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Here we are again building on the turbo manifold for the TurdBird. I simply could not hold myself anymore. What is going on then? The truth is that I got the radiator after I finished the manifold. The realization that if any form of pipe to the top water outlet would fit, the back housing of the turbo needed to go. You might say that changing the angle of the turbo manifold would be easier, but I disagree. It will still be a tight fit but at least there is a chance of building it now.
What about the wastegate?
You are right, the back housing of the turbo does include the wastegate arm and lid. Now when all of this is removed we will have about 0 bar of boost and that’s no fun. What to do? I know, lets drill some holes in the newly built turbo manifold. I mean it has not even cooled down before I start cutting in it. An external wastegate seems like a good idea to fix our boost issue. The fact that I had one laying in garage just waiting to come to use had almost nothing to do with it.
Let the building begin
Time to take out the tools I just put away and start cutting, drilling and welding. Don’t be fooled, it is still a tight fit only not to the radiator but the power steering pump instead. First thing first, a short pipe and a flange needed to find its place on the turbo manifold. As you can see it might not be 100% optimal, since it is mounted at a 90 degree angle to the exhaust gas flow. But I’m confident that it will work just fine with a little boost control to it. There are way worse set ups that works just fine. And as I constantly remind myself, it is not a race car.
Then there was welding, after I was happy with the positioning of the wastegate, I fired up the tig-welder and made it permanent. The sad part is that I don’t own a hole-saw (yet) so I have to drill many small holes and port it to fit. There is nothing worse to port than steel, it takes forever compared to aluminium that feels like butter.
That’s about it, it was not harder and it looks damn good. (galley below)
PS. One more good reason for putting an external wastegate on it is so I can run a screamer pipe. Prepare for evil laughter here…..Mohaha sorry neighbors.
