With the engine now sitting in the hole it was time to tackle the new manifolds. Since no one mades turbo manifolds for 3800's stuffed into cavalier's, like many other things we had to make our own.
I started with two laser cut flanges for the 3800, some 1 5/8" 16 guage tubing and a 3 into 1 collector. I thought about making them equal length but due to the space limitations I decided against it.
Once the front and rear manifolds were done and on the engine we could start to build the crossover pipe. The crossover pipe is made from 2.5" mandral bent pipe leading up to a T4 flange. The crossover bolts to the manifolds with standard 3 bolt 2.5" flanges. We started by making the upturn to the T4 flange and then bolting the turbo up. This allowed us to situate the turbo right where I wanted it.
Now came the problem of running the downpipe. Originally I wanted to run it down under the brake booster but since the outlet of the turbo is 3 5/8" there just was not enough room. We decided to run it back over the valve cover and down the firewall. The downpipe is 3.5" in diameter and we didn't have to cut anything to get it to fit.
Who says you can't put 3.5" exhaust on a cavalier, lol.
From this point and everything was removed and the finnish welding was done taking care to grind down the welds and get any pin holes out that may be there. When everything was ready it was all send out to be ceramic coated inside and out.
The intercooler that I am running is a Precision bar and plate intercooler. The dimensions of the intercooler are 34"x10.8"x3.5" with 2 3/4 inlet and outlet. I started by mounting the intercooler from the front rebar making sure that it would line up with the opening in my drift front bumper.
I wanted to run the 3" charge piping leading from the turbo and to the throtle body through the body of the car on each side for a cleaner look as well as restrict movement in the system. I cut out the stock sheet metal and built two plates to allow the piping to run at the angles I wanted. This part of the charge piping was built using mandral bent exhuast pipe. These were then conneted to the intercooler using 90 degree aluminum elbows and Vibrant couplers giving a clean look when the bumper is in place. The upper charge pipes consist of a 45 degree Vibrant elbow on the turbo side and a 90 degree aluminum bend on the throtle body side. This pipe also has the Tial 50mm blow off valve on it.
