Sabbot Posted March 31, 2013 Share Posted March 31, 2013 As a follow up to the “Major organ transplant” thread, the X-flow to BDA conversions seems to have been successful. My S3 runs again and took its first trip around the neighborhood accompanied by a new soundtrack of belt whine and induction grunts. Getting the an alternator to fit was a real PITA, the ford festiva 50A unit is small enough but has to be fitted perfectly to clear #1 exhaust primary and the steering column and leave enough space to tension the 27” belt. After 4 test fits and fabricating a new mount it now fits and hopefully won’t fry on the double wrapped header (thanks for all of the previous suggestions on ceramic caoting but I decided to wrap the headers to keep the alternator as cool as posible, but lost an all important 3/16 of an inch of free space - yup it's that tight) Fuel delivery to the twin 45’s is now by way of a low pressure Facet pump mounted above the rear axle beside the tank. All of the dry sump bits and pieces seem to fit and the only current issue is that somewhere during the conversion the feed for the oil pressure gauge seems to have sprung a small leak. After getting the car running on the K&N filters and test driving it with the hood off I found out that the hood didn’t quite clear the filters (the carbs on the BDA head sit about ½ inch forward of the Xflow and this is enough to foul the hood cut out. Rather than modify the hood I ordered a foam pipercross filter and backing plate from Burton Power in the UK. Huge kudos and a bit of a plug for Burton – I ordered the filter and a few other parts at 11:45 EDT (4:45GMT) on Monday and the parcel arrived at my door 2 days later with only a $30 delivery charge, which was more than offset by not having to pay the dreaded UK 20% sales tax. The only remaining issues are to fix the oil leak and get a more powerful battery. The venerable 330CCA Husky Garden tractor (small and inexpressive) battery that happily spun the X flow over for 2 years isn’t quite up to the task of turning over the BDA. I’m thinking either the Oddessy PC680 or PC925 but suggestions would be appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blubarisax Posted March 31, 2013 Share Posted March 31, 2013 Looks fantastic! I can't wait to see it in person and on the track. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S1Steve Posted March 31, 2013 Share Posted March 31, 2013 Stewart, That looks great, now there's one more I can't keep up with.... Look forward to seeing you soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yellowss7 Posted March 31, 2013 Share Posted March 31, 2013 WOW!!! that looks awesome. Nice work Stewart! :hurray: Can't wait to hear it on the track. Hope to see you in June. Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xcarguy Posted March 31, 2013 Share Posted March 31, 2013 Great work! As for the battery, I have a Braille B2618 in my car. While it's not a cheep battery, it does start my LS6 with no issues. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twobone Posted April 1, 2013 Share Posted April 1, 2013 would love to hear the sound track - can you put something up on youtube? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xcarguy Posted April 1, 2013 Share Posted April 1, 2013 I don't have a really good soundtrack, but I do have a first start with the Braille right after the install: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Croc Posted April 1, 2013 Share Posted April 1, 2013 Great news Stuart - well done. :hurray: Time for an extended reliability test that it looks like Spring may have finally arrived. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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