unusual turbo/ exhaust question

[ae10]

hi all, i have a ke10 corolla with a 4age in it. at the moment it has extractors which interfere with the steering. gives me limited right lock, but its only really annoying when trying to park. anyway, i recently bought a cheap turbo manifold off ebay. was kinda an impulse buy, but the plan had always been to turbo the car down the track.

right now im on a very tight uni student budget and can't afford programmable ecus + intercoolers + tuning etc etc, but i can't really justify modding the extractors when they'll be coming off eventually anyway. so i started thinking outside the box and wondered if it would be possible to put in the turbo manifold, get hold of a shagged turbo and get a dump pipe made up to suit. i figure this way i'd kill 2 birds with one stone, being able to negotiate parking lots and have some of the turbo plumbing sorted for when the time comes.

i realise this probably won't help the performance of the car (other than look fully sik when i open the bonnet), but will it actually damage anything/ make the car undrivable? is this a reasonable tight budget solution to my problem? any other thoughts or suggestions welcome.

cheers

[ViPeR_NiPPleX]

just pull out ur extractors and give em a bang with a hammer, worked a treat for me

[Tarkers]

cant see it doing damage, i drove from coffs harbour to syd with my wastegate arm disconnected and it drove fine, just had no power cause the turbo wasnt doing anything

[ae10]

i had considered giving them a hammering myself, but its a very tight gap where they'd need to go and it's 2 pipes that need bending not just one. i'd come to the conclusion the extractors really would need professional attention (or maybe im just lazy )
thanks for the quick replies!

[kingmick]

hi all, i have a ke10 corolla with a 4age in it. at the moment it has extractors which interfere with the steering. gives me limited right lock, but its only really annoying when trying to park. anyway, i recently bought a cheap turbo manifold off ebay. was kinda an impulse buy, but the plan had always been to turbo the car down the track.

right now im on a very tight uni student budget and can't afford programmable ecus + intercoolers + tuning etc etc, but i can't really justify modding the extractors when they'll be coming off eventually anyway. so i started thinking outside the box and wondered if it would be possible to put in the turbo manifold, get hold of a shagged turbo and get a dump pipe made up to suit. i figure this way i'd kill 2 birds with one stone, being able to negotiate parking lots and have some of the turbo plumbing sorted for when the time comes.

i realise this probably won't help the performance of the car (other than look fully sik when i open the bonnet), but will it actually damage anything/ make the car undrivable? is this a reasonable tight budget solution to my problem? any other thoughts or suggestions welcome.

cheers

the trouble with a shagged turbo is that you might turn into james bond and leave a huge smoke trail! there are decent secound hand ones about for cheap. the other thing to think about is without the extra lock, if some idiot does something in front of you you might not have the extra needed it bad times!
you can get chinese stainless turbo manifolds now for $400 or so, i have never used them so cant tell you how they will go,but there are short steam pipe ones that come up in toymods classifieds from time to time. take you time, im not a student but i still have to take my time out laying money on my cars.
yes you could do exactly what you are talking about but might be better waiting and doing it the way you rally want to.

[RobertoX]

this is a really dodge suggestion but being a student I know where you are coming form

You could continue with your plan and buy the turbo you want, set up your engine with it and get your dump pipe made etc, and then get the exhaust shop to make you a 'dummy' turbo with a couple of flanges and a piece of pipe (ie just a pipe to replace the turbo). this way you can have your car running whilst you collect all the bits you need.

I do think there is a lot to be said though for the saying "do it right, do it once"



Rob

[mullett]

You could do it, no reason why not, but it's a huge restriction in the exhaust.

RM.

[Tarkers]

this is a really dodge suggestion but being a student I know where you are coming form

You could continue with your plan and buy the turbo you want, set up your engine with it and get your dump pipe made etc, and then get the exhaust shop to make you a 'dummy' turbo with a couple of flanges and a piece of pipe (ie just a pipe to replace the turbo). this way you can have your car running whilst you collect all the bits you need.

I do think there is a lot to be said though for the saying "do it right, do it once"



Rob

If you didnt mind lack of power then theres no reason to do this, just dissconnect the actuator arm and it will disable the turbo but allow the car to run fine

[bassy]

get stock manifold, n get a new peice of exhaust made up around the steering.

[ae10]

so the general consensus seems to be yes it could work, but would pose a huge restriction...i suppose if i did go down this path at least the lack of power would give me an incentive to keep the project moving, and if it was really unbearable i could always put the extractors back...the money spent on having a dump pipe made up wouldn't be wasted.
would having a turbo replacement pipe made up as was suggested by RobertoX make a significant difference to restriction over just leaving the turbo in place?
if i managed to get my hands on a turbo in ok nick instead of shagged, would being 'semi-used' like this wear it out quicker than normal use? would i have to think about hooking up oil lines etc to it?
thanks for everyone's input

[BrianRA23]

I have been suprised how cheap and accomadating the guys at some exhaust shops can be. Go somewhere and ask them to have a look. Chances are they will just put it on hoist to look at and fix it at the same time for next to nothing.

I got a 1.3m tailpipe bent which required multiple bends to fit over the diff and fitted with tab welded on and the guys charged me $30. They work so fast and cheap I will never fit another exhaust myself.

If you are tight on money then the dump pipe you get made won't be the one you really want to run once you get a nice turbo in there. Once you get the turbo on you are going to want to bracket it as well, so there goes more money.

[oldcorollas]

i think it depends how shagged the turbo is

get a really crap one, take off the exhaust housing and attack the turbine with an angle grinder
then attack the exhaust housing with the angle grinder to provide a better flow (ie the thin bit where it usually feeds air to the edge of the turbine)

if you hog it out but still allow it to seal, then it will be a restriction, but maybe not a huge one, depending on driving style of course.
you will not need to worry about oil feeds or anything like that as the shaft won't be spinning.

i would not get a semi ok one and have the exhaust spn the housing.... with no restriction on the conpressor, even with wastegate open the shaft could freewheel to high speeds...

i understand where you are coming from with the steering arm issue i had to shape my extractors just right to fit down there and still have clearance.

so.. i vote get ultra shagged turbo and cut out ALL the turbine blades and hog out the housing (but still allow it to seal), then get dump etc made up.
you may find in the long run the the cheap manifold turns out to be really crap but at least if the placement of turbo is ok, then you can get new manifold made up to fit your dump etc

so yeah,... why not.... you wll lose some power but meh.... you could get a right angle made up to suit, but i can't see if being cheaper than a dead turbo... (heck you might even get one for free from a turbo rebuilder )

steering and parking is good having no money as student = bad

oh and kudos for thinking outside the square...

[ae10]

cool, thanks for everyone's input. +rep for everyone as soon as i have my 10 posts up