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Took the car out for a little hoonage tonight after I verified wheels/brakes/bleeders were all torqued and good. 30 minutes of 90% freeway with plenty of 10-20psi pulls to 5k. No smoke, no weird noises; Just a little breakin smell and plenty of clean, QUIET, smooth braking.
After parking, I found the turbo once again had oil residue on the hotside of the CHRA where the housing torques down. Not a ton, no puddles or drips. More like a few drips squeezed by and flattened themselves out over the turbo CHRA. No evidence of oil around the feed line, but it's pretty hot atm and could be there could not be. No shaft play, no oil on either side of the turbo inside the housings when I had it out either... I'm hoping the check valve might resolve this, maybe the PCV is leaking?
I was thinking of adding a hose barb to the back of the intake filter on the turbo to run the driver-side PCV vent to and give the crankcase a vacuum source in boost. Not sure how to go about that just yet, but it might help if it's blowby.
Right on, if she's running properly I might just take you up on that
Still looking into a 3/8" hose bung, haven't had time to properly research it though. Maybe a fitting with a 3/8" hose to NPT and a nut fed into a hole cut into the rubber back of the filter?
Edit; Wondering if I should pickup this 1.6mm restrictor for the oil feed that some sites suggest. I drive my car a lot in cool weather (sub 65) and the pressure is quite high until the oil warms up. Not sure how high, but it pegs the needle on my oem gauge. From the site;
"The oil restrictor is necessary with all EFR Turbocharger at engines with more than app. 5 bar oil pressure at full load. It is needed when the Turbocharger with the built in restrictor is “pressing” oil. Attention: please check that your return line has at least a Dash 10 line size without constriction or kinks."
I expect my check valves will be here by the weekend, I will install them on the IM side of the PCV system; if they don't remedy this I'll talk with BW about using the restrictor.
Check valves ETA Saturday. Calling Borg Warner today to get clarification on what they think about the 1.6mm restrictor. Oil pressure when cold goes well above the 60psi mark on my gauge.
In other news, I'm trying to figure out good placement for my 25row Setrab. Previously I mounted it where the A/C fan was on the radiator however now that I have a SPAL fan there I have fewer options. I'm considering two options- Screwing it down to the wood undertray between the sway and the engine or mounting it similar to how Lokiel mounted it like so. The latter might not work as I have brake ducts in the way there. I also have the 180* TStat right now and will want to swap that out for the higher temp one before I finish mocking things up so the oil gets to proper temps before it opens up.
So I have been thinking of a way to get the hotside PCV port routed to a vacuum again. I've been having issues with oil leaking from places it didn't normally do so (like my new VC gasket) and think a tiny bit of +pressure is in the crankcase long enough to push oil out. I never see any oil on the filter though which I would expect. FM's kit includes an elbow for the air filter that has a 3/8" hose barb attached and uses the turbo inlet to draw a vacuum but my new filter doesn't have that capability and the FM setup wouldn't have fit. I have come up with two ideas (1 + 2 in the pic), I think #2 is the better idea due to all the bends involved with #1, I'll be checking out pipe lengths to try this, but I will wait until the check valves are on to see how that performs. The other question is how close can I get the pipe to the compressor before it interferes with spool, and how close can it get before it starts sucking oil out of the VC? It's no slashcut on the coldside port, but I'm sure vacuum there from 20psi boost might be a little too much.
For the oil cooler setup, I've pretty much decided ducting is unlikely right now. I did some research and found a 500cfm puller 7.5" SPAL fan (pt #30100394) and an adjustable thermostat kit (derale pt# der-16759) that I can dial up to 240*F. The fan has a 50% increase in CFM compared to the fanpack from Setrab. I think I might fab up a shroud and toss this fan on with a threshold of 230* or so. This will likely be a project for over the Winter time.
