The Art of Turbo Installation: A Labor of Love

As we embarked on our ambitious project to install turbochargers in our vehicle, it became clear that this task would not be an easy one. The first hurdle we faced was identifying the material of the flange, which was crucial in determining the type of welding rod to use. "Yeah, so we put the magnet on it and it's not magnetic at all," I exclaimed, as we realized that stainless steel was likely the culprit.

With this newfound knowledge, we were able to select a suitable welding rod that could combine the stainless steel with our existing mild steel setup. The flange, being made of mild steel, required a specific type of rod that could handle the stainless steel material. We had to be careful not to mix materials, as this could lead to costly repairs down the line.

As we began working on the installation, it became apparent that this process would take longer than expected. "Yeah, so we got this tacked up, and it is in the place where we really need it to be," I said, as we evaluated our handiwork. The turbinos were finally in position, and we could see how they fit into the existing infrastructure.

One of the challenges we faced was determining the best angle at which to cut the tubing for the turbo installation. "Aluminum bar right here. We might need to relocate that because that's gonna be in the way of our intake pipe," I noted, as we assessed the layout and decided on a plan of action.

As we progressed through the installation process, it became clear that this project was not going to be an easy one. "I don't think that we're gonna be able to do both sides today," I admitted, as we realized that the scope of the project had grown significantly. The pipes were taking longer than expected to install, and we had yet to determine whether the flange material was stainless steel or mild steel.

In a surprising twist, our initial suspicions proved correct – the flange material was indeed stainless steel. "This one should take a little bit less time just because now we know approximately where the turbos are gonna sit," I said, as we began working on the second side of the installation.

The process for the second side was similar to the first, with some adjustments made based on our newfound understanding of the turbo installation process. "We're basically going to do the same thing we're gonna cut it at a similar angle and just maybe lengthen it," I explained, as we planned out the next steps in the installation.

Before moving forward with the welding process, we decided to perform a water test on the flange to determine its suitability for use. "What Tony told me to do and that is called a water test and that's basically me taking a little bit of water and putting it whoops there we go," I explained, as we applied the test.

After conducting the water test, we wiped down the flange with a rag and left it overnight to ensure that any rough spots were addressed. This step was crucial in determining whether we needed to coat or treat the metal with something special, especially if we were welding stainless steel to mild steel.

As we look forward to completing this project, I couldn't help but feel a sense of excitement and anticipation. "Hopefully I will be learning a lot about welding in the next few days because in the next few days we will be doing all the stuff in the back of the car meaning the exhaust the turbo piping we're gonna be basically making a hundred thousand dollar turbo kit out of what's just some scrap pieces of tubing and and whatnot," I said, as I gazed at the work that lay ahead.

For those who would like to learn more about this project or follow along on our journey, I invite you to subscribe to my daily podcast "Wrench Every Day." We discuss a wide range of topics related to cars, including turbo installation and maintenance. Additionally, if you're interested in purchasing a t-shirt that features the phrase "I'm the warranty," you can find it by visiting the Teespring store link provided below.

The journey ahead will be filled with twists and turns, but I'm confident that together we'll overcome any challenges that come our way. And as we near completion of this project, I couldn't help but feel a sense of pride and accomplishment. The thrill of the challenge is what drives us to push beyond our limits and create something truly remarkable.

