5.3l into 87 Chevy 2wd. “Big Red”

Nice fab work, and nice build! Wonder what that thing weighs with no bed....truck kart!

Today was my step-daughter’s birthday so I got to make some beer boiled brats as per her request and did a little work on the turbo hot side. Going two into one to hopefully get some good exhaust velocity. And I connected the 44mm waste gate flange to a scrap of exhaust. 

 I was not happy with how my feeds to the two turbines were significantly different in directness so: some cuts and welds. Y not?  

Then I thought that they should face a different way so: that is more symmetrical and some more welds. I also cut off the dump pipes because they didn’t do anything for me

this thing can eat E36 M3. Broke the first time I took it apart. 

But I did get the v-bands on that connect the front half to the back

and I set this in place(ish) as a sort of lame and crooked mock up. 

Whoosh! 

I expect that having two smaller turbos will help compensate for the potential lag from the remote mounting.

It's also possible that you may not need additional cooling of the pressurized air, which will help as well.

The rear mounts that I've seen written up had a straight shot right into the intake.

In reply to Floating Doc :

I am not going to pretend that I’m an expert since this is uncharted waters. My initial turbo idea was a single gt45, but a coworker put me in touch with the guy who took my super lowball offer ($300 from his $600 asking). These little things are ball bearing t3/t4 .50 compressor .63 turbines and most all the bits to make it happen. The cam is the Summit stage 2 turbo cam since boost was always the goal. 

I do have an intercooler that came with the “kit” but if I use it it will probably be in the bed as opposed to adding additional charge pipe length. 

I am excited to see how it works. I will definitely post some results. 

I made a cheesy fixture to hold my up-pipe in place and got the exhaust welded on  

after an embarrassing amount of time I made this simple bolt on crossmember to take the weight of turbos, waste gate etc. it sits 1/8” below the level of the bed so I can just chop holes where needed. 

In my Fiat parts bucket I found a leaf spring bushing motor mount and the welding dummy I used. Hopefully it will work as a turbo mount too. 

Zap:and connect to the crossbar 

I had some round bar that I found inside of the piece of square tube that the cross bar is made from so I used some to connect the up-pipe to the mount. 

And now the turbos are sitting in their new home we are out of town this weekend so I may not get a ton done for a while. 

I have considered a few times chucking a par of takeoff vf35's on my truck, looks like this could be a fun setup.

Sean

Today I thought it would be cool to make some more progress on the oil supply and return for the turbos. When I bolted up the drains I realized that I had built a thing in the exact spot that another thing needed to go. ‘Doh! 

The drain has right of way so time to chop up my mount. I am very happy that I made it bolt to the frame instead of welding it like the lazy part of me wanted to. I actually like it more now that I lowered it some. Plus the passenger side turbo drain isn’t fouled.  

I have several oil cooler block offs to choose from and this one looks like it might do the job of supplying oil. 

If the angle is not helpful then I will drill and tap the ICT billet one that is currently on the motor. To scavenge the oil I wanted a vented tank so I chopped up some 2” aluminum square tube and did some welding. The AN fittings started out black and turned the color of anodizing that has been in the sun for 20 years. I don’t know if it was the heat or the UV? Either way I have a vented oil scavenge manifold. 

Slightly closer to whoosh whoosh sounds. 

In reply to smokeysevin :

Do it! 

I took a little break from working on my remote mount turbo system because it was making me a little uneasy. The thing is: this is a truck. What makes a truck useful is mostly the bed. I did some measurements and having the turbos back there makes the bed almost completely unusable. I don't plan on doing farm work with the c10 but I do want to be able to haul bikes and the occasional other bulky item without melting anything. So...commence under hood turbo mounting project. I am fine with the weight on the front end if it means I keep a functioning bed. 
factory manifolds for the win. 

Heat shielding will definitely be required but everything clears for now. 
Looks like I will get to make some new brake lines which is okay because the ones made by the PO aren't beautiful at all. I stuffed a rag into the manifold before I holesawed out for the waste gate so as not to fill my engine with metal chunks. No inner fender makes checking hood clearance a breeze; plenty of room.

passenger side is super easy. Easy as pie. 
Same kind of waste gate mount on this side. 
I am going intercooler-free for the time being so that should simplify the charge pipe routing. I made a test weld on some of the charge pipe and it welds up nice. It feels good to be making progress again. 

In reply to GoLucky :

Without inner fenders making downpipes is going to be super easy.

What welding process are you doing to weld to the factory manifold? Im thinking about something similar. 

In reply to GoLucky :

tell me about your band saw.   i need one *soooooo* badly.

In reply to 1SlowVW :

I love the lack of inner fenders for almost everything under hood. I have some now but plan to wait for as long as possible to get them in. 

In reply to Dusterbd13-michael :

MIG. Apparently the LS motors have a cast steel manifold instead of iron meaning no pre/post heat etc.  

In reply to AngryCorvair :

Milwaukee porta-band on a SWAG off road table. I love it and use it all the time. It isn't as good for long straight cuts as a big industrial unit, but it is small and the saw comes off and is super handy that way. 

GoLucky said:

In reply to Dusterbd13-michael :

MIG. Apparently the LS motors have a cast steel manifold instead of iron meaning no pre/post heat etc.  

Cool. So, in this case you just start the bead/welder on ALL, and wirk bead from casting to tube to prevent burn though?

In reply to Dusterbd13-michael :

Yep. Thick to thin. 

Progress. 

Lots of plot twists in this thread. When does the movie come out?

Very cool project. I'm not a big fan of remote mounts. It takes a lot of guts to take all the work you done and throw it in the scrap bin and start over.

I don't know how I haven't seen this thread before. I like the choice not to cut into the bed, that's my biggest pet peeve with minitruckers and remote turbo setups.  Wicked project, carry on good sir.

Thanks all. I made some minor mods to a tool that has appeared earlier in this and the Fiat thread. It put the "bead" a little farther up the tube than was ideal and I could have used it as-is by following a line but this seemed like it was more user friendly. 
quick and easy. 

Next I welded on the flanges for the BOVs. 
and now it is another step closer to whooshing and huff&puff. 
now I need to make the radiator and fans fit and function. I also may change the lower fitting as well since the size and angle both slightly annoy me. 

This is a picture of when I used the wrong drill bit and made a too big hole in my compressor housing. 
and this is a picture of welding an aluminum plug back in prior to drilling with the correct bit. 
the Fitech manifold has a barb fitting that I need to plug. It is some weird size that is almost but not quite 1/4" NPT. I decided to chop it up and tap the internal to 1/8" NPT and use that size plug. 

and now the boosts cannot escape here. 
 

changed to a 160degree thermostat and some NGK tr6 plugs. Also removed fancy billet oil cooler bypass cover and substituted a stock one tapped for a turbo oil feed. 

No pictured from the thrash session Sunday when a friend stopped by: We pulled the pan, welded drains in, installed exhaust and turbo gaskets; fluids and made temporary exhaust. It looks like this now and is just waiting for me to update the software to a boost compatible version for a real shakedown. But it runs and haven't seen any leaks yet. 
No hood, no bed: no problem. 'Murica. 

There is just so much wrong in this shot (flappers on the down tubes?) that it makes me smile BIG time......oh and what's with the cracked windshield.......wink