so i started my project yesterday. i started off by taking off the existing headers and exhaust. (i actually did this weeks ago, i just got too busy with other things to get around to doing the rest.) with the exhaust out of the way, i connected the turbo manifold, turbo, and downpipe. as i was connecting it up, i noticed a cooling line bracket was interfering with the wastegate. (posted a thread about this) after some careful thought, i used a 16 oz hammer and some big a$$ pliers and bent it out of the way. wastegate was no longer an issue. so everything got bolted down.
next step was to install the injectors. this was looking to be the biggest pain in the anus i have ever seen. my friend dante and i looked at it for a while as we drank a beer. we debated on taking the intake manifold off. that turned out to be a bad idea, so we decided against it. using the two brains we had, we chose to just loosen the fuel rail, pry it out and forcefully remove the old injectors. this was the best idea ever. thank god dante was around because doing that by myself would have not happened. i just wasnt in the mood for it. so anyways, the injectors were installed and the fuel rail was then put back in place. we bumped over he motor to check for leaks....no leaks....good to go.
intercooler time. after looking for the mounting bracket for an hour, we finally found it in the bottom of the box that Cavanagh sent it in. (that should have been the first place we looked but we were looking at the table where all the other parts where. my bad for not taking it out of the box) the intercooler acted like it didnt want to go in, but after removing the throttle cable from the junction box, it was pretty simple. the intercooler piping was the problem of the night. piecing it together was easy, but having clearance for the hood to close and the BOV to not touch the cold pipe wasnt happening. it was clearly time for another beer. beer number 2 (while working on the car, number 6 for the night) was magical. "lets cloak the turbo" dante says. "word. i should have thought about that 30 minutes ago." but the beer was worth it. so we cloaked the turbo about 2 or 3 inches towards the front of the car.....perfect placement for everything. the intercooler pipes where then installed and ready for boost.
after that, we decided to call it a night. our kids were tired and our wives were complaining about us being in the garage all night. (typical women sh*t) so tomorrow is another day and we will be back on the grind. looks like cooling and oil lines followed by vacuum and electrical tomorrow. if its not done by monday, it will definitely be done by next weekend.
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