That looks so effing cool. I ran mine through the tunnel and have had to widen the base of the tunnel to keep it above the frame rails. I was worried about heat as well and used a E36 M3load of the dei stainless stuff in the tunnel and on the firewall. I don't have a turbo, so I hope it works.
In reply to Teh E36 M3 :
Yeah, I'm more than a little worried about heat, but I'm committed to this course. Lots of heat shielding and insulation in my future, but am going to wait for now to see how bad it is and where the heat is the biggest problem.
This is the first time I've seen your build thread, and wow, you do great work!
That does look kick axe. You could have it all ceramic powder coated and them wrap it with heat shield tape
I'm really impressed with the quality of your ideas and fabrication.
I get the convenience of your exhaust routing, but since a turbo usually attenuates exhaust sound a bit, if you have heat issues, I think your muffler could be smaller. Maybe half of your current unit?
Yes, the quality of the fabrication here is outstanding! Having built a turbo Spitfire, the heat from just the turbo was excessive and despite wrapping it with a turbo blanket, reflective insulation and wrapping the downpipe, it was still extremely hot and you could cook on the bonnet after a run around the block. You may want to rethink the muffler and exhaust and use the new found space to figure out how to insulate that "nuclear reactor" under the hood as it is close to the hood and firewall. Great build!
Still some trimming to do, but this is what it will look like with the bonnet down.
Really like the oval exhaust end, did you fab that or can one buy it?
In reply to MiniDave :
It's just a purchased 45-degree bend that is cut at an oblique angle. No special fab required. :-)
Very cool project! I recently picked up a '75 Midget that I've been considering swapping a 1.4l ecotec into right now.
@BadBug you're a bad influence in a good way. I just picked up a '17 1.4T LE2 ecotec and I've been researching the clutch/ flywheel options to use with a 98 Isuzu T5 that I am waiting on from a fairly local wrecker yard.
In reply to 1969honda :
The LE2 is a sweet little motor. You have a build thread going here on GRM?
Not yet, should probably start one here or mgexp.com.
Here ya go, not on Grassroots, but it's a local forum I really enjoy. Hopefully it's okay to link other forums on here.
Closing up the last of the engine bay sheet metal. This one is trickier than it looks... 
We mostly finished up the engine bay sheet metal/firewall. Still a few minor things to attend to, but we're moving from sheet metal work to fuel systems next.
Work trips followed by a bad bout of COVID have curtailed work on the car for the past month or so. But we’re back on it this week. The focus is on modifying my fuel tank and hanging it back up under the car in a tube-frame cradle behind the rear end and up side the “boot” area of the car. This cradle will also serve as a mounting structure for the car battery. The tank we’re using is an old 11-gallon aluminum unit I’ve had previously in the car. The plan is to add another 4-5 gallon capacity to it by building a lower integrated baffle area onto the bottom of the tank. It all works in our heads at this point; we’ll see how it comes on in real steel and aluminum in the coming days…
Excellent, I'm gonna need to watch this one!!!
Some pics of progress from today. We're getting the rear tube frame/cradle bent up and tacked in place under the rear of the car. Also, we're playing with tank position. Will probably be offset to the side like shown here. This leaves room for battery to tuck up in next to the tank on the drivers side. Lots of little details to work out still, including filler tube, vent tube, how to actually attach the tank to the frame, etc. Also need to modify the tank itself to add another ~5 gallons of baffled capacity to the bottom of the exiting tank. Pretty happy thus far with how it's turning out.
That is the coolest exhaust exit I've ever seen.
In reply to lnlogauge :
Thanks! I'm dying to hear what she sounds like.
We made a bit more progress on the fuel system. Basically added a four-inch extension to the bottom of the tank, increasing capacity from about 10-gallons to just under 15-gallons. Also added a bunch interior baffling, including a sump area that the actual fuel pump sump will sit down inside of. Next up is to mount the tank in the car roughly in the position shown here. Gotta mod/relocate the filler system a bit, but overall it's turning out pretty nice. The vehicle battery (probably an Optima Redtop) will live up inside the boot next to the fuel tank on the driver's side. The tight packaging saga continues...
It's been a productive week in the shop. We got the gas tank mounted yesterday, with all the brackets and hardware figured out. We still need to pressure-test the tank and get all the plumbing lines sorted out, but we're 90% there with engine system.
We also started tackling the battery mounting. This bracket assembly we fabbed will be welded up into the space on the driver's side in the boot area, next to the fuel tank.
This looks so good.
We got the battery tray welded in:
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