I just realized I'm using "pipe" as opposed to tubing for the 180° bend. Although relatively heavy, it's only two pieces and since their melting point range is from 2550 to 2650F and exhaust temps at the turbine approach 950C (1742F), I should be good to go...I hope this doesn't bite me in the long run!

 

This just in from hackish:

"nothing wrong with it. I've made a few sched 10 downpipes when I couldn't get a tight enough radius mandrel bend."

 

Off to Tig Weld this afternoon:

 

...

 

Back from tig weld...




...wrapped and installed:

 

Very nice Gary!! Let us know how it feels now. That thing should provide some awesome flow.

 

Looks great Gary...those AFR's should look better now

 

Yup, AFR's are good to go. DP Is a bit high and vibrates against the oil pan above when in gear and idling, but its intermittent and going to let it settle before addressing it. Take it out of gear, and its fine.

The sound volume has increased, lol! That, or I just haven't been in it in a while. I need to tune it still, hanging up at high RPMs, 6000+. Because of that, I decided to check the freedom of my actuator arm
and made some adjustments...ooops....i saw 15 psi flash on my boost gauge...something is hanging up (it wasnt hanging up prior to me messing with it). Thank God for boost cut! My car sounded like a dragster out on the strip and scared my 11 year old, "POP, BAP BAP BAP BAP BAP, "DAD, STOP!" After feeling the initial pull he also said, "Take it easy Dad, for I'm not use to it anymore!"

I decided to go home and put it in the garage UFN, and take my in-laws Honda Pilot with AC...this heat needs to stop!

 

Oh, on initial start up, my AFRs were still lean and I could smell exhaust fill up the garage. Found a strong stream of air pouring from between the rear flanges and Vibrant gasket...wth? Didnt look misaligned, and cleaned both surfaces prior. So, bought another gasket, slapped it in there with the other and, voila!

Btw, the DP ended up being about 1.5" short of being "perfect" but it was easily drawn together with the stainless hardware I used. This could be contributing to the DP hitting the oil pan.

 

One more thing...this DP runs RIGHT next (parallel) to my LICP...its going to cook!

 

Wrap them both

 

In reassembling everything yesterday, I had extra vacuum tubing coming from the MBC to the WG actuator diaphragm, so I cut and shortened it. This forced me to reroute it so I did, being careful to avoid hotspots. Well, tonight, while trying to dial in this boost dilemma, I found the same tubing hanging below the engine with what looked like melted cheese coming inside of it...wth?!!! Turned out to be a white plastic connector I used to splice two pieces. Guess I didn't avoid a hot spot! Put the car back in the garage and took a shower...pfft!

 

Ok, maybe not the oil pan, but I see now that the "S" pipe is hitting the subframe. That's perfect though for I've been waiting for the motivation to replace that piece with SS, and here it is. It was fabbed with cheap muffler pipe from a local shop back in 2013, when I finished this thing, and the bends narrowed the 2.5" OD and needs to be opened up.

 

Had a weird event surface the other day...

Upon arriving over at my bro-in-laws house, the car started sputtering and losing power, AFR's fit super rich, 10.0 and below...almost stalled as I pulled alongside the curb. I shut it down and it ran fine after restarting. So, I took it for a drive to replicate the condition when it started with the same symptoms. It eventually threw a P0335 code, crankshaft position sensor (this was a first) and I barely made it home.

I went round and round with it at first, chasing boost leaks, etc., before it threw a code, but after it did, unplugging the external sensor connector, and resetting the ECU (unplugging the battery cable), it's been running fine since. Hope it doesn't surface the next time I'm on the track (July 28, in Connecticut)!

 

Gentlemen, this was WELL worth the five hour drive:

Unfortunately, the last intermediate session didn't record, and was the fastest, most aggressive (20) minutes I've ever pushed this car. I had an absolute blast! I had guys coming up and asking, "Okay, how'd you get this thing imported?" or, "What is this thing?"

Also, with the increased temps we've been having, I was maxing out the temperature gauge!