Chris R's churbo shuttle

[chris r]

I found a piece of tube in aliexpress that was the correct inner and outer diameter for the injectors, just needed to be trimmed and turned down a bit for a press fit into the manifold. 

Borrowed a lathe and made some adapters. First one was a bit undersized but worked as proof of concept 

The amayama order with a bunch of seals and little bits and pieces I needed turned up 

Way back when I deleted the abs I must have forgotten to install a clip on the brake line so fitted a new one

Couldn't remember if I replaced the water pump tube O rings so ordered some, turns out I didn't so they are new now

While that was apart I installed the new thermostat. Genuine Honda (which comes with a o ring gasket thing) is $20 cheaper than what supercheap want for tridon 

[Raizer]

On 14/10/2025 at 20:20, chris r said:

Atleast now I have a hole the size of the turbo inlet and its got some sort of radius on the edges. It's good from far but far from good 

The weld mountain turned out okay after a date with a flappy disc. Looks better than what I could imagine with bits of pipe and bends 

To noones surprise the turbo flange is warped from all the welding so I'll have to get it milled flat 

[shrike]

2 minutes ago, Raizer said:

A grinder and paint make me the welder i Ain't :p 

Looking good, a lick of heat paint or some heat wrap etc. 

Can always hide it under a heat shield as well 

[Raizer]

Just now, shrike said:

A grinder and paint make me the welder i Ain't 😛

Looking good, a lick of heat paint or some heat wrap etc. 

Can always hide it under a heat shield as well 

I was really fighting the urge to grind it back and run my tig over things before facing the flanges!
But it's a Shittle, wrap will be mint.

[chris r]

10 minutes ago, shrike said:

A grinder and paint make me the welder i Ain't 😛

Looking good, a lick of heat paint or some heat wrap etc. 

Can always hide it under a heat shield as well 

Thats the underside which you can't see when its installed, and after 4 ish hours on the end of the die grinder I'd had enough. Still time to grind and paint it/ install a heat shield over the lot

[chris r]

Chucked the spacers in the freezer overnight. Chucked some retaining compound on them and put them in the press 

Fitted o rings between the spacer and the injector (hopefully they seal) 

The tips of the injectors are pretty much in the factory position so I'm calling it good enough 

[chris r]

Freshly back from grassman engineering and straight into the ceramic coating booth 

Perfect is the enemy of good enough and also making progress in my case. 

Ideally yes I would grind /linish the last of the welds and get it really smooth and looking nicer. In the interest of actually getting progress done I'll spend the 2-3 hours of grinding time on something else that'll progress things. 

It'll also likely end up with a heat shield of some description over it so I'm not too worried at this point 

 

[Beaver]

Good man. As long as it holds pressure, literally no one gives a fuck what it looks like. And if they do, fuck em.

[chris r]

Instructions said to bake at 200 for a hour to cure so now the house stinks, just about a hour after that it REALLY stinks. 

I would say lesson learned but I'll do it again 

[chris r]

More genuine Honda parts that were cheaper than aftermarket 

Exhaust stud and nuts installed and turbo mounted 

 

Manifold gasket and more new nuts, funnily enough I was four short so reused 4 old nuts 

As you can see the core needs to be rotated, 

That top bolt was fun to get out. Managed to get one of the retaining clamps off and hammer and screwdriver the bolt loose. One on the back was slight cross threaded from the factory so that went in the bin 

Oil feed is now on the top. A 90 deg fitting would look nicer but it'd be a bit too close to the housing and downpipe for my liking even with sleeving. Also I'm cheap and don't want to buy another feed line

Front housing on and oil drain fitting installed with mis matched bolts 

The waste gate arm circlip was fiddly but was easy enough to get two hands in there and clip it on. 

After I had tightened everything I thought I should have given the manifold a good clean out so the turbo doesn't eat any lumps but I'll see how it goes. 

[chris r]

Sorted the visible welds on manifold problem /s

Now turbo is in its final home I can start figuring out the rest of the plumbing 

Held the radiator fan up to check clearances. Its close to the front mount on the crossmember but just clears. 

