Boosted on a budget

[MrBrown]

Well, I started this project about a year ago. I titled it "on a budget" for specific reasons. Everything pictured in this thread was done solely by myself and the occasional help from a friend here and there. I learned how to weld and do paint/body work during this process. Im not an expert in no way but it works for me.

I have been wanting a turbo car since I was younger. Being on this site made me feel like a wannabe since its "Turbo"bricks. Due to people's knowledge and drive for learning and sharing information, I was able to learn how to do what I have accomplished.

I am not finished with this particular project but maybe with some comments from you guys, I will get motivated even more to finish. Being one of the only modified brick owners where I live, it gets hard to be motivated.

So here is what I have: A 91 245 NA B230.

Before I messed it up:




After I messed it up:



I am doing the +T on it and some other things. Goal is to make 300whp which I believe is almost there.

Any ways, forgive me in advance since all of my pics are taken with a phone:

I started to gather turbo parts for about 8 months, then started the tear down:






During the tear down I figured.. Why not do a complete rewiring/location of wires while im at it. This lead me down an evil path:







Drilled into the fender wall and installed a piece of pvc pipe in order to run the wiring and prevent chaffing:







And heres the final mounting and wiring through the fender:





Once that was completed, I removed the engine and started working on the bay. Welded up all the holes and removed the battery holder and welded those holes as well:








Once I welded/filled and primed the bay, I prepped it for some paint. Bought me a harbor freight special HVLP gun (worked pretty good once I modified it) and went to sprayin':



From this:



To this:



I was overall impressed with the turn out. I mean come on, people pay top dollar for something like this... Being that its an engine bay, I wasnt too concerned on how it would turn out. In my case, I came out on top.

[project volvo]

engine bay has a sweet color, cutting down wiring will clean up the overall look. i wouldn't go that route without feeling like i just have to go crazy with the sheathing and whatnot so it would probably take me forever and cost $$ ://

[MrBrown]

Once the bay was finished, I started on the engine side. Since there are so many boring pictures of everyone repainting an engine etc, Im just going to post a finalized photo or two. I drilled and tapped the oil return and put in a -10 fittin'. I also put in a T cam for now as well as a kevlar belt:













Now, I have seen people remove a hole for their cam gear and I thought that it was very cool so I did the same. I also installed a clear lexan to keep most of the dust out:

[oldschoolvolvo]

way to go with the bay

p.s. nice wheels!

[MrBrown]

I cleaned up the slim booster and put in a older style brake res:




Now with the engine being finished to my liking, I slapped it back in. Man was this a B doing it by myself:




And its in there!:

[nel621]

Looks good. So if you ever need to service anything on that harness all you have to do is take apart the front of your car?

[MrBrown]

So from there, I had to fit this Turbo. I machined the flange down using a belt sander, I then used carbide bits and alot of grinding and heres what I got:








Pulled an old oil cooler off of a Range Rover and mounted it. It is a bit narrow but when I measured the length and height, its close to stock as far as fin width. I will be creating direct flow pieces to direct air straight to it:




Now that the manifold was on, I had to modify the existing waste gate bracket to fit where I wanted it so I cut off the whole piece, shortened, welded and painted it:










Sucess!!:








Mounted the manifold and test fitted the Turbo:

[MrBrown]

Originally Posted by nel621

Looks good. So if you ever need to service anything on that harness all you have to do is take apart the front of your car?

Thought about that. Only the driver fender. I can deal with that in return for knowing where exactly my issues would lie since I rewired it to my liking. I could also go at it by removing the wheel mud guard, no biggie but I see what your saying.

[MrBrown]

Any ways.. I am prepared to hear the "why's" or the "I would not have done that" and I can only say that I am learning and I have researched as much as I could on certain things and then there is trial and error. Thats why this is a project and it is supposed to be fun right? So..

I was putting everything back on and making sure it all fits. Bolted up the intake and inj etc. then I had to figure out the intercooler and piping arrangement:






I purchased a intercooler kit from CX Racing. I welded on some angle iron to hold the intercooler in (did this earlier and you can see it in the painted bay photo) and did some mock ups with the piping. I cut the intake pipes and used my home made bead roller to make beads:




I had a friend weld the nipples since I cant weld alum yet then I sanded and buffed the hell out of them. Man this was a chore:

[MrBrown]

Here is a mock up of what the intercooler and piping looked like before I said I was happy with the fitment and finished the pipes:





I ended up getting black hoses since the kit came with blue. Here's where I went ahead and test fitted the radiator and installed the new hoses and Forge BOV:





Im happy with it and its finally coming together!

[nel621]

Polishing aluminum is a royal PIA. Nice work, it's coming together very nicely. Should look fantastic when done.

[fortbrick]

For learning how to do a lot of this for the the first time your work is top notch. Great job so far. Those ic pipes look wonderful in there.

[cosbySweater]

Great work man!

[Andrewhans]

Damn. Seriously, that's pretty sweet lookin. I really like the engine bay color. What is it?

[MadDog_945]

really nice work !

[Sander]

Looks great, very clean!

[uberbrick]

Wow! Very nice work, looking great!

[MrBrown]

Thanks everyone. Before I joined the "I roll" cummunity I came from the air cooled world. This Color was my favorite VW color which is known as Turkis green:

[MrBrown]

So. I bought this bag a$$ intercooler which is 31x12x3 and came with 3" piping and hoses to also include torque clamps. Some may be saying why or thats overkill but my title says budget. I bought this kit brand new for a mere $80. online so I figured why not make it fit.
As seen in pictures above, I had to flit it to make it fit. Now you might wonder how im going to make that fit correctly. This is what I had to do:









With some massaging, and a harbor freight cheapo grinder, its on like donkey kong!!

[dopski]

Very nice project. The color under the hood looks a lot like the color volvo used in the '70's on the 140.


"On a budget" sounds cheap, but the pictures show a very nice project!

[DanMarino]

That is a wonderful build so far. Way better than I could ever hope to do.

[MrBrown]

Don't worry, those pictures look like the hose is close to the cut out and could shred open those hoses!!
But its an optical illusion. They are a good way aways from touching. Plus this intercooler is mounted solid and does not move which you will see soon.

[MrBrown]

That would make sense since the color is from vintage vw's. colors back then were sweet IMO. I am not too big on metallics and pearls. Straight colors are where its at.

Thanks again for the compliments. This is working on helping me get back to it.

[MrBrown]

Originally Posted by DanMarino

That is a wonderful build so far. Way better than I could ever hope to do.

You would be surprised to see what you can do. Just have to try. With that being said, I will never be as good a welder/fabricator as Nathaninwa, Ben Kaplan or as smart as John the outside agitator to name a few that inspire me, but I can learn from them and attempt to do the things they do. Gotta start somewhere right?

[MrBrown]

For some reason I has a ton of boost/vac line laying around so I just split it down the center and stuck it on the cut outs so I can sleep better at night: