First things first is you need to buy the appropriate parts to turbo your 420a. I will be using my personal experience for this write-up. Prices may vary.
Used T3/T4 Hybrid Turbo: $275
Used Treadstone T3/T4 Hybrid Log Style Manifold: $100
XS Power 38mm External Wastegate: $120
Used GReddy Type S BOV: $125
T3/T4 Custom Downpipe: $100
Used CCA FMIC: $75
Universal IC Piping: $125
Used Vortech 12:1 FMU: $100
Walbro 255LPH High Pressure Fuel Pump: $120
-4AN Oil Feed Line: $30
Summit Racing -10AN Oil Return Line: $40
Summit Racing Oil Line Fittings: $60
Glowshift Oil Sandwich Adapter: $35
Voodoo Manual Boost Controller: $20
HKS Type-1 Turbo Timer with harness: $145
Prosport Boost, Air/Fuel, Oil Pressure Gauges and Gauge Pod: $150
This makes a grand total of $1595. Add another $200 to this for misc. gaskets/bolts/hoses/etc. Some parts I bought used, some parts I got great deals on from other DSM owners, it's just the roll of the dice on what prices you find for certain parts. I had one other person (my best friend) help me through this full turbo install. We could've gotten it done in 3 days but it took 4 because we had to wait on the downpipe to be made.
Step 1: FMIC/piping and BOV (est time 8 hours)
First thing you have to do is take off the front bumper to get access to mount the FMIC. I had to fabricate some brackets to mount the FMIC (depending on which FMIC you get, some include brackets). I used a 1/8 inch steel sheet as my brackets and bended them accordingly. When you make brackets for each side, go ahead and mount them to the chassis right under the inner side of the head lights. You need to put the bumper back on (at least enough to where it can hold its form when it's fully installed back on the car) to see what kind of clearance you have making sure the brackets don't hit anything. If the bumper clears the brackets, take the bumper back off and mount the FMIC to the brackets. Put the bumper back on the car to check and see how clearance is. Depending on which front bumper you have, you may have to do modifications. I have the Extreme Dimensions Drifter front bumper and I had to cut some of the center out for the FMIC to be mounted and the bumper not bow.
Next is doing the IC piping. This took more time to do than mounting the FMIC. I bought a universal FMIC piping kit from eBay to do this job. This part is mostly DIY. Just run IC piping from the intake outlet of the turbo into the IC and then out of the IC to the intake manifold using silicon couplers with T-bolt clamps. The BOV comes in right here. Install the BOV inline with the IC piping from the IC to the intake manifold. You can either do this by welding a flange on the piping (hard on aluminum piping though) or do what I did and got a pipe that was made for my BOV and put that pipe inline with the pipes going from the IC and to the intake manifold. The BOV needs a vacuum line on the top port so I parasited one from the EGR vacuum line from the intake manifold to the EGR solenoid.
Step 2: Turbo/Manifold/Wastegate/Manual Boost Controller (est time 2 hours)
This part is pretty straight forward. Mount the manifold to the head. Mount the turbo to the manifold and mount the wastegate to the manifold. After you have done the mounting of the turbo to the manifold and the wastegate to the manifold, you can mount the piping from the turbo intake outlet to the IC on the turbo. The manual boost controller is easy to install. One vacuum line goes from the top wastegate vacuum port to the bottom vacuum port on the manual boost controller. The other vacuum line goes from the side vacuum port on the manual boost controller to the vacuum port on the turbo.
Step 3: Turbo Downpipe (est time inc exhaust shop time 3 hrs)
I had an exhaust shop make a custom downpipe for me from the turbo to the catalytic converter. They didn't have the T3 flange so I just ordered one from ebay. Attach the downpipe from the turbo to the catalytic converter. Pretty straight forward as well. Didn't get to take a picture of the downpipe but I will as soon as I get the chance to post here.
