Turbo Week, Day 2 - Finished!

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Er... it's finished. The turbo is on, nothing seems to leak and it runs sweetly. First of all, I bolted up the turbo and connected the oil lines, turned the engine over on the starter for about 20 seconds, then checked oil was present in the turbo drain... and it wasn't. Oh dear. Then I remembered I'd changed the oil, so of course it was going to take a little while for the oil to find it's way there. Another 20 seconds on the starter, and the golden goodness was there.

Next step was to install the trunking, and to actually attempt to start it. I did consider getting out the video camera for this, to catch the moment of fiery explosion so my family would have at least some record of my final moments (and perhaps get £250 off Harry Hill), but couldn't be arsed. So I just switched it on and it started immediately, no drama whatsoever.

I let it idle for about 10 mins, smoke was pouring off the turbine casing by now but I was pretty sure it was just the solvent burning off. Considered getting the vid camera out again, just in case. Still couldn't be arsed. Once it had reached operating temp, I reset the idle and timing (I've set it to a conservative 8 degrees BTDC for now). The smoke had stopped at this point, and I was feeling pretty pleased with myself; I reckon I could get a job at Kwik-Fit with these l33t sk1llz.

The final step was to install the BBR ECU and connect the vacuum hose. This is a piggyback unit, and works in conjuction with the factory ECU (it takes over when boost is detected, hence the vacuum hose, and retards the timing and increases injector duty cycle). The ECUs live together under a panel in the passenger footwell (see below). Running the vacuum hose through the firewall was easy, there's a little ready made nipple in the large grommet just below the wiper motor - you just need to snip the end off. I then pushed the tube in through from the engine side, there's no access under the dash.

Final start, with everything connected then; ignition on, green light showing on the BBR ECU means it's alive; brmmm! That's where I've left it today, I still need to fix down the ECUs and sort out the rat's nest wiring, and check for any slow oil leaks.

The car has no MOT so of course I can't drive it... but if I did I would assume I'd be impressed by the psssh-wooosh, even though it doesn't spool until 3500rpm and max revs is 4000 for the first 600 miles. Yeah, I can see myself sticking to that!

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