Ok I've done this! Um, mitsu 13c from a 700-something, into an 88 245. Um everything's cool everything's peachy (i.e., no _expensive_ noises yet and it actually RUNS!!!) but this thing is not quite right yet so I have a question for anyone that might know. (If you do 'know' PLEASE skip all the crap below to the bottom where my question is.) But first I'll say a few things about what I've done in case someone else tries doing this. I'll take pictures in a bit if anyone wants. I'm basically ratting this thing but I'm trying to pay attention to the things that people on this board have said really matter. . .spend money where there's no gettin around it.
Um ok the intake - I pulled the intercooler and all the intake hoses off the jy car. It all works great. For the airbox -> amm -> snail deal I'm reusing all stock plumbing. I cut the top half of the airbox off so the filter is exposed, and put it up near the right headlight, under the sheet metal. Stock hard plastic 90* from that to the amm, then the original flexy intake hose from the amm to the turbo. I know it's kinda ****ty but it works for now and it doesn't leak. I blocked off one port (the old idle air valve port I think?) and am using the other one for the vacuum line to the PCV. Oh ps I ripped out the non-functional (the hoses had broken long before I had the car) a/c so there's room in the grill area. Today I ran a compressor set at ~20psi to pressure test the whole intake system and it doesn't _seem_ to leak as far as I can tell, although the duster head I was using makes a lot of noise so I can't tell for sure yet. Gonna do the pressure cap tester soon. Oh, the intercooler's mounted forward of the rad, liberal use of wire ties here. Seems secure enough for now. I think there's a turbobricks smiley I'm supposed to put here but I can't find it.
As for the pcv, I'm running a male-male plastic piece in the end of the old big hose that used to go to the intake piping, and a length of radiator hose over to the intake between the amm and the turbo. Uh I lurked around, didn't ask, but I didn't see any consensus on whether the small vacuum line from the pcv/flametrap (that's right, right?) to the mani should be connected. I'm running it, I haven't had any problems yet. It seemed to me that the big hose would prevent too much boost pressure from entering the pcv anyway. Are there any opinions on this now? I'm not blowing oil anywhere that I can tell but I haven't run very long.
It's a water jacket turbo so I just took the coolant hoses (they're all branch-y) and the hard steel pipes near the turbo itself. A little chopping and hacking but they fit.
Oil feed: a pipe barb fitting, a straight, screwed into the oil gallery port. EFI hose from there to the turbo. At the turbo I've got. . .god I can't remember what, I did this part about two years ago before college. Anyway long story short there's a bolt with a hole down the center. I MAY have drilled a bolt, I honestly can't remember right now. In any case I hacksawed a brass barb fitting and silver soldered that on the top of the bolt head. The efi hose just slips onto there. Seems really secure and it's cheap enough. (ps for you genuine tb-ers out there, I'm looking at YOU with the jbweld in your hand, I did this with almost nothing on the roof of a building in south dakota in the winter. So it's not hard. I'll post here first if it breaks.)
Oil drain - the original flange and a bit of the original pipe, welded to a steel 10an fitting. Then a $30 braided stainless (teflon-lined, I guess) weatherhead hose from a hydraulics supply. Then my fitting for the bottom end is a bent section of electrical conduit, welded to another 10an fitting at the top end and a flange I made up (that looks pretty much like the stock flange at the turbo end). I dropped the oil pan, drilled a big hole and two small holes on either side. Inside the pan I welded nuts to bolt the flange to. Probably a better way to do this but I can drop the whole oil drain thing from the outside and redo it (which I've done a LOT) without messing with the pan. Anyway I'm new at this. Cut a gasket for between the flange and the oil pan, put in some gasket sealant, non-hardening. It may leak.
Hmm I think that's all the useful information. Pulled the j/y downpipe, welded it up to my old cat, seems to work well. We'll see when I get this thing re-registered and inspected.
NOW HERE'S MY REAL QUESTION! It's NOT running right yet. There's this strange 'choking' on acceleration. It's worse under load. It almost doesn't happen in neutral but it still does, and it's worst when I increase the throttle fast. If I come on slowly I can bring it all the way up to the rev limiter (at least in neutral, I haven't taken it on the road yet). But when I hit it hard, as soon as boost hits (I think, according to the barely-functional jy boost guage - first thing on my shopping list) it kinda chokes and loses power. BUT if I hold the throttle down, it'll kinda work through it in a bit and come up to boost and full rpm. So it's not a really bad noise, like I assume knocking would be, but it definitely impedes driveability. . .I don't think it would 'work through' on it's own, I can only accelerate slower if the car is in gear. Is this just normal in the bare bones +t setup? This is LH 2.2 of course, and it's ALL stock injectors, computer, everything. The only thing non-stock is I replaced the fuel pumps with an intank walbro (which is workin great.) Does anyone have any idea what this is? It seems odd, like I should be able to get better accel from what isaac is sayin. Thanks in advance! ps the timing is at 14* btdc atm. I haven't messed with the wastegate at all, should be completely factory psi.
edit: searching more now, I assume this is a fuel supply issue? So I should check my fpr (I haven't). . .what else? I'm _pretty_ sure that in-tank pump is working fine, and I replaced all the hoses back there when I did it. Also someone mentioned spark blowout but that doesn't seem likely?
Also, Things I Thought The Turbo Caused that it Really Didn't:
1. high idle after warm-up: nope, it was running lean because the 02 sensor was broked. Replaced it with a spare used 5-wire (is that a wideband?!) from my bro's jetta, works great.
2. Rally car-like popping and banging in the exhaust on decel (it's on just the downpipe at the moment, sounds AWESOME): nope that was just my TPS unplugged, found that one on here searching. Thanks whoever it was that said that. Sounded really bad on the turbo.
3. Car engulfed in flames: nope that was just the driver being a tool