but otherwise I don't have any options. I robbed as much radius from the 5" 90 that I could, it is just insane how much room this damn thing eats up, when I have the turbo/hot side out it looks like I could hop in there with the engine, when it's all in there there is absolutely no extra room anywhere! I assume that the down pipe gets pretty damn hot and the proximity to the belt and plastic fan housing makes me worried (I even cut the fan down to gain some clearance)

You're one of about 529809209328 mustangs with a similar setup, what you've done will be fine.

[dville_gt]

You're one of about 529809209328 mustangs with a similar setup, what you've done will be fine.

cool, i showed my BIL and he was going on and on about how the belts going to melt and the fan's going to melt blah blah. i hate to beat on the downpipe since i'm a tightwad and spent good money on the 5" stuff!

you've got me worried now about those welds i grinded on. at first i was just going to do some slight grinding, but i hit them with a fap wheel and they leveled out great so i was like what the hell. whooops. live and learn i guess.

on a side note, should it have been pretty tough to weld that flex pipe in? for some reason it did not like being welded, first of all the gap wasn't ideal since they make it 2.5" i.d. so the pipe will fit in (and it's a loose 2.5") and secondly it seemed to want a lot less heat then the actual pipe did so i found myself having a tough time not burning away the end of the flex pipe in the process of heating the actual pipe (if that makes any sense).

[Cmarsh]

Was the flex pipe stainless? That, and the differance in gauge of the metal will make a differance in it getting too hot first, and melting away. Not hard to overcome, if you have done it before

[turbostang]

cool, i showed my BIL and he was going on and on about how the belts going to melt and the fan's going to melt blah blah. i hate to beat on the downpipe since i'm a tightwad and spent good money on the 5" stuff!

you've got me worried now about those welds i grinded on. at first i was just going to do some slight grinding, but i hit them with a fap wheel and they leveled out great so i was like what the hell. whooops. live and learn i guess.

on a side note, should it have been pretty tough to weld that flex pipe in? for some reason it did not like being welded, first of all the gap wasn't ideal since they make it 2.5" i.d. so the pipe will fit in (and it's a loose 2.5") and secondly it seemed to want a lot less heat then the actual pipe did so i found myself having a tough time not burning away the end of the flex pipe in the process of heating the actual pipe (if that makes any sense).

The belt will be fine, it never sits still while the downpipe is HOT, and it has rushing air over it at all times.... the fan will be fine too, but it's not as tolerant of the heat. Minimum of about 1/2" air gap and maybe even wrap the pipes that are close.

the flap wheels, if there was a better alternative to grinding, that would be it - you're a lot less likely to dig ruts around the weld with them. yes, that flex joint has 3 pieces that have to be welded at one time (not including the pipe). You can't just weld the outter part, or just that pretty ring that holds the braiding in place.. you have to catch the braiding, the ring, the inner flex part and the pipe all in one shot.

[dville_gt]

Was the flex pipe stainless? That, and the differance in gauge of the metal will make a differance in it getting too hot first, and melting away. Not hard to overcome, if you have done it before

ya, the flex is stainless. now that i think about it i hope the ER70S-2 filler isn't going to be a problem.

i really didn't have "much" of a problem, just took some getting used to right off the bat, the 1/16th filler combined with the wider gap took some time to get used to.

[dville_gt]

you have to catch the braiding, the ring, the inner flex part and the pipe all in one shot.

this makes more sense now, i think i caught all the pieces, but it is a delicate balance to get all the parts and not completely melt away that outer ring.

also, is it normal to get some discoloration on the stainess mesh from the heat you put into it from welding? the mesh near the welds looks like it got pretty warm

[turbostang]

this makes more sense now, i think i caught all the pieces, but it is a delicate balance to get all the parts and not completely melt away that outer ring.

also, is it normal to get some discoloration on the stainess mesh from the heat you put into it from welding? the mesh near the welds looks like it got pretty warm

yes, it will brown pretty good - but there's nothing you can do about it.

FWIW, You should use 309L on that flex joint since it's stainless, but the ER70S2 will be fine most likely, it's not a 'high stress' area..