One thing leads to another and then another, now the engine is in pieces.....

**DrGonzo** · 12-14-2015, 11:36 AM

Black Friday I ended up finally getting a new FMIC. The old single core CX kit caused too much compressor surge for the 9b's so I need a dual core. Snagged one up from Ninja with Black couplers. This all lead to a series of events with the engine as it was just easier to do the next step and then the next step while it was all apart...LOL

- So I started work on the car by pulling the front bumper to get the stock SMIC's off.

- After getting all of the stock SMIC stuff out I figured it was a good time to also do the AC delete. It was giving me issues and I was tired of fighting with it. It's been years since I ran with a 3S that had working A/C it was not going to be any different. Plus the extra room would be nice. So the A/C stuff all removed, Alt bracket Modified and getting re-coated, Etc.

- Some time ago I picked up a set of what was thought to be TDO4 14B turbos for dirt cheap. They were disclosed as needing to be rebuilt which was not an issue for me. So I swiped them up and they sat in my attic for the last two years. Couple weeks ago I pulled them down to clean them up and Chrome powder coat the cold side. Found the shafts were a little beat up on the turbo's and that they were mis-matched. One was reverse thread and the other standard thread. After some measuring I found them to be 13G turbo's using stock 9B shafts! So I needed to get new shafts as I didn't trust the ones that were there. Now that I have all this room, maybe it's a good time to just do the turbo swap.

So I pulled the turbo's and swapped the good shafts from my 9b's to the 13g's and sent them off to TurboBay to get checked and balanced.

- Going to need more fuel for the new turbo's so time to swap in the lucas 550cc injectors I got for like $40 - eBay Steal!

- Was going to swap in the SS headers I got but one needed a pipe fixed "Entire section was cut out". But looks like it is not going to be worth the time to fix them "Thanks Bob for the help" So I pulled the Stock ones, cleaned them up, Did a little gasket port matching on them and recoating them.

- Also decided to add my 99 coolant bottle back as it gives more room for the FMIC pipes to run.

- Moving the Stock Oil cooler to the front right next to the Steering cooler I have installed.

- Going to work on building some ducting for the FMIC to the Radiator

- Also picked up a Blackstealth LCD that I'll be installing to help me monitor the Chrome ECU on the fly. Decided it was the best option as the BlueTooth ODB2 app/dongle I was working with won't log all of the data I need it to.

- Rebuilding the Throttle body as it was due for it. It never leaked but it did still have all of the originals seals so might as well do it since I have all of the hardware here already.

So right now I am waiting on some parts to come in and the turbo's to come back from the shop. In the meantime I am cleaning things up in the engine bay and powder coating what I can, along with finishing up some orders in the shop. More to come!