Turbo Induction .

19th December 2007
After mounting the turbo onto the car for the first time , the reality of the rest of the components that I needed to obtain started to dawn on me.

I thought my original budget of £500.00 to add the turbo would have been enough to get my turbo working. Now at this stage having the turbo mounted and the first section of the turbo system made. I could see that I was already over budget at £550.00. I had to make a decision about whether to go forward or to try and fit together what I had. I spent some time working out the cost of buying pressure caps for my IDF carbs and running the turbo through the carbs instead of my original plan to build a custom intake manifold. My Carburetors had been second hand and had come from Texas , so I was unsure of their origin and further more not sure they would be able to take the extra boost pressure from the turbo. My worries where that the throttle rods where not sealed for turbo use and would leak petrol. This was a very serious problem as although the carburetors could be made to work with the turbo the cost of this was looking more than $500.00 . I estimated that to get this stage working that it would cost in the region of another £500.00, although doing this would get me some experience in running the turbo I decided that It was fool hardy to spend this money in a direction that I was going to use as a stop gap to the fully turbo'd injected engine.

I had been looking on eBay at the multitude of different induction kits that there is on the market. It seems that when you buy one of these components you must know the car that it is being fitted onto. This is a bit of a problem , when you are building your own. I soon realized that most of these induction kits where in the region of £80.00 - £150.00. This was not something that my budget could afford at this present time.

Luckily I had been talking to a friend about my dilemma of which direction to take my turbo and he had said that he had seen an induction system sitting on the shelf of my local breakers Yard 'Ripleys'. The following morning I went down to the breakers yard and was happy to find that they had the kit and they only wanted £15.00 for it including the AMF sensor. This was a result as the unit turned out to be Piper X from a Renault Saxo Turbo. I fitted the induction kit to the turbo and realised that I would need some more Samco hose to ensure it did not come off.

I ordered the tube from Demon tweaks and would have to wait till after Christmas to receive it.
I had a telephone call from Demon Tweaks stating there was a problem with my order. Unfortunately I have not been able to find out what this problem is as Christmas 2007 is nearly on top of us.

I want to wish my readers a very merry Christmas and a happy new year 2008.

Turbo Exhaust Inlet manifold - part three

17th December 2007
With the to parts tacked and then bolted on to the exhaust , with an small engineering level I was able to see that the flange was pretty much level and with the turbo attached temporally, you could see that that the turbo kit sat quite neatly on the back of the buggy.

I removed the turbo and unbolted the adapter and took it back to Philcox to have the flange welded in its final position.

Whilst the adapter was welded I returned home to find that the oil adapter T pieces I had ordered had turned up. I decided to see if this would connect up to the braided cosworth line that had come with the t3 turbo as the oil line feed. With the 1/8"bsp to 1/4" bsp adapter that came with the turbo I was able to connect up the oil line and screw in the oil pressure sender. I ensured that all the lines where jointed with oil proof thread lock.

I used a brass 1/4"bsp screw cap to seal of the oil line. The engine could now be turned over to test the oil line. The line pressured up without leak.

Turbo Exhaust Inlet manifold - part two

6th December 2007
My visit to Philcox had been successful and the old flange had been successfully removed. Philcox had suggested that the triangular flange should have been welded on the other side of the flange as was consistent with traditional methods of exhaust manufacture. They cut a new flange from stainless steel and ensured that the hole in the centre of the flange allowed the pipework to fit snugly inside. They used a plasma torch to cut around the gasket which would be cleaned up after the position of the flange had been ascertained and tacked, re-checked and then finally welded in position. I was very pleased with the job that they had done so far and it was obvious that the work they had done looked no longer like my own and more like that done by a professional company, something the previous company that worked on this item failed to realize. When you pay for a professional job, it should be just that, not something that you could have done at home with a MiG welder and some stainless steel MiG wire.

I would need to mark the flange position with a level and ensure the turbo bracket was in the correct position. Once this had been established, I would be able to return the two parts to have them tacked up.

With the two parts marked up with a pencil it was going to be a couple of days til the two parts could be tacked together.

I had been ordering some oil line parts for the oil feed for the turbo and received some of the parts only to find that they where the wrong size. I had ordered a 1/8bsp to 4-N adapter thinking that the 4-N was the size of the Goodridge Ford Cosworth oil line. Unfortunately this was not only to Small but had the curve on the thread top convex instead of concave. I learnt something today all bsp fittings have concave tops to the threads. I ordered the new adapter the 1/8bsp to 1/4bsp adapter and hoped this would be the correct one as these threaded fitting are very difficult to match up.

Turbo Exhaust inlet manifold - part one

30th Nov 2007.
This was the first attempt , the second was no nearer. It was time to change the company i was using to make it. Stainless is obviously slippery to weld.

After getting a few quotes for the fabrication of this item I unfortunately went with the company that I thought would be the best and not based on cost of the manifold being made. This unfortunately was to be not a good idea as for the first time I had had something fabricated externally the company produced a piece of work which was unsatisfactory and not of good workmanship. As you can see from the picture the manifold was not vertical with the garret manifold not horizontal either. The second attempt when returning the manifold to the fist company produced not much better results. The manifold still placed the Garret about 20-25 degrees out and the horizontal measurement of the top of the garret flange did not read on my gauge. The Triangular flange had been skewed when it was welded to the pipe and was not horizontal with the tube. The finish was still no better.

