On3 Performance Turbo Kit Install

ModularSpeed · Aug 7, 2011

After speaking with multiple people about the air filter I have chosen, I decided to make a screen for the turbo.

I chose 403 Stainless Steel Mesh, .013" wire. I think this will work well, and from what I hear....it is very durable and STRONG. Supposedly just bending it to fit the turbo inlet takes an hour or more....

Here is what I ordered.

McMaster-Carr

I will show how I make the "filter" once it arrives and I get to it.

cobraman302 · Aug 8, 2011

ModularSpeed said:
After speaking with multiple people about the air filter I have chosen, I decided to make a screen for the turbo.

I chose 403 Stainless Steel Mesh, .013" wire. I think this will work well, and from what I hear....it is very durable and STRONG. Supposedly just bending it to fit the turbo inlet takes an hour or more....

Here is what I ordered.

McMaster-Carr

I will show how I make the "filter" once it arrives and I get to it.

Do you honestly trust your turbo/engine with the mesh acting as a filter? Whats the reason behind using screen mesh rather than a small filter? Just curious.

99riocobra · Aug 8, 2011

ModularSpeed said:
After speaking with multiple people about the air filter I have chosen, I decided to make a screen for the turbo.

I chose 403 Stainless Steel Mesh, .013" wire. I think this will work well, and from what I hear....it is very durable and STRONG. Supposedly just bending it to fit the turbo inlet takes an hour or more....

Here is what I ordered.

McMaster-Carr

I will show how I make the "filter" once it arrives and I get to it.

Did the blue air filter in the pics come with the kit?

ModularSpeed · Aug 8, 2011

cobraman302 said:
Do you honestly trust your turbo/engine with the mesh acting as a filter? Whats the reason behind using screen mesh rather than a small filter? Just curious.

This mesh I ordered should do a great job. I do not fully trust it to prevent dust, dirt and possibly sand particles from getting in....however...I only drive my car 500 miles a year on the best days, on the best roads or track.

So yes, I fully trust that this filter will outlast the stock internals, as far as safety (or a blown engine/probs)

99riocobra said:
Did the blue air filter in the pics come with the kit?

No, it is a filter I picked up at Advance Auto Parts. I have seen WAY too many accounts of them coming apart. The metal cap inside is glued in, and if it comes off....bye bye turbo!

99riocobra · Aug 8, 2011

ModularSpeed said:
No, it is a filter I picked up at Advance Auto Parts. I have seen WAY too many accounts of them coming apart. The metal cap inside is glued in, and if it comes off....bye bye turbo!

For sure, I'm not suprised haha. I was just curious because I didn't think they even included a filter in the kit...

ModularSpeed · Aug 9, 2011

So I decided to mount the intercooler. IT IS AMAZING HOW WELL ALL OF THIS PIPING FITS.....I threw the piping on, and placed the intercooler into the "base" position using some bolts and wire....then connected all of the cold side.

Everything was perfect. I then placed a floor jack under the intercooler....positioned it where I wanted it, and marked the holes for the intercooler brackets.

Drilled the holes, and used the supplied brackets, and hardware to mount. I used some loctite on the bolts.

After mounting it, I was not 100% satisfied with the integrity, so I went ahead and retained the bolts I initially used to "hang" the IC.....as you can see, they keep the IC from tilting forward, which it wanted to do. With these bolts in place, the IC is ROCK SOLID....it wont even budge...

Next, I mounted the wastegates. I had ONE bolt on each waste gate give me issues. I truly do not think it was my doing, as I have done this quite a few times on other WGs without issue, but anyways....one bolt on each WG ended up stripped when removing them to put the 8LB springs in each WG. The main reason I don't think it was my error, is the bolt on each WG was super hard to turn from the get go.....and when removed, just the tips of the bolts had aluminum gunked on the threads.....so they stripped from the get go when removing. I remove them in sequence, and neither bolt was the first or last bolt I broke lose, or removed.

It leads me to believe that when they are made, and assembled....they semi-strip the last bolt they put in due to "rushing" This is just my opinion, I could be wrong. But I will say, I am a pretty good hand...and I rarely ever damaged threaded pieces.

Anyhow, I tapped the holes and ran the threads on the bolts. I found this no big deal at all, just want to give you guys a heads up.....just in case it may happen to you.

Something else I noticed.....the fire rings on each WG sat differently. One ring sat substantially higher out of the WG, than the other ring on the other WG. Hopefully this isn't an issue..

I cannot stress enough, how perfect this kit fits, and lines up. I truly think my wife could install the entire kit, minus the headers. It fits THAT GOOD!

I am a super picky person, and this kit is just simply excellent to this point.

If the performance of the kit is half as good as the install has been, this thing will fly. Time will tell, It almost seems impossible for everything to go right when I get it started/tuned.....due to how incredible the install has been

:salute:

stang8762 · Aug 9, 2011

Looking good man .. I have the old kit on my car and this newer forward facing header kit looks alot better as far as fitment . The old kit to this day still fits just ok .. Maybe i will have to save some money , get a upr kmember and run this kit ..

99riocobra · Aug 9, 2011

the latest pics aren't showing up for me :shrug:

99 BIG RED · Aug 9, 2011

99riocobra said:
the latest pics aren't showing up for me :shrug:

" Mr. Popular" LOL great build!