I picked up a set of 245 RS-4s Friday from the local Tire Rack distribution center (thanks, Miatataki), I didn't even know we had a warehouse in town, typically I only see warehouse pickup as an option for like California or Florida, etc. Anyway tomorrow I will be getting them mounted/balanced. I'm interested to see how things handle on the new tires, they certainly look meaty that's for sure.
Today I also installed the check valve between the catchcan and the intake manifold. I'm not sure if I was having issues with the PCV before, but this should all but guarantee that isn't a problem now. Noted the grommet on the valve cover for the PCV valve is also starting to get hard and needs replacement again.
Lastly, I also drilled out the end of the filter with a small bit and gauged the thickness of the material which came out to just over 1/2" and I'm sure the back end is much the same. Since the material is so thick I opted to try drilling a slightly smaller hole than a 3/8" 90* hose barb and threading the fitting into the hole. This which worked out pretty well as the fitting didn't even penetrate into the inside of the filter. Since it's NPT it is wedged in pretty tight and shouldn't need any extra adhesive or anything of that sort. Once verified that it would work, I drilled out the fitting as the 90* was pretty poorly connected with a bend that had barely a 1/4" in total gap. A little drill work later however and a it looked much better.
Once ready I attached a hose and picked a suitable angle, buttoned things up and cleaned up the gasket surfaces that were weeping oil so I could check for leak(s) over the next few days while the car warmed up. I then went for a drive for about 20 minutes which had quite a few 15-20psi pulls. which showed promise as the turbo didn't show any weeping yet. I'll check it out again tomorrow evening after I get the tires mounted and go for a drive.
I think the check valve is bad idea because the PCV valve already handles the function you're looking to accomplish but does it with minimal obstruction of flow.
I've also got a couple of problems with the hot side breather arrangement. The oil that will be in that line from the condensed vapor will simply drip inside your filter and then your filter will drip inside your engine compartment. When that is not happening the oil vapor will be sucked in to your turbo and will then puddle in the bottom of the compressor housing when the car is turned off and in the bottom of your intercooler. When you then get into a high-flow situation some of that oil will travel up and into the engine where it will cause detonation and also carbon buildup on your valve stems and combustion chamber.
Oil vapor detonates at a lot lower cylinder pressure than gasoline.
Man, that SUV at my office sure is all smashy. At least it still drives? Makes me think of GTA and damage to the cars from that game.
Built a small catch can using HUSKY compressor filter HDA70403AV and two 90* 3/8 hose bung - 1/4" NPT. Drilled out the fittings to ensure maximum flow around the bends and will install tonight. The valve at the bottom leaks under vacuum or low pressure which wont work for where I'm putting it. I'll pickup a vacuum nipple to seal it and might RTV or JBWeld it shut. Need to source more O-Rings if I seal it as I can see this one getting hardened fairly quick. Plan to ziptie the filter to the drivers-side headlight motor which will put it in the perfect mounting place until I can fab something up to attach it to the chassis.
I think the check valve is bad idea because the PCV valve already handles the function you're looking to accomplish but does it with minimal obstruction of flow.
I finally got around to clearing the CC and remembering your comment I checked how it flowed at idle by opening the drain schrader valve on the CC and got next to no air suction leading me to believe the driver's side was making up for this drop in flow. I pulled out the checkvalve and tried again and got a huge increase in flow.
I bet I could make up for the drop in flow if I just put a few Y's on either end of the CC to IM hose and run 4-5 check valves to spread out the airflow.. Or not lol
Spoke to a BW engineer today regarding the oil weep around the CHRA/Turbine housing. The long and short is, it shouldn't be leaking oil like that but if it is the oil pressure needs to be regulated. He said 60psi is their target limit for oil pressure and said 75 is okay for transient but higher pressures like that will cause strange behavior. His suggestion was the TurboSmart regulator I mentioned previously or I can try the 1.6mm restrictor which he said he hasn't had any reports of a failure using. He -did- mention a racing team used a smaller restrictor than that and caused catastrophic failure of the bearing though (it was around .9mm or so) so 1.6 is about as small as he'd advise if at all. I'll most likely be picking up the TS oil pressure controller and at some point putting it in-line on the feed. Guess I'll have to drill another oil pan hole. After reducing boost to 11-12psi weeping was drastically reduced so probably I'll ride out the season as-is and install the controller over winter.
