So, I picked up a couple of parts. I really shouldn't have...

Gredd/Titek/Synergy O2 Sensor Housing



Evo IX Turbo:


I'd been watching the O2 housing on eBay for a while. Seller finally put it on sale and I picked it up.

Then a local guy offered me an IX turbo for a steal. I had no business buying it, but I couldn't pass it up. I'll send in the manifold, turbine housing, and O2 sensor housing for porting and coating.

 

And the mod bug has bit haha.

 

That's never been the problem. It's the wormhole in my bank account. I swear I put money in there, but my balance is always at zero....

 

Found this after investigating a noise:


The water pump bolt that doubles and holds the alternator bracket. Good times. Thank God I was able to get it out. It was flush with the block. Replaced the hardware and the gasket. Re-timed the motor. The bot had been making contact with the water pump pulley, too.

One thing I noticed with my new bolts - I ordered a new bolt kit from STM... which was incorrect by the way - is that this bolt seems a hair long for the job. Maybe I have an aftermarket water pump, but it seems like it starts to bottom out before it's tight on the water pump. I put a washer between the bolt and the alternator bracket.

So, that's fixed and I'm not losing a quart of water every day or two.

Hot parts are on the way back from porting. I sent them off to Curt Brown. They'll be shipping off to Swain for White Lightning. I think I'm actually going to keep the VIII turbo on the car and see what a difference everything makes before putting the IX turbo on.

Updates when I have them. Merry Christmas, all!

 

My Christmas presents came back from Curt Brown's workshop the other day.






O2 Housing didn't need much, but you can tell he did some gasket matching.


You can see how well it all lines up inside


Really happy with how it all turned out. Gotta recover from Christmas and get these off to Swain for coating.

My wife is buying me a pair of tires for Christmas. Stupid alignment. I also had to buy an alternator. My Battery and Brake lights had been flashing on occasion the past few weeks. They came on solid on the way home from work on Tuesday. I'm not going to chance driving it around.

 

Turns out my alternator isn't bad. It's a Christmas Miracle! The backing nut had come away from the alt. Pulled the nut and cable off and tightened the backing nut. All is well.

Buying tires on Monday!

 

Just went through all 46 pages...gotta give you props for sticking with the car through all the issues.

Nice work on the evo so far keep us updated!

 

Thanks man! Waiting on money I have one piece at Swain being coated. Sending the other 2 ASAP.

Trying to put aside some cash for some suspension, too. Working a second job, but my full-time isn't paying well right now. Business has been slow.

 

Busy weekend! IX turbo went on. I just swapped the CHRA and compressor cover. Ported parts are still at Swain being coated.

I was uncertain of the stock WGA that came with the turbo. I wanted to swap my 14psi TurboSmart actuator on, but it's setup for a VIII. I contacted TurboSmart and they told me that the actuator is the same, but the bracket is different. But, they won't sell me just a bracket. So, instead of spending $200 on another, I did some hacking.

Of course, it didn't fit perfectly. It was putting the actuator rod at an angle and I worried about it binding. I ended up spacing it away from the compressor housing a bit.

I also was getting boost creep. I never had any with the stock turbo. I spent too much time goofing around with preload. I actually have it set to where it almost slips on. It hits just a hair over 14 and then creeps to 18. Well, I'm never going to run 18psi, so I started playing with WGDC. I was worried that it'd end up overboosting. Adjusting WGDC didn't increase the amount of creep, so I've started tuning 3rd gear. I'll keep you guys posted once I have some results. hoping for 340ish in some decent weather.

Making the first cut:


Used a template to get the position relative to the large hole:


On!:


I actually ended up spacing between the WGA and the bracket AND between the housing and the bracket. I also had to grind down the turnbuckle and remove the nut. Now I have some adjustability:


Comparo:

 

Great job on the rebuild, just read the entire thread

 

The 9 turbo looks massive compared to the 8 in that picture

 

So, Turbosmart UsA won't sell me the bracket, but Turbosmart AU will. I'm thinking the angle of my bracket is causing the creep somehow.

Thanks for the comments. Currently tuning 25psi tapering to 21/22.

 

Yeah, a little forced perspective, but it IS quite a bit larger. Excited to take advantage of it.

 

I'm making some progress tuning, but the weather warmed up quite a bit today. Making it hard to be consistent. Still, I'm making more power than i was with 10.6 AFRs. Trying to lean it out a bit, but it's going to be cold again this weekend. 75 out right now. I have a feeling I'm going to need a larger FMIC next if I'm going to try to run this thing up to 30psi.

 

man just read the entire thread today, very inspirational! waiting for those results with the IX turbo!