Your story is a great progression. My MCS 2010 is a stock rebuild with methanol injection, and I like the 225 hp (200 whp). However, I like what YOU are doing. I'm thinking of getting a MINI Coupe or Roadster to do what you are doing to reach nearer 300 whp. Nice updates! No worry about the delays; I understand.

I bought a head and short block from shops with upgraded rods/pistons and did my own engine removal and reassembly; it took 10 weeks to get all new parts (i.e., injectors hpfp, vac pump, oil filter housing, seals (each one), water pump, turbo, and so on). It runs better than when it arrived new from England. Actually, it started backfiring and missing about 16 months after I got it new, and friends were laughing! Now, the laughing has turned to intrigue and amazement.

 

Nice! Good luck on your build! I am running meth mainly to keep the valves clean and the added cooling effect is an added bonus. I can't wait until it goes to the fabrication shop next week! I am getting them to go with 3" exhaust too while it is there!

 

Sorry for the late updates! Got the adapter flange on the manifold. Had it welded on as I will never go back to the stock turbo. Once the turbo is mounted, it is going back to Turn5 to get the downpipe made!! So close!

 

Very methodical work! In my opinion, this was not a "late" update; instead, it's a show of a commitment to an excellent build upgrade. I can't wait to see the final product!

 

Got the car at Turn 5 for downpipe fabrication and decided to use this oil plate to not only make clearance for the turbo to be clocked downwards but to also relocate the oil filter to the frame of the car. This is about half as thick as that bulky oil box that sits under the turbo

 

I have no clue if this will work BUT it's worth a try as routing the intercooler piping alongside the engine makes it a pain because of hood clearance and I wanted to relocate my oil filter anyways

 

That oil filter feed plate looks nice, but I am trying to figure out how it's plumbed for water cooling and oil. The photo shows a fitting for a water pipe at the upper right under the voltmeter, and the two threaded fittings are likely the oil in/out ports, correct? I am curious about the plumbed ports on the underside.

Also, you mention that the turbo will be "clocked downward." By this phrase, do you mean the circumference of your turbo will extend into the space where the oil filter usually sits, or will the turbo tilt downward into that space?

Thanks for showing us what's POTENTIALLY possible.

 

Here are more pics! The two coolant ports are looped together. I don't know if you can see that in the picture or not using my flash. The two threaded plugs I believe are for coolant/pressure gauges(oil and water)
I am hoping that by removing the bulky oil block that sits under the turbo that I can turn the output to Face downwards and then run it straight into the intercooler vs running the output alongside the engine and loop it back down into the intercooler. I am trying to not make my engine Bay look so cluttered up top. Still debating on getting an aftermarket exhaust manifold

 

A ton of people run their turbo outlet pipe alongside the engine. I am wanting to do this instead and use my stock intake location to feed the turbo. RPM has their turbo outlet pointing down as well

 

Thanks. That's simpler than I thought. I now see that you're holding the piece that replaces the bulky, silver heat exchanger box.

And yes, I see the downward configuration of the RPM outlet. Thanks for the pics. Everything makes sense. I am at peace 🙏🏽 ​​

 

Enjoy the eye candy! Every shop around North Texas was months behind because of Covid. Everyone is sending stuff here because we never shut down. Now updates should be more frequent as everything is paid for...remaining shop labor, Tuner and tuning session. All down hill from here!!

 

With me not being able to run a heat shield and I do not want to run header wrap and a turbo blanket as I think it looks weird and I hear horror stories of header wrap, I decided to get my exhaust manifold, turbo hot side and downpipe cermaic coated. I had Ace Powder Coating in Garland, TX do the work. It was very affordable and they did a great job! My car is going to be the gray of the newer Ford cars/trucks and satin black so my manifold and downpipe are gray. The hot side of the turbo is black.

 

Once everything is up and running can you use an IR thermometer and record the temperatures of your hood scoop area - before lifting the hood- seconds after a spirited run, and the exhaust manifold and downpipe (include ambient air temp) ? I want to compare to my temps without the coating. I have heat wrap on the downpipe and OEM heat shield (which I don't like) over the exhaust manifold and exhaust side of turbo. The ceramic coating looks great. Will it stay looking that way after many heat cool cycles? I will consider the coating in the near future if the temperatures differences look appealing.

If you are chronicling everything on video, I hope you indeed provide a documentary about your build on YT. If not, the NAM updates are cool enough.

