TurboClunker (a.k.a. cheap-ass slaps a turbo on his LX)

[Heckraiser]

Put everything back together after the third tear-down. I'm hoping I'm done this time! Everything seems to run well, no funny smells, no smoke, wife is happy

Lengthened the oil return hose by about 4 inches:

Made a heat shield for the exposed part of the manifold. It is two layers of aluminum sandwiched together with sheet metal screws and high temp metal epoxy. Mock up:

Getting VHT paint:

I also wrapped the charge pipe between the intercooler and the throttle in that heat wrap stuff @FastCarGuy mentioned. My wife needed to add something to her amazon order to get free shipping, so there you go. You can also see here I teed the PCV and crank case breather hoses together and ran them both to the catch can.

The hood scoop is pretty much the only piece of the puzzle left to complete.

 

[Heckraiser]

...aaaand, no oil on the street where I parked it last night! If you saw how much oil I lost last week, you would understand what an accomplishment this is

 

[alia176]

hmm, wonder if you can use that heat shield as a burrito warmer too!!

 

[Heckraiser]

I'm sure you could if you could get the burrito to stay put on there I think if I were going for burrito cooker, I'd wrap it really well in aluminum foil and stuff it between the turbine housing and the valve cover--nice little valley there to hold it in place and plenty of heat!

 

[Heckraiser]

So, as I mentioned, the old turbo blanket completely came apart--split seams, stuffing coming out, the part that actually touches the turbine housing was burned through to the stuffing. That's after like 500-700 miles. Hiwow Sport Brand, do not buy!

So I picked up a new one from siliconeintakes.com. It's practically the same price, but I find this company actually has pretty decent stuff for the price. This is the blanket my buddy with the Tundra is using, and his is still in one piece (and unlike me, he actually puts A LOT of miles on his truck).

 

[scottryana]

When I first did my turbo the EFR turbos were brand new so there wasn't a specific turbo blanket for them, so I grabbed one of the silicon intake blankets and was going to replace it when the big companies came out with EFR turbo blankets. That was what almost 3 years ago, and the silicon intakes is still going strong.

 

[Heckraiser]

Good to hear. I just put it on yesterday and haven't really driven since. It definitely fit tighter and my buddy said his didn't really smoke, so that's good. As you can see, my old one practically caught fire Driving to Longmont and back today as a test run, then it's back up to the mountains over the weekend. *fingers crossed*

 

[b16]

Sorry if this has been answered elsewhere, but how did you go about sizing your turbo? Do you wish you had chosen something smaller for quicker spool?

 

[scottryana]

I would be careful sizing much smaller as quicker spool and closed loop operation do not mix....

 

[scottryana]

How was the drive to Longmont? I know you had a few leaks before, and each time you fix the small issues drivability gets better. So where are we today?! Haha.

Good to hear. I just put it on yesterday and haven't really driven since. It definitely fit tighter and my buddy said his didn't really smoke, so that's good. As you can see, my old one practically caught fire Driving to Longmont and back today as a test run, then it's back up to the mountains over the weekend. *fingers crossed*

 

[Heckraiser]

It held in all it's oil, so that's a start! With that flat-land trip accomplished, I'm going to head up Boulder Canyon tomorrow before hitting i-70 again on Friday. The new blanket did smoke a little (a lot easier to tell when there's a gaping hole in the hood), but it seems to be about done smoking.

@b16, no doubt a smaller turbo would deliver a better seat-of-the-pants experience. I've always liked the performance of a small quick-spooling turbo, but as Ryan alluded to, that would require some real engine management software. The bigger turbo spools slower so the stock computer can keep up fuel delivery needs, much in the same way the TRD/Magnuson supercharger works. I basically just went with Ryan's recommendation for turbo sizing since I can't read a compressor map chart worth a damn

 

[scottryana]

Ok no oil, but are you finally feeling like you are getting some good boost? I think there were a few leaks that were keeping you from realizing the system's full potential. Did you ever get the AFR and boost gauges installed? I would love to hear what boost you are actually running, you should be able to get some pretty good numbers climbing the hills there. I know you don't have your IC routing down yet, but at 5-6psi it shouldn't be too hot that it will hurt anything.

 

[Heckraiser]

Yes, it's holding about 5-5.5psi (5.8psi spring in the wastegate, no boost controller). No leaks that I can tell at this point, seems pretty tight! Partial throttle AFR is a little wonky (jumps between 13-14ish), but when you go WOT, AFR settles in the low-11's and it pulls hard. 0 psi is about 1800-2000rpm, 5psi can generally be achieved by 2400-2500 rpm, and by 3000rpm, it really feels alive. The problem is keeping enough throttle to stop the trans from shifting. I guess I should be using the "PWR" button.

Temps: not having the hood scoop done yet is a bummer, because I can feel that both end tanks are roughly equally hot (and they are hot!). But that said, just cutting the hole in the hood has made the whole system feel a little stronger. Even though a large turbo with low boost should not be making a lot of heat, I think it was still heat-soaking pretty bad. Now with ventilation, it feels completely normal after a highway run. I never detected any pinging at all, even when my coolant temps spiked in the heat of the summer charging up I-70 with the A/C on. Just a general loss of performance. Now the "loss of performance" is greatly reduced. Once the hood scoop is done, I expect it should perform pretty consistently.

The other side-note: pretty much all my driving since it's been back on the road has been mountain/weekend/camping driving (from Denver to the high country) and under those conditions, my MPG has actually improved by .5 or 1mpg. I'm guessing because of less downshifting. Of course, premium fuel, I'm still losing money, but it's a silver lining

 

[scottryana]

Yes if you're not using enough throttle to keep it from up shifting, you can use the PWR button or just hit the O/D off button. You should throw it in 2nd and just see how she pulls

I doubt you will be able to identify any knock, before the computer pulls timing but if it is knocking excessively you will get CEL's.

 

[Heckraiser]

Forgot to mention, my ugly little heat shield actually seems to be making a pretty big difference in underhood ambient temp (as measured by my hands in the parking lot. Definitely noticeable.

 

[White Stripe]

You should try driving it with the front o2 sensor unplugged. This will force it into open loop. See if you have better part throttle AFR's.

 

[Heckraiser]

Spent a couple days tooling around in the high country, including several blasts up/down vail pass (running back and forth between Vail and Frisco--unprepared campers ), and many miles in the dirt in White River NF. Camp got rained out, but the truck did great! It really does feel like a different truck on I-70.

 

[FastCarGuy]

Glad it's working out so well. I've got a small leak in my water-to-air cooling that I hope to have figured out today or tomorrow then will get to play with mine.

 

[Rivman1243]

Glad it's working out so well. I've got a small leak in my water-to-air cooling that I hope to have figured out today or tomorrow then will get to play with mine.

Is the water or the air leaking?

 

[FastCarGuy]

Water. I ran lines to the rear where the spare tire used to be and mounted a 4 gal. tank along with a cooler and re-circulation pump. The leak is in that area. Problem is it sprayed so everything is wet. Need to dry everything off first.