Chip's Turbo EFI Build

[buguy]

I guess that's better than having to load it on a trailer because it broke.
And if I just went out and ran a 12.29 I'd be thrilled!

[Chip Birks]

I finally gave up and called it quits. 1 pass after sitting there for an entire day. Total joke. But as you said. The car is sitting on the trailer ready to enjoy for the summer. It just ran 3 solid 12 second runs, through a real muffler, with a fan belt on. Not too many real street bugs can make that claim. Well 2 passes had a belt. I did actually pull it off on my second pass last night, had a crazy noise coming from the alternator. Turned out it was my fan nut coming loose. Fixed that this morning.

[Kalle]

Chip, I don’t remember so I hope you don’t mind me asking: how much hp your engine is producing when maxed out? And what is the weight at the starting line with fuel and of course you incl gear?

-BB-

[blue thunder]

Wow, thats a lot of trouble for only 1 run. But 12.29 is still a decent time, especially because you had to shut down early (hence the 91 mph). What kind of 60ft times are you running? I have only run my car once on a dragstrip with a best time of 12.1@116mph at 13psi. My 60ft times were terrible though (2.2) due to lack of grip.
Hope you have a bit more luck next time, and can dive into the low 11's

[Chip Birks]

Chip, I don’t remember so I hope you don’t mind me asking: how much hp your engine is producing when maxed out? And what is the weight at the starting line with fuel and of course you incl gear?

-BB-

I cant give you a number for power, I've never had this combo on a dyno. Weight is around 2000 or so, fueled, iced, with me in it. There were a few issues during my runs. My manifold temp sensor heat soaked really bad yesterday, showing intake temps of 195°F, even though the air coming out of the intercooler was a 100° lower than that. The high temp measurement made the ecu pull almost 5 degrees of timing, down to 24° or so. I made that setting a little less aggressive, but never got to test it again. The car has been easy mid 11s in the past. It would have done it yesterday if I'd gotten a clean run. The mph was there, we just weren't very in sync with each other.

[Chip Birks]

Wow, thats a lot of trouble for only 1 run. But 12.29 is still a decent time, especially because you had to shut down early (hence the 91 mph). What kind of 60ft times are you running? I have only run my car once on a dragstrip with a best time of 12.1@116mph at 13psi. My 60ft times were terrible though (2.2) due to lack of grip.
Hope you have a bit more luck next time, and can dive into the low 11's

It shut down on me just after the 1/8th and coasted in gear for a few seconds before I clutched. 60ft on that pass was an awful 1.77 or similar. It went 1.59 the night before. The time it ran and circumstances considered makes the pass to be pretty respectable. Still its a 12 second time slip from a car that should run 10s. Bleh.

[Chip Birks]

Well, yet another frustrating day at the racetrack. Learned some good lessons, got some good data. But not a solid run that I'm proud of. I got 2 passes, the first was a 20.XX@58 mph. My pipe connecting the turbo to my intake came off during my burnout, or so I think. All I know was it started the burnout okay, and then when I let off of the linelock, and effectively the 5500rpm rev limiter, it barely had the strength to turn the tires and come out of the box. Bizarre. I staged and launched, major bog, clutched, mashed throttle and left again, more bog, but it moved forward, but had zero power. So I spent the 20 seconds going down the track trying to figure out what was going on. Lame. Found the pipe had blown off of the throttle body, but stayed connected to the turbo. Oops.

2nd pass 12.58@109. The car came out of the hole way better than before, but overall felt lazy, didn't really come on boost very fast according to my butt dyno(no gauges), but made it down the track under power and felt decent. Picked up my time slip and was bummed to see the number I mention earlier. Pulled the data and couldn't see anything wrong, afr was good, timing was fine, boost was way low though, and super slow to build. I flat foot shifted 2 out of 3 shifts, and boost didn't drop to 0, but it didn't hold as steady as I would have liked. I looked at my boost control signal, and noticed that it was holding the wastegate closed for the entire run, boost never got high enough for it to even start trying to slow the turbo down. I was on my 4th out of 5 clicks on my boost controller. I was targeting 27 psi. It peaked at 15.9, but averaged just over 12psi for the run. Lame again. A little investigating found that my 3/4 intake manifold was loose at the head. I was able to get the nut on the 4 side tight, but couldn't reach the 3 side nut before they shut the lanes down.

I was really hoping to get a decent number out of the thing, and then I could shelf the big motor, finish the mouse and put the compound setup on it. As it sits now, I'm not real sure what to do with it. Maybe try to squeeze in a dyno session, throw all of the boost at it and then try to make it stick to a race track another time. Or do I finish the new stuff and start all over on trying to figure this thing out?

In the end, the car isn't broken, I'll swap tires, tighten down the intake and keep on using it as my daily. But it sure would be nice to get a solid pass out of it. Maybe next time...

[madmike]

Bummer Chip ,sounds like my luck ,, was this on Friday the 13th?

[rubenski]

No fun...

Was the intake issue on your 2nd run the reason the boost stayed low?

[Chip Birks]

Bummer Chip ,sounds like my luck ,, was this on Friday the 13th?

You'd think so, right! It was Saturday.

No fun...

Was the intake issue on your 2nd run the reason the boost stayed low?

Yes sir, hard to pressurize something, with a big leak. I don't run intake gaskets. This works real good, unless something comes loose. Oh well, next time.

[Ghiarod]

What's it running now Chip? Your fans need some good news!!!

[Chip Birks]

I could use some myself! I actually just bought a new house and have spent the last half of the summer moving into it and trying to sort out stuff with the old one. Just got home from a car show in it. 50 miles up and back. Didn't miss a beat. Last race for a few years at least is next Saturday. Hoping to put it on a dyno prior to that to do some high boost tuning. I have one more shot to get that 10 before they bulldoze my local track. Fingers crossed it survives the rollers.

[Clonebug]

Have a little faith Chip!!!!!!
Mine did 18 pulls and never broke a sweat.....surely yours can handle it...

[Chip Birks]

It should. But 7500rpm and 30psi will be spooky with any setup!

[Ghiarod]

What thudangitheck ever!!! Just remember the BugBrosForce is always with you crankhopper!!!!

!!!