K14 boost control

[dieselsmoke]

Does anyone have a link they can post as to what type of boost control to use for the K14 turbo. It has that metal line that has to be cut in order to instal the control to increase the boost.

[vanbcguy]

I just cut a little piece out of the metal line and Teed in a humidifier valve I got at Home Depot... 2 turns = 1 PSI increase.  About $4 in parts...

[dieselsmoke]

how has that valve held up with the heat from the turbo? What did you use to tee the valve to the metal lines with? Do you have a pic of your setup??

[dieselweasel]

I would be interested in this as well...

[vanbcguy]

Valve has been totally fine - it's a brass needle valve.  I used a couple short pieces of nylon tubing along with a brass tee, it's been on there now for about 8 months with no problems.

I'll try and get a couple pics - it's really so simple it's not even funny.  It more or less came down to what bits and pieces Rona or wherever it was had that would do the job.  Too dark for photos now!

[Laurentian]

Looking forward to your DYI also !
Am new to TD, have been running
the venerable 1.6D for two decades but decided
to uprade to a 1.9TD / K14 in my MKII Jetta.
Will be lining up a boost gauge and pyromete also.
Any links to the above would be very appretiated !
Hugh

[vanbcguy]

Keep bugging me, I'll snap some shots soon!!  Today was warm and sunny which had me out on my bike instead of playing "car"...  

[dieselsmoke]

I am also interested as to what people are using for their boost gauge and EGT gauge. Do you have to get a certain EGT gauge that is paired with a certain egt sensor? How have people been mounting their gauges in their cars? Also, would those manual boost valves on ebay for like 10-20 dollars work to control boost? How do you attach the vaccum line for teh boost control to the metal line, would a gear clamp hold it on?

[Jettage1]

...bugging you for pics / how-to's   

[vanbcguy]

RIGHT!!

I'll be working on the car today so I'll shoot some pics then!!

[jwspin]

got those pics?

[theman53]

yeah I need to see it now too.

[vanbcguy]

Ok ok... been between here and Atlanta for the last 2 weeks, but got the pics...

First the obligatory "Hello" to Jezebel:



This is the boost controller itself:



All I did was cut about an inch out of the steel tube about where it had a 90-degree bend.  I found some nylon tubing at Home Depot or whatever that slips over top of the cut off steel line - it may well leak a bit but that's the goal here!  The brass 'T' is in place of the bend in the hard line - you could of course find some fittings that fit the hard line perfectly, but this is what I did...



Valve is a humidifier needle valve.  Very fine adjustment - takes a couple turns to go up 1 PSI.



That's my baby!

[Laurentian]

Thanks for the pics Byan, now I'm even more confused 
What does the needle valve do exactly ?
The needle valve seems to be away from the pluming,
being T-ed off and not in line so to speak.
You mention leakage, does it act like a bleeder ?
Please educate me !
 

Hugh

[vanbcguy]

Exactly - it's a bleeder...

The stock wastegate opens at about 10 PSI.  There isn't much adjustability built in to the KKK's factory wastegate - maybe 1 or 2 PSI but by that point you're flattening the springs inside it.

So what we need to do is find a way to "hide" some of the boost pressure from the wastegate.  There's lots of different ways to do this - you can get an expensive electronic boost controller that opens and closes a valve based on pressure, you can get a granger style valve that "pops" open at a certain pressure, or you can bleed off some of the pressure.

I personally didn't need an electronic controller since I pretty much just wanted to set it and leave it alone - I'm not driving competitively.  The KKK turbos with this setup actually have a bleeder internally too - there's a hollow tube sticking out the end of the wastegate can, this bleeds off some air providing a cooling airflow to the wastegate can.  If you use the a boost controller design that completely blocks boost then you're eliminating this airflow.  I think a lot of people have done it, but I always figure the engineers put it there for some reason in the first place.  In contrast a lot of the Garret turbos appear to have a separate line for this purpose, so their engineers thought it was needed too but chose a different way to do it.

So I went with this design.  I can regulate how much boost I'm bleeding off using the humidifier valve - open it more and we let more pressure out, thereby reducing the apparent pressure at the wastegate, thereby delaying when the wastegate will open.  Close it more and you bleed off less boost, and the wastegate will open closer to its stock setting.

I doubt you can go much over 15-18 PSI with this setup - you'll hit a point where you're bleeding off so much air you just won't be able to get enough pressure to open the wastegate.  I've turned mine up as high as 16.5 PSI but I knocked it back down to about 15 exactly - I don't have an intercooler yet so there's no real point to pushing more boost than that.