January 14-15, 2006 - Turbo Install (3)
The first thing we did Sunday morning was grab the blow off valves,
the small blue flexible hose, and some clamps. Installing the
blow off valves was easy. Slip the tube over the end of the
valve, slip the other end over the opening in the intercooler,
clamp, and cut the excess length of the clamp. Before we moved
on I snapped a few more pictures of the entire setup and of the
driver side turbo interference.
You can see in the last picture that we had to modify the quarter
panel sheet metal some to give ourselves enough room for the turbo.
At this point we were satisfied with the progress we had made on
the turbo install and decided to work on some other areas of the car
that needed attention now that the power output was increasing
significantly. We turned our attention to the busted
transmission. I could tell the tranny was on the way out when
I bought the car, in fact the guy I bought it from was upfront about
the state of the transmission. He had to be, because as soon
as I shifted the car faster than an 80 year old grandma the tranny
ground and felt like the gears just barely engaged.
Fortunately Dad and I have experience rebuilding T45s. Anyone
who's ever dropped a T45 out of a SN95 Mustang has cursed the person
who decided to use an integral bellhousing. The integral
bellhousing makes removing the transmission much more involved than
it could have been otherwise. The engine must be raised, and
if the car has the wrong kind of long tube headers one of them has
to come off and the other at least loosened. As if that wasn't
bad enough, getting to the starter bolts requires a
contortionist-like ability. Having done several T45 removals/installations
we knew all of this...
But... we chose to install the turbos first anyway.
This was mistake #2 and it caused a lot of frustration later on down
the road.
