XPT

if you linish it back and use S2 "super steel" filler rod it's nice to weld. If its staino you want...... Up to you whether you go 304 or not, read up on carbide precipitation before you do. Mild steel steam pipe bends are about $3 ea from memory in 1.5". Not too expensive.

Yeah sure you can repair the cracks, it will crack again right next to the weld due to the properties of the metal changing forever. Then mount a heavy turbo to that. 321 is a lot harder to come by for sure but if you can't get a hold of 321, what's wrong with mild steel? If you want it pretty then ceramic coat it.

I wouldn't use 304 it will crack eventually, it's not rated for high temperatures. 321 is the stuff you want, it's rated for much higher temps. I'd just use ceramic coated mild steel steam pipe personally. It's cheap and should last forever. But if stainless is a must go with 321 grade. I'd go with sched 40

If the Autronic can be trusted to keep a mega dollar 600+HP 5L V8 alive for 1000km on 98, I dare say it will be fine running a 250 between 5-7k rpm for 11ish? seconds at WOT on methanol.

Ray Hall Turbocharging are apparently an M&W distributor according to the M&W website. Maybe have a chat to them

Only problem with a centrifugal blower is that boost rises in direct proportion to revs meaning you have to rev the motor hard to reap the benefits. The roots blower gave a 140hp increase in peak hp with a massive gain in torque which peaks earlier than the centrifugal blower and has quite a flat torque curve until it falls away probably due to the inefficiency of the roots blower. It would be quite good on the street and be better everywhere in the rev range except up top. I'd go a turbo before a centrifugal blower (or a roots blower for that matter) as you would have much better mid range torque with the top end to match, provided you have correctly sized the turbo of course. You don't drive with the bonnet up and looks don't matter especially for an under bonnet setup. If you were going a 6/71 look then fair enough but for the money a turbo craps all over any supercharger and you can maintain good drivability. Check this out:

http://www.mwignitions.com/pg_coils.php I'd get in contact with them to make sure it will work with your Autronic CDI, I don't see any reason why it wouldn't.

LS coils have an internal igniter and are fired directly from the ecu, why the CDI?

An EF sync/cam angle sensor, what coils are you running? Are you using an EF CAS/wheel too?

E85 would be great but would add some expense with changing the fuel system etc.I wonder if a 10% Toluene mix might do the trick as an octane booster. At about $80 for 20L or $4 a litre, it's not cheap but neither is bottled octane booster. Just until the Alloy head gets sorted.

A fuel cell with a sump in the bottom might be a good compromise.

Bolting in your turbo efi setup from the XM instead?

Unless you can ally tig weld, I'd just make it from Mild Steel 90 and 45 deg mandrel exhaust tube bends 2.5" would be fine. You can even Mig it and just paint it. Put some weld tacks on the end of each tube to stop the silicone joiners from popping off. I got mine from Western filters here in Sydney when I did my old car. I'm sure there's someone closer to you that sells them. Basically with pipe work you have a start point and finishing point. So you start by mounting your intercooler securely. You would put you silicone joiner on your turbo outlet and work your way to the intercooler, then from the intercooler to the throttle body. Just try to keep the bends as smooth and gradual as you can.Try to minimise the amount of joints as these are potential leaking points. Try to only use them where it is impossible use a whole section of tube,or where one section is fixed to the body and the other on the engine.

It will do the job nicely

50 grand and can't find room for programmable management or an intercooler? Has a "factory" dry ice setup because it's a rare S Pack, WTF is that horseshit? 255rwkw is nothing to sneeze at but clearly it wasn't engineered/tuned well enough to sustain that power level safely. This stage 1-2-3 talk doesn't mean anything. All of that info is fairly useless other than for some history and what mistakes/abominations never to repeat. Still I agree with the other guys, it's a good starting point for a quick car.

I'm not quite sure what you thought I meant. I wouldn't use the stock one either, they are the size of a toaster.

