OK so I just bought the car a couple days ago and picking it up tonight (had the seller doing some small fix it things before I pick it up). Car has an E-Bay turbo setup but I'll be helping it out soon. Has dual T3/T4 turbos, intercooled- I believe it builds more boost than the internal wastegates can handle so my plans are to put on some externals and a boost controller. For now I have ordered a wideband - it had one in it for tuning but guy took it out to tune his other TT car. It is running a Quickfuel carb (650 CFM) with MSD boost retard with built in 6AL and 7lb springs (stock) in the turbos. It has a large intercooler up front- During a full spool launch it built ~10PSI per the boost guage so I believe the tiny internal wastegates can't dump fast enough. It already has the flanges on the exhaust manifold so adding externals will be easy. I have not decided what sort of boost controller I am going to run. Oh, and the engine in it is not Buick but a Chevy 350 crate motor (ZZ4). This is my first boosted car but I have been researching and wanting to build one for a while now- then this car fell into my lap so I bought it. Here are the only pics I have at the moment:
Welcome and congrats on the car!!! I say crank up the boost level and no need for the external wastegate. Feel free to send me a PM, as I am pretty heavy into the turbo V8 scene.
Well both actually- I plan on running at the track once a month or so during the summer but will be driving to cruise nights every couple of days all summer too- The main reason for the boost controller is to turn it up in a controlled manner for racing and once I go external waste gates that is about the only thing left to do (and the manual boost controllers are so cheap, why not?). If I end up using the controller a lot I may upgrade it to something more sophisticated that you can dial up from inside. Playing with the car last night I found another problem (that I don't believe was there when I test drove it)- the boost gauge is now only showing vacuum, no boost. At WOT it goes to zero. Could be the cheap gauge or a vacuum leak or when they were fixing the other issues (leaking heater hose, intercooler couplers replaced, tachometer not working) they accidently disconnected something. It has an electronic boost gauge with sensor/sending unit and not a mechanical one. If I can't fix it quick I will order a mechanical one. I ordered an Innovate MTX-L wideband for it yesterday as well. Gotta figure out where on the dash to put it as I already have a 3 52mm gauge pod under the dash for volts/temp/oil temp - a tach on the steering column and a boost gauge on the dash next to the radio...
Kevin I've used the AMS 1000 and the MSD 7562. I preferred the MSD unit for ease of programming and it cost far less than the AMS. The MSD is laptop programmable which is what I prefer because I hate having to go through a bunch of little screens to program any unit. It uses the same software as the rest of the MSD family of programmable ignition components. It's nice to be able to graph the response curve and then just drag the curve points to edit the response. I don't configure the controllers in the normal fashion where the controller looks at the manifold pressure and tries to regulate it by adjusting the pressure to the wastegates. You will always get some over and under shoot of the target boost as the controller seeks to correct the error. Instead we found that the turbo's will track close to the controller pressure applied to the wastegates where the manifold pressure is close to the sum of the wastegate pressure plus the base pressure set by the spring in the wastegate. So we install the pressure sensor for the controller in the base of the wastegate and use the controller as a programmable pressure regulator to the wastegate. We use CO2 from the bottle that controlls a lot of other functions on the car as the pressure source rather than manifold pressure so the controller has the wastegate pressure set ahead of time. You could use a small electric pump and bottle as a supply during racing only. The manifold pressure will track nicely. Here's one of our 7 second passes at Seattle. Notice how smoothly the boost is being controlled. Foot brake into the lights using the 3 step, the set the trans brake on the 2 step, launch at 9 lbs of boost and gradually let it come up to 25 lbs of boost during 1st gear. 7.03 @ 199 mph and pull the chute. At the track, If you find that you only need one boost level for launch and a second level for run, you can use 2 air regulators where one is set for the launch boost level and the second is set for the run boost level and simply switch between the two at launch. Once you are back on the street just use the one regulator for max boost control About your boost gage, if you are at WOT and you know the engine is getting boost because it is running like it should be under boost, then something happen to the gage or the sensor. Paul
