Preview of the new paint for the Turbo Warrior!

I was finally able to get the tins on the Turbo Warrior painted. Since the Warrior is classified as a muscle cruiser I wanted to go for a classic muscle car, hot rod type of scheme. I also didn’t want to take away from the Earl fitting accents of blue and red, the painted calipers, or the dyna coils. I thought that too much color would detract from all of that. “Subtle bling” as I like to call it.  More pics and videos to come after I get them back on the bike.

\m/

Love the way the fish scales came out. Gonna look awesome in the sun!

Love the metal flake. Gonna look awesome in the sun!

Love the metal flake. Pretty sure they’ll see me coming! Gonna look awesome in the sun!

Video of the new paint!  
https://youtu.be/BdAI4HRjI1I  

Got her Dyno’d!

Finally got her Dyno’d!  136hp and 146 Torque!  \M/

136Hp and 146 Torque!

Initial Run

I got her running a few months ago.  The tune was about 90%.  She was running rich for awhile.  Here’s a short video.

I finally got her tuned on a Dyno by a professional.  I’ll try to post a video of her running now that she’s all tunes up.  It made a huge Difference!

\M/

Exhaust Fab part 3

I finally got the exhaust and headers back from being chromed and ceramic coated.  I really like the look.  Hopefully the ceramic coating and header wrap will reduce the amount of radiant heat to my leg.

Got the exhaust pipe back from being chromed and ceramic coated.

Wrapped the header pipes.

Exhaust and headers back from getting ceramic coating.

I had the seat and rear pillion recovered. I got the heat shields back from being chromed as well.

Got the exhaust pipe back from being chromed and ceramic coated.

Exhaust Fab part 2

This is the second part of the exhaust fab post.  I decided to change the tip of the exhaust to go with a more “Hot Rod” look as opposed to the scalloped pointy look from before.  The heat shields were not that hard just time consuming trying to get everything how I wanted it.  I found a great article on fabbing your own. (DIY Heat Shields) The wastegate pipe ended up not lining up with the wastegate once everything was put together.   Not a huge deal but more work non the less.  Finally got it done but it had to be tack welded on the bike and then taken to get TIG welded. I dropped of the exhaust and heat shields to get the tip of the exhaust chromed and the heat shields chromed.  The exhaust will then go to be ceramic coated.  Hopefully I’ll have everything else done so that I can just connect everything once I get the pipes back.  We’ll see…..

Finally got the pipes all welded in place.

The dreaded gap I was trying to avoid. Gonna have to fix this.

Here you can see what it looks like as I’m shaping the tip.

I had to cut the pipe, grind it a little to make sure everything lined up properly. Now it’s ready to be tack welded and then TIG welded.

Just planning everything out so it will go smoothly. 🙂

Not too bad of a job. They will eventually be chrome.

This is the final rendition of the exhaust and heat shields prior to getting chromed. Just the end of the pipe and the heat shields will be chromed the rest will be black ceramic.

 

Exhaust Fab

It goes without saying that if I am fabricating the headers, etc then I’ll need to make the exhaust piping as well.  This was the easiest part so far!  I like the way it’s turned out.  I started out with the V-band exhaust flange and had my friend weld it to the turbine exhaust flange that I found online that would work for an external wastegate.  It basically blocked off the internal wastegate port.  I still had it welded shut regardless.  I put the wastegate on the rear header pipe.  The wastegate blow off pipe will tap right into the exhaust. In a perfect world I would have the waste pipe coming right off of the split where the two headers meet.  This should work though.

Having to cut off the ends of the bolts to get everything to fit.

Starting to fab up the exhaust. Little bit at a time.

 

Just got the pipes positioned for a quick mock up. Now to take them and have them welded!

 

Throttle Body/Intake Piping

This part was the second most PITA part of this project to date.  Pretty much just cut, ground, welded, ground some more, etc.  It was just painstaking to get the pieces somewhere close.

2″ mandrel bend pipe for the TB’s.

Getting there!

Getting there!

Fabbing the TB piping.

Rough version of the throttle body piping. Never claimed to be a welder!

Rough version of the throttle body piping.

Gonna have to hang the Dyna coils on the outside of the bike. Darn. 😉

Houston we have a problem…..

Got some silicone couplers. 2″ to 1.5″ I think. Cut them down.

Trying to get the two pipes to eventually meet. Piping coming of the compressor housing to the TB piping I already have fabbed up.

Grinding out the rough stuff after my friend welded her up!

Painted the TB intake pipes with flat black paint.

Wrapped the intake pipes with heat reflecting tape. Mainly to cover up the crappy welds from me piecing together the pipes. Possibly will help with reflecting heat as well.

Got the TB piping installed. Used hose clamps and silicon hose to get it together.

 

New High Flow Injectors

I figured as long as I had her torn down I ‘d go ahead a replace the stock injectors for some higher flowing 450cc injectors.  I know that it’s not a huge upgrade like going to 550cc or larger injectors but for my needs this should be more than adequate.  So, I broke out the bikes manual and went through the steps.  Pretty straight forward.

 

Close up of the throttle bodies

TB taken off to replace the injectors. Just followed the service manual directions.

Taking pictures of the blue lines that were there from the factory. That way when I put it back together after putting the 450cc injectors in I know where it should be. Blue lines should line up.

Taking pictures of the blue lines that were there from the factory. That way when I put it back together after putting the 450cc injectors in I know where it should be. Blue lines should line up. Both sides have them.

 

Old injector (L) next to the new one (R).

I’m pointing to the rubber ring that came off the stock injectors. I had to replace this because the rubber ring that came with the new injectors was too big.

Once it’s all apart.  Just replaced the injectors and put it all back together in reverse order.

🙂

 

Header Fabbing!

By far one of the most difficult things for me to do was the header pipe fabrication.  A close second was the throttle body pipes.

Just starting the process.

I got the header flanges with a short section of piping attached back from the welder.  This is where I started fabbing the headers.  If only it were this easy!

Rear header flange with a section of 2″ pipe welded in place.

Just starting the process of fabbing the headers.

Not too bad yet……

Got some flanges and piping back from the welder!

The bigger one is the flang to the turbo.  The smaller one is the compressor housing flange that will attach to the intake piping.

Finally got the rear header pipe back from the welder and hanging. m/

It took a few tries but I finally got 1/2 of the headers done! Small victory, but I’ll take it.

This thing is a bear! AAAHHH!!!! It’s not pretty. But it’s going to work. Don’t you judge me!! 🙂

Sh!t just got real.

Slowly coming together. Sigh.

Don’t judge me!  Long time grinder, first time welder. 🙂

 

Headers are complete. Turbine housing is hanging! Small victory.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Turbine Housing Prep

Since I was going to go with an external wastegate I didn’t need the flapper or anything connected to it.

Cut off the external waste gate actuator arm and did some grinding.

Cracked, which is typical of used MHI turbos. It will get welded shut.

Painted compressor housing with VHT