- Car
- 2003 FX45 AWD
WTF John?
Dammmm... I need to get my FX to NY soon..
Planing on April or May..
Dammmm... I need to get my FX to NY soon..
Planing on April or May..
On my mind (turbo's supercharger for sale)
- Thread starter fxlr8
- Start date
ok, so instead of my fx being in my shop & in pieces I've been driving her much of the winter, & we had a few snowfalls, a lot of freezing weather & a bunch of new giant potholes... winded up bending one of my rims, so now I finally decided that I better just start this swap, behind schedule already & I haven't even started yet :tears:
sooo, my Fx as I know it, is no more... old drivetrain out since friday night. the next time she has any chance of ever moving again under her own power will be with the HR motor & twin turbo's
right now she is dead, in pieces, her guts completely ripped out of her, engine, tranny, crossmembers, ecu & harness, along with the whole nose & front suspension... from the doors foward pretty much stripped to the frame. I took the drivetrain out the way the factory installs it, as an assembly & dropped out from the bottom as a whole. nose was removed for easy access & also access for building the whole turbo system & to avoid scratching anything, plus I want to now at least finally paint the engine compartment too. everything was done right there on the floor, just jacked up on stands, just as you see it in the pictures, with nothing more than basic hand tools & a cheapo $100 engine hoist . I haven't done something like this without a lift in a really long time but it really wasn't so bad on the fx, everything comes out pretty easy... it took me about the same amount of time to remove all this from the fx as it took to just install my stillen headers, which was about 7 hours at a casual pace.
sooo, my Fx as I know it, is no more... old drivetrain out since friday night. the next time she has any chance of ever moving again under her own power will be with the HR motor & twin turbo's
right now she is dead, in pieces, her guts completely ripped out of her, engine, tranny, crossmembers, ecu & harness, along with the whole nose & front suspension... from the doors foward pretty much stripped to the frame. I took the drivetrain out the way the factory installs it, as an assembly & dropped out from the bottom as a whole. nose was removed for easy access & also access for building the whole turbo system & to avoid scratching anything, plus I want to now at least finally paint the engine compartment too. everything was done right there on the floor, just jacked up on stands, just as you see it in the pictures, with nothing more than basic hand tools & a cheapo $100 engine hoist . I haven't done something like this without a lift in a really long time but it really wasn't so bad on the fx, everything comes out pretty easy... it took me about the same amount of time to remove all this from the fx as it took to just install my stillen headers, which was about 7 hours at a casual pace.
I did a lot of reading & learning about turbo selection & matching the right turbo to the job. I finally settiled on the turbo's for me. I'm using a pair of garrett water cooled ball bearing turbo's from there gt line, the GT2860RS, aka GT28RS. these turbo's are good for anywhere between 500 & 700 HP & are very fast spooling turbo's.
also in researching turbo's it's hard to ignore tials upgraded exhaust housings that they make for the garrett turbo's. tial makes an upgraded exhaust housing that is stainless steel instead of the stock ductile iron housing. the tial stainless steel housing is smaller outside with the same internal dimensions & are 33% lighter than stock. also, because the stainless steel housings are better at retaining heat they spool even faster, because of all these reasons & a bunch of others including the weight of the fx & the limitations of the drivetrain I choose .86A/R housings... up top these turbo's will just scream & def not choke, & they will be a little easier on the drivetrain than .62A/R housings & come on a little easier out of the hole. also, because there stainless, they stay looking like this instead of turning rusty brown. they also use v-band connections on the inlet & dump... sexy turbo's, should look sweet under the hood I think
also ordered tial's v-banded wastegates... should be a nice setup
also in researching turbo's it's hard to ignore tials upgraded exhaust housings that they make for the garrett turbo's. tial makes an upgraded exhaust housing that is stainless steel instead of the stock ductile iron housing. the tial stainless steel housing is smaller outside with the same internal dimensions & are 33% lighter than stock. also, because the stainless steel housings are better at retaining heat they spool even faster, because of all these reasons & a bunch of others including the weight of the fx & the limitations of the drivetrain I choose .86A/R housings... up top these turbo's will just scream & def not choke, & they will be a little easier on the drivetrain than .62A/R housings & come on a little easier out of the hole. also, because there stainless, they stay looking like this instead of turning rusty brown. they also use v-band connections on the inlet & dump... sexy turbo's, should look sweet under the hood I think
also ordered tial's v-banded wastegates... should be a nice setup
great work!!! I may have missed it, but where do you plan to route the exhaust manifolds? up towards the fender and behind the headlights?
edit: my dumbass missed page 4!
View attachment 163910
so excited to see the outcome of this build!
edit: my dumbass missed page 4!
View attachment 163910
so excited to see the outcome of this build!
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^curious as well... are you getting a set of cast manifolds or going to fabricate a set of tubular manifolds and weld on your own V-band flanges?
Edit: OUR dumb asses missed page 4 lol...
---------- Post added at 10:29 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:22 AM ----------
Hey John, for longevity's sake, please make proper use of heat shields on this beast. There is a whole lot to worry about up front in regards to the heat these turbos are going to produce.
It looks like you will have some extremely hot exhaust plumbing running dangerously close to belts. Wires you can always tuck away from the heat, but the belts are inevitably going to run very close.
Edit: OUR dumb asses missed page 4 lol...
---------- Post added at 10:29 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:22 AM ----------
Hey John, for longevity's sake, please make proper use of heat shields on this beast. There is a whole lot to worry about up front in regards to the heat these turbos are going to produce.