 

I plan on doing a little video of it along the way. I'm actually going to take a day off work to help put everything back together. We still have to do the drilled and slotted rotors, rims and the minor stuff like vacuum and coolant hoses. I should be able to get good video that day for sure. I'll post it up as I have a ton of people wanting to hear how it sounds lol. As for the temp readings, I definitely plan on doing some readings at idle directly on the piping, I'll prop the hood slightly after a spirited run and take some temp readings as well. Easy peasy

 

Got the exhaust manifold on and clocked the turbo how it needs to be and I am EXCITED! With the stock filter housing, it fits easily and has a way shorter path to the intercooler. I will have tons more room eliminating the bulky filter housing with the relocation kit. We will be hitting the car HARD on Monday, I even took the day off to do so. Fingers crossed that we may even be cranking it up then!!!

 

Lookin good!

Let me share a couple of my earlier experiences with GTX2860R.

First, be sure that when clocking the CHRA, the oil inlet / outlet ports are straight up and down, not cocked off at an angle. Even tho Garrett allows about 30 deg, any angle will make coolant plumbing harder to fit. Oil flow thru the turbo is gravity fed, so don't even think about putting oil ports on the side.

Then there's hood clearance for the oil and coolant hoses. Even with my 90 deg oil inlet fitting, there was no clearance from the hood. Coolant hose was far enough back that it cleared the hood (hood isn't flat in the engine compartment). Also the O2 sensor will have the same problem if not mounted towards the front or back. Mine is on top of the DP and hits the hood. But I'm working an R56, maybe the R55 is different, but I doubt it. Make sure your DP fabricator is aware of these fit problems, so you don't need to Dremel the hood support metal.

My manifold and DP are also ceramic coated. Let me assure you that after several Kmiles and a few hard runs, the coating is still its original color. Downside is the coating is fragile --- it scratches and nicks easily. Gotta be careful when working around it --- treat it like a painted surface.

This pic is NOT my current setup --- manifold, turbo, and DP have been replaced, along with associated plumbing.

 

Thank you for the pics! They are going to help a lot and it looks like I will run into the same issues so I will definitely have hood trimming in my future. I looked over your build thread several times over the months and can't wait for this journey to be over your build is eye candy for my soul!!

 

So we hit the car pretty good today and it wasn't as bad as I thought! We had a 90 degree O2 spacer so we didn't have to worry about that hitting the hood. We did have to trim the hood for the compressor side of the turbo but that was it, maybe a 1.5"x2" square. Even the aftermarket intercooler piping was retained! All you do is rotate the piping clockwise at around 40 degrees like the picture. We only had to add a 45 degree elbow to the turbo outlet and I had my HKS SSQV BOV adapter welded where the "intercooler muffler" would be! Easy peasy so far!

 

As we all know the factory oil housing location is trash! There are no actual block off plates for the block so I did the cheapest and next best thing. I had the factory oil filter location welded shut I gave just enough room to recirculate the oil. This also will allow plenty of room for the turbo outlet. I bought the oil cooler adapter plate so we will run an outlet to a remote oil filter plate then that will go to the oil cooler and to the return

 

Here is the oil pan with the welded 10an fitting attached! This was done solely to simplify the process of modding the oil system. As stated above, we closed off the factory oil filter location. The oil cooler and oil filter housing plate use 10an so why not make the return 10an?! Especially since a new steel oil pan is $40 on Amazon and the stainless bung was only $8

 

Here is a close-up of what we have going on. You can see the filter housing, the 90 degree O2 adapter, the IC piping matching up easily, the turbo clocked and the wastegate clocked as well

 

Here are a few pics from today! All oil lines have been ran, the oil filter plate has been mounted and we also took this time to trim the hood for the turbo. It actually looks pretty cool seeing it from the hood scoop IMO. Tomorrow we will turn it over to verify that there are no oil leaks before we crank it up to break it in!!

 

Also forgot to mention that because I want to be difficult and run my all time favorite BOV, we had to trim the radiator fan shroud and mount an aftermarket one directly to the radiator

 

Is it time for an update?

 

Why yes! Yes it is!!!
We literally just got it running this afternoon. It was put back together a few weeks back and could not figure out why it wouldn't crank. Well it was taken back apart to find that the shop that did my engine put one of the cams 180 out. Once that was fixed, I had cylinder 2 and 4 misfires. Put different coils in and it cranked right up!!! It did not run long due to the coolant reservoir not being installed. So tomorrow that is getting installed, a temporary turn down will be welded on then I will break it in for at least 50 miles before it goes to MMotorworx to get meth and the tune!! So huge updates will come in the next week or so 😎