JAndersson

Nice build. Very interesting to follow. Thanks for taking your time and document your progress. Looking forward for the finished result. And good luck with the remaining work.

3UZFTE

Mock-up, waiting on my 2.5" couplers.
Face time...

Greddy blow off valve.

MAF/TB feed.


I was pretty decently surprised with how well these existing pipes and bends worked for me. I only need about 4" of extra 2.5" pipe, however I think I can make 2-3/8" piping that is lying around work, we'll see. I think I'll be able to use about 80% of the downpipe as well.

Asia-H.T.

iTrader: (9)

Wow! it's coming all together now Huge respect for your input man

3UZFTE

Thank you, I've been meaning to ask you, have you replaced your driver door, it looks slightly different.

Thank you, and thanks for taking the time to read it.

Thank you, I've been following your thread, nice build you got going on as well.

vinnie420

iTrader: (1)

It's looking great!

3UZFTE

Update.
So I figured since I am still waiting for parts to come, I would start on my merge pipe. Well here was my trick, no trick really, but basically it's painter sticks to keep a basic shape/flat edge, a hammer, and a wood 6x6 to use like an anvil, but won't deform the work. The end result turns round pipe into squared/rectangular pipe. Basically, figure out the shape you want, insert as many sticks as you can, and smash it down until you reach your desired shape.


I was kinda struggling for ideas to plumb both 2" pipes into a single T3 flange, and still leave room for a waste gate to be plumbed to both sides equally. Here is what I came up with in order to keep welding to a minimum, as well as make sure both sides are joined to equalize pressure. The hole in the bottom is where the waste gate will tie into.


Here it is from the bottom side, basically where the WG will be fed from. I know my welding sucks, but this appeared to me to be one of the more simple designs, as well as staying away from needing any special tools that I didn't have. Anyways, as you know, my welding sucks, it's a learning process, it really is harder than it looks. Flat to flat, sure, tube to tube, easy, try doing some funky stuff with some crazy gaps, it comes up funked...


Finished welding the merge pipe up, but since I didn't have any flange material, I couldn't weld it to the flange and call it complete. Anyways, I am pretty happy with the result this all started from round tube, a hammer, die grinder, wizzy wheel, chop saw, and tig welder, I wish I had all the correct tools, but nothing wrong with backyard, shade tree, turkey neck, street squirrel mechanic skills/tools that I got, I wouldn't do this on a customer's car, but I don't really weld for customers. that's besides the point, here is the merge pipe up against a T3 gasket and you can see it's pretty decent for kinda roughing the thing, but should allow me to bolt up to the turbo and flow pretty decent without much restriction.
The view from the turbo of the feeds from the manifolds.


The reverse view, the view from the manifold to the turbo, a little over lapping, but very little.


And finally finished up mocking up the "home run" from the driver's side, which I would guess is close to 48", as well as the short little 20" journey from the passenger's manifold. The missing link was the merge pipe, without knowing how I was going to plan the merge and wastegate piping, it was impossible for me to know how sharp to make the bends, etc, etc. I would say that I am about 85% complete with the "hot side" of the turbo. I am missing a T3 flange, wastegate plumbing, downpipe, and v-band connectors, then I need to weld everything up, which is mostly complete other than the pictures above.


I hope you all have enjoyed the thread so far, thank you all for your kind words, I really do appreciate them and the time that you guys share with me just reading, posting, and giving me your comments, I'm glad to do my part. Again, thanks for coming, see you soon.

3UZFTE

I don't really have much to do today as I'm waiting on the v-bands to arrive before I go ahead and burn all the welds in. I also bought some high temp paint in order to make the piping last a bit longer, I'm going flat black on hotside and aluminum on cold side. I was going to start with the wastegate plumbing, but when I went install my el-cheapo/eBay wastegate, it was definitely a little too big. Unfortunately, this is what I get for not having patients when doing the build early on. I started out with the intent to use cheap cheap parts, but even before the car is running, I found out that my oversized WG isn't going to fit. Keep in mind I still need to run my merge pipe, wastegate, power steering, downpipe, and MAF/cold side all within about a square foot.


I ended up buying a used Tial 38mm which is about half the size, but the flanges are the same. You get what you pay for, and unfortunately I just didn't have/want to jamb everything in. As they say, 1st time stupid.

Asia-H.T.

iTrader: (9)

And there ain't much room already under the hood of an LS. You're going to place your PS reservoir somewhere else than on the pump?