Downpipe will be getting wrapped and might have to make a shield for the edge so it doesn't get too melty 

I would get a bit more space with a aftermarket traction bar but I can't justify $800 plus shipping for one and it won't be 800 worth of space and everything will magically fit 

[chris r]

As much as I've been avoiding it the next step is going to be attacking the radiator support panel and bonnet slam panel 

It's a bit dented and pushed back so that'll be pushing the radiator back closer to things 

Once that's straight and the radiator is where it should be I can then see what space I have to mount the intercooler, make the air conditioning hose out of the condenser.

Depending on space I may make some ducting for the turbo so it gets colder. It'll most likely get a filter shoved on it and it'll be greatful for that 

[chris r]

My tuner made a base map and dropped ecu off yesterday. Should be enough to get it started and check for leaks. 

Pretty cool that a 28 ish year old stock ecu can do boost control and wasted spark (and Bluetooth to the phone) with a few modifications 

[tortron]

6 minutes ago, chris r said:

Pretty cool that a 28 ish year old stock ecu can do boost control and wasted spark (and Bluetooth to the phone) with a few modifications 

bunch of turbo shit nissan guys end up with honda ecu, spark systems, for this reason (or with 1990s nistune that apparently isnt as good)

[chris r]

So instead of working on the car I just bought more stuff from aliexpress 

3" dump pipe flange thing to suit the turbo, unsurprisingly it doesn't for but a quick tickle with a file will sort that. 

Will cut it shorter and weld a elbow/section of donut onto it 

[chris r]

Been a month and slightly distracted with Mercedes stuff. 

Chucked a couple of gaskets and a coolant temp sensor in the order with the flywheel stuff for the tonner. 

Installed the temperature sensor so that's progress of sorts. 

Still procrastinating chopping the radiator support panel out and replacing it. The old seam sealer around the firewall has cracked and gone shit so I've wire brushed and squirted some brunox on. Will need to re seam seal it(find the seam sealer I purchased recently) and re seal it. 

Probably should order some paint matched aerosol cans so I've got one less excuse not to do it. 

Still need to get a bottle of gas for the tig welder but need to let the bank recover after the latest parts order 

 

[chris r]

I ordered some weld through primer, seam seal and colour matched paint so have less excuses not to deal with the radiator support. Found a bunch of spot weld drill bits.

Still will continue procrastinating. I got annoyed trying to hold the radiator, radiator fan and the bits of dump pipe so decided the fan needed to me mounted

Got keen and insalled rivnuts into the existing shroud hole before checking they actually lined up with the fans mounting brackets. Un suprisingly they didnt all line up.

There were some 4mm holes close to the shroud so I the shroud got Drilled and tapped to M4 and I shoved some m4 bolts in. I thought about doing the top to match but then I'd have to fill the hole with something and try and make it look less bad

Decided I cbf sanding it all smooth and wrinkle paint will hide my lazyness (hopefully) 

Hung it up in the indoor paint booth

 

Squirted some paint on and set the thermostat to hot enough to cure the paint and get it to wrinkle nicely 

Had a shit time with the ??? year old wrinke paint. Had to keep heating up the can and shaking it almost constantly to get paint to actually spray but got there in the end

Good enough, it won't be super visible anyway as there will be a dump pipe melting the radiator fan into the shroud

 

[chris r]

Still more ignoring the radiator support. 

Drilled/filed the 3" flange to suit. test fitted and made a mark. Cut it miles off the mark and not very straight 

The 90 deg elbow juuust clears the block 

 

 

 

[chris r]

Sat the radiator in and there is (just) clearance to the shroud

Even less to the fan

Once I fix the radiator support panel it'll hopefully move the radiator forwards a little which will give me more clearance. I can always tweak the radiator mount to try and get more space. 

Or I could always make the dump pipe a bit oval with a bfh to get a bit more clearance as well. 

If that all doesn't work then I can admit defeat and go 2.5" dump but I don't want to do that as the rest of the exhaust is 3"

 

[chris r]

Figured out the fuel line routing, Will need to find a p clip to secure it and stop it chafing as stuff moves

Couldn't sleep so had a midnight snack of spagetti.

Forgot where I'd got upto with the wiring. Realised I forgot the alternator warning light wire so picked one out and labeled it. un tangled some stuff, labeled some stuff and then went to bed. 

I need to decide if I reuse the original plug on the shutle harness, change the plug. Or wack a hole in the firewall and just shove the loom through and not worry about a plug