Ok another heads up, talked with P&L and they prebuild the BOV and wastegate with the required springs and since I am using an electronic boost control solenoid, spring pressure is not too huge of an issue. P&L is working on a nice detailed instruction manual I talked with their photographer today and he said they were close to having it complete. I want to give a shout out to Mike @
PrimeMotoring. He's been nice enough to help me by answering all my stupid questions for my first ever turbo conversion...plus he's hand crafting my gauge cluster!
So after getting most things fitted for this kit, let me just say "holy freaking tight clearances Batman!" The IC piping "just" fits, it's tight and that makes some of the stuff a pain to install. Just clamping the turbo to the manifold is a 2 person job due to how cramped it is in the engine bay...not to mention that v-bands are nice but a serious pain in the ass when you're trying to hold a 20lb turbo in place, hold the v-band in place, and tighten it with a wrench.
The stock oil pan is a serious pain in the ass to remove, I destroyed the stock pan in order to not mar the sealing surface of the block. I assume it would be easier to do with a warm engine block or with a heat gun, but I couldn't do either. I am working on figuring out how to mount my boost control solenoid now since it hooks up to a connector that's behind the manifold...i think zip ties will be the answer, or some 3M double sided tape, we'll see. I have installed the new 700CC port injectors and I will say that the drivers side bank is extremely tight, while the passenger side is easy but the bottom bolt for the injector controller is tough to get at with man sized hands.
As someone who isn't afraid to work on cars, this install has been kind of daunting at times. I have pulled the transmission on this car in my garage and replaced my clutch and never felt overwhelmed, but this turbo install has been a little trying at times. But now that i am almost done with the install and can see the light I know that if I ever do another turbo conversion it will be a cake walk now that i know how everything interacts.
Here's a list of the pros and cons that i have found with this kit, from the perspective of a non professional.
Pros:
- Entire install can be completed with a basic tool kit, no special tools required.
- Amazing parts quality.
- Great support from P&L (they have been really patient with my constant calling)
- Installation is pretty straight forward, there's been only a few instances where I was stumped.
- Everything you need is included
Cons:
- No instruction manual as of yet (they are making one!).
- Hose clamps for oil drain line are garbage. (I needed to go to ACE to buy some replacements).
- No mounting hardware for the new washer fluid bottle. (needs 4 nuts and bolts)
- No wire for the DEI heat blanket for the exhaust turbine supplied. (used some lock wire I had laying around).
- Having to splice the fuel pump wires is not ideal, an actual replacement harness would be much better.
Other than that I don't have any real hardcore gripes. Once I finish installation and get it running I'll make sure to post some pics up here and give some first time impressions. As a heads up to anyone wondering, I am starting with a simple base tune for the kit so i won't be pushing it to max boost right off the bat, figure I will give the turbo time to break in on mild boost and to make sure I have no boost leaks etc. Once i have the money for the full flex fuel conversion and the flex fuel tunes, that's when i intend to push this thing to it's upper limits...I am aiming for a minimum of 425HP.
Well that's it for now, I'll post more later.