sporadic's Turbo Duratec build thread

[DareDevil03]

Awesome!!!!!!

[sporadic]

Day 15

(07/31/2007 Recap)

My goal was to finish the car, but that didn't happen because I was too tired to install the tune and didn't want to mess anything up.

I got everything together fairly easily.
Only real suprise was when I cut into the coolant lines I thought were empty.
Yep, a bit of a mess.
I used 3/4" x 3/4" x 3/8" heater hose "T" from Napa. See pic.
They barely didn't fit.. so I had to grind down the lip and then they fit perfectly and snug.

I was able to use some of the heat resistant wrap from the heat core lines on the turbo coolant lines.
I definitely needed that excess to protect the lines since they run nearly against the turbo manifold.


PICS

My car before exhaust install.


My car rear shot:


Heater hose T:


Coolant lines installed:


Oil return line:
5/8" ID. From Napa - sold by the foot.


Cool shot of the turbo:


Another:

[sporadic]

Day 16

The car is complete except for the tune!
Friday I drive 3.5 hours to Columbus, OH to LaSota Racing.

The car is running well right now with the base, no-boost tune so I'm fully confident in making it there safely.
Most of the exhaust must be exiting through the wastegate because I can't hear the turbo at all yet.
The exhaust is a good bit louder than I expected, but I have a feeling it will quiet down considerably once the wastegate is closed.

I have no oil or coolant leaks, wohoo!
I do have some exhaust leaks I'll be fighting with, but both are at clamps and not at the manifold or downpipe.

There is a black plastic cover that spans the front underside of the car that isn't installed in the pics.
I will be reinstalling that after a couple days monitoring everything.

One potential issue is slowly dropping RPMs.
I know that's a sign of a vacuum leak so I'll try to hunt that down.
It could have something to do with not being fully tuned yet. I'll keep everybody updated on that.

The SCT tune was incredibly easy to install, but the longest 5 minutes of my life!
I'm sitting there in a 90* car praying the battery doesn't die and fry my computer!

I ended up buying some exhaust wrap for my header.
I'm definitely no pro at wrapping that stuff.
It's not as tight as they recommend, but hopefully it will help some.
I used stainless steel hose clamps to secure the wrap.
There's probably 40ft of that wrap left so I'll probably do the DP later.

I initally filled the car with cheapo Advance Auto 5w30 conventional oil.
I then drove around 10 miles and drained it.
The car was absolutely covered with metal dust, so I figured it was a good idea to do a quick flush of the oil just in case any airborne dust got into the engine.
It's now filled with Mobil One 10w30 fully synthetic.

PICS





Header wrapped:

[Turbo Turtle]

looks very good man. nice job.

[sporadic]

OK I'm back from LaSota Racing!

The good news is the car made 180.42whp and 176.37tq @5psi.
The bad news is it was at 5psi.

Also good news is I have no oil or coolant leaks!
I had 1 obvious vac leak but fixed that by plugging in a connection all the way.
I got that done before I drove to Columbus.

I seem to be having wastegate issues..
The boost is "fluttering" around 5psi.
I'm using the wastegate that came with this turbo.

(TBird guys read on)
If I try to manually pull on the wastegate actuator rod it pulls fairly easily..
If I pull on the rod of the older/rusty looking one it has significantly more resistance.
I assumed the freeer moving one was the better... was I right?
Is it possible the spring in this is bad and the exhaust is actually forcing the wastegate open??

Another issue I'm having is a backfire when I left off the gas from higher rpms in boost.
Don, my tuner didn't really seem to care about it, but it seems something isn't right there.
Maybe something with the boost fluctuating?

I have pics and video but need scott to download them off his cam for me.
Everybody gets to hear my annoying backfire.

My exhaust is also louder than I expected.
It's not too bad until the wastegate opens, then it drones like crazy around 3k rpm.

Conditions:

Dynojet dyno
8/3/207
94.81 *F
29.18 in-Hg
Humidity: 28%
SAE 1.04

Next steps:
Fix the boost issue.
Don says my current tune should work fine when I get the boost issue fixed, but just in case to monitor it with a wideband before going too nuts.
Anybody have a wideband I can bum or purchase?
If I buy one does anybody have a recommendation?

Fix my exhaust.
The section of exhaust crossing over the rear crossmember is rattling and driving me nuts.

[Dantheman86]

isn't backfire normal on boosted cars? heck my svt backfires a lil from high rpms!

btw props on the turbo dtec!

[DareDevil03]

the wastegate spring my be to weak. try switching it with other one, see if you get teh same resistance. Turbo flutter is BAD.

[dbluefocus21]

exhaust backfire can be normal if he tuned it to be a lil on the rich side.

did he do airfuel on your dyno?

btw, good job on this build

[sporadic]

A/F is 11.0, so yes it's a bit on the rich side.
He specifically told me that people will say to tune it at 11.5, but the Focus prefers 11.0.

[sporadic]

Wohoo!!! What a shame the roads are wet tonight..
I hit just under 10psi (9.5 I'm assuming) in gears 1-3!
It takes up to 4k rpm or so to get there, so I'm still scratching my head about that.
I figured I'd hit full boost much lower, perhaps as low as 2k rpm.
Maybe the Tbird guys will chime in here.
I'm wonder if it's due to 2.0 liters vs 2.3 of the Tbird, or the wet roads causing such bad wheelspin that I lose that load on the engine.

I have not use a wideband on it yet.
I'm still backfiring some when I let off the throttle, so I'm obviously still on the rich side so I'm not overly concerned.

My wheel hop is terrible.
I'll be trying some urethane front control arm bushing soon in hopes of eliminating it.
If that doesn't do it I'll be fabbing up some traction bars.
I'm trying to avoid the drag strip until my wheel hop is completely gone.
I don't need a busted axle or trashed motor mounts.

Tbird guys: I can still move this actuator rod by hand, but it certainly takes more effort than the previous.
Does it still sound like I should be building boost earlier, and should I look into a brand new actuator?
Does somebody even make new actuators?

I still need to hook the lights up in m gauges.
I thought I'd be able to see them at night from the glow of my dash gauges, but no luck.

I'm looking forward to the next dyno day!