Here is the full review and semi breakdown on the build.
If you do not have many tools in your garage or space, it is not worth spending hundreds of dollars just to do this DIY, take it to a professional shop to do this please and dont waste your time unless you are confident in what you are doing!!
Difficulty = 7/10 (it mostly just takes time and patience when you do this yourself)
Note: Make sure you have a large selection of "simple" tools like sockets breaker bars a drill etc.
important sockets:
8mm (for all the hose clamps)
17mm (for Suspension components and subframe)
14mm (parts of subframe mostly front swaybar brackets and steering rack as well as some misc bolts)
12mm (i hope i remembered this right but its either a 12 or 14 to remove the bolts for the exhaust manifold)
10mm (not many a couple random bolts in the engine bay holding together small items)
22mm (for wheel lugs)
19mm (for subframe items)
18mm (subframe items)
Important tools and items:
Drill with a taping kit (to drill a hole into the turbo or chargpipe to get boost readings for the waste gate) we used a 1/4 inch bit tap for
jacks and jack stands (self explanatory)
universal joints and low profile wrenches with spinning sockets on the end (forgot what they are called)
extra coolant (entire jug/ as if you are doing a coolant flush)
extra oil (not much less than a quart is lost)
breaker bar
torque wrench
pliers
a flat heat screw driver
EXTRA PEOPLE TO HELP AT LEAST 2 PEOPLE IN TOTAL AT A MIN TO DO THIS JOB
First steps (prep):
Set aside an entire day or two to do this yourself as the car will be inoperable until build is finished.
1: unbolt wheels and lift the car
2: drain all of you coolant, might as well do an oil change while you are at it and drain your old oil as you will need to replace it with 5w-40
3: start removing your intake system and disconnect the battery
4: remove the intake and unbolt the intake pipe
5: get under the car and remove the midpipe that houses your 2nd cat and unbolt the o2 sensor on it (use hand tools)
6: for ease and to make sure your sensors dont get mangled its recommended you find your 2 sensors (for downpipe and midpipe) which are connected together ontop of you engine bay, and disconnect them completely so they dont twist or rip off when you remove your exhaust manifold.
Intermediary:
1: start unbolting the front swaybar endlinks.
2: this is also a good time to unbolt the steering rack to the subframe as access maybe easy when the wheels are off
3: unbolt subframe bolts, start from the middle and work your way out, the last bolt of the subframe you take out should be a giant 18mm/19mm nut on the toe of the subframe. Remove anything else that hold the thing in place.
Note: there is also a bolt that goes through the control arm into the subframe (2 to be exact) so make sure to remove those as well before the last bolts.
Also remove the dog bone lower engine mount as it will prevent the subframe from being removed as well. NOTE: once dog bone is removed from subframe the engine will have a tendency to sway if a lot of force is applied, do not worry as thats natural and the engine will not fall down you are safe.
4: once the last bolt is out you will need to wiggle and even hit the subframe to remove it from the control arms, its heavy so make sure you use a spare jack to hold up the weight and have a friend get ready to lower it down.
5: once out you have access to the lower engine bay. This is a good time to remove the intake pipe completely from the engine and also remove any wiring involving your oem turbo (it will not be needed, like the oem boost solenoid, but MAKE SURE TO KEEP EVERYTHING)
6: from here i recommend installing your new oil lines with the ss lines that came with the kit. They are screwed into the top of the turbo.
7: once done you are ready to unbolt the manifold from the engine using a 12mm socket. It may seem hard to find but you are able to reach all bolts from the top of the engine bay, and is the easier way to remove all the bolts, they are not tight and with a small extension can be removed by hand
8: at this point in time you are basically half way done, it might have sounded easy, well it is, it just takes some elbow grease and time for some of these things. a lot of bolts you need to remove are note mentioned since there are simply so many small ones that are part of the turbo system you will need to remove, they are simple and hand tools are more than enough to remove them all. be patient and take it slowly, do not rush and pull out things you didnt need to and end up breaking things that would have been easily avoided.
