Turbo vs. N/A front crossmember issue

[evolutionmovement]

Not sure if this is the best category for this ...

I'm an f'n idiot! Forced to get the car off the blocks it's been on for a month awaiting the Japanese guy to swim and then run my STI motor mounts over from Japan for Racecomp Engineering (been waiting over a month) due to snow, I threw the car together well enough to move it ... Damn N/A exhaust won't go on! Yeah, the turbo x-member has the notch for exhaust clearance, but the wall below it extends further down to regain rigidity! I should have noticed this before I put it all in, but now I'm stuck. I can try to find a custom exhaust place to add the pre-uppipe turbo headers to the old Y-pipe or suitably modify the existing header for clearance (difficult to find anyone who will do this kind of thing around here), cut the freshly restored x-member to clear the short term N/A exhaust (uh ... no), or go fwd turbo (no way to do until spring). Grrr. Very mad at self - dumbass! No sex before bed for you! And finding reasonable steelies to mount snow tires for the Mazda is like trying to get a blow job at a lesbian rally. I was hoping to use the wagon for that work.

Any other suggestions on what I could do pretty easy and quick that doesn't involve maiming the crossmember?

I'll post pics later (and you can see the alloy control arms, too).

Steve

[LaureltheQueen]

haha, sucker.


Sorry, nothing constructive to say.

[Legacy777]

I've got my n/a crossmember.

You interested in it? It's just collecting dust now.

[vrg3]

Umm... This may be really really stupid, but... can the NA exhaust manifold be mounted backwards, aiming towards the front of the car? Cuz maybe that could allow you the clearance necessary to do the rest of the custom exhaust using that flexible exhaust tubing they sell at auto parts stores.

How much clearance do you need? No chance that you could just use a ball peen hammer on the exhaust to provide that clearance?

[evolutionmovement]

I have the N/A crossmember, thanks Josh. I just stripped and repainted the turbo one with several coats of epoxy paint, redid the rack, bushings, new tie rods, and put on the alloy control arms. Doing this over at this time of the year is out of the question, so I need an alternative, plus I don't want to swap the control arms and everything back and forth twice more as it's a PITA (the old control arms are very old and I don't want to deal with those bushings either).

Vikash - I'll get some pictures, but even without the motor mounts (engine resting on the x-member) I still need probably 2-3 inches. Instead of mounting it backwards, I could probably put on the turbo manifold, cut and block off the driver's side of the Y pipe and have a pipe made to go from the uppipe mount to the cat. Not sure how well it would fit with the angle of the uppipe mount, but I could also try to get the manifold cut on the pass side and a new pipe formed to go underneath the x-member wall. I'd lose a little ground clearance, but I'm not worried. I just would rather get it going since driving a car is better than having it sit around.

I really should've noticed this before, so I should suffer for it.

Steve

[vrg3]

Hmmmmm.... I guess pictures would help me visualize this better, but I guess you're right that using the turbo manifold makes more sense. You would basically have to make a custom piece to mimic the uppipe, turbine housing, and downpipe from a turbo model.

Hm.

Do you have an uppipe? A downpipe?

What about a turbo? Do you have a turbo? Even a blown one? You could unhook the wastegate actuator and wire the wastegate open... Probably even get away with not running oil or water to the turbo that way.

[evolutionmovement]

I have everything - the entire exhaust is sitting in my spare room (I had to maneuver it recently so I could close the door and not have the muffler sticking into the kitchen as my ex was coming over to clean). I have two turbos and manifolds. I was thinking of doing the turbo with the wastegate idea, but I'd have to put the whole intake in as I wouldn;t want to suck up debris with it. It's too damn cold here and I work 70-90 hrs a week anyway. I found a custom exhaust shop up the street I may try seeing what they think. The pictures I got aren;t very good. When I rolled the car into the corner of the driveway, it moved into a slight ditch and I couldn't roll it out to get better shots.

Fucking Mac! With no right mouse button how the hell do I link images? Imagestation sucks and seems to have no alternative provision to get the properties info. Douche bags.

Steve

[vrg3]

If you wire the wastegate open you could just cap off the inlet and outlet of the compressor using those rubber caps from the hardware store. The turbo shouldn't turn enough to surge, I don't think.

But if the exhaust shop's willing to just take care of it, that may well be the way to go.

[scuzzy]

If you wire the wastegate open you could just cap off the inlet and outlet of the compressor using those rubber caps from the hardware store. The turbo shouldn't turn enough to surge, I don't think.

But if the exhaust shop's willing to just take care of it, that may well be the way to go.

You will more than likely overspin the turbo that way and boom.

think of the pressure and volume of exhaust going through the housing of the turbocharger, unless there's significant resistance, it will just spin faster and faster and faster.

the problem I'm running into now is that I can't use my turbo manifold due to the output flange on the manifold running directly into the crossmember, I can't bend a piece sharp enough to clear it and go around.

So I'll either have to hack up the crossmember (bad) or hack up the output on the manifold (bad)

I may just look at getting a turbo crossmember..

[vrg3]

Maybe I wasn't clear -- I was suggesting he use baling wire to lock the wastegate flapper in the fully open position.

Very little exhaust gas would go through the turbine.

[scottzg]

I haven't looked at the bottom of a car in a long long time, so maybe this is worthless advice, but what about running some longer xmember bolts and using washers to lower the xmember the necessary amount? You'll lose some ground clearance.

[evolutionmovement]

If I could only post these damn pics!

The exhaust passes under the crossmember, so lowering it would only lower the whole drivetrain and destroy suspension geometry. The turbo exhaust goes above it and that's the problem I stupidly didn't realize before.

Steve