The BlueBaru CX Racing Turbo Rebuild

[Clipdat]

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

[PERRIN_Chris]

Very exited for this build!

[Lunatic]

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

[TurboBRZ]

Originally Posted by Lunatic

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

[TurboBRZ]

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:




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:



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).








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.




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.

[Amir Ghadiri]

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

[TurboBRZ]

Originally Posted by Amir Ghadiri

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

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?

[raven1231]

Originally Posted by TurboBRZ

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.

[TurboBRZ]

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.

[King Tut]

Originally Posted by TurboBRZ

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.

[TurboBRZ]

Originally Posted by King Tut

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

[Teclis]

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

[TurboBRZ]

I finally removed the stock driveshaft which weighs 23.5lbs on my scale (I'd say it's within a pound based on how I had to weigh it) and then weighed my new aluminum driveshaft at 12.7lbs! That's a full 10.8lbs shaved off the rotational mass of this engine!

Anyhow here are some pictures after I revised the oil line length and angled the turbo:

[TurboBRZ]

Originally Posted by Teclis

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

Thank you for pointing this out as I had no idea about that leakage issue.

I just bought the Torque Solution cam plate from AWD motorsports as I couldn't get the guys from Speed Factory to answer their phones... Plus AWD is local to me in FL, which means I will get it delivered tomorrow!