Post oem turbo removal:
1: get your lap 3 xcargot kit and dissasemble it, waste gate and snail are held together with mental clamps, all clamps must be removed to take apart the kit.
2: Take compressed air and clean the kit as well as you can as dust and shipping / small debre is most likely just in the system naturally from handling. you do not want any residue in the system.
3: with the snail removed from the manifold this is the time to tap the turbo to get boost readings. you will take the tapping tool and you will find this cylindrical nub on the side of the intake of the turbo. that is where you will drill into.
4: using a tapping kit and tapping oil (always use tapping oil, or else you will ruin everything not just for this but for any taps) make it as centered as possible and go SLOWLY. Clean as you go and make sure you do not slip. once you drilled through and a tap is created take at least 10-15 minutes of using compressed air to remove ALL particulates and aluminum shavings from the snail.
5: reassemble the kit. and install the exhaust manifold using the new 9 nuts they send you. (you will reuse the exhaust gasket if you have low mileage (under 10k ish) if not make sure to mention to LAP3 rep so they can accommodate. The new manifold should make putting it back in super easy. Make sure you also have a SS line going from the wastegate to the turbo (for boost readings) SSlines of course provided bby LAP3.
6: you will also need to plug up your old oem oil feed port on your engine, a little metal cover is provided for you to screw it in to block off the old engine oil feed, the new oil feed will be located next to your oil filter and it will use the oil pressure sensor's port. you can retain oil sensor by buying a T fitting so you can attache both sensor and stainless steel oil feed line.
7: This is also now the time to block off the old coolant feed lines. there will be 2 lines coming from a feed and return coolant line on the left of the engine. What we decided to do is get a new hose and loop the coolant pipes back into each other so it creates a closed circuit, this is also accommodated with some good hose clamps to prevent leaking.
8: install the new oil drain nub thing onto the turbo , and use the silicone pipe provided to route the drain side of the turbo around the drive shaft.
9: from here you will use the thinnest looking SS pipe to replace part of the oem hotside pipe, this will delete the resonator that resides in the charge pipe as well. use the provided rubber boots and brackets to get this one.
10: use another rubber boot to attached to the intake side of turbo, and grab the pipe with brackets attached to route intake above the engine. the remaining 2 large 3 inch pipes finish the intake system, and a new filter will need to be bought. this will be your new intake system, or if you want you can fab up your OEM intake or sxth intake.
11: at this point its time to just resemble the car back together.
12: make sure your tuned ECU is installed and the car already has 93 octane or whatever octane that was discussed. Make sure you also have hks spark plugs that run 1 stop colder.
13: refill coolant as needed and check for leaks to make sure you are all good.
14: turn car on and prep the turbo by cranking the car but stop cranking before the 2nd turn (before the car actually starts) this allows the turbo to be lubed up and not run dry which is bad. (DO NOT START THE CAR WITHOUT THE SUBFRAME BACK IN OR THE ENGINE WILL TWIST ITSELF TO DEATH)
15: you are more or less done, do your final checks and turn off the car, put the wheels back on lower and take a quick test drive. DO NOT WOT untill cars OIL is warmed up not the coolant temp. (generally 10 minutes)
16: check to see if your car is still running straight (mine ran perfectly straight) but sometimes car can be misaligned from subframe being removed. drive for about 30 seconds first, get out check for leaks and things are in order. Drive for 5 more minutes check. Drive 10 minutes and test a slow WOT run, another check. Always keep some coolant and oil in the car JUST IN CASE. Take it easy but also test the car our slowly for the next week to make sure the install went smoothly.
IF all works congradulations you have install the lap3 xcargot turbo kit and you are one of us /forum/images/smilies/smile.gif
Pics included /forum/images/smilies/smile.gif
look forward to the build progress and I hope I can be helpful to those that want to figure out how the **** all this works XD!!!
