The Project Pad

So, ive welded in the outlet from the passenger side manifold and tacked up the run to the turbo flange from there. Its only tacked for now as I need to get it in the car to make sure it clears, but ive looked at as many photos as I can find of around there and it should be ok, its the rear inlet thats going to be tricky to miss the engine mount, will be pretty tight round there.








Regarding the sharp edges inside as discussed earlier, I cut the hole out where the join is with a 2" hole saw and then smoothed out the inside edges, its really no sharper than a standard 20vt cast manifold to be honest so not too worried about it.

So next job is to get everything back up to the barn where my car is and see how it all fits together. I think clearance above the gearbox will be tight to due to the steering rack and arms, but should be okay provided I can get the plumbing routed high enough, but still need to keep some space for the downpipe which will be 3.5".


Next update wont be for a while as i'm working and wont have chance to move the engine up there for a few weeks.

Plenty to do in the meantime though, got a quicker ratio steering rack to go in, and might give the front subframe a clean up and some paint.

Some kind of heat shield for you mount might be in order. Do you have room for that?

Yeah plenty of room for a heat shield, they're solid mounts anyway.

Quick update, not done a great deal to be honest, not had the motivation as home and family life has been all over the place recently.

The turbo wouldn't have fitted in the location I chose, so glad I only made the jig thingy as a mock up and was only tack welded. I built the car up enough to get it rolling again and it's now on my driveway mocking me so I've not got the excuse of it being miles away to work on....

So new location for turbo, had to remove some items to get it to fit, expansion tank, washer fluid tank and power steering reservoir, but all can be relocated, and power steering is going in the boot anyway.

Made another jig so it cN be mocked up and tack welded then finished off with the engine out again. Turbo actually fits now, and will probably explore the idea of cutting through the inner wing for the intake at a later date. Really like the idea of using the wing space as a sort of airbox with some louvers / vents like the vw t4 vans feeding it.


Started the route from the drivers side manifold over to the turbo, it needs to be removable soo will be split with a few vbands. Going back and over the gearbox clearing the steering arms and will duck under and meet the flange. Passenger side will be pretty easy to join up as its quite a short run into the turbo from there. Really not sure on where the gate will be going yet, wherever it fits is the only answer really. And I can see me having to do some clearancing or cutting of the bulkhead to get a downpipe in there.

Will need a heat shield for brake master cylinder too, and will be wrapping the exhaust and shielding as and where.

Here's some pics for your amusement.

what gauge tube is that running into the turbo flange? looks a bit thin....