A turbo motor to call my own... *PICS ADDED*

[McFrosty]

So I haven't posted here much, but I search are read for at least an hour a day trying to cram as much Leg info as I can into my tiny little brain... but down to the real business:

My motor was leaking oil through every possible hole, smoking like a retired hooker at Denny's. I asked Doug Vincent if he could help me find a new low priced N/A rebuild. He said he had one in the garage and I was like "sweet man." Then the DREADED BAIT; "well since its appart you might as well do this... " "and we could do this... " "and I have and extra one of these..." .. yada yada yada.

Long story short, one month later, with the expertise of Doug (built the motor) and Kelly (installed it), I now have a turbo motor in my GT wagon... And spent a LOT more money than I actually HAD to spend (still not as much as the shop I went to wanted for a stock NA rebuild though).

Its a N/A block with turbo pistons and heads, stock Legacy turbo, TMIC, Perfect Power computer, and some WRX manifolds and downpipe.

Holy F-ing S*** it fun!

MAJOR MAJOR PROPS to those guys and there insane knowledge !!

By the way, I got 27 mpg with my first trip up to Seattle.

PICS ARE HERE:

[Carbix]

WHAT THE HELL. Im only getting 16.7mpg (7.1Km/L) AT BEST. WHATS WRONG WITH MY CAR. I only have 74,000 miles on it (120km). gas no cheap

[McFrosty]

I'm running pretty low boost right now (4-5 psi I think). I'm sure that will change when I crank it up to 10. But that still seems low from what I've read from other cars...

There are lots of threads about poor gas milage fixes. I would check them out. Couldn't hurt.

[Kelly]

Show some pics man!

[McFrosty]

I should have some this week. I found black WRX scoop that I'm having installed Monday.

Unfortunatle I've had some eratic RPM issues today... checked the engine codes, trying to get this figured out.

O2 sensor, Idle switch, IAC valve. Bummer.

[klaxed]

27 mpg with a turbo, not fair. My car is N/A I I max out at just over 22.

[thehookeup]

i saw your set up it is clean. Are u using a turbo or a N/A ecu? i saw your car when i was dropping off some stuff for doug. that IAC might either be leaking air or the valve was/is bound up. Is the check engine light on or did you just pull existing codes?

[McFrosty]

CEL was comming on occasionally, so I did the D-test mode (I think thats what its called) while I drove around town. Thats where I got the O2 sensor, IAC valve codes. I have a used IAC valve from a turbo car that I need to clean up and install. So brake cleaner is OK for that right? Would it be wise to shoot it with some silicon after cleaning to keep things moving freely, or would that cause problems?

On a side not, I replaced my crappy old battery and battery cables with an Optima Yellow Top and 4 gauge battery cables. Also cleaned up some ground points and add a few more with some extra wire I had around. Made a huge difference in throttle response and engine smoothness.

The ECU is still NA but I have a Perfect Power SMT6 to keep things under control with the turbo. Still need to have it all tuned properly once I work out a few more of the small bugs.

[McFrosty]

The best MPG I've gotten since that first trip is 23. I guess it was too good to be true, or maybe I just can't keep my foot under control any more. Woops

[greg donovan]

i love the intake to turbo plumbing.

is that something Doug made for you?

[douglas vincent]

Kelly did the fab work.

[NuclearBacon]

that hood is SICK!!!!!! so honestly... how hard was THAT?!?! i understand someone else did the fab work... but WOW. i WANT THAT HOOD!!

[McFrosty]

I just found the scoop on craigs list. There's tons of them out there. Check ebay too. Its from a late 90's Impreza I believe. The 2002+ WRX scoops are even better looking I think.

It was very easy. I would have done it myself but I've been working in Seattle and don't have any of my tools up here. I took it to a sunroof and uphosltry shop. They just used a body saw and cut the hood so the scoop would sit flush. Left a little bit of sheet metal to screw the scoop using the original hood scoop tabs.

The only problem was that since they had to cut out some of the bracing under the hood, it was really floopy with the new scoop on. Going over bumps and at high speeds you could see the hoop deflecting quite a bit. So I used some expanding foam around the mounting points, then trimmed it back after it was cured. Worked like a charm, no flexing now.