How long did it take for everyone to do their turbo conversion?? Like just in one hit, having all the parts there ready to go..? Conversions consisting of standard exuast mani., t3 turbo, gktech cooler,na plenum and standard dump an ecu. And vlt injectors??

mine took 15-20 hours, thats with me doing everything in my garage with not all the proper tools.

What's the hardest part of it u reckon??

ahh for me it was doing up the oil + water banjo bolts once the turbo was actually on, i was lucky i didnt break any studs or anything when taking of the exhaust manifold. Also the oil drain plug was pretty bloody hard to undo, i had to get a long breaker bar and stand IN the engine bay with my weight on the bar to break the **** that had been done up tightly for over 20years.

Hahaha. Im thinkin the injectors will be the hardest. Cause I cbf taking off the plenum. But it needs to be done. Haha. Cheers mate. Are you running a gktech cooler?

The hardest thing will be wading through the retarded responses when you post the thread saying "VLT converted: won't start " Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

The injectors arent even hard hey mate, i thought they were going to be heaps hard, me and a mate tried for hours to get the whole rail + injectors out without taking off the top half of the plenum, in the end we couldnt do it so i just took of the top of the plenum and it was easy, i couldnt believe how easy it was to do the injectors with the plenum off, and the plenum wasnt even anywhere near as hard as it looks Quote: Originally Posted by 5spdvl The hardest thing will be wading through the retarded responses when you post the thread saying "VLT converted: won't start " Whats with the negativity? Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

why would i start that thread? u calling me stupid?

Quote: Originally Posted by wandin54 why would i start that thread? u calling me stupid? Well, a proper conversion has the head gasket changed - are you doing that?

^^ not again Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

Quote: Originally Posted by 5spdvl Well, a proper conversion has the head gasket changed - are you doing that? Does it really? Could have fooled me and the countless others who run high comp setups, wouldn't have it any other way As for the conversion the hardest part in my opinion is the oil and water lines; fiddly little buggers (depends if you have a hoist or not). Also if you snap exhaust manifold studs when you're taking your old manifold off you could be in a world of pain. One of the ones I snapped was an absolute prick to get out. Make sure you keep spraying them with WD40 daily for at least a few days beforehand and then give them a massive spray and soak overnight the day before you attempt remove them. Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

26-09-07 till tomorrow (it's getting tuned). So 10 months all up, but 9 of those months I didnt have a licence, so I took my time.

i was wonderin the same thing acctually going to convert next weekend or the next wish me luck with the studs althou they look kinda newish

no im not changing my headgasket. and im sure it will start if i leave it in too. im not tryin to pull 9's. we clear on that? i just want a turbo cause im over my na after a month of driving it. and all i asked was how long and wat was the hardest bit about it cause im doing it myself and i want everyones opinion on how they did things. jus so i could avoid problems when i got to them. the only problem so far is you. any ideas anyone? yeah im sure i will be spraying mine lots cause they look very old haha oh well.

Hardest part is bolting the turbo manifold on the head.

Quote: Originally Posted by CJW Does it really? Could have fooled me and the countless others who run high comp setups, wouldn't have it any other way As for the conversion the hardest part in my opinion is the oil and water lines; fiddly little buggers (depends if you have a hoist or not). Also if you snap exhaust manifold studs when you're taking your old manifold off you could be in a world of pain. One of the ones I snapped was an absolute prick to get out. Make sure you keep spraying them with WD40 daily for at least a few days beforehand and then give them a massive spray and soak overnight the day before you attempt remove them. Quote: Originally Posted by wandin54 no im not changing my headgasket. and im sure it will start if i leave it in too. Umm.............neither of you read what I wrote, did you? CJW - I'm not referring to changing the head gasket in favour of a decomp plate or anything that's changing the compression ratio, I'm talking about changing the head gasket because you're running boost through a potentially 22 year old motor/gasket. I said nothing about high comp set ups not working, but I would strongly urge that a fresh head gasket be put it. wandin54 - You seem to think that I want you to remove the head gasket....or something. I'm just suggesting that it would be wise to put a fresh one in - to do so means removing the head, and resetting the timing. I was referring to you messing up the timing after replacing the head. Yes, I made a bit of a jerk comment regarding your technical ability, and I take it back - but I still recommend a fresh head gasket, regardless of boost and what you're trying to acheive. ANYWAY, I believe you'll have the most trouble getting the turbo onto the manifold and the banjo bolts on. Just put the four nuts onto the exhaust manifold so you don't strain your hand/arm holding the turbo for ages, and leave them loose so the turbo can move around while you line up the banjo bolts. My turbo conversion pretty much started when I bought my RB30ET exhaust manifold drunk one night at my parent's place on Ebay like two years ago.....and we're still going. Quote: Originally Posted by rusty577 ^^ not again I know, I should just not say anything at all. *waits for someone who doesn't like me to agree "wholeheartedly"* Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

Yeah ok, granted maybe some misinterpretation on my part but a lot of people when talking turbo conversions equate 'changing the head gasket' with lowering the compression ratio. I'm not sure that many would simply freshen the gasket up unless they were building a new motor. I'm not saying it's necessarily a bad idea but most turbo conversions are budget orientated and hence it may be an unnecessary step. Sure it's luck of the draw but mines run up to 16psi, I assume a 21 year of gasket, been running 1+ years. Runs 11psi daily spec. After all as they say "it's all in the tune" :P RE install: When I put mine together I actually put the manifold+dump, turbo and lines all in as one assembly. So lines were already bolted to turbo, turbo bolted to manifold, dump bolted to turbo etc. Imo this is the easiest way, you just have to be a little careful you don't bend the lines when you drop it in place. If you don't do it this way you'll have a prick of a time trying to tighten everything up. I'm not sure you could even get to the oil feed line.

I understand the budget spec, and yes, I am skewed a bit because I do all the labour myself. Unless you know what you're doing, changing a head gasket can be a nightmare.

Took me about 3 days in the garage (in over 38 degree weather ). Would have been quicker but I had some set backs that wasted a fair bit of time. Oil feed hose cracked (luckly I noticed before fitting it) so I had to have a braided hose made up, Water return leaked, compressor covers on wrong angle and odd hoses, gaskets and clamps I hadn't thought of. Not really a big job to do (for a mechanic anyway ), just can be frustrating. If I was to do it again then I would choose some cooler days to have off work and get all braided oil and water lines made up. I didn't change my head gasket and have been running 12psi on the high comp bottom end for a while now. Cars done 145,000 kms but I don't know if it has had the head gasket done before. Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

5spdvl - your alright! is it hard to get to the bolts on the turbo (that bolt it to the mani.)?? im gonna take a week off work to do this just to give myself enough time haha. im getting a custom front dumppipe made. good idea?