Fisrtly is Bob so sexy he is distracting you from reading? lol!

Exhaust manifold - Some were standard exhuast manifold with a J pipe curling back up towards the front to mount the turbo and some were hand made extracter style manifolds!

The extracter style manifolds caused the turbo to spool up about 1000 rpm earlier!
But it was found that for street use the J pipe was better as the exhaust gases had a chance to cool down a bit before it got to the turbo! and this reduced the amount of heatsoak the turbine housing induced to the compresser housing! Over all reducing the compressed inlet charge dramatically!
( Not as important on a drag car as they only do 1/4 mile then shut the engine down! )
In theroy if a longer extracter manifold was made it would give the same benifits to a street car as a J pipe manifold, maybe even a little bit better!

Intake - A simplle hat was made for the carbie using about 2 inches of 3 inch exhaust pipe fitted with a top and bottom!
The bottom side having a hole the same size as the top of the carbie! and a rubber ring was attached to this to seal the boost! ( the rubber ring is the same as on the factory air cleaner or we were getting them off of Ford Laser air cleaners!)
The top side had a single hole drilled into it so that it mounted the same as a standard air cleaner!
From the side of this hat a piece of exhaust pipe the same size as the intercooler outlet was welded on and then the rest of the piping was connected to this!!

Hope this answers your questions mate!
Anymore feel free to ask!

Could Bent-axle-bob plz put a shirt on? hehehehehehe

phunkdoktaspok - these friends of yours, how was the turbo manifold off the exhaust done? What did they do about the intaje side of things?

I just posted some pictures of my turbo bits in the photo section.

ok why not use a blow throu lpg set up just has to be a positive presure setup not a negitive presure and as far as the a series goes i havent seen one with bad bottom end yet and are fully able to handle boost up to and perhaps over 1.3 bar i think u would be hard pressed to find an engine as strong for the weight

This isn't really a reply to anyone in particular. I just wanted to say I got all the engine parts for my turbo project back from the machine shop last night.
A-12 block, bored out for
A-14 .040" oversized pistons
A-12 rods with full floating wrist pins
A-12 crank fully balanced
A-12 head with TRIPLE valve springs
ARP head stud kit
Nissan Motorsports Metal head gasket
And everything is coated with either antiheat or antifriction stuff as the situation warrants.

So, here comes my usual lie: "Oh, baby. Of course I love you." No, wait. Wrong forum. The usual lie is "I'm going to take some pictures of these parts and post them."

I'm still debating with myself on the FI versus carburetor issue. Tensandtwenties gives me a parcel of crap every time I whine about the price of the FI's ECU.
"You have no problem dropping $1500 on the A-12 bottom end but won't pay that for the ECU?" Then I get a whack on the back of the head.
It's hard to justify all of this cash outlay on a car that I paid $5 for. Geeze, I'm an idiot!

Like Isaid old factory american setups ( some ) use a blowthrough setup with the carbie in a box ( this makes equil pressure around the carbie so the gaskets can handle the boost pressure

Chris I understand what you are saying about building a smaller engine with bigger internals ( the engineer said he would be happy with this if he doesn't know as it is what is visable that counts)
I even viewed this as an option but when you start pulling down 2 or more engines to build one the money starts to add up!
But if ppl have got the money I say go for it as I too would like to see this done!

As for the other bloke( i think mr_nizmo4)
if you want to build an engine with all bolt on accesories and not be different i say go for it! But if you start adding aftermarket computers this will still bring up the cost!

As for a series not being up for it i have never seen one brake a block or rods or even crank! I have seen them spit head gaskets out the side! ( so o-ring it) and I have seen boost blow out the gaskets on the carbie and spray fuel out this causeing the engine to lean out and crack the rings because they got to hot!( so box the carbie to fix this or pressurise the carbie to take boost, we glued the carbies together with fuel proof glue we even tried fuel proof rubber for the carbi gaskets and this stood up to the job!)
If you want fuel injection make it or get a factory a series efi manifold!
If this is done ( as i am doing ) with a aftermarket computer it can be tuned to run with no problems!

Might i say we have run up to 32 psi boost with the carbie setup with no problems!
But like any engine sustained high boost will cause heat and even a factory turbo with bolt on accesories can't with stand this!

Like I said I don't claim this to be the best engine but there is no way you can say any other is better stength wise! unless you are talking 3 main cap A10 engines! these would just be asking for trouble!

Ok, so they have chosen a blow thru setup. What is the setup that factory old american cars use?

I think one of the hard parts of this setup (but obviously it can be done) is to seal the carby and the carb body. Thats why I said looking at the Lotus for ideas as they must have THE most successful blow thru turbo design using twin carbs. This is factory stuff, why didnt they choose injection, I dont know.

Please give anything a go, just do the research (good or bad) and see what fits your budget etc.

Hey dude I have nothing against turboing an a-series, go for it. What I mean by reliability is that the CA/SR was built to handle forced induction. The old a series even if you built it from scratch would not be purpose built for forced induction. The block is 30 years old even after a freshen up. Plus the CA/SR have more bolt on accesories unlike the a-series where almost everything will have to me custom made. If the budget can alow for that, go for it.

Its like these people who want to chuck on turbos to the originally NA CA18 or SR20's. Yes its kind of the same motor (same series) but the turbo blocks have been built to with stand the forced induction.

I have seen some examples of carby turbo setups and sure they work. But for an ease of installation, setup and running point of view I dont think you can go past EFI. You have more control over your fuel delivery, spark advance, etc etc with an after market computer.

CA18's and SR20's are the most common versions of these motors. But you could get a bit cunning and mix and match the various other versions to satisfy the registration requirements.

SR16, SR18's exist.
CA16's also exist. It is just about using the block to satisfy the 'Yes Officer it's a 1600cc' or whatever. I'm not 100% sure that this works, in regards to parts interchangability, but I think it might.

I'd like to see someone do that. You may be able to use the CA18DET or SR20DET head. It would mean getting one of each motor, and a strip down and rebuild. But if you're serious (like many of you A-series addicts) Then this shouldn't faze you.
The CA16DE block / CA18DET internals and head idea is cool, because you can use the CA16DE exhaust cam for more power.

You may also need to look at engine mount points, as the CA16DE, came out in the first Aussie N13 EXAs which are FWD and may have different engine mount bracket holes on the block.
Enough going on. Having a powerful A-series has it's benefits. I saw a fella recently with 74kW at the wheels out of an A15 with a single DCOE weber, in a Datsun 1000 coupe. It went pretty cool. But not even within comparison of Andrew's CA18DET 1200 coupe, especially down the straight at Oran Park..

Chris