|
So here is a little story.
Yesterday seemed like a good day to do my decat pipes and silicone inlet upgrade. Managed to blag a 4 post lift to use to make life a little easier for myself.
Lovely day to be working on the car I thought as I got up, drove to the ramps and started the job of removing the splash guards and removing the downpipes at 10am, if any of you know the N54 engine you will know how much power can be gained through a series of upgrades but more importantly just how tight everything is rammed into the engine bay.
All the DIY tutorials are for American cars that are LHD, this is what makes it look like you can do the job on your drive in about 5 hours, us uk guys have a massive issue with the fact the steering rack is exactly where you need to work. After much cursing and 3 hours work the downpipes were off, next job the intakes, as the new silicone intakes replace the small and restrictive plastic intakes that go to the turbos it's better to do the intakes at the same time as downpipes.
After cutting and hacking through the rear inlet (1.5hrs) the standard one was out, trying to get the new inlet back in took an age and I had to get help from 2 friends to do it, as it is impossible to do on your own! The front was easier and only took 1.5 hours start to finish. Great onto the downpipes!
Managed to get the rear turbo pipe fitted with a lot more cursing and tantrums, fit was excellent and my friend has done a great job of welding them up, the front downpipes had an issue....the rear lanbda sensor location was in the wrong spot and fouled on the rear turbo lambda senor. PROBLEM! we came to the conclusion that the only thing we could do would be to cap the sensor bung off and drill a new one (this is the short version, there is a lot more to this story!)
Managed to get it done with with about 20 drill bits (all blunt!) and welded back in place, rest of the install went relatively well but all in all took 14hours!!
Not a job I recommend at all would just pay some one to do it if I knew before what I know now! What and absolute arse of a job!
|