Smaller bellhousing is about all, perhaps starter position which I'm not sure about

Yeah that car overall is a good example of how to do it "right". There's a lot to be said for nice tidy paint and a nice set of wheels. Less is more

That is a common size, that should do the job nicely. From memory an XF has ample room for a decent size cooler so squeezing it in shouldn't be an issue. http://justjap.com/engine/forced-induction/intercoolers.html here are some from Just Jap to look at

Far out he was trying to turn it into KITT from Knight Rider

That was actually an aftermarket upgrade made for BA-BF which is significantly larger than the factory unit, supposedly efficient up to 300rwkw on an xr6t. Not massive by any means with a core size of 450x305x75. The factory XR6 ones are 175mm high; 370mm wide, 55mm thick. You would gain power in an xr6 just from removing the restriction and would sustain power levels longer through better cooling efficiency.

Pretty much exactly for the reasons Ando gave, if you ever wanted to up the ante you would have plenty of headroom to do it. I would only use one on a small engine if I had absolutely zero funds and it was given to me. Intercooler mounting and piping can be annoying in some cars and believe me it's a job you only want to do once.

I think a plan would be : Strip down & rebuild the engine, check injector size if they're anything under 440cc I'd upgrade them. Bosch Green are 440cc and good for around 400hp at the crank in a 6cyl, or for more headroom Siemens Deka 600cc both are high impedance injectors. Both are quite affordable. Check fuel pump setup & type. Walbro gss342 are an in tank pump rated to 255lph and would be an easy replacement for a factory unit, or for an external inline pump with a surge tank the good old Bosch 044 are tried and true. A 1:1 fuel pressure Reg ( reputable brand) if not already fitted. If you have a rising rate reg I'd get rid of it. Engine management your wallet is the limit. These are fairly simple engines so don't need all the features In the world to run them. For a basic setup with the TFI dizzy you could run something like a Haltech Platinum Sprint 500 which have 4 ignition drivers and 4 injector drivers as does Microtech LT10C, You would use 3 of the injector outputs to run 3 pairs of injectors in group fire/semi sequential mode and 1 ignition output to go to the tfi module/dizzy/coil and I'd run an MSD 6A CDI ignition box. If you were feeling adventurous you could run ef/au coil packs which run 3x twin pole coils in wasted spark mode (fires 2 cylinders at once one on compression, one on exhaust). This would use 3 ignition drivers and would require a crank trigger and an at least 3 channel igniter box. You could of course go for higher model ecus like the Sport 1000 Ando mentioned with more injector/ignition outputs and run full sequential and 6 individual coils but I don't think it's needed and price grows a lot. The Haltech has the advantage of closed loop O2 control and and at much the same price probably gets the nod. Both of those ecus runs internal MAP sensor so you can do away with the crappy vane afm. You could use an extra ecu output to control boost with addition of a solenoid. A generic 600x300x75 tube and fin air to air intercooler will do the job and give little pressure drop. That's the only thing I'll disagree with wagoon about, the XR6T intercooler is ok for standard but will give significant pressure drop and are fairly small in size. With aftermarket intercoolers so cheap you'd be mad not to go for one. Some 2.5 mild steel mandrel bent tube along with some silicone joiners and clamps will do the trick for piping. Add a BOV for turbo longevity. Like Ando says there are things like the Megasquirt which are a good thing by all reports but have nowhere near the support. The money you save buying might be spent in time having the tuner learn the software. These are just my ideas and believe me I know money doesn't grow on trees.

Do you know what ecu it is running ? What ignition? For the work done that power figure is low, particularly at 14psi and through a manual transmission.

So it recirculates the methanol through the line in the bucket? Not sure how effective that would be. With ice intercoolers you can have the ice in direct contact with the intercooler core with dry ice, or use a water to air intercooler with the cooling water recirculating through a water/ice container to cool the water coming into contact with the intercooler. Both still involve a heat exchanger. These are strictly race only and not practical for the street.