Today I installed the turbo, GPs, injectors, fuel lines, valve cover, ran the electric fuel pump for about a minute and gave it a crank. It ran rough, then smoothed out after a few seconds then smoke started shooting out of the 4th intake port, immediately stopped it. I gave the intake valve a close inspection with visions of diassembling the engine again running through my head. Didn't see any problems so I restarted it and it ran smoothly again for another 30 seconds before I turned it off. My guess is some dirt got stuck on the valve seat before getting cleared out. There's no water in the engine yet so I was done running it. I was surprised how quiet the engine is with just the turbo to muffle the noise. Do I really need a muffler on this car?
It should be another week or two (time permitting) before I can drive the car. I need to reassemble the rest of the engine bay, get the exhaust reattached, EGT sensor, intake, radiator, new electric cooling fans installed etc.
After trying to convert to a normal pressure wastegate actuator which turned out to be too short, I reinstalled the vacuum actuator that came with the 55 trim turbo from the W140. I already had a simple electronic boost controller for the old turbo which I can reuse. The controller doesn't care if the actuator works with boost or vacuum.
We had twin diesel boat we sold recently and among the giant pile of parts left over I found a pair of new in box K&N air filters. Turns out the filters are just the right size to fit around the mouth of the turbo.
I'm amazed how much unnecessary crap I was able to eliminate from the engine bay.