Fortunately I am in the lucky position of having another company nearby Philcox's of Catsfield. Look them up on yell.co.uk, I am sure you'll be happy. They where more than happy to take the flange of from the inlet manifold and fabricate a new one that was going to be welded properly to the tubing. They also offered solution for the missing studs in the turbo flange they offered to weld in 10mm studs. I would need to return to pick up the manifold in two pieces to mark the upright position of the top flange.

I asked if I could have the triangular manifold cut of having to have it shortened by an inch and the 10mm studs inserted. When I asked if they would keep the old flange for me. I was asked if I wanted it for sentimental reasons, I said no , he asked if I was going to send it to the first company as a memento or a Christmas present. I conceded that it would make a novel Christmas present as a desk pen holder, LOL .

Garret Turbo Exhaust

14th November 2007
My Cosworth Turbo 2WD Stainless front section finally turned up much to the embarrassment of the postman trying to get this through the letter box to no avail.

I was very pleased with this item as I picked it up from eBay and to be honest this item was possibly the cheapest part I have purchased.

The exhaust I was planning would only need the front end of this exhaust section. When choosing your exhaust it is important to ensure that it comes from the car that the turbo came from. The reason for this is that the Garrett T3 unit comes with an assortment of different exhaust turbine sections to fit different exhaust.

I took the exhaust to a friends workshop to get it cut as cutting exhaust tubing to leave a square edge is notoriously difficult. My friend had a bench with a motorised hack saw that could hold the exhaust squarely in to cut it. I tried to use cleaning compounds to clean up the exhaust , but nothing seemed to budge the grime.

Luckily I had found a metal surface specialist company that would clean the exhaust with a glass bead blasting system, and would be able to then clean and polish the exhaust to a high luster. The results speak for themselves.

The turbo unit was nearly ready to go on the car. I only needed a few items left to get the lambda sensor, which was a V90HF9F472AA Cosworth Sapphire 4x4 Lambda Sensor these usually go for about £50 and I was hoping I could find one through an auction service cheaper. I would also need to purchase an induction kit for the turbo that would also required to be fitted with an air flow mass meter. Both of these senders would be needed for the Megasquirt ignition system that I still needed to source and build.

The next item that I needed to manufacture was the stainless steel section that would attach the Garret Turbo to my ceramic exhaust. I have been told this has to be stainless due to the high temperatures reached in the turbo. I had purchased a Turbo installation kit which contained studs and gaskets for the T3. I needed to locate the triangular 60mm gasket to join the exhaust. My plan was to make a u shape that would have to manifolds on each end. This would put the turbo up above and behind the exhaust in the same orientation that it came out of the Cosworth. I would need to find a company that would mill the flanges and be able to stainless steel weld them onto the manifolds. I had contacted one company and they had quoted me around £100.00 to build the adapter from scratch . The cost of this manufacture was high as the current stainless steel prices were very high making fabrication costs dear.

Christmas was coming at full speed and I was not sure whether I could spare this money before Christmas.

Turbo Spooling

11th November 2007.
After a mournful start to the day and a number of interesting thoughts conjured up by the bishop of our church , whilst visiting with my daughter who is in Rainbows. I ventured back to the garage.

I noticed that the actuator valve was not closing entirely and remembered reading an article on the Internet which suggested winding back the actuator arm turnbuckle five turns to obtain the best boost with the Collins actuator and to ensure that the valve was clamped shut. I had not yet managed to acquire the silicon hose to connect the actuator to the compressor housing nor had I managed to buy the correct turbo housing brass tail which was a T piece allowing a boost gauge to be fitted.

Whilst in the garage I decided to see if the Turbo would spool up If I held the turbo inlet to the exhaust. I wanted to see if the turbine would spool up before I released the funds to build the stainless exhaust to turbo manifold as this was going to be fabricated by a company that could fabricate, weld and mill stainless.

I started the engine and held the turbo flange against the exhaust flume. At tick over nothing moved. I reved the engine and watched to see if the compressor turbine spun up. It spun up very easily. I quickly removed the turbo from the exhaust flow as I had not plumbed the oil feed or the oil return to keep the bearings lubricated.

This was a major part of the testing for the turbo as I was unsure that the RS Cosworth T3 could be driven by the 1641 lump. I had intentionally chosen a small compressor to allow it to spool up at low reves.

The next phase was to have the stainless exhaust union made to allow the turbo unit to be bolted to the exhaust.

I had purchased a T piece for the oil supply from the pressure gauge output although I would have to get taps and dies to re-thread this to 10mm 1.0mm pitch as I had bought a T piece with 1/8 bsp on each thread.

I also had just purchased a stainless exhaust from a cosworth 4x4 that i was intending to shorten an re-bend to create a screamer type pipe with a park arrestor on it. I would have to receive the exhaust before I new for sure what size pipework it used as I was not sure if it was 2" or 3" pipe.

Christmas was approaching at great speed and I was going to concerate on my family christmas for the next couple of weeks or months.

Hopefully some of the new parts I have ordered would turn up and the exhaust manfold would be made and delivered.