The BlueBaru CX Racing Turbo Rebuild
 

Hi everyone! I'm new to the forum and wanted to share what I am doing as I browse around learning from others on this great site. I haven't been able to find anyone who installed the CX Racing Turbo kit yet, so I thought I would post mine.

I didn't have the $$$ to buy a new or even a used BRZ, so I bought a Salvaged one at auction with 19k miles that I thought would fix up rather easily. I am working on it in my home garage.

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/pictu...pictureid=9385

When it arrived I found out there was some pretty heavy frame damage - which is hard to discern when all you have are 8-10 images sized like the one above for reference (I didn't buy the car on-site). Here is what the new frame rail looks like next to the one from the wreck:

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/pictu...pictureid=9389

It took a lot of drilling and about $30 worth of bits to get the first frame rail removed:

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After replacing the passenger frame rail I noticed the driver rail was off by about 1" (the core support didn't match up). The impact from the other side had pushed the engine into the alternate rail, bending it inward to a degree. I don't have a frame puller, so I just ordered another rail from the dealer. I spent another day and $30 on drill bits to remove the second frame rail. The new one is supposed to arrive at Subaru this afternoon which will allow me to get the entire front end welded back together so I can put the motor back in! Thankfully the parts from Subaru are priced reasonably - and I get cost + 10%. For all you FR-S owners you're best off buying your parts from Subaru as their list is about 15-30% lower on almost everything.

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/pictu...pictureid=9394

While I have been waiting on the frame rail I've also been working on the engine. The first thing I did was install some lightweight pulleys which cost about $80 shipped on ebay:


http://www.ft86club.com/forums/pictu...pictureid=9399

I then took my CX Racing turbo kit out of the box to inspect the quality, as it's literally the cheapest turbo kit you can buy for the BRZ and I'm almost positive CX means "China Express" lol. But when you're on a budget, it is what it is... I spent $1999 on the turbo kit shipped which includes the intercooler kit, downpipe, and BOV.



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The quality of the manifold and 3" pipes is very good in my opinion. The design is almost identical to the Greddy manifold and the weld quality is good, as well as the internal finishing on the runners. The bolts they give you for the kit however, are crap. They're grade 4.8, when most bolts on the engine are at least grade 8. I bought some grade 10.9 bolts from the auto parts store to assemble the kit.

First I installed the turbo manifold with the included gaskets (resemble stock) and noticed there seemed to be a small gap in the gasket in some areas. I went ahead and put some silicone exhaust gasket maker on both sides of the crush gasket and re-assembled it. This did the trick:

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/pictu...pictureid=9396

Next I installed the turbo and found the same small gap, so I applied the exhaust silicon to the side that didn't have the additional metal gasket and everything looked great. The oil feed line comes off the oil pressure sending unit (I believe) and I wrapped it where it comes to the turbo from the same direction as the intake piping:

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/pictu...pictureid=9395

Since the engine was out of the car I went ahead and removed the valve cover gaskets, replaced them, and also replaced the spark plugs with brand new iridium's from the dealer. The engine was so clean inside it looked brand new. After this I removed the oil pan and installed the oil drain fitting for the turbo line:

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Here it is complete and ready to be re-installed into the car after I apply some header wrap and a turbo heat shield:

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/pictu...pictureid=9403

Takes guts to do something like this. Love it bro. Subbed :thumbup:

2000 bucks for a turbo kit?! You can spend more on a header and cat back lol. Keep up the good work! It takes guts to attempt a rebuild.

My frame rail just arrived! Time to get this beast rebuilt! For what it's worth, this is the 3rd one of these I have rebuilt. Well the first was a FR-S, then a BRZ, and this BRZ is the one I am doing for myself. The other two gave me some additional income that allowed me to buy the turbo kit + accessories and pay for the tune when it's done.

There is one member on her named Amir who was running this kit. He has since went to an ls1 swap however. Good luck man.

you cant afford a brand new vehicle, yet you buy a wrecked one, put good money into fixing it and then turbo it.....


good job bring it back to life man! in for updates :thumbsup:

Yeah, by the time I am done with this car after the full turbo build, paint, licensing, etc... I should be right around $17k. Last I checked there wasn't a single BRZ listed within 500 miles of me that was under $20k (even rebuilt), so I think I am still coming out on top :) I wanted to own the car outright rather than financing. Plus, I love bringing these cars back to life. Thanks for all the support!

