Spaceman7Spiff's Turbo EFI Baja Bug

[Ol'fogasaurus]

Which area of the Oregon dunes were you at?

Lee

We go to Spinreel, near Coos Bay, for a week every summer. My family has been making the trip for over 30 years.

Thats roughly where we are. The location of the photos looked familiar, just wondering which area.

Did you try to send me a PM? Someone tried but before I could get it, my computer farted (I think it was a computer update but not sure).

Lee

[Spaceman7Spiff]

I'm back in the garage this winter!

Last fall, I began to develop what sounded like a really bad exhaust leak while cruising at 55mph. When I eventually got around to checking things out, I discovered very lean looking plugs and a poor leak-down test on cylinder number 4. Then my son was born and I found it difficult to make time to get into the garage for several months. When I did get the engine apart, I was pleased to see that there was no major damage, just a very obvious loss of cylinder pressure at the head on cylinder 2. My solution is fresh chromoly 8mm head studs and 0.040 copper head gaskets. I think I'm going to put it back together at the same compression ratio (which I think was something like 8.5:1... I'll have to look through my notes).

While I'm at it, though, I have some other issues to solve:

The first is that I was only able to get up to about 3psi of boost and I'm not sure why it didn't want to climb higher than that. My best guess is that way back when I was trying to get the car tuned well enough for my Oregon Coast trip, I developed some shaft play in the turbo and had to scramble to get it fixed in a hurry. I couldn't get a bearing kit for my TD05-12A but I did already have the proper kit for a newer TD04 and a compatible TD04 turbo to match. The problem was that basically everything but the cartridge, itself, was junk. So we took apart the cartridge off the junk turbo, cleaned it up, installed the bearing kit, and put it all back together with my original turbine wheel & housing as well as the compressor wheel & housing. The shaft had to be partially machined to fit properly into the new bearing assembly but it all went together and mechanically, it was flawless.
The only problem with the whole assembly is that my compressor wheel had a smaller diameter than the one that came with this center section and the little recessed area that it sits in is one or two mm larger than it should be, as a result. My best guess is that I am losing efficiency there. I haven't run the RPMs up super high though. I'd be surprised if it's seen anything over 5500. I tend to hang around that 3500 to 4200 range most of the time while running hard in the dunes. Am I just not letting it wind out enough? If that's the case, then I need something that will spool up faster.

I found the mamba website and see that I could probably upgrade the compressor wheel (and housing if necessary) but I'm not sure what I should be looking for... or maybe I need something different on the hot side...?

The other issue is charge cooling. I think I want to go with water/meth injection since in order to get proper airflow from an intercooler, I'd have to mount the thing in some ridiculous location like up on the roof or hanging off the side of the car with a scoop and I just can't bring myself to do that. I have bounced back and forth on whether I want to go with the Snow Performance stage 2 kit or the AEM kit. I think I can get away with a single nozzle in front of the throttle body. I hope the included 1 gallon tank isn't something I'm going to be constantly running dry.

I also think I'm ready to get it dyno tuned and I'd love to have Mario from the Dub Shop do it but I can't seem to get ahold of him which is unusual because he's always been easy to get ahold of in the past... If that's not an option, I guess I'll just worry about getting the engine back together and keep trying to tune it myself as best as I can.

[madmike]

Get the Snow kit, They sip the juice, I even turned mine up ,,,actually down to start spaying at 6 lbs and I used 1 Gal of pissor juice this season,street/drags car,last year I had some left over

[Spaceman7Spiff]

Get the Snow kit, They sip the juice, I even turned mine up ,,,actually down to start spaying at 6 lbs and I used 1 Gal of pissor juice this season,street/drags car,last year I had some left over

That sounds great. About how much fuel would you say you burned through in that time?

Lately I've been leaning towards the AEM kit for a few reasons. Assuming the performance and reliability of the two kits is the same, I like that the AEM comes with a transparent tank that I plan on mounting in the back of the car so I can just glance over my shoulder and see where the fluid level is. I also prefer the black tubing rather than the red that comes with the snow kit. The red doesn't match anything on my car. Also, I kinda prefer the simplicity and analog look of the two knobs and indicator lights on the AEM controller. I don't want a bunch of modern-looking electronics clogging up my decidedly-vintage cockpit. I'm already not fond of how the digital AFR gauge looks next to the rest of my matching VDO gauges.

[Spaceman7Spiff]

I've also been meaning to ask if anyone has or knows of someone using their ECU to control their WMI system. My instinct is to keep the two separate for simplicity but it would certainly be cleaner to have the ECU control everything and pull timing when the tank runs dry etc, etc... It sounds like it'd be a lot of trial and error for someone as green as me to get it all set up and working correctly though...

[Clonebug]

I use two Hobbes switches, two solenoids and two nozzles for my setup…
It’s what ended up working best for my situation.
I built my own setup using an old Craftsman lawnmower gas tank and a Sureflo pump. The nozzles were from “Devils Own” and I used clear 1/4 inch pushloc hose and fittings.
I did end up upgrading to a Devilsown 300 psi pump but can’t say I noticed much difference.

I do have two switches that will disable either the pump or limit boost to the wastegate of 6.0 lbs for safety but I don’t use the ECU for any control.
I do have a low water light mounted in the tank…

[madmike]

I have a see thru Tank , I have no idea how many Tanks of fuel i've gone thru

[Clonebug]

I went 5000 miles on my last tank. 2000 miles was driving on our Cali Big Bear trip. My tank holds 1.0 gallon.
With my new PMU setup I have a delay for the low level switch so my light won’t come on when the water sloshes around and I can go longer before filling.
Just normal driving locally along with to and from work it will last a long time.
If you are on big boost all the time it will burn up quicker.
Just get a tank sized for your application.
I mix my stuff from distilled water and Denatured Alcohol so every batch is 2.0 gallons.
I have a special gas can just for that purpose…

[Spaceman7Spiff]

Update!

For the first time since my son was born in September, I was able to spend two full days in the garage. Don't get me wrong, I love being a dad but it felt good to get out there and really make some progress.

I got everything cleaned up, ball-honed the cylinders, installed my new copper head gaskets and 8mm chromoly head studs and the engine is now sealed up from valve cover to valve cover. I also have an in-line oil thermostat to install before my secondary cooler so my temps will come up faster. I think I might need to make a bracket for it though...

I pulled the trigger on the AEM WMI kit. By the way, have you guys ordered from Summit racing lately? I placed the order for that kit at like 9am Thursday and it was on my doorstep by 1pm, Friday! So, anyway, I found a few minutes to mount the controller and started thinking about placement for the tank. I don't love the location in the photos but I don't really like anything better. I really wish I could convert the rear window to some kind of hatchback setup. That would allow me to mount the tank on the rear firewall while still making it easy to top off the tank and would open up my options for rear cargo as well...

As for my low boost problem, my plan is to put my intake and exhaust tracts back together carefully while looking for potential leaks. Once I get the car back up and running, I'll try to narrow down my issue by looking for leaks. My main theory is still that my compressor wheel is too small for the recess in the base plate. So I ordered a fresh, properly-sized compressor wheel for cheap off of eBay. After I rule out all other potential leaks or efficiency losses, I'll throw that wheel on the turbo, mate it with the appropriate compressor housing and see if it makes a difference. If it doesn't make a difference or if the turbo eats itself from a lack of balance, I'll have to go back to turbo shopping.