My generic BNR S3 install guide

After doing a few of these, I decided to make a text guide that filled in some of the blanks that I'd seen in some of the more visual guides. This thread will be much better with pictures of course, and now there are more professional installation guides available from vendors such as Corksport. I'll post it up anyway, and feel free to comment on any of the pain points you've experienced or better methods to tackle this relatively straight-forward job.

 

BNR S3 INSTALL INSTRUCTIONS

1. Drain coolant. There's an enormous Phillip's head plastic screw on the bottom right, back side (toward the fire wall) plug with a drainage passage. Get ~1 gallon out of the car and then tighten it back up. If your under body tray isn't a mess / missing like most MS3 owners, you'll need to take it off. If you use stubby screwdrivers and turn the steering wheel lock to lock for the fender liners, you don't need (or want) to have the car jacked up yet.
   
   
2. Pull the TMIC (or FMIC hot pipe), battery and box, and intake.
   
   
3. Add your 3” x 5/8 diameter heater core extension hose. Keep the hose clamp and worm gears facing DOWN as not to interfere with stuffing in the new turbo. This is also a good time to do a quick throttle body coolant bypass if you don't live in the Arctic.
   
   
4. Replace your MAP sensor with a 3 bar. Remove the fat harness on the far left side of the intake manifold nearest to the radiator and look down in there – you'll see a little bolt, 7mm if I recall, that secures it in place. Remove that, wiggle it out, unclip the MAP harness, add your PnP dongle to the harness and MAP sensor, wiggle it back in, bolt it back up. Clip that big fatty that was in your way back together also.
   
   
5. Take your EM to turbo studs out. Next remove the primary O2 sensor and tuck it safely out of the way – I prefer to take the wire out of the pigtails and put it behind the big cardboard heat shield on the firewall, there's plenty of slack. Remove DP bolts, tip DP out of your way toward the alternator. (heat shields need to come off first obviously if you have them, anticipating most do not)
   
   
6. Remove the Primary EGR, 2 x 10mm bolts, being careful not to drop the thin metal gasket as you pull it off. Leave the coolant feed hose on the turbo for the moment. Unplug its harness AND the neighboring boost control harness. If you're doing a deletion plate, don't put it on yet so the nipple for the coolant feed isn't in your way.
   
   
7. Remove the oil feed banjo (14mm) and break loose but do not remove the 17mm coolant feed banjo. Unclip and remove the coolant feed hose, this will get re-used if you're keeping the primary EGR or replaced if you're blocking off with a longer piece. Also break loose the coolant return banjo on the front of the turbo, but do not remove it.
   
   
8. Jack the car up. Use jack stands and wheel chocks, don't be foolish.
   
   
9. Remove the oil return line with ~16” worth of 1/4” drive extensions, once again being cautious not to lose the thin metal gaskets on each end. I prefer to reuse these over those provided with the BNR. Unclip the coolant return line, and be aware the coolant left in the CHRA will likely dribble in your face.
   
   
10. Remove the DP mount brace if you have one. There is another small bolt on the bottom of the inlet side of the K04 that attaches to a coolant hard line – remove it. I remove that bracket from the coolant line as well and toss it, as I do not re-use it and don't want it rattling in there. Break loose but *do not remove* the two 14mm turbo mount bracket bolts threaded into the block. Now you're 1 bolt away from a loose K04. Using the breaker bar and about 12” worth of extensions, remove the single bolt going into the turbo through the mount bracket. It is now free and just resting there, so it's time to climb out from under the car and extricate your baby K04 carefully through the mess of wiring on the intake side. Gather up the EM to turbo and turbo to DP gaskets, inspect them and determine if they are fit to re-use.
    
    
11. Put the K04 next to the BNR S3, take pictures, upload them to your friends, grab a beer. Scratch your nuts if necessary. Notice the orientation of the coolant feed line on the K04, finish backing it off (we broke it loose earlier, remember), and use that banjo to put your BNR provided coolant feed (with the brass washers) onto your BNR S3 in the same orientation. You can tighten the feed line down now, but *do not* tighten your coolant return banjo, as that line will block your access to the oil return bolt holes.
    
    
12. If you have copious amounts of vacuum line for the boost controller at your disposal (3 feet is plenty), cut two 10 inch segments and affix them to the compressor and WGA nipples on the BNR, and zip tie them on tight. (I prefer Herbie clips, Google for them!) The BNR is now ready for insertion (mmm sexy).

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1. Wiggle your BNR in between the wiring and heater hose that you extended. It’ll take a bit of twisting and what not, but it isn’t too bad. Ensure the oil feed line doesn’t get pushed toward the alternator by the hot side when you’re putting it in – it’s flexible, and needs to end up in the middle of the CHRA, so elevating it a bit is helpful. Rest the BNR on the turbo mount bracket, get your EM to Turbo gasket sammiched in between, Anti-seize would be wise for the following: get the 4 studs loosely (that means 3 good turns of smooth threads) started. Do the same with your DP, just a few turns through gasket. We’re keeping this all floppy so the oil return lines up cleanly.
   
