How to fab the hot side for turbo LS swap

After finally getting the shock towers notched and welded back up, it was time to fab up the hot side for the turbo. The first thing is to figure out where the turbo is going to be placed. After that you just need to cut and weld pipe to make it take the path you want. It took a few tries to get the hang of cutting the pipe. You have to cut the pipe square each time and use the bends in the pipe to get the angle, not cut the pipe at the angle you want. If you cut the pipe at the angle you want you end up with odd ball sizes that you can't match up to weld back together. Always cut the pipe square so you have two round ends to weld.

I decided I would put my turbo at an angle at the front passenger side. That way the exhaust will run right down and below the engine and the turbo will blow directly into my intercooler. I used a jack stand to support the turbo and tied a saftey rope on to it hanging for a board.

Turbo placement for 1963 Ford Falcon 5.3 LS swap

Here you can see how the turbo will blow into the intercooler.

Turbo blowing into intercooler on LS swapped Falcon

I have to run inverted manifold to clear the shock towers. I went with Hooker LS swap manifolds. I was hoping truck manifold would fit, but they were to big.

Hooker LS Manifold in LS swapped Falcon

After I knew where the turbo was going, it was just a matter of cutting pipe until I got the path I wanted. If you have never done this before by some extra pipe. It is not hard, but you will mess some up learning. Here is what I came up with on the drivers side.

Drivers side exhaust for turbo LS swap

The hardest part is making the merge pipe where the 2 exhaust meet at the turbo inlet. Mine had some weird angles going on and took a while to get it right. I will get a better pic of it soon.

Merge pipe on turbo LS swap

This is as far as I have gotten. I am waiting on more pipe to finish it up. Hopefully this part of the build will be done next week.