Phase 3 - Increasing the smoke/LDA install
I did this on Sunday and finally took it for a spin today.
Boost pressure - 8psi, up the same hill, nearly maxed out in 3rd gear with lots of smoke.
This was pretty straightforward. Good thing for this site, otherwise I would not have known about the NA pump stop pin. Even the old "turbo" pump that was on the van (van pump body with LDA cover) still had the stop pin in place so I guess it really wasn't doing much more than what the regular NA pump was capable of. Getting the stop pin out of the way was the hardest part. My plan of grinding a C-clamp foot to fit down between the pin and gov. plunger didn't work out, even with copious amounts of heat. I ended up yanking the pump and tapping the pin out with a drift punch, with no heat. It coulda been done with the pump installed but by then I'd got enough dust and whatnot in the pump to warrant a quick flush anyhow. I'm getting rather proficient at R&Ring injector pumps these days.
One thing I did was tap the pin almost far enough to clear the lever, added a drop of permatex sleeve retainer, then tapped it a bit further to help keep the pin secure.
Nothing new here:
As I said - boost topped out around 8 psi with plenty of smoke. I think I'm limited now by a lousy wastegate, possibly the scrawny 1-3/4" exhaust. I was climbing that same hill at maybe 55 mph in 3rd, getting near the top of the "safe" rpm range - I think boost should have been closer to 10psi at this point, as I keep reading that the stock limit is somewhere around .7 bar.
There was a definite improvement in power! Struggling up in 2nd became sailing up in 3rd. I do need to play with the pump some to bring the smoke down a bit but I want to get the boost up a bit more first. Hopefully the new exhaust and turbo will fix that.
Also worth noting - based on my preliminary eyeballometer measurement, it looks like the aneroid pin (#27) allows the highest fueling with the dimple set 180 degrees from the pump sprocket. This was verified by my butt dyno, compared to the stock "notch" position and the suggested "180 from notch". Pin profile does not change as it's rotated, just the offset from center changes.
Anyhow, I was so happy I had to install a new sticker:
Some other pictures, just for fun -
Cheapy ebay gauge pod, trimmed for a tight fit to the van dash, over the ashtray, while keeping the gauges generally level. Banana does double duty as a variable height Jo block for those highly accurate angle setups:
Performance exhaust kit:
The exhaust hangers should be here tomorrow and I have preliminary girlfriend permission to work on the van again on Thursday. Hopefully there'll be a progress report that night.
Chris
