HOW-TO: Diary of a 50 Trim and DTEC Install

[westrock]

This will document my install of a AGP 50 trim turbo and TurboXS DTEC and wideband tuner as well as associated equipment.

My goal is for this to evolve into a how-to on a grand scale

So sit back, enjoy the show, and check back every couple days


Getting The Parts Together

Heres the stuff I got from AGP

The turbo manifold assembly

Turbonetics 50 Trim .63 A/R. This is a mock installation so you can see the general layout of the setup.



Some different angles....





Heres the DTEC components and Tuner wideband components. The Tuner also came with a O2 bung to weld to an exhaust.



Walbro 255lph fuel pump kit and RC injectors. The pigtails (wire harness) are to replace the ones that come with the car since the new injectors have a different style plug. The billet metal posts are longer to let you continue to use the "SRT-4" plastic cover on your engine since these injectors are taller. The fuel pump came with what looks like some kind of a gasket...guess we'll see what thats all about.



TurboXS RFL blow off valve. I originally ordered the Raptor kit, but AGP said it would take 2 extra weeks to ship because they were waiting on backorders.

The silicon hoses aren't on there correctly, just to show how it comes. Its the AGP Upper Hard Pipe (UHP) with TurboXS flange preinstalled. The pipe has a very nice silver finish to it.




The first order of the day? Add some bling to that AGP turbine side heat shield

Its hard to see the difference in the pictures. Heres the shield as it came unpolished.



Heres me polishing with a polishing wheel and a drill press. I used Mother Metal Polish (places like Auto-Zone, Pepboys carry it).



Heres the final product...it looks pretty good in real life.

[j2talc]

nice..pretty much the same setup i will have soon, except ill be using my stage 2 injectors.

[blubyu]

Looking forward to reading this.Keep us posted.

[EX240drifter]

Why DTEC instead of SAFC?

Subscribed, I'll be going big turbo soon.

[westrock]

Quote: Originally Posted by EX240drifter

Why DTEC instead of SAFC?

Subscribed, I'll be going big turbo soon.

Because I've had a Gameboy SP sitting next to the bed for about a year not being touched...so thats $100 I save right there. Plus I've had 2 SAFC's stolen from my previous car. So I like that I can hide the DTEC and only plug in the GB when needed.

Both will work fine. I also wanted a wideband from the get go, so I decided to get the complete package, but an SAFC and AEM UEGO will work just as well. Personal preference.

[westrock]

I havent forgot about you guys. Just takes a while to format all the pictures and write the thread....plus after 10 hours of working on it I'm very sore

Heres a teaser....

[EX240drifter]

Wait, did you say Gameboy SP. Explain? Sorry, I'm new to all this

[blubyu]

You control the Dtec with a Gameboy.You do not need a laptop.

[EX240drifter]

thats bad ass, looks like i have a reason to whip out my DS this summer.

[westrock]

Day 2

First thing I did was take off the bumper for better access and I was thinking of modifying it a little later afterwards.

First you start off by taking out the 3 10mm screws on top by the hood latch. There may be 1 at each corner of the top, but I can't remember.



Now move to the underside of the bumper. There are 5 8mm bolts that need to be removed along the edge of the bumper. If you still have the wind dam on the bottom, then you might need to mess with that.



There are 2 star drive screws on each side of the fender. Not sure what size they are, but every "tool kit" that I have had the right size. You don't have to remove the wheels to get them off. I have a special wrench for tight clearances, but its similar to a 1/4" wrench, which would also work.



Next you'll want to remove the headlights. Remove the two long screws on each headlight. You can also remove the turn signal and main beam lights at this time. The turn signal bulb just twists out. The main bulb has a collar around it that twists off then the bulb socket pulls out.



I like to push the outer edge of the headlight assembly inside the fender, then peel the bumper forward and pull the inside bracket of the headlight assembly up and out.





Once you get the headlights out, you will have access to the final screws holding the bumper on. You'll want to use several extensions to get the wratchet out in the open so it can turn.



Once you get the nuts off, the bumper is free to come off. At this point you'll want to disconnect the side markers and the fog lamps. You can disconnect them before removing the bumper or you can pull the bumper off a little bit and then unplug everything. Just be careful not snag any wires or scratch anything.

Once you get the bumper off, you should look like this...

[westrock]

Next I took off the intake and Upper Hard Pipe (UHP). Everyone knows how to take off the intake, and if you don't then you should not be reading this thread with any amount of seriousness

To take off the UHP you will need to disconnect the Intake Air Temperature (IAT) sensor and Throttle Inet Pressure (TIP) sensor tubing. The IAT is the sensor that plugs in infront of the throttle body. Pull the red tab out on the sensor then push down the tab to release the harness. The TIP is the red tube. Its easiest to use a flathead screwdriver and lift off the black part that actually connects to the UHP.