It looks like you will have some extremely hot exhaust plumbing running dangerously close to belts. Wires you can always tuck away from the heat, but the belts are inevitably going to run very close.
and get this http://www.swaintech.com/store.asp?pid=10969 had this when I had my WRX
it is ugly but it works, also it is paintable with ceramic paint if you don't like the white
it is ugly but it works, also it is paintable with ceramic paint if you don't like the white
Jeff, thanks, I think I will do the swaintech coating, def looks good.
as far as how long... I have a bad track record of predicting completion times on stuff that has a lot of obstacles & variables & unknowns... I'm the kind of person that everything has to be right for me to be able to move onto the next step, if I can't get past a point successfully & to the point that I'm really satisfied then it just becomes a brick wall to me, so with as many unknowns as I have to deal with here theres no way I can really say how long it will take, only REAL answer is, it'll take as long as it takes
I do have a restoration project scheduled to come into the shop beginning of next month, so the fx will have to be booted from the shop at that time... weather it's under it's own power or not is hard to really say at this point but not very likely at least... parts are being ordered as I need them so there can be some delays there & I'm sure there may be things that I need that I don't even know I need yet... I already got notice from injected performance today that the waste gates I ordered are on back order of 2-3 weeks from tial, so realistically it will probably not even be running by next month... I don't know when it will ever run again honestly :tears:
at least I will try my best to keep this project a big priority & won't just put it on the back burner for any length of time I hope... I'd like to say around 2 months till it's done, while inside I'm just hoping it don't wind up being 2 years :glasses: I've already got a few friends who know me that are saying that's it, the fx is down for the count & is going to wind up in a garage somewhere unfinished forever, I've done it before with lesser cars, but I don't think I can let that happen with something like the fx, I'm already missing the fx... I would like to say & believe that she'll be done & out on the road again by the beginning of the summer... my friends laugh & say oh yeah, which summer I guess we'll see... weather it's brass balls or just an incredibly stupid waste of a really nice car remains to be seen, but I have confidence
---------- Post added at 07:09 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:45 PM ----------
we just found a set of gates, so the chances of it moving out of the shop next month on it's own power has just went up a bit :tonguey: some of it will depend on stuff like how fast I can get the headers & down pipes coated too I guess... fingers crossed
as far as how long... I have a bad track record of predicting completion times on stuff that has a lot of obstacles & variables & unknowns... I'm the kind of person that everything has to be right for me to be able to move onto the next step, if I can't get past a point successfully & to the point that I'm really satisfied then it just becomes a brick wall to me, so with as many unknowns as I have to deal with here theres no way I can really say how long it will take, only REAL answer is, it'll take as long as it takes
I do have a restoration project scheduled to come into the shop beginning of next month, so the fx will have to be booted from the shop at that time... weather it's under it's own power or not is hard to really say at this point but not very likely at least... parts are being ordered as I need them so there can be some delays there & I'm sure there may be things that I need that I don't even know I need yet... I already got notice from injected performance today that the waste gates I ordered are on back order of 2-3 weeks from tial, so realistically it will probably not even be running by next month... I don't know when it will ever run again honestly :tears:
at least I will try my best to keep this project a big priority & won't just put it on the back burner for any length of time I hope... I'd like to say around 2 months till it's done, while inside I'm just hoping it don't wind up being 2 years :glasses: I've already got a few friends who know me that are saying that's it, the fx is down for the count & is going to wind up in a garage somewhere unfinished forever, I've done it before with lesser cars, but I don't think I can let that happen with something like the fx, I'm already missing the fx... I would like to say & believe that she'll be done & out on the road again by the beginning of the summer... my friends laugh & say oh yeah, which summer
I guess we'll see... weather it's brass balls or just an incredibly stupid waste of a really nice car remains to be seen, but I have confidence ---------- Post added at 07:09 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:45 PM ----------
we just found a set of gates, so the chances of it moving out of the shop next month on it's own power has just went up a bit :tonguey: some of it will depend on stuff like how fast I can get the headers & down pipes coated too I guess... fingers crossed
yeah man, gotta love those sandwich bags & chuck, no idea what to do with the de, hopefully I can find someone that wants it soon for a core or something, still runs ok but lifters tick & clack away... burns a little oil, it's def a tired motor but a good core I guess. no idea where to look for someone that wants it though... tranny is still good, might hang onto it for a bit, but I'm afraid that eventually everythings gonna just wind up going for scrap...
& chuck, no idea what to do with the de, hopefully I can find someone that wants it soon for a core or something, still runs ok but lifters tick & clack away... burns a little oil, it's def a tired motor but a good core I guess. no idea where to look for someone that wants it though... tranny is still good, might hang onto it for a bit, but I'm afraid that eventually everythings gonna just wind up going for scrap...
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yeah man, gotta love those sandwich bags
Heh heh, I use the sandwich bag method as well.
Let me know before it goes to the scrapyard. There are a few parts I'd like for some experimentation.
Turbocad6 - glad to see this thing tore down! For the engine, I think you should post it up on some 350z boosted section, and dump it as a 'to-build' engine. I'm sure there's a few people around the NY/NJ area that'd help you get rid of it.
Keep up the good work and keep posting the pics!
Glad to hear you're going all out on it!
---------- Post added at 06:19 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:17 PM ----------
ps: please keep an on going list of everything you're buying, in case some of us want to follow in your footsteps :D
Keep up the good work and keep posting the pics!
Glad to hear you're going all out on it!
---------- Post added at 06:19 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:17 PM ----------
ps: please keep an on going list of everything you're buying, in case some of us want to follow in your footsteps :D
