Wee update for today. The car lives :0).
I was greeted to rain at 9am this morning, and it was relentless all day. I figured I wasn't made of sugar, so cracked on anyway.
The pictures are a bit few and far between due to the rain.
I drilled and tapped the oil sump, then fitted a hose barb and sealed with Araldite rapid steel. (picture was before fitting a jubilee clip, and cleaning up the area then applying Araldite)
After this, I drained the oil and ran some white spirit down the oil return. I did this to remove any aluminium shavings in the sump created by the drilling and tapping.
I heat wrapped the water lines and oil return at the turbo end. I don't have any pictures of this, but it basically involved cutting strips of heat wrap material and wrapping them round the hoses, secured with safety wire.
I then fitted the oil feed into the side of the block.
Next, I installed the cast manifold onto the head, then slotted the frame rail to allow the turbo and downpipe to fit. I installed all the fasteners and tightened up all the turbo hardware. This involved a huge amount of frustration and sweary words.
Turbo, manifold and downpipe all fitted:
Because I was deleting the mass air flow sensor (MAF), I needed to install a GM Intake air temperature sensor somewhere before the throttle body. So I drilled the aluminium T Piece for the BOV and ghetto'd it into place.
The wires from that sensor plug into the plug for the MAF. Once I did this, I taped it all up with electrical tape to make it weather proof.
It was time to make a start on the intercooler piping. I used a tool I had made to flare the ends of the intercooler pipe work. This should prevent the hoses popping off under pressure.
This is where the pictures stop unfortunately.
I cut the pipe work I had to fit and connected up from the intercooler to the throttle body.
The turbo side wasn't quite so easy because I chose to clock the turbo downwards. Nevertheless, it's all fitted now with the exception of a wee problem with the idle air control valve pipe. I have a self sealing silicon take off,
like this one, but the 90 degree silicon bend is simply too close to it to allow me to run a hose from one to another. I'll need to figure that one out.
I've got to tighten all the clamps tomorrow, but aside from that I'm pretty much done. Next job: clutch!