Originally I made my dyno appointment a little later in the spring to give myself some wiggle room if I got close to the deadline. I called TPIS to see if they had any openings a little sooner as I've got the car ready now. (Also, after all this work I am ready to see what she can do in the hands of a competent tuner instead of my limited tuning ability.) I got moved up to April 17th, nearly a month sooner.

Only 2 weeks out from some real numbers!

 

It might be worthwhile keeping the heat out of your brake fluid as well as the other parts. Maybe a metal plate between the turbo and the master cylinder to reflect the heat away. Heat will hurt a lot of components under the hood, be sure that your Power Steering Reservoir is free from any external heating. Hotter P.S. Fluid will lead to a shorter life of the Rack and Pinion.

Heating brake fluid can lead to "boiling" of the fluid and then experiencing a total brake failure. Me, I would keep the heat away from the braking system at all costs.

Very nice project you are making there! Like mentioned above this is way cooler than slapping a non-stock engine into your Corvette.

On my C3 I have learned that the "hotter" (Heat wise) the Ignition Coil gets the "shorter" it lasts, this might be another item to keep cooler away from the turbo manifold. I used to have them on my intake manifold but after replacing the coil three times I have finally changed it's location.

The other painful lesson I had to learn is what happens to your Hood Paint when you have a very hot engine block or higher than normal temperatures under the hood. I have 12.25-1 Compression ratio and that burned off the first 3-5 inches of ceramic coatings and before without a fan running post engine shutdown the heat coming off my headers has destroyed the paint on the top and inside the hood. Now I have a fan blow over the hot engine for at least 5-10 minutes after shutdown cooling down the extreme heat generated after a shutdown.

 

Thanks!
Its hard to see in the pictures but there is a heat shield for the master cylinder and brake lines. (Its in there somewhere...)
I have noticed the additional heat though. That turbocharger makes a lot of heat!
As much as I was originally against it, I have decided to put louvers in the hood to help bleed some of the heat. It's not bad when moving but starts to add up after I've shut the car off and it is sitting still. There's just nowhere for the heat to go but up to the hood. I was hoping not to cut any holes in the hood as it runs the whole looking bone stock from outside thing but found a set that have honestly grown on me. They will actually end up almost right over the turbo, just a little towards the firewall. That should help considerably.
No matter what the dyno numbers come out to, I'm very excited to see the numbers. This has been a fun (and frustrating) project. I'm honestly somewhat surprised that I managed to make this work. It has definitely given me more power, idles like stock, and sounds just nasty when I'm on the boost.

Have I mentioned that I'm excited about my dyno appointment? 🤣

 

The bigger runners and the turbo just make the l98 concept look so awesome. Not obvious if there is an intercooler? Is there one snuck into where original air cleaner was?

 

What size turbo is that?

 

I don't have the specs handy but it is a T4. (Should support 600hp.) I'm planning on switching to a pair of T3s on the twin turbo setup as my future power goal is higher than the T4 can support.

 

There is an air to air intercooler mounted in front of the AC condenser. It's a pretty tight fit. Unfortunately, I don't have any pics of it handy and the car is now back on the ground. (At least for now, I'm on an every few drives it breaks something new kind of stretch right now. 6A box failed a couple weeks ago and now it seems that my power brake booster is on he way out. Seems I'm spending as much time wrenching as I am driving as of late.)