VP T16 turbo

[countrydude]

cheers jeff, held up with niggly things. Holes I made to fit rad were too far forwards so i've ordered up a carbide burr to elongate the holes, bracket for actuator needs similar treatment. The standard actuator sat right on the adapter plate for the gearbox so it had to go! I can't get into the workshop atm so no easy access to all my usual weapons of modification!

The intercooler sits forward of the front bar whereas before it was strapped underneath it. It will cost me another week, but I think I have covered everything now.

I'm happy to have all 5 bolts for the manifold solid, they are the only thing supporting the weight of the turbo, manifold and downpipe so there is a fair force on it.

[Mike Brock]

Wow cool - Intercooler looks familiar - is that Victor's Radtech designed one? Not much of the intercooler will be exposed for cooling once you get bumper and grill back on unfortunately. Keep the info and plenty photo's coming - as I think you have one hell of a interesting street sleeper!

[countrydude]

I'll have a look once the bumper is back on, I don't really want to fit an evo style front bumper but the front bumper is a bit tatty so it wouldn't be missed so much. Shame to loose the modest front though. I think it being twice the size (nearly) will give me an edge even on hot days, the airflow through the standard bumper and grill is ok, otherwise I'd have been overheating on hot days in the summer.

I'm itching to get it finished, but real work has got i the way for now! I might squeeze a couple of hours if I can. I could do with a summers evening... I thought I was taking off the turbo and replacing it, not replacing the whole front end! The car is parked in a field, not a lit workshop!

[countrydude]

Ho hum, I just emptied all tools and turbo etc into the maestro. Thinking on the bumper issue I just offered it up to the car and the standard one won't fit back on! I think I have an alternative, this 'little tweak' is getting out of hand now!

[countrydude]

hmm, I think to keep the big front mount it has to be an open mouthed evo style front bumper. The standard bumper sits right in the middle of this cooler. And as we know it is quite a wide strip. I can't believe Victor mounted it behind one! I think the bumper will fit at a push but looking at airflow I'd be much happier with a more open designed front bumper. Seeing as the intercooler is around the same size as the rad now I think the sleeper phase is over. I'll keep it the 80's colours and from the back it will still fool people, but not the front

As always, it is like a natural progression, nothing for show, it's form is purely evolving from function.

[Mike Brock]

I always thought Victor's intercooler (which i now own) wasn't performing as it should purely because of the std meastro bumpers restricted air flow. Have you considered chargecooling? You could retain the street sleeper image with std bumper as the cc only needs a smallish radiator up front which would be considerably smaller than that huge intercooler. Just a thought .

[countrydude]

I have a good contact for charge coolıng, he has ıt on hıs maestro turbo. I'm sort of undecıded really. I have a bumper arrıvıng, ı'll see how ıt sıts and go from there.

[Mike Brock]

I'm curious as to what your going to do now considering your selling the Radtec intercooler?

[countrydude]

I'm inbetween ideas, hopefully the bumper I ordered will arrive quickly so I can decide.

Short term I'll fit the radtec behind the standard bumper.

I was thinking of selling the radtec and buying a brand new saab intercooler to have the same setup as before. But after talking to wilky the design with crimped end tanks is a weakness which can only end up with them blowing off. This will keep the car as low fi as possible.

Other way short term is the same, long term is to fit a early scooby front bumper as that gives the more open mouth design to give more airflow. I was also thinking of a downforce design front spliter which will give more grip and flow a greater volume of air into the cooler.

As I say, I'm somewhere between the ideas, I'd rather keep the sleeper element with the standard bumper. Biggest shame is I didn't have the intake temps logged on the dyno run I did to see if the bigger cooler actually works behind the standard bumper.

A quick look on friday told me there is possibly less surface area on display to direct airflow on the bigger cooler than the old saab one.

[countrydude]

but as you can tell I have almost re sold the radtec cooler to myself. I realy like the car's character as it is, I'm not sure what to think about restyling in a turbo fashion. I'll get some pics

[countrydude]

The beginnings of a fair rebuild, turbo, rad, intercooler, cams, and starting with a gearbox mount. I used a diesel top gearbox mount for the conversion as I had plenty of spares (all previous m cars were all diesel estates)

The standard bush sits and allows a lot of movement, even from new the bush will not hold the gearbox rock steady.


New uprated bush firstly adds a bottom washer, then a rubber bush.


The main bushing is from a Citroen saxo, derived from a Rover gearbox mount funnily enough. The mount comes from the peugeot diesel engine days. Funny how some things never change. Anyway, the main difference is the centre hole is m12 on the peugeot mount. The diesel mount uses a 16mm rod, with only a top section reduced to m12


I managed to send a 16mm drill bit through on a pillar drill to get a snug fit. This will be annoying to fit but will make the mount solid. the bottom bush interlocked into the main mount




With any movement being reduced so much I'm going to reinforce some of the threads in the chassis leg tomorrow, with the car being an S series auto originally, the old mount didn't use the same number or configuration of bolts.

This is an extreme measure, but a necessary one as when boost is running high there is a hint of uncertainty that I must try to get rid of.

The new bush/mount is easily available from vibratechnics, but anyone else doing a t16 would be better using a efi or turbo gearbox mount anyway. I'm just making the best of what I have. I'm just thankful the bush is rubber and not poly, as poly here would likely shake the car to bits!

Classic case of devil being in the details here, not very exciting, but very wordy update! Bear in mind this was done after Christmas lunch, and oddly cold sober too! I'm just not in the swing of it this year

Hopefully be bolted up tomorrow and make a start on a few more interesting bits.

[countrydude]

Wasn't as bad as I first thought. There are 3 m8 bolts into factory threads in the chassis leg. I made a plate that will be welded to the mount to add extra support.

[Simon]

Very neat - good engineering.

[countrydude]

Quick update, Intercooler and radiator fitted. This was a bit of a job as I've had to convert back to a maestro turbo style radiator back from a ti setup, so top and bottom mount have been repositioned, sadly the top crossmember is looking a little like swiss cheese!
Irritatingly I had to take the compressor housing off the turbo and re tap a thread to fit the actuator bracket, all done now, turbo bolted up onto manifold and ready to fit. I'm working outside for now so I've finished for the day. Hopefully I'll get on ok tomorrow possibility of getting it fired back up, just a tricky radiator top hose to make up, might not be the best looking element of the car, but nothing that can't be sorted over a little time.

[countrydude]

Managed to 98% finish this today, as suspected the top hose is currently interesting! It is around double the necessary length but it works! With a helpful monty estate to jump off it sprang back to life first turn which is good. After 3-4 months of sitting idle.

Oh, a great way to check if your turbo oil feed is ok? - Leave your oil drain off. But of course I meant to do that, there are no accidents here

So I just need to sort out a tricky route for the air filter, the intercooler pipes are right in the way. Finish off the gearbox mount, and empty the car of all the general junk it fills with when it becomes a project car. Mainly car parts boxes/packaging.