Cutting the shelf behind downpipe
 

I have an issue, where I can only put my downpipe on if I bolt it on before bolting the turbine housing on due to shelf clearance. This makes tightening the turbo onto the manifold propery, impossible.

Are there any negative effects if I whack a good 3'' out of the shelf that gets in the way (the piece under the heater core inlet/outlet).

Pic for reference (not my car though)

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4003/...4c4f56ce48.jpg

i would just cut the sheet metal lip off where you need the room, it would give you a 1/2" more room to play with!

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for somereason this reminds me of the guy with a zx10 that decided to do a frame mod to let more ram air in and proceeded to cut a big fuckin hole in his frame.

haha! now that you mention it, reading this over reminds me of that as well...

Thanks. That's basically what I want to do. I haven't looked closely at it and didn't realize that it's a full bulkhead style shelf except for 1/2''. I'll just trim the sheet metal and that should give me enough space.

I don't have a welder. Do you think that if I trim that bit, if I just seam seal it it should be fine? Or should I get someone to come to my place and tack it together?

lol.. I saw that too on a local sportibke forum. Funny how these things make their way through the net pretty fast.

i would have it welded up for peace of mind! atleast paint the area when your done so it wont rust!

I'm going to have to do this for my setup as well.

I would seam seal and paint it at the min. But is tacking it really necessary?

I'd weld it too. Just to be safe

Ok. Guess I'll have er welded up. Better safe than sorry.

Do you guys think there is possibility to cut further into the shelf/bulkhead if need be? I think i might have to when I start putting my setup together in order to clearance everything properly

Don't cut into it anymore than you have. There is structure behind there, and you don't want to mess with it. However, the "ears" against the firewall can be cut out entirely. Every v8 miata has them cut out. Picture of mine before paint:
http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/attac...1&d=1193015133

edit: There are some subframe mods that can be done as well that will give you crazy room. Let me know if you want to consider that.

Hmm... that's exactly what I was imagining. It would give me ample room to go with a 3'' DP.

i was gonna do the same thing, but opted the other way

Cut a radius in the corners if you can. It will avoid stress risers to crack.

You can radius the corners if you like, or you can cut them square to get the most room......like the 500hp miatas are doing who do not experience cracking.

I'm first going to try to just cut the 1/2'' hang over. If it's not enough I will cut the whole thing out.

I really think you should go with a bottom mount setup. You're still going to have a hard time getting a 3" downpipe in there with that removed.

I can seam weld it if you need me to. I could probably tote my welder up there without too much issue except I dont know how they feel about bringing pressurized gasses across the border.

Had to cut and weld mine aswell. If I had to go back I'd clock the turbo