So today I spent some time playing around with aligning the frame and putting a few tack welds on it so I could test the fitment of the body panels before testing the fitment of the suspension pieces and then completing the welding. Here are some pictures of the car coming back to life - albeit the heart is still removed.

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/pictu...pictureid=9420

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Yes, that's a FR-S bumper on my BR-Z. I think it looks more aggressive :D

very nice thread. goodluck with the rebuild man! :thumbup:

Today I fit the suspension and engine cross member, then it's a TON of welding and grinding! I really got my work cut out for me with this car - a much bigger job than I anticipated. The other two I did before this one were much simpler rebuilds, but it never hurts to test the limits of what you're capable of :)

Subbed. Looks intriguing as hell!

why you going with an FRS bumper over the BRZ????

He stated this in that same post:
Yes, that's a FR-S bumper on my BR-Z. I think it looks more aggressive :D

I would clock that turbo center section so that the oil feed and drain are more perpendicular to the ground.

Much respect, this is the definition of DIY!

Thank you for the feedback. I will look at doing this before the engine goes in the car :thanks:

And it's fun confusing people lol. I think I should call this my BR-S, rather than BRZ. I'm not loyal to either manufacturer lol.

I had the same turbo kit on my car for about 2500 miles now, doesn't drive my car as much anyways the fitment is right on. no gap no leaks but the only problem was they send me a 50 trim snail instead of a 60 trim but this thing spool super quick.

So in bolting up the engine subframe the holes on the side that took the impact are about 1/4" off. I have found the main culprit - as the frame got bent a little bit on the rear mounts of the subframe. Now it's time to re-construct my DIY frame puller and get that sucker moved forwards! I'll post some pics later of the current position and the new position after the pull.

Nice to hear another person has the same turbo kit. Mine is the .60 trim and I'm looking forward to driving it. I'll likely upgrade to a bigger turbo down the line, but this seemed like a good (cheap) place to start.

This is exactly what I was going to do originally. I planned on getting the kit without the turbo and wastegate though and just sourcing my own.

This rebuild looks good, keep up the good work.

It was really hard to get a photo of the engine sub frame being off alignment, but I did the best I could. I forgot to do the "after" photo, but the holes do lign up now after a 10,000lbs frame pull. I actually broke one of my ratcheting straps (the actual locking/tightening mechanism) during the pull lol!

What you're going to see in the photos is #1 the hole being off position. #2 the point on the frame that was bent that I strapped into for frame pulling. #3 how I pulled the frame. #4 drilling out the new frame rails. #5 a close-up of the drill holes. #6 - welding it back together.

I am still in the process of welding - just completed the driver side - and after this I will be doing the core support. Once that's done I will be grinding down all the welds, applying the auto-body seam sealer (rubberized caulk-like stuff), and in 2 days when my paint gets here it will get a new coat of 02C blue pearl. I'll post some more pics of the welds ground down and the rubberized sealer when I'm done!

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major props on doing all this yourself!!

Today I ground down the welds on both sides of the car, then sprayed the frame rails with a rubberized undercoat. After all the welding/grinding/undercoating is done of all parts (core support & frame rail braces) I will apply the 3M seam sealer before applying a base coat of paint. Then the engine goes back in.

Nice enough today my new Deatschwerks fuel pump arrived along with my Innovate LC-2, Omni 4 bar map sensor and Tosh86 single-piece aluminum driveshaft. This thing is seriously light weight! I haven't pulled the factory driveshaft yet - that will be on my list tomorrow.

In just a few days time (depending on when the paint arrives) the engine will go back into her rightful home.

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/pictu...pictureid=9441

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awesome stuff! I picked up a salvaged BRZ as well for $10k though mine didn't need any frame work

Yeah, I bought a black BRZ (salvaged) at auction for $2k less that didn't need any frame work as well. Now I know what (exactly) to look for in the photos to make sure I never buy another car with damage to this extent. I would never make a dime on this car if I went to sell it, so it's perfect that it will become my daily driver lol.

This is impressive; normally I would poo-poo someone for putting a Chinabay turbo kit on their car but you're totally reconstructing that car and turbocharging it on the cheap; nothing wrong with cheap speed in this case!

Excited to see this project when it's finished! Awaiting more pics and vids.

Very exited for this build!

I'm really looking forward to hearing how your CX turbo holds up.

