Ali express sells metal valve covers, water outlets and such, but not for the 1.4
My Holden Cruze 1.8 Turbo Project!
I thought I'd start my own thread, mainly so I can try to have a post with all (that I can remember) the steps I've taken to get to where I'm at with my car. Anybody whos been following Crewz's/Matt's build thread may have seen some of my posts and if not I'd highly recommend checking out his thread and YouTube channel.
![290888]()
Flex Fuel Mod:
Before I even had dreamed up the turbo project I thought it would be cool to add flex fueling capabilities to my car for performance and at the time cost savings on fuel. A great thread for anybody wanting to do this to their car can be found HERE.
![290883]()
Injectors Mod:
There are some Cruze specific vendors offering injector upgrades but they are expensive and I'm not sure if their injectors are flow tested etc before sending them out... I decided to contact FIC to see if they had some drop in injectors for my car and they got back to me rather quickly with a set of injectors so I bought them. They're a set of 650cc injectors and haven't given me any grief at any stage
HERE are the ones I used. I opted to use the solder in pigtails as to avoid another point of failure with the adapters.
![290884]()
Wideband:
Tuning new fueling and injectors is basically impossible without a way to accurately measure AFRs so I decided to go with an AEM wideband which is able to communicate with HPTuners over CAN. There are other widebands available but the fact that this passively connects to your OBD port and doesn't require other methods of connecting to your laptop meant it was a no brainer... Not really a fan of dash mounted gauges, and police are very strict with mods here so I decided to mount it lower in the useless coin tray lol.
![290892]()
Strut Braces Mod:
Whilst browsing Facebook marketplace I came across a deal too good to miss... Poor guy wrecked his Cruze and was selling front and rear strut braces for $40AUD I HAD TO HAVE THEM. The car is noticeably stiffer around corners, probably more so in the rear where it used to be very floaty.
![290885]()
![290886]()
Intake Manifold Mod:
By this time I was starting to plan my turbo build and was interested in finding a better flowing intake for the car and one that would allow me to route my intercooler opposite to the direction the stock air comes in... As it turns out in Australia we have a 1.6T(A16LET) Cruze which is essentially the same block as the 1.8(F18D4) and they so happened to have an aluminum intake manifold that would suit my needs perfectly. I made a post HERE explaining how I installed it.
![290887]()
Turbo Setup Mod:
Having tried welding my own turbo manifold with little success I decided to get all the fabrication work done by a professional. I wanted this thing to be reliable as it's my daily and decided spending the extra cash for a well made setup rather than a cobbled together one to save me headaches in the long run. I have a friend with a few GTRs that have all been worked and I got in contact with the guy responsible as I heard he likes working on weird/unusual projects lol. If you're in Sydney Garage48 is a great option for this type of work, I was nothing less than impressed with the work carried out on the car I decided a Garrett GT2560R would be a nice sized turbo for the car, offering potential for good power and nice responsiveness... Manifold and exhaust are full stainless and the intercooler pipes are aluminum.
Manifold:
![290889]()
Dump Pipe:
![290891]()
Exhaust:
![290893]()
Flex Fuel Mod:
Before I even had dreamed up the turbo project I thought it would be cool to add flex fueling capabilities to my car for performance and at the time cost savings on fuel. A great thread for anybody wanting to do this to their car can be found HERE.
Injectors Mod:
There are some Cruze specific vendors offering injector upgrades but they are expensive and I'm not sure if their injectors are flow tested etc before sending them out... I decided to contact FIC to see if they had some drop in injectors for my car and they got back to me rather quickly with a set of injectors so I bought them. They're a set of 650cc injectors and haven't given me any grief at any stage
HERE are the ones I used. I opted to use the solder in pigtails as to avoid another point of failure with the adapters.
Wideband:
Tuning new fueling and injectors is basically impossible without a way to accurately measure AFRs so I decided to go with an AEM wideband which is able to communicate with HPTuners over CAN. There are other widebands available but the fact that this passively connects to your OBD port and doesn't require other methods of connecting to your laptop meant it was a no brainer... Not really a fan of dash mounted gauges, and police are very strict with mods here so I decided to mount it lower in the useless coin tray lol.
Strut Braces Mod:
Whilst browsing Facebook marketplace I came across a deal too good to miss... Poor guy wrecked his Cruze and was selling front and rear strut braces for $40AUD I HAD TO HAVE THEM. The car is noticeably stiffer around corners, probably more so in the rear where it used to be very floaty.
Intake Manifold Mod:
By this time I was starting to plan my turbo build and was interested in finding a better flowing intake for the car and one that would allow me to route my intercooler opposite to the direction the stock air comes in... As it turns out in Australia we have a 1.6T(A16LET) Cruze which is essentially the same block as the 1.8(F18D4) and they so happened to have an aluminum intake manifold that would suit my needs perfectly. I made a post HERE explaining how I installed it.
Turbo Setup Mod:
Having tried welding my own turbo manifold with little success I decided to get all the fabrication work done by a professional. I wanted this thing to be reliable as it's my daily and decided spending the extra cash for a well made setup rather than a cobbled together one to save me headaches in the long run. I have a friend with a few GTRs that have all been worked and I got in contact with the guy responsible as I heard he likes working on weird/unusual projects lol. If you're in Sydney Garage48 is a great option for this type of work, I was nothing less than impressed with the work carried out on the car
I decided a Garrett GT2560R would be a nice sized turbo for the car, offering potential for good power and nice responsiveness... Manifold and exhaust are full stainless and the intercooler pipes are aluminum.Manifold:
Dump Pipe:
Exhaust:
1 - 4 of 53 Posts
I must have missed something. Did you install a Z-Link rear or what?Little update:
The rear suspension upgrade was a huge success, cornering and really givin' it to the car in bends and sharp turns the car feels unbelievably more planted. The body roll in the rear was previously horrid and that is all but gone. Highly recommend this upgrade as you'll get larger brakes too and it is a really easy and cheap mod with great performance gains.
At the end of the week I'm finally getting my exhaust redone and getting some sensor flanges welded into my ic piping. The car doesn't open the throttle more than 65% without a TIAP so I'm adding one and a BARO sensor. I had to pin them into the ECU, I simply found a wiring diagram from the 1.4 with the same ECU and not so simply unwrapped the entire loom. I also used this opportunity to remove things the car no longer has like the variable intake plug. The loom is wrapped more neatly now so the engine bay looks cleaner
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View attachment 293214
The final change I have made is colder spark plugs. I was still using the stock IR 6 heat range plugs and was getting weird hesitation in low load situations. I upgraded to ones designed for the 1.4 which are NGK IR 7 heat range plugs and all the issues have gone away.
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1 - 4 of 53 Posts
