Well I got a box in the mail yesterday. Unfortunatly I have a lot going on this week so I only got a few mins to set the turbo on the engine and look at a few things and snap a few pics.
First thing I noticed is that a normal, flat plate like what most of us run for our t-4 or t4i is not going to work for this turbo.
As you can see in the above picture, the 2 lower bolt holes for the up-pipes protrude lower than the bottom of the pedistal that the turbo sits on. This will require the turbo to be mounted higher by use of a bracket or spacer between the turbo and the plate. Here is another pic showing what I am talking about in case it is unclear.
Second thing I noticed is the turbo is held down by 3 bolt holes. 2 of which are located on the front side of the pedistal and should not cause any issue. the 3rd is located in the back of the pedistal and as you can see below, sticks out past where the up-pipes bolt to the pedistal.
This will requre the turbo to be moved forward. It is hard to see in the picture but the bolt hole is actually located directly over the oil supply and return holes in the block (when the turbo is centered in the valley and the intake is pointing straight forward)
Here is a picture of the space betweeen the turbo and the intake plenums inlet with the up-pipe flange flush against the back of the mount plate.
As you can see there is actually a good bit of space between the plenum inlets and the turbo inlet. With a intake y that tilts forward as it rises, I believe there would be space to have the intake attach as well. The problem arises when you remember that the turbo is sitting with the rear mounting hole hanging out over nothing when the turbo is sitting like this. In order to have that hole overtop of the plate so it can be attached, the turbo has to be slid forward approx 2".
While I didn't get any pictures of it, I did try clocking the turbo so that the intake would be more to the drivers side and the exhaust more to the passenger side. The first thing I noticed is this makes the outlet of the turbo compressor point directly towards the area that is occupied by the brake booster and master cylinder. I would have to stick the turbo under the hood before committing to this direction to see what all would be involved with connecting the hot-side intercooler pipe when the turbo is mounted in this direction.
I will be extremely busy over the next few days, and leave for vacation on friday for 10 days. I plan to use these pictures to try and map out how I want to proceed and how I plan to address the issues that I have found so far.
Here are a few pics from different angles that I took to help visualize everything. All of this are taken with the turbo sitting as it was in the first picture.