Then loosen the clamp on the throttlebody and down on the intercooler piping. Now the UHP should come up with some prying.

[hydrohopper]

Great job. Keep them coming.

[dubgunit]

One thing to add, l think you are missing three more injectors, j/k lol. Looks great so far. I think you will enjoy the new found power.

[westrock]

Now we can get started on the fun stuff.....

For instructions I used both the instructions that AGP provides as well as the Turbo How-To PDF that Scottphphq is hosting right now. I would highly suggest you save that little gem right now. When this thread is completed, or at least through the bulk of the install, I will save it as a single PDF and also host that. Having a laptop in the garage with you is also a great idea

Jacking up the car

If you have never jacked up the car, the jack points are on the sides of the car near the wheels. Look almost under your side mirrors on the front of the car and you should see in the metal underneath the door two triangle notches that are about 3"-4" apart and maybe about 6" away from the wheel. Place the jack inbetween those triangles. The back is the same, look for the two spaced out triangles right before you get to the rear wheels. You don't have to jack up the rear. I do, because my car is lowered and my normal jacks just barely won't fit under the front of the car so I have a small scissor jack to get it going in the back. You may want to jack up one side of the back a little ( I prefer the driver side) so that you can get under where the exhaust is.

Exhaust

I started by removing the exhaust. Depending on the exhaust you have will determine how you remove the exhaust form the car. If you still have the stock exhaust I would recommend starting at the back end. I went ahead and cut the rubber hangers the first time I ever took the exhaust off because you can buy them at Autozone for like $2 each and they are very hard to get off when you have little slack. Once you get the hangers off the rear section, loosen the bolt on the exhaust clamp where the B-pipe comes out right after the back driver side wheel. Twist the exhaust tip section and pull at the same time. Once you start getting the twisting action working it will start to work its way off...its about a good 2" you'll have to work out. Next move to the B-Pipe. Loosen the clamp thats under the gear shifter area. The B-Pipe has a lone rubber hanger back where it goes over the rear driver side axle. At this point the B-Pipe will have enough slack that you can use a screwdriver and pry that sucker off, or you can just cut it. The easiest way to get the B-Pipe off (for me) is to grab it where it makes a 90* turn over to the side of the car. Place one hand on the first bend in the middle of the car, then the other hand over where it bends back towards the rear of the car. Using the inside bend as a pivot twist the outside bend. This will cause the entire B-Pipe to swivel and hopefully work that clamp loose up by the downpipe. Again twist and pull and it will slowly come off. Carefull, it weighs a couple pounds so it will fall when it frees the clamp.

So now you should have the downpipe left. You should see the secondary O2 sensor plugged into the catalytic convertor. You can either remove the O2 sensor from the cat, or unplug the harness from the chassis. I preferred to unplug the harness. A 7/8" wrench will fit an O2 sensor (any O2 sensor) perfectly and is a great tool to have....get one that is about 8" long for leverage. The harness is attached to the subframe. There should be a tab on the top of the harness, push it down and pull the sensor side off. The part that is attached to the subframe is the male end so it is inside the outer harness. Resist the urge to pull on the wires because that could damage the harness.



Once the O2 sensor is out of the way, you will need to remove the 4 nuts holding the downpipe to the O2 housing. Look straight up the downpipe and you will see the nuts. The left, right, and bottom are nuts that screw onto studs in the O2 housing. The top one however is reversed and is a bolt that goes to a nut with a flange on the back side. Normally this is not a problem, but after like the 3rd time I removed an exhaust off my car that flange broke off the nut and it was able to spin freely. If that happens you will need to put a wrench on that nut (easiest from the above the engine) to keep it from turning.

Heres what the O2 housing looks like, just so you can get an idea of what your up against. I used a 3/8" socket wrench and about 2 feet of extensions to comfortably reach up the exhaust tunnel. 14mm socket I believe.




Removing Stock Turbo

At this point you may want to put some labels on all the vacuum hoses so you'll know whats what later on. I just fold some blue tape over the hose and use a Sharpie to write the name. Probably want to note the wastegate, turbo pressure outlet, the TIP on the upper hard pipe, etc...

First things first, we need to drain some coolant out of the engine. This is so that when you remove the coolant lines here in a little while it doesn't make a huge mess. The procedure is very simple.

Next to the Lower Hard Pipe (the rubber hose that connects the long charge pipe to the intercooler) you will see a little spout on the bottom of the radiator. Peel the splash guard back and tucked behind some wire looms above the spout is a white turn handle. I opened the radiator cap before I drained anything, that way air can displace the water as it leaves. The radiator cap is a bit of a pain, you'll have to push it down on two sides to get it to clear the ledges on the underside. Look at the underside of the cap while turning it to see what I'm talking about.



