Merry Christmas boys and girls! I am exhausted, but I believe we are finally getting over the hump. I'm going to start writing these notes up like a blog so I can go back and redline the manual when this whole thing is finished... and also for anyone who might be working their own build (Groove!) before the instructions are rev'd.
We finished rewrapping the main wiring harness and heatwrapping it. My BIL did a great job with it and it looks damn near factory. We tied this up with stainless bailing wire, wasn't sure zipties would hold up to the heat.
The stupid fuel line / purge hose / heat shield debacle is finally over. That portion of the install has been very problematic. Either the spacer provided was too long, or the bolt provided was too short. Support (who has been amazingly awesome and very responsive since our first issue) suggested we shorten the spacer or get a longer bolt. I ended up doing both. The shield is difficult to place in because of the add-on fuel line. It has to bend along the chassis and thus wants to push the shield away from the chassis. If you get a looong bolt (no reason not to), you can thread it in loosely and then torque the shield and lines into place. I was a little worried that over time the shield may begin cutting the lines, so I wrapped them in a couple of of layers of heatwrap to protect #MOARHEATWRAP (can you ever have too much?). One note for GrooveStyle, the shield contacted the manifold in my case and could not be installed the way it is pictured in the manual. Support suggested I move the shield to the next hole back. Doing this you end up using that "middle" hole with the spacer. I like this better anyway, keeps the lines in place.
With that done, we were finally able to get the passenger side manifold in place and torqued down (I feel like I have installed and uninstalled the damn thing 3287486 times).
After that, we went ahead and installed the passenger side turbo. The back two mounting nuts are super easy, but the front two are a bitch. The higher one you can gently get your fingers in there and thread it on, then torque with the closed end of a combo wrench. The lower, front nut is a two person job. One person has to get a finger on the stud from the bottom of the car, the other person needs to place the nut on the stud with some kind of reaching tool (tweezers or.. we actually used a magnetic pick-up tool). The person under the car can hold it in place, and the person on top can get a finger on it and between the two you can get it threaded on. Torquing is similar - the person under the car has to blindly feed the closed end of a combo wrench up to the nut and the person over the car can guide it onto the nut. I highly recommend a ratcheting combo wrench for this.
We went ahead and installed the union for the pass side water feed as well.
Tomorrow we'll get the drivers side turbo mounted. I test fitted it this morning so it shouldn't be terribly difficult getting it mounted. Getting the waste gate and waterline in place could be a different story but support thinks we wont have issues. He suggests, in addition to what the manual has you connect to the turbo during prep, adding the inlet coupler, the outlet coupler, and the outlet pipe before mounting. We didn't have all that on during test fit this morning so there may still be some adventures waiting for us.
Overall, the fit and finish of the kit is excellent. Passenger side manifold/turbo looks factory the way it fits in there, though it is tight. Hoping the drivers side looks just as good. I've been very impressed with the quality of all the parts and have only had to make small adjustments here and there. The instructions are another story, but I'm also pretty sure I am among the first group to DIY this kit so they should get better over time. The support guy Gamma has hooked me up with (who is one of their builders) has been exceptional and I don't think we could have gotten this far without him (again, this will become less necessary as the instructions improve). I call or text him about 6 or 7 times a day.
I am seeing a light at the end of the tunnel and as of tonight I am feeling optimistic about meeting the timeline. There have been so many instances during this build where I have felt overwhelmed just standing there dumbfounded why I just took apart a car I bought only a few days ago, but just keep plugging away and as you overcome hurdles one by one, the finish line starts creeping into view.
Oh one more note for Groove.. I thought I was missing the drivers side compressor outlet pipe, but it just turned out the part number in the manual doesn't match the label on the packaging.
Thanks for reading! Sorry no pics yet.. We are taking them, just don't have a ton of time to size, post, caption, etc...
|