You and me both lol! If it goes past 15k miles I'll be impressed. But as soon as it dies it will get replaced with a quality turbo :thumbup:

I'm sure many of you have a companion animal that keeps you company in the garage, watches you work, and is like your little shop buddy. I have one and wanted to show you my little helper:

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/pictu...pictureid=9452


On a more serious note, here is the progress I've made over the past few days as I've had a lot of other work keeping me occupied. Before I can put in the subframe, paint or put sealant, I have to weld in the frame support brackets. These are a tricky piece, so what I did was put some bolts through the holes in the firewall and the support bracket to line it up perfectly, then clamp it down as tightly to the firewall as possible:

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/pictu...pictureid=9450

As these holes extend inside the cabin, I wanted to be sure that no sparks made it inside the car and that in case they did, nothing would be damaged. To accomplish this I bought a heavy-duty welding blanket that I draped over the interior, and some fiber-fill insulation from Home Depot. There is a video on youtube of a guy torching this insulation for minutes and it not catching fire (it's been treated with some chemical), so I thought it would work great as a welding block. I filled up a funnel with some insulation that I wet down, and filled in holes from the interior that I wasn't welding at that moment. I had my partner hold the insulation to the firewall while I welded from the opposite side (not fully complete yet).

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/pictu...pictureid=9451

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Then last night after my help went to bed, I decided why not throw on that Titanium exhaust wrap that just arrived in the mail? So I did - managed to use about 48 feet to do the manifold itself and will have to order a bit more to do the turbo downpipe after the 3rd O2 bung gets welded in. I'm regretting not throwing on a pair of long sleeves - my arms still itch this morning.

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/pictu...pictureid=9454


Today I am going to finish welding in the support brackets on the frame rails (both sides), grinding them, and then I will apply the seam sealer and install the engine subframe. After that I gotta wait until my 02C paint arrives so I can get this engine bay back to its original color. Black and blue just doesn't suit this car if it's going to be the Bluebaru. :D

Looking good. It's nice to see more people opening up the the CX kit, it's really not a shabby kit. Let me know if there's anything I could give you insight on :thumbsup:

I have to agree with you. The kit in and of itself is good quality and sells at a very reasonable price. All of the piping and welds are what you would expect of a Greddy kit, but at less than half the cost. In fact the manifold looks like a spin-off of the Greddy manifold (Chinese love to copy whoever they perceive as the best), but with a few small revisions.

The three weak points with the kit are the turbo, the wastegate and the bolts that hold it all together (and the 3" elbow they give you for the turbo intake which doesn't fit). But once you swap the bolts and buy a new turbo elbow it's decent.

How many miles do you have on your turbo kit so far? What kind of power are you making at how many PSI?

His engine blew so he switched to an ls swap. Think he had a decent amount on it though.

I wound up eating through 5 grinding disks on my IR 1/4" drive to get all the welds down, at a cost of about $3.50 each. After welding in the second frame brace and getting everything ground, I applied 3M sealant to all the seams like they do from the factory - albeit the robots do a much neater job. In another hour or so I'm going to install the engine sub frame and then it's a waiting game for paint.

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That oil drain appears to be running up hill do to the hose being so long and going out in front of the manifold instead of behind it. Most of the kits keep the oil drain close to the block and make it very short to a welded bung on the oil pan. The Full Blown kit actually runs a tube from the back of the steel oil pan to the front and then has an AN fitting.

I've seen kits run both ways where they try and keep the oil line really close to the pan and install the drain on the back of the pan, and I've seen the drain installed on the front. I chose the front install because it gives my drain tube the most clearance from the turbo manifold which will cause the least amount of additional heat being transferred to the oil line itself. The length and angle of the turbo right now have not been adjusted. I didn't mention it, but the plan was to shorten the drain tube after the engine gets put in the car - and I will angle the turbo before it goes in. Because the drain is on the front, this will also give me the shortest length of my oil line in the end, but right now it's not fully complete. But thank you for looking out and giving your feedback :party0030:

Nice build!
Just an fyi, you might wanna change out the original cam plate, now that you still got the engine out, after these are prone to leak.. then you lose oil pressure and boom.. time for a rebuild :p

I have heard many great thing about the raceseng cam plate, and I'm going to get one for myself too soon :)

http://www.ft86speedfactory.com/race...late-1222.html
And I got nothing to do with either raceseng or speedfactory, just a friendly advice :)