Place a bucket under the spout and turn the handle counter clockwise. You should be able to loosen it by hand...though it may take some work to get your hand in at a good angle. You'll want to drain a descent amount. The bucket I used, the water was about 3" deep. When your done, just twist the white knob clockwise till it won't turn anymore.



The first thing to get removed is the water coolant supply line for the turbo. Its that metal/rubber hose that rubs on all the 3" intakes....you'll be glad to chunk this out. You can go ahead and remove the rubber hose the proper way like I did, or to be honest you can just cut it with some scissors around where the dotted line is that I made. Then shove that metal bullet looking plug included in the AGP kit into the cut hose and clamp it.




Next you can remove the coolant overflow tank located on the firewall. The overflow tank has a screw on a flange up top, then a second down on the passanger side. Remove these. You may want to remove the rubber hose where it connects near the radiator cap. Then you can wiggle the over flow tank out the top. It may help to pull the weather stripping out to get a little more room for that flange. The weather stripping just pops off with some tugging. While your in here find the primary O2 sensor in the O2 housing and follow the harness to where it plugs it. Unplug the harness.

[westrock]

Lets touch the turbo This is where the AGP instructions may leave you a little hanging, because this was the hardest part in my mind and the instructions say "Remove stock turbo assembly" and thats it.

First lets get the top heat shield off. There are several bolts holding the shield on. Maybe 2 on the top, and a couple around the edges. The shield comes off pretty easy. Afterwards you will be greeted by the turbo and manifold. My thumb on the turbine side for size comparision.



Naturally you'll want to get that bottom heat shield next. Well I'll be totally honest, it took me 6 hours to finally get that #@!&#! off. The first route I took was the "cut that bastard off" method.




That didn't work out so well. I got it cut down the middle, but it still wrapped around some the bracket and I couldn't get it out.

So here what we did. We removed all the coolant and oil lines from the turbo. There is the one on top. Two on the back side, and the big oil return line on the bottom. Remove the bolts on the hardlines on the top and back, be carefull not to drop the washers. The oil return line on the bottom, just unscrew and remove the bolts attached to the turbo, don't worry about down on the block right now. Also loosen the clamp holding the charge pipe to the turbo. At this point you can probably remove the whole charge pipe. Loosen the lower hard pipe from the intercooler and detach it from the charge pipe. Now the two bolts on the bottom of the engine. Now you should be able to wiggle the charge pipe out from under the car. You'll have to twist it around to clear everything and may need to jack the car up a little more.

Next you will see a metal band holding the cold and hot side of the turbo together. loosen the bolt on the clamp, eventually the bolt will come out and the clamp will open up like a clamshell. At this point there should be nothing connected to the turbo. Charge pipe removed, vacuum hoses disconnected, coolant/oil lines detached, metal band removed. Pull the turbo straight out from the turbo manifold. Be carefull not to damage the turbine as it comes out of the manifold housing. You'll probably want to pry the oil return line on the bottom loose as you pull the turbo out. It had a gasket material on it that was stuck to the turbo.



Now that you have some extra room you can remove that big support bracket on the back of the engine block. With the compressor side gone you should be able to access the bolt at the top of the bracket. Don't try to unscrew it from the nut on the passanger side, unscrew the bolt on the driver side. As we found out the nut is actually welded to the bracket and will require quite a bit of force to get it free

Then the bracket has two more bolts down at the bottom that will be hard to see, but easy to get to with a socket wrench and some extensions. There is also a hose that mounts to the bracket that will need to be freed. Once all those bolts are out the bracket should just drop out. At this point you should be able to remove the bottom heatshield.

And walla



Removing O2 housing and Manifold

This part is very easy. Remove the 4 nuts holding the O2 housing to the manifold. The O2 housing will now come out, either from the top or bottom, where ever you happen to be at the time. Now just remove the bolts and nuts from the manifold and work that thing out from its home. Remember to remove the exhaust manifold gasket too to inspect it for any damage.


Preparing For The AGP Turbo Kit

Now with all the stock turbo stuff gone its time to prepare for the new turbo. If you haven't done so already remove the oil and coolant hardlines as well as the oil return tube. The hardlines at the block are a two piece ordeal. Unscrew the smaller tubing, then unscrew the fitting. Once you have the old fittings removed, find the new ones AGP sent in the baggie. The one that looks like a fat bolt will cap off the water return line since the new turbo does not use water cooling ( 50 trim that is). The fitting with the smaller hole in the middle is for the oil supply line. Refer to the picture to see where they go.



Heres a picture just to see how the stock manifold and wastegate are setup