Tonight I'm also upgrading my boost gauge to a AutoMeter 4303 Boost/Vac gauge w/ 30psi range off of a great CL find (NIB for $50) to replace my 20psi limit gauge. Looks to use the same 1/8" nylon line so I might not have to fish another line. Yay!
Picked up a security camera system to hopefully catch the losers going through our cars at night too. Getting pretty old.
Installed the 949 hybrid mount kit, so far I like it after about an hour of driving. Marginal NVH increase but it definitely restrains the motor more.
I've also been trying to figure out a good second location for a drain for the TurboSmart oil pressure regulator when I install it this winter, it's only a 4an fitting so it shouldn't be too hard however I'm doing it on the car so there's that.
So the Hybrid mount kit is pretty awesome, definitely noticing more vibrations at idle but not too unreasonable. Engine is very planted now. I like it.
I've been thinking on the sensors and where they'll be installed -- I know my MTuned reroute will have a port for coolant and I can pull my narrowband sensor in favor of the LC-2. The oil sensor I'm thinking I'll put a T in-line on the Turbo oil feed which comes out right above the dipstick (94 block). Just need to find a fitting that works. I AM having some difficulty in determining the best placement for the EGT sensor, however. I'm thinking it'll be on the bottom of the TSE manifold but not sure if I want it in the collector area or a single runner (#4?). Never installed one of these, don't want to screw up my manifold. Any tips?
I double-checked my TSE bag as I was 99% sure he shipped out a fitting that might work in this case and I'll be damned there it was. This was meant originally to go on the port that has the factory oil pressure sender to T off the line to feed the turbo but I didn't need to do that so it was just laying around. I'll be using the supplied NPT->AN fitting to feed the turbo and the remaining threaded port will hopefully be used for the sensor, the sensor is pretty long and may obstruct the flow of oil so I need to wait until it gets here before I can say for sure if this will work.
Upon further review, I don't think the above will actually work due to the way the sensor protrudes past the threads further than I expect will allow decent flow for the turbo. I have been planning on putting a TurboSmart OPR T40 in to control oil pressure to the turbo better before cranking the boost further and that has an accommodation for a 1/8 NPT sensor so I will be installing this as well. I'll need to drill and tap the pan for another fitting. Not sure yet where I can make that fit yet though, based on post #389 here there I have to contend with the windage tray and the pickup. I do not want to pull the oil pan, is there a good second place to tap in a return?
^ Yeah, that was what I was thinking I would have to do anyway, after some research I found a rear location that codrus spoke of that appears like it might work for the return but will require me to pull the engine (again lol) but probably not the pan:
After emailing TurboSmart to verify if the pressure controller has enough depth to mount the sensor inside it sounds like they actually don't think it will fit. They suggested a 1/8 NPT female to 1/8 NPT male standoff. I took a look and it looks like it should work but the inner diameter of the standoff may be a tad too small requiring me to bore it out a bit. We shall see...
I think I'm going to try drilling and tapping the bolt for the EGR port on runner #4 on the manifold. Least amount of work and most likely to get done fairly quickly - And I don't have to pull off all of the stage 8 fasteners and try to get them all lined up correctly again. That and I don't want to drill my coated manifold and mess something up
Gauges are shipping, I received the LC-2 and found it was actually an MTX-L kit in the wrong box. Vendor is sending a replacement but in the mean time I am working out where I am going to run my sensor cable through the firewall, both ends are pretty big and will require a sizable hole in any grommet. This has me considering using the shifter turret and snaking the cable up to the downpipe bung which has me thinking the 3 foot sensor cable is not long enough even if I put the LC-2 next to the shifter turret but the 8 foot sensor cable is pretty damn long..