Ghost1984
15+ Year Contributor
- 1,235
- 3
- Dec 29, 2003
-
Southwest,
Missouri
I went through and did a few searches about other peoples experiences with swapping out the T25 to a 14b and got a lot of mixed reviews. A majority of the posts were saying that the 14b is worth the time and effort to install in place of the T25, and a few others were saying that it's not that much of a difference and not worth it at all. So I figured I would post my experience with it since I just finished my install.
Firstly, I did the budget approach. I got a majority of my parts from right here on tuners from other members. 1g Jpipe, 1g Feed/Return line, 1g LICP so I saved myself a little bit of money. Now I've done this swap in the past so I had a little bit of an idea of what to do. I think the most difficult part about the whole swap is making sure you don't break any exhaust bolts, so make sure you soak them preferably over night with liquid wrench/PB blaster etc. The other problem that I had was the intake side of the turbo hitting the lower engine mount. With just a little adjustments it will come out so you have to be patient.
I reused my water lines from my T25 and just bent them accordingly to make them work. That wasn't too bad so just take your time mocking up the turbo and making sure the lines are bent right for when you go to bolt it back up. I decided to spend the money and go to Autozone and get their Felpro turbo gasket kit, which cost me $24.99 plus tax. Installing it back in didn't take too long, but the most annoying part about it was the LICP. In a few of the guides on here some people will say that you can flip the LICP around, or upside down and it will work, which may be the case, but it didn't work for me, so I had to pretty much come up with my own temporary LICP out of the stock hose and some exhaust tubing, until I can go pick up an aftermarket one.
Once everything was installed and I went over all the bolts, lines and made sure everything was torqued down. I took out a 20amp motor fuse from inside the engine bay and cranked the car over about 10 times to get all the oil/coolant through the lines before starting it, so i didnt have to do a dry start. I allowed the car to idle for about 10 minutes while checking for leaks from all the hoses/oil lines before taking her out for a spin.
My first actual WOT pull I could immediately feel a big difference in power, the car wanted to take off like a rabid animal. Definitely a noticeable difference from the T25, and this is at 10 psi. So the whole point of this thread is if you are looking for a cheap and easy upgrade for your 2g than the 14b is definitely the way to go. Yeah, you can go to a 16g turbo too, but if you're on a budget then this is definitely for you. Just take your time and acquire all the necessary parts needed for your install (14b turbo, SS oil feedline or 1g feed line, 2g return line modified or 1g return line, j pipe, gasket kit *or reuse old ones if not too bad*) than you are pretty much good to go. Another thing is, which is VERY important is to search, search and search some more on here. I found a huge amount of threads about 14b installs on a 2g, and the guides are very good and easy to follow, so make sure you do lots of reading because it will help you out tremendously.
So my overall experience so far has been good. The only thing left for me to do is some fuel mods and a tuning device and wideband so I can crank the boost up a little bit more. I hope this helps someone who is deciding on whether or not they want to do the swap.
Firstly, I did the budget approach. I got a majority of my parts from right here on tuners from other members. 1g Jpipe, 1g Feed/Return line, 1g LICP so I saved myself a little bit of money. Now I've done this swap in the past so I had a little bit of an idea of what to do. I think the most difficult part about the whole swap is making sure you don't break any exhaust bolts, so make sure you soak them preferably over night with liquid wrench/PB blaster etc. The other problem that I had was the intake side of the turbo hitting the lower engine mount. With just a little adjustments it will come out so you have to be patient.
I reused my water lines from my T25 and just bent them accordingly to make them work. That wasn't too bad so just take your time mocking up the turbo and making sure the lines are bent right for when you go to bolt it back up. I decided to spend the money and go to Autozone and get their Felpro turbo gasket kit, which cost me $24.99 plus tax. Installing it back in didn't take too long, but the most annoying part about it was the LICP. In a few of the guides on here some people will say that you can flip the LICP around, or upside down and it will work, which may be the case, but it didn't work for me, so I had to pretty much come up with my own temporary LICP out of the stock hose and some exhaust tubing, until I can go pick up an aftermarket one.
Once everything was installed and I went over all the bolts, lines and made sure everything was torqued down. I took out a 20amp motor fuse from inside the engine bay and cranked the car over about 10 times to get all the oil/coolant through the lines before starting it, so i didnt have to do a dry start. I allowed the car to idle for about 10 minutes while checking for leaks from all the hoses/oil lines before taking her out for a spin.
My first actual WOT pull I could immediately feel a big difference in power, the car wanted to take off like a rabid animal. Definitely a noticeable difference from the T25, and this is at 10 psi. So the whole point of this thread is if you are looking for a cheap and easy upgrade for your 2g than the 14b is definitely the way to go. Yeah, you can go to a 16g turbo too, but if you're on a budget then this is definitely for you. Just take your time and acquire all the necessary parts needed for your install (14b turbo, SS oil feedline or 1g feed line, 2g return line modified or 1g return line, j pipe, gasket kit *or reuse old ones if not too bad*) than you are pretty much good to go. Another thing is, which is VERY important is to search, search and search some more on here. I found a huge amount of threads about 14b installs on a 2g, and the guides are very good and easy to follow, so make sure you do lots of reading because it will help you out tremendously.
So my overall experience so far has been good. The only thing left for me to do is some fuel mods and a tuning device and wideband so I can crank the boost up a little bit more. I hope this helps someone who is deciding on whether or not they want to do the swap.
