hey guys, As some of you may know my gear box is starting to see the light, and I'm looking at doing a manual conversion and a high comp TT conversion. my question is, how difficult would it be to remove the na extractors and fit turbo manifolds with the engine in (gear box out). along with egr delete and fitting hoses and what not needed for a TT. and how do i go about setting up the motor, would it be a simple as fitting a stock TT ecu?, nistune? or will i be able to get the correct afr from tuned stock ecu? Ben
Take the engine out, even sitting on a stand installing turbos can be a PITA. You could try installing the manifolds and turbos together but then clearance to the strut/rail would be an issue. You'll need Nistune and a tune for your build, mine hunted really badly with a standard TT ECU although I did have a few other things mcguyver'd together (double injector size and Selin set to average, just to get it on the trailer). Make sure you set up an engine oil cooler once you add turbos.
dam not really what i wanted to hear did you do your conversion motor out? what did you have to swap over, sump, filter tree?
Yeah, bolted everything together out of the car. If you have the equipment the way to do it with the least stuffing around is install the engine with turbos, then install dumps, then install gearbox. You can put it all in together but there's a degree of finesse required, without dumps the engine basically just falls into place (I can do it by myself no problems). The main problem with the dumps is drivers side has to go around the steering column, that's not an issue if you're running stockies though. Would your work let you borrow the shop on the weekend at all? I had the benefit of a hoist and transmission lift, so much better than rolling around in the dirt like I usually do I swapped sumps, flywheel/clutch and manifolds/turbos. If you're going aftermarket full-flow oil cooler stick with the NA filter tree. The sump you can either tap return ports into your NA sump or you can get a TT sump which will require a bung in the oil cooler return port, either way this is another reason to pull the engine so you can get the sump off. You'll need to do something with the hardline that holds the factory oil pressure sender too so that you can run the oil feed on the passengers side, you can ditch it and put the sender on the filter tree (or in the bin) then run a full length braided feed line (as is supplied with american kits), you can tap it and run a short line/stock hard line or you can get the hard line off a TT and run a short braided line or stock hard line from there. Edit: You could also get a double banjo bolt to run the NA line and an American braided line in parallel although I'm not sure if they're likely to leak more. You've reminded me of a bunch of things I'd originally intended to put in that build thread I started, feel free to keep asking questions as I have a fair bit of info lying around on how I did it all.
Always the little things that cost the most, and not having access to polished concrete shed floor will make the job even harder then it already is... might just do a manual conversion. See how things are financially in a few months. Thanks tom
Bummer I was on rough concrete and the engine crane had a broken castor wheel so it wasn't all luxury . Because of things like cleaning the gasket surface for the manifolds and fiddling to get the turbo's attached I don't think it would be comfortable to get the whole thing done in a weekend like I'm assuming you want to. I'm not certain it's impossible to swap the manifolds over on the car but I am 100% certain that it would suck to try. If you're doing it at home you'll probably prefer to get a couple of helpers and pull/install the engine and gearbox together, just make sure you tape the steering column to the chassis rail when you're putting it in or it gets stuck under the dump pipe. What turbo set up were you planning to get?
Soooooooo much easier to pull the engine. Sounds like a big thing, but it isn't compared to changing turbos insitu. And lets you fix all those little hoses and gaskets without ruining your knuckles forever. I still have a grease tattoo on one of mine from about 6 years ago....
