Baby’s first turbo. On a mystery motor!

[ct937]

Absolutely. I need to go pick up more marerials to make the lower mounting straps.

I’m going to wager the turbo will need rebuilt before I hit the road. The previous owner of this blow through system said he ran low on oil and siezed his engine. I’m guessing the turbo didn’t fare much better.

[ct937]

(Edited to reflect an update after accidentally posting.)

Pulled the turbo and disassembled it. Hot side seal was definitely no good. I can only assume that would be one of the least catastophic results of oil starving a turbo. So I went ahead and purchased an identical “recently rebuilt” k03 with a guarantee.

I’m a little disappointed as I got everything else just about ready for the first proper blow through test. On the bright side, the turbo will see a second life as part of a home brew jet engine an engineer friend of mine is making.

While I wait on the postman there are a few little things I need to sort out: throttle cable binds up about 1/8” when you lift off and is slow to release back to idle. Brake lights and tail lights need wired. Stuff like that. I’ll be back with a proper update once the new used turbo is on!

Edit 2: I fixed the throttle but skipped the lighting for now. Took the neighbors kids out for a spin and saw 10:1 AFR under medium to heavy throttle running NA giving me some hope that I won’t need to rejet it. Didn’t take too long for someone to call the cops so my fun was cut short. The takeaway is that idle is way too rich and pretty fussy about adjustment but it winds out great. Better check my valve adjustment before I get too crazy.

Then my long term plans took a sharp left turn: a random post about my daily driver (J30A5 6MT Accord) on another forum led me to the owner of a Comptech supercharger kit for a J30A1 Honda engine looking for a good home. Now, the J series are one of my favorite engine families and I know them quite well. I’m now planning to gut a $1000 02-04 Odyssey so I’d have a nearly complete supercharged J35A4 swap besides clutch, adapter plate, and whatever else comes up. I could get well in excess of 300 RWHP in a 1500 lb vehicle. I’m sure I’d need a fancy new transmission to handle all that power though...

Would building a boosted Honda engine disqualify me from this forum LOL?

[John S.]

I see you have a blow off valve. It’s odd that there’s no mention of one anywhere in the Turnomania book.

[ct937]

Don’t know why a BOV isn’t mentioned but Turbomania sounds like a book I should probably be reading!

Had a couple friends stop by to get me motivated. Slapped on a cheap eBay’d K03 that turned out to be truly freshly rebuilt as advertised. Hooked up the piping, oil lines, and exhaust then cranked with a nearly dead battery. Fired up and made boost with no oil leaks. Success.

Next up is brakes and all the other basic vehicle maintence I’ve been putting off. Then I can really start to make progress.

As an aside, I am beginning to assemble a supercharged J35A4 swap but I won’t be actively pursuing that build until I find a trans.

3172450A-6D92-4C9F-92F9-CE44AED98C59.jpeg

[John S.]

I have to figure out my jetting for a 40 dell on a 1600 with a small cam. So I can swap it out n/a and test the carb before the turbo.

[John S.]

Actually the book does mention a blow off valve. It has its own two pages in the front of the book. But, none of the builds or diagrams anywhere else mention a "pop off" valve.

[ct937]

I haven’t had this carb open to see what it is jetted at but I had 14.7-15.3 AFR at idle and 10.0 under heavy load with an occasional dip into the high nines at WOT when run NA. I have not tested it under load with the turbo because my brakes were and still are dangerous and non existent. Rear disc brakes will be fitted late this week and I’ll update once I get some proper turbo road tests in.

[ct937]

I put the Empi rear disc brakes on the buggy in anticipation of moving out my now engine-less donor Odyssey. Unfortunately, I skipped out on replacing the trashed outer wheel bearings because I needed the rail moved quickly more than I needed it to be right. I believe this was a mistake as my new rotors went on without a hitch but the inside pad rubs the rotor on both wheels... D’oh!

Before I noticed my brake rub I took it out for a short drive. I kept RPM’s relatively low and listened for ping as I had mixed my own 97 octane using some 93 gas and Boost 108 octane booster. Everything sounded happy and the engine actually seems to run better than ever.

The boost starts coming in at 2000 RPM with about 1 lb when cruising in 3rd. I saw 5-6 lbs by 3000 RPM with a medium throttle uphill pull in 2nd and did not rev higher as I was being extra cautious. Not much more to report boost wise as my nose smelled something getting hot after two short miles: my new brakes! Ugh!

The AFR’s also leaned out a little with the turbo. Typical cruise was 12:1. Very ginger use of the throttle and low RPM’s could push it up into the 13’s to low 14’s. Idle was mid 15’s. Heavy throttle stayed in the mid 11 to mid 12’s.

Oil pressure was good too running 5w30. 20 PSI hot idle, 30 PSI at 2000 RPM cruise, and a solid 40 PSI until it warms up. I would still like to add a +1.5 qt deep pan.

Overall the tuning seemed to be very close to spot on during the test drive. My only complaint besides my own f ups with the bearing situation is that the throttle cable is binding up again. My throttle off idle starts at 1500 and drops over several seconds to about 1000. It’s really annoying around town.

Guess I’ll get all this little stuff sorted then report back when I can actually thrash on it!

[madmike]

Fun aint it Yepper your gonna need the 1 1/2 Qt sump for sure

[John S.]

What's the deal when using a deep sump without full flow? Is the strainer retained?

[madmike]

I don't use a strainer just a cow magnet clamped on the tube I also cut the bell so oil can return faster ,,hard to do in the car

[ct937]

Test drive #2 was today. This time it had functional rear disc brakes and fresh wheel bearings. It’s quiet too! You really get to hear that turbo and blowoff valve. Gets a lot of looks around the suburbs.

The real good news is that it’s working better than ever and slightly more powerful with boost. AFR’s were pretty decent but I still need to work on setting the idle a little lower and maybe a little richer once it’s good and warm. I didn’t really watch the boost gauge but I saw 3-4lbs a couple of times when I glanced at it. I played it extra cautious for this drive.

So it was some good progress. The boosty bits seem to work. But there’s still lots of little stuff left to do. Maybe one day I’ll actually get to play with it... at least the power train seems consistent and solid.

[madmike]

I get up around 9 lbs on premium without Pinging I would not be happy with just a couple Pounds