DIY AD Engineering Single Turbo Install DIY

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Introduction

I decided to make this guide since the only available installation instructions for this turbo kit expect that the work is done by a shop with the engine out of the car in a cradle.

Thanks to @AD-ENG for the hand holding and @AUbeast86 for various bits of engineering advice and @bdh for his input since he's done this already, on an E93 no less(less space).

Before you get started:

1. This guide is an educational piece only, I do not hold liability for any damages to anyone or anything.
2. I expect that you know how to jack up the car, drain fluids and uninstall the stock turbos, so no time will be spent covering those things.
3. You'll need Red Loctite, 7mm stud extractor(useful for removal and install), copper spray, long 7/32 ball allen socket, 1/4 drive 11mm wobble socket, stubby 1/2" box wrench, hi-tack spray, silicone spray, harbor freight engine brace, ground down tow hook(so it screws all the way in). The copper and hi-tack sprays are only used once, so you're better off borrowing some.
4. I highly recommend wrapping your manifold and possibly even putting a blanket on the turbo if possible. While it is a bottom mount and the hottest temps are kept away from your electronics, plenty of heat still makes its way up top.
5. While you're doing this, you may as well replace your waterpump and thermostat since it gets removed in the process.

Throughout this guide, all photos may be enlarged. To continue, use the table of contents on the side (or bottom on mobile) or use pagination below.

 

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Install the Turbo Manifold

• Start off by ensuring that all the stock turbo hardware is removed. This includes the vacuum canisters, boost solenoids, exhaust studs, inlets, waterpipe, old manifold seals, etc. Clean up the exhaust canvas with a Scotch Brite pad and wipe it down with a paper towel sprayed with brake cleaner:

• Set aside the oil return and coolant feed o-rings and waterpipe rubber gasket.
• Install heat shield using the 6mm SS button head cap screws. My production year head didn't have the forth screw hole tapped, so you can tap the head if you want but I ignored it and put loctite on the other three.

• Install the 7mm exhaust manifold studs that come with the kit, smear a little loctite on the thread tips. Do not use stock exhaust studs, they won't work because they need to be longer:

• Inspect and make sure the factory o-rings are in good condition, lightly grease and put them on the aluminum coolant plugs then install them into the block, which you can see in the previous photo:

If you have an automatic, the front plug is actually a return fitting for the transmission heat exchanger circuit. I opted to deleted that exchanger, switched to the 6MT specific coolant plug, radiator, and heater core return line then installed an external trans cooler. For those who retain the heat exchanger, your coolant fittings will look like this instead:

• Install the freeze plug into the front oil return, which is the round thing in the picture above. Optionally, take the stock front oil return line, cut off the block side and weld closed and use as a plug instead:

• Install gaskets on exhaust manifold very carefully. They are mega tight and the insides need slightly enlarged as you put them on. If you are too rough you'll deform them and they won't seat correctly when the manifold is installed to the head. If this happens the coppper nuts may not fully tighten down on the head studs and you may have clearance issues further down the line.

• Install primary o2 sensors into the manifold. As a precautionary measure, if the manifold is ceramic coated you could scrape some of the coating off the top of the o2 sensor insulators as well as a little bit around one of the stud holes where the copper nuts seat. This will ensure a good grounding connection with the head for the sensors.

• Install exhaust manifold to engine using copper nuts, wobble socket is needed to reach them all. Start in the center and work out, tightening a little at a time. Tighten nuts equally, do not over tighten. This is basically 11mm wack-a-mole once you get near the end. Go around to each nut until all nuts are snug and manifold sits flush with the head. If you tighten the nuts down unevenly, the gaskets may not seat correctly, the manifold may be very slightly crooked and you may have clearance issues between the compressor housing and the block.

 

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Install Boostbox and Mac Solenoid

• Go up top and finish connecting primary O2 sensors. Connect the BoostBox to one wastegate solenoid EV1 connector. Insert the resistor plug into the other EV1 connector.

• Ground the BoostBox using the extra cable to the grounding post near the strut.

• Plug the other end of the BoostBox into your MAC solenoid with EV1 PnP harness. Tuck your BoostBox in the ECU box away from the heat. Mount MAC solenoid with bracket onto heat shield:

 

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Install Turbo

• Remove the factory oil feed o-ring in good condition, lightly grease and put on the new oil feed fitting.
• Install the oil feed fitting into the block using the supplied M8 1.25 16mm socket head cap screw.
• Then install just the long portion of the feed line into block fitting you just installed. Let the other end hang. Tighten line so it is pointing straight downward.