Upgrade your Photobucket!!

Evil_GT · Aug 9, 2011

Bad ass progress! Looks good.

rdsnk46 · Aug 9, 2011

Oh Kelly, your my hero!!!!!!!

Seriously, steak dinner bitch! Love the On3 kit! Cheap and looks decent!

ModularSpeed · Aug 10, 2011

Andy...I WILL get my steak.....someday.

WTF is this "Look who's popular" Bullshizz????? I am on photobucket trying to upgrade.....a shame they don't make it easier to upgrade....lol

ModularSpeed · Aug 10, 2011

So, if you are doing this build....and plan to post it....plan on adding $25 to your build.

I guess my pics are "too popular" with over 70,000 views in the last few weeks?

Anyhow, I upgraded my photobucket...so hopefully all the pics show up asap!

Stay Tuned!

99riocobra · Aug 10, 2011

^ Superstar.

I'll defintely check them out when I get home! Also, maybe i missed it, but what size turbo did you go with?

AntiHeightPunk · Aug 10, 2011

when is matt tuning this monster

ModularSpeed · Aug 11, 2011

So, I decided to "try" and make my filter/screen. I have $12.33 into it, and I am not all that happy with my result. The screen/mesh is VERY good....it seems to have hardly any restriction, is stainless, strong, and all around super nice. The issue is, it is too strong. I am not sure how many others have used this stuff, but it is hard to "shape"

The pictures are actually too good, when you are looking by eye, the sharply bent edges/corners are not as noticeable, as they are in these pics. Looks better in person.

I am considering making an inlet tube from PVC or ABS....similar to the one On3 offers. I will also be carrying my other air filter (shorty Spectre) in the car in case hurricane weather approaches, while I am out on a joyful cruise.

Here is the bracket I modded. I will clean this thing up later on down the road. I took about a 1/4" off of it.

ATTENTION: I RECOMMEND USING LONGER BOLTS THAN THE ONES SUPPLIED ON THE TURBO, FOR THE TURBO SUPPORT BRACKET.

I "snugged up" one of the bolts, much much much less than the bolts came.....and I heard a loud pop. Pulled the threads right out of it. I was very aggravated at first, then I just decided to check it out, and since the bolt that comes on the turbo is so short, it only pulled a few threads....and there were 4-5 more threads "behind" the pulled ones. I used a bolt that came with the kit, basically a silver longer version on the ones on the turbo. I then decided to replace the other one on the support bracket too, as I did not want any potential issue down the road. MORAL: I stripped some threads, and I do not want anyone else to....so use longer bolts on the turbo support bracket to turbo.

Here are the threads, and here is the bolt that did the damage. Notice how short the bolt is, it was not meant to have an additional bracket attached.
The instructions may have mentioned this, but I haven't looked at them once during this install....lol

New bolts in, and secure. On a side not, I recommend tightening all of the compressor (housing) bolts before mounting the turbo. It was a pita to get all of the bolts tightened on the housing.

Oil feed fittings and line installed.

Mocking the downpipe, almost there!!!!

I am on the fence about which way to go with the exhaust. I was originally going to run just 2 mufflers with turndowns.....then decided to "hack" off the Y-pipe section that comes on the kit...and ordered a 3" Dynomax Bullet. I was going to run the pipe from the bullet, to the axle and turn it down (dumped) I think this is the best overall route to take.

NOW, I am considering adding a few inches to the downpipe.....and just running "open" downpipe and routing it down below the front bumper.

I am very pickey about weight, and I also have WAY too much going on where the exhaust piping routes through the K-Member....I have battery power cables, grounds, all kinds of stuff.....and I would have to relocate it all, which....I have it there for a reason. lol

Thoughts and opinions welcome. I am not too worried about noise/db levels.

99riocobra · Aug 11, 2011

Looking good man!

My personal opinion would be to run the exhaust all the way back, more just cause i like the look of having it there. An open dp sounds amazing though when the turbo spools, unfortunately can sound like a dump truck when out of boost.

Also, have you maybe considered getting an elbow fitting for the oil supply line rather than the straight up and down one. Can't remember sizes, but whatever 90° PT to AN..just a thought

Turbo96 · Aug 11, 2011

99riocobra said:
Looking good man!

My personal opinion would be to run the exhaust all the way back, more just cause i like the look of having it there. An open dp sounds amazing though when the turbo spools, unfortunately can sound like a dump truck when out of boost.

Also, have you maybe considered getting an elbow fitting for the oil supply line rather than the straight up and down one. Can't remember sizes, but whatever 90° PT to AN..just a thought

i agree. i am running it all the way with tailpipes and an electric cutout. and i believe the line is 4AN. i bought the elbow for mine at napa.

ModularSpeed · Aug 12, 2011

Got the HPX MAF Flange welded on by Bruce @ BRC Enterprises. Also picked up some "Plasti-Dip" to paint it with:

Also received my "ALLSTAR Performance" Wheel Spacers. 1/2" thick. I was running some custom 7/8" Spacers, as pictured.....but I am swapping to 17" Billet Specialties instead of my 15x3.5.....and I was able to use less spacer. These spacers are AWESOME for the price. Got them through Summit for around $40.