Step 4: Fuel Pump (est time 1 hr)
I bought a Walbro 255LPH High Pressure fuel pump from
Welcome To Extreme PSI. I gathered the information to install this into the factory location by a fellow DSMer, Jamie (jack_of_trades). Here's a link to his writeup:
2GNT.com - Walbro_255lph-HP_pump_install_in_stock_pump_bracket
Step 5: FMU (est time 1 hr)
I bought a used Vortech FMU on eBay. The FMU has an inlet, outlet, and a vacuum port. Take the line off the fuel rail and put it on the FMU outlet. Get a new piece of fuel line and connect it on the FMU inlet to the fuel rail. You can parasite a vacuum line from the intake manifold and connect it to the vacuum port of the FMU. Be sure to use hose clamps on the connecting hoses.
Step 6: Oil Feed/Return Lines (est time 2 hrs)
I bought the oil feed line from eBay. The oil feed line is a -6AN oil line one end with straight fitting and other end with 90 degree fitting. You have to tee this line off the back of the block. I used the location where the factory oil pressure switch/sender is. I bought a brass tee with the correct male/female fittings from Lowe's I believe were 3/8 NPT. Tap the oil feed line (straight fitting side) with the tee on the back of the block where the oil pressure switch/sender is. The other end of the oil feed line (90 degree fitting side) goes on the turbo. I had to buy a -6AN turbo oil feed line adapter from eBay because my turbo didn't come with one probably because it was used.
Next is the oil return line which I purchased from Summit Racing with a straight fitting on one end and 90 degrees on the other end. I had to purchase a -10AN bung to weld onto the oil pan. I also had to purchase a -10AN adapter for the turbo from eBay. Connect the straight fitting end of the oil return line to the turbo and connect the 90 degree end of the oil return line to the oil pan.
Step 7: Turbo Timer and Gauges (est time 2 hr)
I purchased a HKS Turbo Timer Type-1 from
Welcome To Extreme PSI. Unit is pretty nice. It's got turbo timer, digital speedometer, tachometer, 0-60 time, 1/8 time, 1/4 time, and voltage meter. It can also be used as a shift light. I bought a plug and play harness from eBay for $25. The TT install is pretty easy. The tt part is simple as cake. Unplug the factory harness going to the ignition and plug in the new harness to the ignition switch, the factory harness to the new harness, and connect the TT to the other end of the new harness. To get the speedometer and tachometer to read, you need to tap into those signal wires. Here's a link to the ECU pinouts as the ECUs are different from 95, 96, and 97-99:
2GNT.com - ECU_Pinout
I purchased the gauges from
Prosport Performance. They look great and work pretty accurately. The gauges were pretty simple to install. We'll start with the boost gauge which is mechanical. There were 3 wires coming out of the gauge and a vacuum port. The power wire (red) goes to switched +12V, the ground wire (black) goes to a ground source, and the dimmer wire (orange) goes to either dimmer switch if you even care about dimming the gauges which I didn't so just hooked the orange up with the red. The gauge came with a vacuum hose for the vacuum port which was tapped into a vacuum line on the back of the intake manifold. Next will be the air/fuel ratio gauge. Even though this isn't an accurate reading of your AFRs, it at least lets you know your fuel pump and fmu are working. The 3 wires with the boost gauge go the same and then there is a signal wire (green) which went to the o2 sensor wire tapped into the ECU. You can get this wire by looking at the ECU pinout I noted in the previous paragraph. The last gauge is the oil pressure gauge which has the same wires as the air/fuel ratio gauge and hooks the same way except the signal wire goes to the oil pressure switch which comes with the oil pressure gauge. The other end of the oil pressure switch needs to be grounded. I bought an oil sandwich adapter from eBay to make the oil pressure gauge sender install easy. Screw the sandwich adapter in-between the oil filter and the block and make sure to use an oil filter ring for the adapter to seal between it and the block. Next, screw the oil pressure sender into one of the ports on the sandwich adapter. Plug the other holes that aren't being used with a short bolt with the correct threads. Next is to slide the gauges into the holes of the gauge pod and mount the gauge pod on the A pillar.
Copyright Jack Stewart Writeups Inc. 2008
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