• Remove factory water pipe gasket and place in the new water pipe then install onto the block:

• Pull compressor cover off turbo, heavily grease large o-ring and reassemble. Tighten the bolts on the compressor housing enough so it can be clocked, but not so freely the o-ring can become unseated. Be sure the compressor outlet is clocked upward so when you install the turbo later, the outlet can go over the water pipe, not under.

• Install the short feed line onto the turbo(out of the car) along with 4AN to 4AN fitting.

• Copper spray both sides of the t4 gasket and wait a minute for the spray to become tacky.

• With the gasket in place, position the turbo on the exhaust manifold, be sure the compressor outlet goes over the water pipe and bolt the turbo to manifold with 3/8” allen cap bolts, don't tighten, leave loose.

• The two lock washers go on the inside holes nearest the block.

• Leave these two screws nearest the block loose so you have room to get in and tighten down the two harder screws which are away from the block. Use a long 7/32 ball allen socket to get the hard one next to the turbine housing (front) and away from the block.

• I had to use needle nose pliars to gently get the screw low enough so that I could slip my ball allen socket in from the top.

• I also needed to rotate the center section, then use a 1/4" wrench to twist my ball allen socket because it was too long to fit a ratchet.

• The front screw nearest the block you access with the same ball allen socket tool. The rear screw nearest the block can be tightened with a simple allen wrench and the rear screw away from the block requires a ball allen socket again or a really small allen wrench.
  
• Clock turbo so center section drain surface is parallel to ground and the compressor housing has decent clearance from the exhaust manifold and frame rail. Tighten turbine and compressor housing bolts. You'll need a stubby 1/2" box wrench to get the top bolts on the turbine housing:

• Connect the long oil feed line from the block to the short oil feed line on the center section with the 4AN to 4AN fitting. Using cushion clamp, secure feed line to the compressor housing.

 

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Install Wastegate

The kit assumes silicone vacuum hoses with DEI heat sleeve is used for the wastegate lines, which is standard. I chose to convert to SS lines which is unnecessary and expensive, but I'll show it anyway since that is what I have photos of.

Due to clearance issues with AN fittings and restrictions with AN brake fluid banjos, I installed a custom M10 x 1.0 to 1/8 NPT 90 degree fitting from ebay(#201786925202) onto a bottom wastegate port. @Omar@VaderSolutions tipped me off to being able to clocking of the center portion(Pull diaphragm out, there are three bolts which allow the bottom of the top piece to rotate) you can avoid purchasing this custom piece and just use a straight converter. From there, connected a 1/8 NPT Female to 4AN straight adapter. For the top port, I used an M10 x 1.0 to 4 AN straight adapter. Ensure that the top side air port is facing the same direction as the wastegate dump flange as seen in the photo below:

If going the normal route and using vacuum hose, install the banjo barbs that come with the tial MVR. The ports used will differ from above, so install them accordingly. When done you'll have something like this:

• Install the springs into the wastegate. For the MV-R produced after 1/16/12, 1 bar is a Green, Blue and Black spring stack.
• Install the wastegate to the manifold, tighten until the wastegate does not freely rotate but do not fully tighten so the dump tube can be adjusted.

Stainless Steel WG Lines(Optional):
Install a 1/8 NPT to 4AN fitting into your chargepipe or intake manifold and run a 3' SS PTFE/Teflon lined hose back behind the engine where the rear inlet was. Connect one end of this line to the 1/8NPT to 4AN fitting and the other end to the inlet of a 4AN Y distribution block. Then connect a 1' SS hose and a 2' SS hose to that Y block. I had an issue where these lines actually came loose somehow while installing the ends to the mac solenoid and wastegate. This caused a boost leak which was a pain to fix since its not easy to put a wrench behind the engine, so I recommend double checking the AN fittings are making a good seal before running them behind the engine.

Take the 2' hose from the Y block and connect it to the Mac port #1 using a 90 degree 1/8 NPT adapter connected to a 90 degree 1/8 NPT to 4AN adapter shown below:

Take another 2' hose and run it from the Mac Port #2 with a 1/8 NPT to 4AN straight adapter, and connect it to the 4AN to M10 x 1.0 adapter on the top WG port(Blue fitting in picture below).

Take the 1' hose on the Y block and connect to the bottom port of the wastegate which has the 90 degree AN fitting(Silver fitting in picture above).

