IHI VF34 Conversion Pics **Now with a TD05H-18G**

[HTC]

Okay, thought I'd post a few pics of day one of my turbo conversion. For the record my hands are killing me. Damn these cars with their fiddly turbos fitted in silly tight spaces.

Any ways, thought you might like to see proof of my spanner time.

The kit:

The working environment (looks sunny, but for the record its bloody cold and bloody cramped in there):

Old turbo removed (remember to remove the driveshaft, makes for a much easier job due to the added space):

Old vs New:

Manifold on:

And turbo:

Downpipe:

Oil and coolant lines connected (It took 30mins just to connect the oil feed I may have swore a couple of times) :

 

[HTC]

Most annoying part of the day had to be the cat. Basically I was going to use the cat from my milltek downpipe, but I messed up the cutting process. So now I have to fill this gap with something. I'm going to run a by-pass pipe for a few weeks until I can source a new cat. Always measure twice kids, it'll save you a couple of hundred quid :-(

I'll be back at it tomorrow to start on the TIP and other odds and sods. The TIP is going to be interesting, due to the close proximity of the gear change cables. Fingers crossed.

 

[pj1985]

Looks good. Fair play to you doing it in that garage. Looks like a nightmare space wise. Cant wait for day two.

 

[JAY DE]

Looking good mate.. i would love to do mine also but i have the a 4 wheel drive propshaft to contend with

Can't wait to see the custom TIP (haven't started mine yet)

 

[The MoffMeister]

nice one wish i had the know how on how to do it

 

[caveo]

im all for getting stuck in but im soooo glad jbs are fitting my ihi. Just a few q,s wot map you getting and any clutch and fmic plans , plus if you dont uprate the engine mounts there will be too much engine rock/movement and your mani will come loose , jbs wont give me a warrenty without vibratech mounts. keep up the good work m8 im lookin forward to more pics

 

[HTC]

Yes, not the best working space, but I'm made from tough stuff. Even colder today I might add :-(

a 4WD install would be much more interesting. Its tight enough as it is down there. I can see why some people go for top mount manifolds!

Caveo, I already have an uprated VR6 clutch and G60 lightened flywheel. Also have a boost factory side mount intercooler which should be able to cope with the conservative boost I'm planning. Hopefully should be a reliable daily driver.

With regards to the engine mounts, I'll see how I get on. I'm thinking about making a turbo brace of some sort as well.

Heres the pics from day 2.

Pretty productive day considering the freezing weather. Ordered a straight piece of 2.5" pipe, to fix my cat mess-up, which promptly arrived today.....thanks jetex for the good customer service.

Made a new inlet pipe. Chopped the bottom off an AGU silicone TIP and added an aluminium joining peice and larger 90° silicone bend. Had a small pipe welded into the joiner locally for the charcoal canister return connection.

Then made the boost pipe connection from the turbo to standard boost pipe. Pretty straight forward stuff.

Due to the revised mounting point of the lambda probe, I had to lengthen the wires. Also wrapped it in aluminiumised fabric to keep the heat away and ran it behind the exhaust heat sheild. Looks factory on the car.

Cut and fitted the cat-bypass. To reiterate, this is only temporary until I can source a new cat, but I need my car on the road.

 

[HTC]

Made up a new airbox lid. Its from an audi TT and uses a 3" MAF housing. Annoyingly you can't simply swap over the sensor as the AGU engine uses a 4 wire connector unlike the 5 wire later MAFs. Also the sensor itself is larger in diameter.
I cut out the housing and epoxyed part of the AGU sensor holder onto the housing making sure it was all centred correctly.
Further to this, the AGU has its ignition amp stage separate to the coils and mounted on the airbox lid for cooling. On later cars its incorporated into the coilpacks. This is the part that fail incidentally. I cut out the side of the box and fashioned a new mount, again out of epoxy, using the rubber gromet as a moulding peice. I'll fit this later with the injectors when its time for mapping. Turned out okay I think.

Almost done.

Only a few things to button up now. Still got to connect a few coolant pipes and bolt the gear cable holder to the box. I'm a bit concerned about that as its pressing on the bottom of the TIP. Hopefully it won't squash it and cause a restriction.
So far its looking fairly factory from the top, which was my aim. Trial fitted all the engine covers and they go on fine.
Only obvious sign of something different is the coolant feed pipe at the back of the engine bay. IMO the JBS pipe is a bit too long. I may get a new one made up, but thats just me.

Just got to fill it up with new fluids and start it up tomorrow, fingers crossed it will start okay and not leak anything.

 

[JAY DE]

Nice work mate

btw i think its a subframe off job on mine

 

[HTC]

Good point. Subframe removal would give enough space on 4WD.

I wouldn't worry about that though, the subframe is very straight forward to take out.

 

[caveo]

hope everything starts ok and post the results when run in and mapped.... have fun

 

[simch]

Its very tight getting the dp in there with the 4wd, they have to be very accurately made!!

 

[HTC]

On that note, I'm very impressed with the fit of this kit. JBS have done a good job with the fabrication, nothing hits on any heat shields or on the rack etc.

 

[DPJ]

Good stuff! I agree about it making your hands hurt.

 

[caveo]

thats good to hear m8

 

[caney]

excellent pics and write up mate,well doneenjoying reading your posts

 

[ibizacupra]

steve, you got any pics of your topmount setup ?

 

[caveo]

the side mount ic will struggle in the summer, but by the looks of it i bet you'd have no trouble fitting a fmic ( just wait till it gets warmer)

 

[HTC]

It runs!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8g3QbDQ7xVo

Started it up and then when for a long test drive. Although I can't put my foot down you can feel the different character of this turbo already. The boost comes in later and very smoothly in a linear fashion. The car runs more in vacuum for casual driving, which will help with fuel costs.

I did give it a little test tho even at 8psi on part throttle is much quicker. Its frustrating knowing the potential under your foot and not being able to use it just yet. I'm going to fit an old unmapped ecu I have today to limit boost.

Can't wait to get it mapped properly, but prior to that I need to sort a few things.
The gearbox cable support when bolted up does indeed press on the bottom of the TIP, so much so that is squashing the pipe. I need to get a different style of 90° bend which should sort that out. I did make a bracket to move the gear cables, but the gear change became tough, which I wasn't happy with.

Also I need to fit a cat, though at the moment the exhaust note is very nice with it removed. I also have a Jetex cat back system to fit, so I'll sort that out in one hit.

All in the swap when pretty smooth and I'm very please with the fit of the JBS kit.

Thanks for the comments all.

 

[HTC]

I'll keep an eye on the inlet temps. I got the uprated SMIC at a very good price, so thought, "why not" at the time.

Fully prepared to change if necessary.