Thanks for the information, although CO2 to regulate boost is something I have never even heard of- I will probably ask more questions when that time comes! For now the plan is to get the wideband in and get it in a good tune THEN look at external waste gates and boost controller. I may want to add a TPS and data logging capable Tach too- never too much information. I am SUPPOSED to pick up the car tonight - I have my fingers crossed because delivery has already been delayed twice due to parts/items not fixed that were supposed to be. I need to order some rear tires and want to wait until I have the car so I can test fit a 275/60-15 that I have. I did score some new rims this weekend- a set of Corvette Rally wheels (15x7 front and 15x8 rear). I will mount a 275 to the 8" wide rims and see if it will clear before I order two new tires. If they don't clear I will be getting 255s. Cheers! ~Kevin
any updates, did you get the car? and it'll be better to get external wastegates for one reason you already stated...boost creep the more boost you add to current setup the more likely you'll have worse boost creep your probably even getting compressor surge. with the internal wastegated turbos you'll have to block the internal portsion of the waste gate to use your external wastegate. good luck and have fun
I did get the car! I have gotten the Air Fuel gauge installed and in the process managed to kill the temp gauge (cheap SunPro mechanical gauge)- I have a new gauge on the way along with a new tach. Going to go up to my blow through carb guru this weekend for some schooling/tuning- I bought the complete Holley jet kit as well. I have also unearthed a nasty electrical gremlin. When you click the high/low dimmer switch the cluster lights blink off for just a second. Not a big deal except it throws the A/F gauge into reboot mode where it heats up the sensor again and takes 30-60 seconds to start reporting. Not sure if I am going to fix the way the lights are wired or just move where I am getting power for the A/F gauge. I am also blowing the fuse for the tail lights/cluster so the problem may be a short somewhere- or just bad wiring when the PO removed the inner headlights. Outers have been changed to dual filament high/low beams. Need to track down the wiring issue before this weekend or I will be trailering my car 2 hours each way. When I was driving it (so far only a cruise around the block - 4 miles) before the fuse blew the A/F ratios seemed OK for the most part. I am wondering if it is the accel pump because when I give it a lot of gas the A/F will go lean then climb back up- starved for fuel at first? If I just feather the gas and never stomp it the A/F stays OK in the 12-14 range. When doing a fast start I am seeing A/Fs as high as 20 before coming back down to 14. Need to work on that- no racing for me until tuned! I will post some good pics soon with the new rims and tires, but I was out of town for work for the past 4 days (rough work- had a corporate golf outing, LOL).
Hey there, If I were you i would do it right and buy a "painless wiring harness" and then sure you have to spend a bunch of time setting it up however the car will be safe and easy to fix if there is an issue in the future. Otherwise you will fight "gremlins" forever if your lucky or at worst the car might burn to the ground..... Buy a volt meter, PM me and get to work...:Smarty:
I had thought of buying the painless harness but the cost right now is too high (just paid for the car and got four new tires). There is a rear harness on E(vil)bay right now for cheap so I am watching that. Just can't swing the $500 for a harness. I think my issues mostly revolve around the tach- it is a cheap SunPro Tach II and the rear of the housing was drilled and tapped to put the tach where the factory clock goes- in doing that the light for the tach was touching the housing and melted part of it. Clock and tail lights/interior lights all share a circuit- and this tach has a melted housing and no longer works. New tach is on the way. As for the headlights- I was reading the Factory manual last night and I believe the switch from dim/bright will do this- per the manual the switch is a rotary switch that closes one circuit and opens another. I think I will leave that one alone other than moving where I get my power for the A/F gauge. ~Kevin
Well I didn't get to tune my car this weekend. My truck was still in the shop with some warranty work and wasn't ready until the afternoon (was supposed to be done Friday). Too late to drive up there and tune it. Going to try and leave work early some night this week and get up there to tune it so I can go to the track this weekend and see how she really runs. I did get it out on Sunday and go to the car wash then run some errands. Still has a lot of smoke but I believe my oil leak is fixed, just a lot of oil saturation on the exhaust wrap to burn off still. There is something wrong with the carb- at WOT it likes to go lean and backfire (NO NO NO!) so I have been driving nice and slow- but if you ease the throttle then it will run fine all the way to 100 MPH and stay A/F about 14.X. Could be a bit richer but not dangerously lean. The other issue is if you just baby the throttle off of idle then it likes to die- so a bit of a goose to get going but not too much- I killed it a few times. My electrical issue may be solved with the new tach too- no more dead battery and no blown fuses driving 60 miles or so Sunday.