Silicone Hoses:

This way is very easy and recommend it for simplicity, just put the heat sleeve on the lines near the exhaust manifold and plumb the hoses the same as the stainless lines. The only real difference besides being easier, is vacuum hose is being installed on barb fittings that come with the wastegate.

• Install the dump tube to the wastegate and leave the vband loose.
• Install secondary O2 sensors into the downpipe and bolt the downpipe to midpipe using supplied M8 x 1.25 bolts.
• Install the midpipe brace.
• Connect the downpipe to the turbo using the vband. Make sure the vband bolt points upward to clear the motor mount.
• Rotate the wastegate/dumptube assembly so everything is positioned correctly with the dump tube about ¼" from the downpipe.

• Without letting the wastegate turn, tighten it down all the way. You may need to temporarily remove then reinstall the dump tube in order to access the wastegate vband bolt.
• Remove the factory wastegate canister lines from the vacuum pump hardline(that goes to the brake booster) and cap the barbs if they aren't already. I chose to replace that hardline line with 3/8" reinforced Vibrant vacuum hose instead of messing with caps(although a hardline is preferred).

 

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Button Up

• Install the Engine Mount. Do not fully tighten any of the subframe bolts, they will need to be loose to line up the holes on the mount to the subframe and to let the engine settle first. The engine side has two 12mm Allen bolts that go in the top and two 12mm hex bolts that go in the bottom.

• The subframe side mount has a groove on one end.

• This groove should be closest to the front of the vehicle. It installs with two supplied 8mm bolts. Mounts are connected with a 5/8” bolt, two washers, and a lock nut. Lock nut should be on the FRONT side of mount.
  
• Using supplied 8mm allen head bolts and hi-tack spray on paper oil return gasket, attach oil return line to the center section.

• Remove factory o-ring from oil return and put on the block side of the return line you just installed to the center section. Lightly grease and install the oil return line into block with the supplied allen head bolt.
• Install silicone elbow onto the compressor inlet. Install intake pipe and filter with worm clamps.

• The photo shown above is not the final fitment as I needed to re-adjust more than once. There are about 9 ways to install this wrong and only 1 way to do it right and its hard to tell until you try. So do not tighten the intake pipe side of this coupler completely. Make sure the clamp on the intake pipe is mostly snug and hex head is pointed upward so you can hit it from above with a ratchet and an extension once you've done more of the installation and see where things need to go. If the clamp is turned the wrong way(like in the photo above), and you find yourself needing to adjust the intake pipe later, you may need to remove the thermostat to access this clamp(ask me how I know). So make sure its accessible from the top.
  
• Mount water pump to the block.
• Connect the ground wire to the block and plug in the harness:

• Connect the water pipe to the water pump outlet using the 90 degree silicone elbow and clamps. Tighten well to avoid leaks.

• Connect the factory thermostat to the water pump with the U hose and remove the heat sleeve to use later. Tighten well.

• Connect the head to thermostat bypass hose.
  
• Take the compressor outlet coupler and spray the inside with a little silicone spray and install. Leave the clamp loose for adjustment from above when the fmic is installed.

• Install the subframe and once secure, remove the engine brace and finish tightening down all motor mount bolts once engine has settled. The single turbo specific work is now done, take deep breath, clean up then finish the install.

Tips:

• When connecting coolant reservoir hose, attach the waterpump heat shield jacket around the plastic connector to protect it from the manifold temps.

• The plumbing of the coolant hoses can be a bit frustrating because the new hardware consumes every cubic inch of space, especially on a convertible where there is an extra brace. Here are some photos that may help you figure out how to route them:

• When installing coolant hoses, be sure to tighten them down all the way and make sure the heads of the clamps are installed in a direction that they can be easily accessed if you find a leak after putting the car back together. The last thing you want is to have to pull the subframe to tighten a clamp hidden by the water pump:

• The final angle of the intake pipe should look something like this. When done, do not forget to tighten down the intake pipe side of the inlet coupler. You may need to push it deeper into the compressor inlet coupler on an E93 like I did, to make room for the coolant hoses:

• When installing the fmic, remember to finish tightening the compressor side of the intake coupler:

 

[Derek@MoorePerformance]

I really want to go ST but, for now I am just checking stuff of the list slowly but, surely.

 

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I enjoyed this installation, I can't say I'd do it again for fun but I learned some things along the way and got to know the car more intimately, which was the goal. Oh, and I have a lot more tools now.