[s-cars] RS2 Turbo and EM Swap Done!

[Sean Douglas]

Did the turbo and EM install this weekend. Took about 8 hours on
Saturday and 4 on Sunday. Dave Loff came over on Sunday and gave a
helping hand - Thanks again Dave.

Everything went pretty well, no broken studs or bolts, the bolts came
off quite easily and everything went on fairly well, even the dreaded
lower nuts on the EM weren't horrible. I did have to make some
adjustments to my homemade tools and a half moon 15 mm obstruction
wrench bent to about 120 degrees worked wonders on the EM to downpipe
nut (as pictured in Bentley). Also, a good quality stud remover is a
must.

The only problem I ran into was installing the new turbo. It is not
orientated in the same position as the original and the cold side outlet
did not point straight down. I didn't figure this out until I had it on
and the lower coolant line hooked up. So off came the turbo and I
loosened the clamps holding the hot side to the cold side and rotated
the cold side about 15 degrees so the outlet pointed straight down. It
took me about 2 extra hours of fiddling and the bottom coolant line was
a royal b*tch to put back on, it has to be aligned perfectly or it will
not engage the threads.

After filling up with coolant, I crossed my fingers and turned the key.
Success! But major exhaust leak - I forgot to tighten the driver's
downpipe to cat, oops! After fixing that I let it idle for about 15
minutes and let all the oils burn off and filled the coolant. After we
were satisfied there were no leaks it was test drive time.

Holy sh*t, even with the stock injectors, MAF and MTM 1+, it pulls hard
past 6,000 rpm with boost spiking over 25 psi. I can't imagine what it
will be like with the rest of the package. My butt-o-meter-dyno says 40
HP increase over MTM 1+. I'm going to keep my foot off it until I have
the injectors in because I don't want to take a chance of running lean.

Hopefully, the injectors show up soon along with the MAF and software,
then we will really see how it performs!

Sean Douglas
1997 Audi S6 - MTM Stage 1+, RS2 Turbo and EM - waiting for the rest!
1990 Audi 90Q20V