   
2. Get back under the car and loosely insert the single bolt from the turbo mount bracket into the turbo. Put the oil return line into the turbo, flex end closer to the CHRA, and the shorter two of the 4 bolts up top. Get both ends started and ensure the metal gaskets are seated, and then fully insert them – we’ll torque them in just a moment.
   
   
3. Tighten the hell out of the turbo mount bracket bolts, all 3 of them. You remember how hard they were coming out? Put em back in that tight also. Now torque your oil return line bolts upper and lower. Put your coolant return hose onto to turbo’s hard line, pinch/slide the clip onto the hose. Torque both the coolant feed and return banjos good and tight. The only thing missing at this point is the oil feed, and we’ll do that after we’ve put the car back on the ground.
   
   
4. Double check everything you just torqued under the car, and then take it off the jack stands.
   
   
5. Oil feed time. I like to place 1 brass washer on the CHRA, and then bend the line with banjo and other brass washer down into the hole, maintaining some downward pressure as you start to thread. Be careful to get it cleanly threaded, and then torque it down fully.
   
   
6. Torque down the 4 EM to turbo studs. Torque down the 5 DP to turbo studs (yeah, easier said than done), and then pre-load tension on your O2 sensor wire by rotating it counter-clockwise 5 twists, and thread it back into the DP. Snug it up. Reinstalling the large heat shield that covers the EM is recommended, up to you. I keep it and scrap the rest.
   
   
7. Install your EGR or deletion plate, and plumb the coolant feed hose back to the turbo. Be mindful of the gasket and clipping the harness back in if you kept it.
   
   
8. Let’s do the EBCS – I like to use the machine screw provided with the Cobb kit and screw it into the conveniently thread-pitch matched empty hole in the HPFP mount bracket. It’s on top of the bracket and easily spotted. You’ll need to get creative if you don’t have the same hardware – and the side of the battery box appears to be another popular location. Pull the boost source line (the one on the compressor housing nipple and insert it into the middle (#2) nipple on your EBCS, and typically for MAC style solenoids, the WGA vacuum line will plug into the right side, or port (#3). The left port (#1) will be from the TIP. CONSULT YOUR EBCS MANUFACTURERS INSTRUCTIONS TO VERIFY. I would type that twice, but I think the caps/bold will suffice, right? These get zip ties (or Herbie clips!) as well. Clip the boost controller harness back in. Click!
   
   
9. Intake – you probably went bigger, so be mindful of where you’re putting your t-bolts/worm gears to ensure they aren’t abrading anything and they have decent angles to access them for servicing. Common sense stuff. Make sure that line from the TIP is plugged into the EBCS now and zip tie it for retentiveness as well. Don’t forget the MAF sensor plug.
   
   
10. Battery box, battery. TMIC / FMIC piping next, you know this drill by now.
    
    
11. Refill the coolant, and we’ll check it again after it’s had time to “burp”
    
    
12. Go flash your new base map, get that giddy feeling.
    
    
13. Start the car, check for leaks, don’t freak out over smoke from PB blaster / liquid wrench / spilled coolant. Check fluid levels daily for the next week, anal retentive is good. Enjoy your tuning process and your new BNR!

[doublepost=1455136772][/doublepost]@Raider can you move this to the how-to section please. And the auto-formatting won't turn off for me to correct the enumeration 1-25.

 

@JgamB we should go ahead and take pictures next time we do a swap. It'll make the thread that much better.

 

Yessir - there is quite a bit of material out there with pics and I probably have some on the PC here as well, but they tend to leave out the nuances of which bolts to remove when so you don't have a floppy donkey dick turbo while trying to remove a banjo bolt, etc. Plenty more opportunities coming w/ turbo swaps - I think we're looking at 2 more Bama guys in the next few months minimum.

 

I didn't drain any coolant from my car, just clamped the flexible coolant lines going to/from the turbo. Didn't even need to add any when all was said and done.

I find it interesting that you managed to sneak the turbo out the intake side. I ended up dropping the downpipe totally out on mine and going out through the bottom - this is the procedure used by one of my locals for all turbo swaps.

 

Going out the bottom is definitely viable also.

We drain coolant because we add a section of hose to the heater core 5/8" line that passes directly under the turbo inlet - if you don't add that bit extra, there's a significant chance you'll end up rubbing through it later. HTP has a handy kit assembled for those not wanting to visit the auto parts store. http://www.hitunedperformance.com/5-8-hose-extension-kit/

 

Great writeup! I used your instructions when doing mine. Except, the instructions you gave me had time built in for beer. I do not see this here. Will you please go to revision 2 and add this very crucial step in?...hahaha

Sent from my SM-G928R4 using Tapatalk

 

Make no mistake, we always make time for beer when doing a turbo swap.

 

Regarding the beer breaks, it's broken up into 25 steps. Coincidence? I think not.

One more thing I would add is that purchasing new oil return line gaskets ahead of time is highly recommended. I didn't, and tried to reuse mine (don't even use anything included with the BNR, I reused the paper one that came with it and after dumping oil all over the place and making a huge mess). They leaked.

 

I've re-used the OEMs every time. If they are clean *and* you follow my directions that will torque it first, it's hard to get a leak. Those paper shits BNR includes can be tossed in the trash. The MLS EM to turbo and turbo to DP gaskets Bryan includes - those look decent. I might try them on the next swap.