3UZFTE

That's a true statement. If you scroll back to post #177 on page 12, you will see that I pretty much accounted for this for the start and used a power steering feed from a 90's 3S motor (I believe), and since I couldn't just use the one bolt, I ended up welding it to a bracket I had my friend bend for me from some scrap. There were tons of ways to do it, but leaving the resv on it the pump wasn't one of them. If I had to do it over again, I would just buy an SC400 power steering pump which has that style of outlet with a remote resv, unlike the resv on top of the pump like ours. Instead I just fabbed this up real quick, and that way I could sent the hose where I wanted to, mostly where there will be space. I will be using an SC400 PS reservoir with a power steering cooler on the return line. There will be more to come on that once I have most of the main piping done.

Update.
Cold side... mostly complete need 2.5" couplers and 2.5" into 3" MAF feed, 3" pipe between MAF and TB, and (2) 3" silicone couplers. The reason why the outlet pipe is black is because I ran out of silver, no one should see it anyways. I also hope you don't mind my art work, and since I figured it won't be seen, why not, who knew Lexus made intercoolers.


My next task is to figure out how to feed this sucker.


That's it for today, I should have my Tial wastegate Thursday, v-band clamps tomorrow, plus I still need to finish up the MAF/TB feed, and make a T3 flange.

Asia-H.T.

iTrader: (9)

Looks very good all painted Next you could polish the turbo

3UZFTE

Thank you. I think your on to something about getting the turbo polished up. I will definitely spend the extra pennies and get it ceramic coated and polished once I shell out the money for a name brand turbo. I would hate to put that time and effort into it only to see it blow chunks. I was joking around with someone, but I was serious, it cost me more money to buy an eBay turbo than it cost for a used 1uz motor.

Update.
I had a little extra time when I got home from work, and so I decided to get after it. I spent most of the time trying to come up with a way to feed the MAF sensor with a silcone hose, and he only way I could do that is make an adaptor. I had 1/4" stainless lying around, as well as 3" stainless tube. I had my friend use his bandsaw at his shop to cut it out, then I proceeded to drill and cut my way through the middle. Next I cut 2" of the 3" pipe in order to give me enough room to allow a silicone coupler to fit on. Next I found bracket material, and cut (2) 2" strips to help hold the adaptor to the MAF.


Assembled.


As you can see, there's not much restriction. Of course the 3" pipe was a tiny bit to small so the edges are overlapping a bit but shouldn't effect the flow really. Backwards looking forwards.


Forwards looking backwards, this is where the MAF will be fed from.


In the vehicle, about where it will be placed but will depend on the surrounding piping.


Now for my next trick, to go from an 80mm or 3.5" outlet...


To a 75mm inlet, with a 90* bend in the middle.

And finally, my v-bands showed up, so now I'm burning in all the welds. Drivers mani 75% complete.


That is all for now, come back soon and see what else I come up with. Tial should be in tomorrow.

Asia-H.T.

iTrader: (9)

Nah, keeping mine stock But I do have some polished valve covers.

Cool, my dad made something similar for his Mitsubishi years ago.

You're probably even better of buying the complete car then

3UZFTE

Update.
The Tial WG showed up, here is the comparison. Not drastic but every inch counts, plus the quality of Tial is pretty good.




I spent most of my time piddling with angles (math is not my strongest subject). Anyhow, I need a few more hours and I should have everything linked up. Since I suck at math, and my whole system is built from angles, it's a bit difficult to get these last few angles to be perfect so I don't weld the pipes without being supported otherwise it might flex when it gets hot and crack. Anyways here it goes.




I'm kinda mad I did a ****ty job welding the merge pipe. Anyways, I'm doing this from my iPhone on my way to the fair, I hope you enjoy.

e57820

WOW!, you are making really fast progress. It looks like it is all coming together. Is your merge constructed from pipe you got at an exhaust shop? If it is then it is most likely galvanized or aluminized. If so, make sure you get all that nasty coating out of the weld zone of the pipe before you weld it; I recommend using a sanding disc. Not only is it super toxic when it burns but it also contaminates the weld and messes it all up. That is why I try to always use stainless, I hate that coated stuff. I think you made a good decision going with the tial, sure the other one would have probably worked but with the tial you know you are getting a quality part. Also the smaller overall size does help. It is good to see that you now have your shielding set up correctly; you can really see the difference now in your welds. Keep up the good work!

3UZFTE

Update.
Had the day off, it was a little cold, but managed to do a few things.
Wastegate mock up.


It's been along time coming.


Just mocking up a general shape, but this is e57820's downpipe that he sent me. It's a little large as my turbo is a 2.5", and he has a 3" outlet.


Here's the overall mock up, a little dark but it'll do.


Sorry it's quick, I'm on my iPhone walking in downtown, walking to dinner, and my girlfriends going to kill me.