I am swapping my old sr20 into my buddies coupe (‘build’ thread to come) and the turbo/manifold combo dont really work well together.
modifications need to happen
the PO (not me, i sold it then bought it back) had the motor tilted using washers in between the motor mount and cradle. I guess it ‘worked’ but the shifter was titled weird because of the motor and it was just a hacked way of doing it.
we were thinking of making a wedge shaped spacer in between the manifold and turbo, in essence standing the turbo straight up; moving it closer to the block and further away from the MC/booster.
last night newman suggested changing it over to manual brakes which would move the MC way back and probably solve all the problems.
this seems like a great idea except my buddy is real worried about it not working right and being too hard to brake as it will be his DD. He is wanting to get the wedge made or cut the manifold and have it re-welded at a flatter angle.
comments? suggestions? links?
pretty sure these pics are with it lifted up on 1-1/4 inches of washers. without any washers there is less than 1/4" between the compressor housing and MC. The down pipe also touches the booster with no washers.
do you have a picture of the turbo mani hes using? That might help, depending on what it looks like, id either cut and re weld the runners a little bit or get another mani if i could. You could also cut and reweld the mani to turbo flange to get a better angle… I would hate to just sandwhich a wedge in there because everything would still need to bolt up correctly
i’ll try to get better pics tomorrow. if anything it would get cut right before the flange on three sides and bent down and welded.
a new manifold was an option, but we figured they all would put the turbo in basically the same place for whatever reason (I think this is an ss autochrome, yes I know but we are working with what we have for now on a budget thats dwindling quickly). (edit: they might not be at the same angle, but it looks like it would be really close to the motor LINK) the cast log manifolds we have seen bring look like it would bring it too close to the motor also. (LINK)
I dont think the wedge would be too hard. half inch on the motor side 3/4ish on the brake side, tap holes on both sides and put in 8 studs. even so the MC might still be too close.
When I had this motor in my hatch it melted the master with the tubular manifold, so I put a shield in. see pics. that wasnt even half as close as it is now.