There have been guys that have installed this kit and never done anything more than an oil change to their car. The mechanical portions are easy. If you can't solder then the pump relay might give you an issue but it's less than an hour job if you need help. The fuel pump was the part that concerned me the most having never been in a fuel tank before but the upgrade was really simple and the instructions very detailed.

If you don't get carried away with electronic gauges and boost controller, this project could be knocked out in a long weekend. We did it in two but I kind of went crazy with electronics and heat management.

Ok so FI noob questions (well I did have a turbo buick verano lol) is it necessary to have the AF and Boost gauges ? Boost controller ? I wanted mine to look as normal as possible and to create a sort of sleeper feel.

I gather that the rad is about the 2nd most important part I need that isn't included in the BP kit, is that mainly it ?

Also are you considering the flywheel / clutch to be part of the easy install, or another beast of its own ?


Thanks in advance you're helping my decision process quite a bit!

Gauges are an absolute, carved in stone requirement. A boost controller is just a really, really good idea.

Radiator, cat-back if you don't have one, and a whole bunch of $100 odds and ends.

No, that's a completely different can of worms. Personally, I'd want to make sure the clutch / flywheel / CSC is installed and properly broken in before the kit goes on. Otherwise you've signed up for a major pain in the *** since half the kit will have to come out. And I bet you'd smoke the stock clutch on the dyno.

We did it over two full weekends (Thursday night, all Friday, all Saturday and taking Sunday off) and a half a Saturday the weekend before to do the radiator. I will note that I farmed out the clutch install, mainly because I didn't feel like benchpressing a transmission.

If I had to guess it was 30-35 hrs worth of work. A good 10 hours of that was eaten up by the extra gauges and my heat management analness of wrapping everything. We also spend several hours trying to clock the turbo and get the turbo coupler on. Now that Sasha has redesigned the kit the install is much easier. With the new routing I would estimate it knocked a good 3-4 hours off the total install.

I feel pretty confident that had I to do it all over again I could knock it out in one weekend. Definitely two weekends if you were going to fiddle with it during the week after work.

:iagree: what he said. Chuck has first hand knowledge of the whole process since he was the 'buddy' that helped me with it.

I had the clutch installed a month prior and did a proper break-in before the turbo kit ever went on.

Loads of great info from both of you... I saw all the heat wrapping you did and thought to myself that is pretty anal ... lol.

Let me ask this... why is boost gauge so integral if I only plan on ever running the exact same amount of boost ? Also did you get a pillar made by galeforce ? Looks like the 3 pod dash cluster is exactly that.. a cluster to change. I saw where one guy literally smashed out the gauges to install new ones ... :ugh2:

While I'm thinking about it.. I'm sure the two of you both likely just want to take a road trip to Indiana anyway.. might as well just plan on it for spring.. haha. I have a big house and plenty of booze !

Bacause you want to know that you're always running that amount of boost. What if a wastegate line melts or comes off? How would you know you're overboosting before your motor explodes? What if you've got a wastegate stuck open? How would you know that you're not making enough boost?

Touche' Chuck... touche' :owned:

Or you could drive it to H-Town :tup:

That's like the other side of the US of A !

That's what I said:rofl2:

You really only need to jack up the front of the car. This way it is safer and easier. Just get the front nice and high and you wont have to worry about fitting under it as much. This is how I work on mine.

By installing just the kit on its own, I think I could do this by myself in a single weekend if you dont run into any problems along the way. With a buddy and a case of coors i bet it could be done in a single day. A long day/night but it could be done.

Wait...Whats the heat gun trick?

I don't think I should come into too many issues with it being a 2014 with only 5k miles on it.

I just read the instructions and I don't really see anything that looks too tough at all. Just looks like something I might be over anal about and take my time with over a week off of work.

Obviously though the instructions then don't include boost controller or gauges so that's a different beast, not to mention where to put them since I've only heard of one source for the pillar pods.