Shop Life 2.0

[B C]

Ingenuity at its finest

[Jdesign]

Internal gate huh. what turbski is that you are running?

[HipMF]

Jdesign said:

Internal gate huh. what turbski is that you are running?

TD04HL-15G from a Volvo 850 R

From the beginning, my goal has been to get the car down to 10 pounds of mass per horsepower. The car will probably only be used for autox and cruising, so I'm more concerned with throttle response and spool time than I am with trying to impress people with big horsepower numbers. I'm planning on a finished weight around 2300 or 2400 pounds. This turbo makes around 235hp on a stock 2.3l Volvo motor at low boost pressure, so I feel like it's a good choice for this application. As seen above, peak efficiency of the compressor is around 4500-5000 rpm on the 1.8l; not good for a race car, but if we're being realistic, that's a good place for it to be given the way I plan on driving the car.

Interesting tidbits: Since the Volvo engine is almost 30% larger, I'll have to run a higher boost pressure to get the same number of horsepowers. Looking at the compressor map above, we can easily see that generating the same flow rate (hp) at a higher boost pressure puts us in a much better place on the map than we would be with the 2.3l at high rpm. On top of that, higher boost pressure naturally means higher back-pressure in the exhaust. Exhaust back-pressure is always a Bad Thing (don't let anyone tell you otherwise). However, if we're stuck with a particular exhaust restriction, then increasing the pressure differential across it will increase the flow rate through it. TL;DR: The same turbo will generally be capable of making more power on a smaller engine than it would be on a larger engine.

[B C]

Amen with backpressure, after the primaries and collector, nothing else matters. There is so much obnoxious misinformation in the car realm.

I like your plan using a stock turbo from a larger engine. Stock turbos are normally not top end monsters and on a smaller engine it shifts the useful flow and power to a higher rpm and you end up with a desirable powerband that doesnt fall on its face as much

[The Full Banana]

Very reliable and cheap turbos. Should be a great choice on there. I’ve used quite a few of them over the years. There are several different turbine housing available. The one you have flows decently well. You can also easily upgrade the compressor to a larger wheel if you end up wanting a bit more. I ran a 20t (upgraded 16t, and a 16t is near identical to the 15g used on the 850 turbo). They continue making power into ~25psi and can run that pressure all day. I ran mine at 27psi for quite a while without any problems after swapping the wastegate actuator out for one from a T3 (looks like you’re already addressing the insufficiency of the original actuator).

[retoropak]

How are the clearneces with the slanted m42? Is there enough room to fit gt30 sized turbski and 3" downpipe? 

I want to get rid of my m10t and get 8 extra valves.

[HipMF]

retoropak said:

How are the clearneces with the slanted m42? Is there enough room to fit gt30 sized turbski and 3" downpipe? 

I want to get rid of my m10t and get 8 extra valves. 

It's tight. Bigger turbo and 3" downpipe would probably be do-able, but there's not much room between the engine and strut tower/fenderwell. There are a few places where I've only got about 3/8" of clearance.

[retoropak]

Here is my m10t not much room between the dp and fender either.

 I think ill have to vert mount the m42.

[HipMF]

retoropak said:

I think ill have to vert mount the m42.

I thought about doing that, but you'll probably have do something with the oil pan as it will sit lower on the driver's side which puts it even lower (already the lowest point on the car). Also means the pickup isn't the lowest point in the pan, which isn't ideal. I'd probably fabricate a custom lower oil pan if I went that route, depending on how far you plan to rotate it.

[HipMF]

No burnout vids, but this car did run yesterday. Haven't really had the time or the headspace to put together any decent posts.

Took a while to get the trigger settings figured out, and I had two wires swapped on 3 out of 4 coils. After fixing that it fired up without much trouble.

It's strange to think about, but aside from not being tuned and some janky vacuum plumbing, it's pretty much a functional car at this point.

Hopefully the clutch works....

[GunMetalGrey]

Only one way to find out if the clutch works.
That way is burnoutttsssss

[Jdesign]

GunMetalGrey said:

Only one way to find out if the clutch works.
That way is burnoutttsssss

️

[HipMF]

The car made it's first boosty noises this weekend. The s.w.a.g. method that I used to build the timing and fuel tables worked well and the car seems to be running great. However, I'm getting some stray voltage on the chassis start/run bus which is causing the engine to continue running after the key is turned off. Also have a small oil leak that I haven't located yet, but appears to be coming from the lower engine area.

I haven't driven it much yet other than some test runs up and down the dead-end road in front of the shop, but it's been quite amusing so far.

[B C]

Everything looks beautifully packaged!

I cant say I have ever seen an intercooler downstream of the radiator. 

Have you thought about a vent in the hood above the air gap and an an air scoop/shroud directing air between the units from underneath?

I guess it depends on the IAT, I usually saw about 25F-30F over ambient in the summer

[HipMF]

B C said:

Everything looks beautifully packaged!

I cant say I have ever seen an intercooler downstream of the radiator. 

Have you thought about a vent in the hood above the air gap and an an air scoop/shroud directing air between the units from underneath?

I guess it depends on the IAT, I usually saw about 25F-30F over ambient in the summer

Thanks.

The intercooler is mostly below the radiator. The plan is to extend the front valance down and build some ducting to bring fresh air from the front of the car, under the radiator.

Here's a pic from a couple pages back:

[YoungCR]

I agree, nicely packaged!

[KaiserRolls]

YoungCR said:

I agree, nice package!

[HipMF]

Oil leak turned out to be a missing o-ring on the cam position sensor, so that was an easy fix.

Went out to do some tuning and the O2 controller promptly shat itself. Reading full lean 100% of the time. The status LEDs indicates that it's stuck in warm up mode. Tried a different sensor but got the same results. Sensor does not heat up; I'm assuming the controller (AEM Yu-Gi-Oh) is DOA. Would take it apart to troubleshoot, but the case is heat-staked together. Maybe it's because my background is in electronics manufacturing, but I'm always surprised by how shitty the quality/yield is on aftermarket automotive stuff.

Since I couldn't really do any driving/tuning without a wideband, I pulled the engine harness again to fix some stuff I boogered together at the 11th hour. Also re-torqued the head studs. Glad I did, because I was able to get ~1/16th turn on most of them.

After missing the picnic, my next goal was to be able to get the car to Iola (next weekend) to show the guys I hang out with up there. Still plausible I guess, but not the position I was hoping to be in as far as drivability goes...

[B C]

The FETs are what usually poop the bed on the Innovate controllers. 

2 steps forward, 1 step back.

[YoungCR]

Iola is a cool show! I'd like to get back there some year.