Now, let's get back to work – there's still much to be done before we can call ourselves complete. With renewed energy and determination, we'll tackle each step of this project with precision and care. Bring on the next chapter in our turbo installation journey!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enHow's it going guys my name is Tavarish and today my cheap Lamborghini gets a turbo kitSo if you guys are new to my channel, thank you so much for joining usAnd hope you guys like it subscribe if you like what you see behind me is my 2008 Lamborghini, Gallardo SpyderAnd it's in the process of being a running driving example with a little bit more powernow today is a very special day becauseUnlike other episodes where I was just putting stuff together this timeI'm modifying things, and this is a very big thing because I'm gonna be modifying the twin-turbo kit wellit wasn't really a kit per se but it was aTwin-turbo system that got this thing to a thousand horsepower on the dynoWell, this was many many moons ago, but hopefully we can get to that number today well not not todayWhat am I saying get to that number? Eventually so for those of you who have no idea what I'm talking aboutthis is the back end of my Lamborghini andRight here is where the turbos would sit one will be right here and another one would be right hereSo I have everything taken apart exhaust is where it should be if I wanted a turbo kit that was basically backwardsAnd that's the way the car came to me now in the turbo kit that the car came withTurbo set right here, and then the exhaust went out here with the intake coming in right hereif you know anything about turbo kits if you know anything about how turbo chargers andinternal combustion systems workThen you know that you don't want the intake in a path where there's a lot of hot stagnant airSo what we're gonna. Do is we're gonna turn everything aroundWe are going to lengthen or shorten these tubes as necessary, and then we're gonna make a stock exhaust nowI say we a lot now you guys think that I just referred to the Royal weepBut I actually have a friend today, and my friend is he's a viewer. He's a subscriber he likes theHe likes he likes my channel for some reason and he decided that he would reach out to me, and he helped me outWith the welding he's actually a master welder, and I should probably put the camera on him right now. How you doing Tony?Yeah, so Tony has brought his entire welding rigIt's a TIG welding rig and we are going to be TIG welding this thing not only with some mild steelWhich is this I believe, but we also have some stainless steel which is there?and we also have some aluminum which is for the pipe work for theFor this thing the air to water intercooler, so this is gonna be an all-encompassing systemAnd let me show you what I have here, so here are the turbochargersThere's one and two these are actually really expensive, and I just have them thrown around like they ain't worth nothingBut right here. This is what's gonna kind of quiet the car downIt's a cherry bomb glass pack a lot of guys in the 50s and 60s and 70s used theseTo kind of fool the cops into saying. Oh, yeah, I have a muffler, but hereI'm actually gonna be muffling because this car is gonna be insanely loud so here. I have a J pipejust in case we need abend or a straightit's just a pipe with a bunch of bends that we can cut to length andI have new flanges for the turbos. These are t3 flanges andyou can see we can put aPipe through it and then it's kind of beveled to accept the turboHousing so we also have some v-band flanges right there, and we have the intakes just to mock up and we have someExhausts I guess the exhaust tips that we have to reweld on the new exhaustBut this is gonna be funI have no idea what I'm doing as far as welding so I decided to recruit a friend andRight now what we're gonna try to do isMock these up so the turbos at least sit in their homes that is today's project all rightSo this is Tony's welder and actually he told me that it's like 800 bucksAnd it has all these cool knobs and switches. I have no idea what any of them do soWhat do they do?This is all analog welderIt doesn't have all the digital buttons and confusing things soever you want to know one you get his turn itCool it's a pig stick welder mmmAc/dc yeah aluminum have a high frequency start ohThat's coolso you don't have to actually touch the tungsten to the metal you can just push the button push the pedal and it'llThe arc will start, that's cool man Wow so I?Always have wanted to learn how to do TIG weldingbecause it makes everything look really beautiful has the you know that that stack of Dimes that that sort of thing andI've never been able to do that because I all I have is Harbor Freight welderThat's in there and actually ran out of welding wire soYeah, so hopefully we can get a little bit of this welding done and get these turbos situated so right nowWhat I have is this is one of the turbos, and I want to get this mocked up right hereSo I want to have the intakeBasically coming out that side and the exhaust coming out this side, and we want to have this clocked a certain waySo what do you think we we need to do?I'm gonna get some pictures as far as how I want it routed, but what I'm thinking is we can just like cut itRight here like like right there, so we have plenty of roomand then we just put the turbo kind of like slap it on there or we can justJust take a slice out of here and move this all back soYou know I'm this is gonna. Be interesting. It's gonna be interestingI don't know how to how to route these things, but it should be should be interesting all rightSo we got one pipe off and this is how we're marking it off basically we're eyeballingWhere this cut is gonna go and we did that by just putting a zip tie right hereSo there's like a 90-degree angle, and we want to put like a 45-degree cut herewe're also gonna bring this back a few inches because that's how we're gonna clock the turbo sothis isI've never done metal fabrication, so I'm really excited about how it's gonna turn out andWe measured or rather Tony measured that this is the same lengthAll the way around so that's gonna be well. We don't want an ovalThat's that's basically what what that was preventing, and we also have a new flange. That's going on thereSo we can tack that up, but yeah now we're gonna cut itOkay, so we have the turbo and we have the pipeAnd it should all made up except for the fact that it doesn't really made up the flange has shiftedJust a little bit, and we're trying to find out how the turbo is gonna sit now right here. You can see the flangeIt's not exactly straightIt's not exactly parallel as it should be it's a little bit cocked sidewaysBut that's not a problem because we just tacked it and we can grind this all offso we're just going to move this a little bit too to the side, but take a look at how the turbo sits ifTurbo sits right here, that's basically where we need it, but this thisThis support right here. It's basically for the bumper that is preventing us fromfrom putting an intake pipe into the intercooler here, so this might have to go andthat Ithink it should be okay because I don't think I'm gonna have the rear section here anyway a lot of people with thetwin turbo kits they don't run these things so yeah, I'm not too concerned about that butThe turbo itself is in a good placeI just need to make sure that it doesn't run into the bumperyeah, that'sLet's let's have this tacked upLet's get this tacked up all tablesThis panel off and then we'll see where we areWill maybe put on put on the bumper and see if it fouls on anything, but for now I'm I'm pretty I'm pretty impressedI'm liking how this is goingOkay, so we ran into a little sort of snagSo apparently this is the exhaust pipe that came in the car and we areJust shortening it to make sure that the turbos are clocked right and they're not fouling on anythingBut this materialI thought it was mild steel, and it's actually stainless steel or at least we think it's stainless steelIt's definitely not not magnetic at all. Yeah, so we put the magnet on it it veryvery slightly pulls it andYes, stainless like I mean mild steel would just be like really really hard on there. Yeah, that's mild steelThe flange is mild steel, so we're gonna have to use a welding rod that can combine the twoand we're definitely not have to use some stainless steel rod for theSection that we have to put right here since there is a little45-degree kink so a little bit of a setback, but we do actually have the the rod, and we should be good to goSo we got this tacked up, and it is in the place where we really need it to be so let's see if it worksand this is where the turbo is basically you're gonna live andAm look at that see that is good fitment right there now this thisAluminum bar right here. We might need to relocate that because that's gonna be in the way of ourIntake pipe, but this looks really goodthere's plenty of room for the exhaust to come out and do that 180 that I want andIt is in a good enough place where I can get to all the bolts, so this is looking really really good nowI don't think that we're gonna be able to do both sides today. Just because this took all night this actually thisGetting the pipes just right this took about I want to say four hours or something like thatJust because we didn't know what kind of material wasJust because we wanted to make sure that everything what I say we I mean. I mean telling the guy behind the camerahe is a real virtuoso at this stuff, and I would not be able to do it without him butThis looks really really good. I'm glad that we figured out that it's not mild steelit is most likely a stainless steel, and we're gonna be ready for that andthis one should take a little bit less time just because now we know approximately where theTurbos are gonna sit so this oneWe're basically going to do the same thing we're gonna cut it at a similar angleAnd then just maybe lengthen it just because the turbos are offsetit's they're not mirror images of one another I think that's gonna be good now all we have to do is take this off andStart to weld around and I'm not sure if we're going to do that todayJust because I'm not sure we have the stainless steel wireI thought that it was gonna be mild steel, but I'm rambling again and but I'm very very happy alrightso we are done for today, and we actually got a lot done even though it doesn't seem like we got a lot done, butbefore ILeave this be and before we weld everything upI want to make sure that this is the right kind of metal so what I'm gonnado isWhat Tony told me to do and that is called a water test and that's basically me taking a little bit of water and putting?It whoops there we goPutting it on the flange like I didI just dripped a bunch on it like that and just kind of drip a little bit andandThen I'm going to wipe itWith a rag and leave it overnightSo if tomorrow we have a bunch of rough spotsthen we know that maybe we need to coat that metal orwe need to treat that metal with something especially if we're gonna be welding a stainless steel to a mild steel orcarbon or whatever so yeah, I'm learning a lot about welding today andHopefully I will be learning a lot about welding in the next few days because in the next few dayswe will be doing all the stuff in the back of the car meaning the exhaust theturbo piping we're gonna be basically making a hundred thousand dollar turbo kit out ofWhat's just some scrap pieces of?Tubing and and whatnot so that's gonna be a lot of fun, and I hope you guys watch itAnd I hope you guys like it if you'd like to buy a t-shirt that says that you are the warrantyObviously you don't want to buy this one because it's filthy and it doesn't really smell too goodThen you can buy it in by teespring store link down below if you want to listen to me ramble about cars with my friendAndrew Howell then you can listen to my daily podcast called wrench every dayAnd I have that every day for every weekday down below you can subscribe to that and it's a lot of funIt's a lot of fun guysBut this is me telling you that on cars like this that now are a little bit closer toThe thousand horsepower turbo dreams that I have for it you guys need to wrench every day\n"