hey guys, thanks for the info on the falcon mounts, I'll definitely be looking into them, cheers. As for the Suzuki Sport engine mount kit, I wish haha, but that did put me back onto the Monster Sport website, where I found... clutches! So, now I know there should be a clutch available when I'm ready, I can move on to searching for other bits and pieces.
PS: I though Suzuki Sport and Monster Sport were different companies, but just stocked a heap of each another's gear, oh well.
but on to the main topic of this post: boost response
today I was messing around with an old air horn tank I found laying around a workshop, I was keen to use it on another small project of mine but it was suggested by the tuner there that I make a "boost canister." The thought had crossed my mind ages ago but I hadn't even considered using this tank for that!
So, with that in mind, I removed the fitting for the capillary line to the horn, as well as the tyre valve style refilling valve on the tank. I left the pressure gauge on though, just for shits and giggles. After that, I replaced these fittings with brass barbed fittings so I could attach my waste gate actuator line (these were sealed with Teflon tape).
Just to go over the basic theory behind this, pressure in a system like this is more or less equal throughout this vacuum line. But, when we have a massive tank (relatively) in the middle of the line, it gives a lot more volume that has to be pressurised, so the rate of pressurisation due to boost changes, so the waste gate actuator pressure rises more slowly than it would with just a line going to it. Basically the canister has to fill up with boost before the boost can open the waste gate.
In a nut shell, with this tank installed, boost comes on sooner and harder, in fact boost now spikes to 11psi before settling down to 10psi, when before it would simply rise to 10 in its own time. Here is a table that can explain the outcome:
- note: this graph is over time, not revs, because this is the time taken relative to revs, personally, i would've liked to have been able to log it over revs, but... microsquirt ecu
This is just my interpretation of how the car feels now. No scientific shit was done to get these results, just before and after drives.
As far as driveability is concerned, cruising along at light loads, I now sustain a vacuum of around 8in/Hg (i think, might be mm/Hg, but, I'll just continue with in/Hg), whereas before it was around 11in/Hg. This leads me to believe that the wastegate was being pushed open a bit under light loads - I don't know if that really makes sense or if I'm pissing in my own pocket over that, it's just what I noticed.
Another thing I noticed was that the "turbo spool" was noticeably louder, no doubt because of the turbo working harder off the bottom. The louder spooling noise dulled back down to normal at about 6000rpm - 6500rpm. One issue was that it no longer idled properly with the new canister in place. I resolved this by idling up at the throttle body.
Mounting was an issue, as it's very hard to find space in an engine bay such as this! Basically, I relocated my oil catch can and zip tied it to the firewall and shock tower. Then, I had intended to use the old catch can bracket as a bracket for the canister.
... I broke it.
So the end result utilises a few more zip ties than I had originally intended, but it's a work in progress. Proper mounting solutions will be employed... one day.
All in all it was an interesting exercise that has made driving my go-kart just that little bit more fun!
Oh, and photos, of course:
- yes it's big, yes its red... yes, it's stock officer!
- as i said, i left the gauge on it for shits and giggles, fyi, it goes up to 15kgf/m squared, or about 200psi - a bit optimistic for my application
So yeah, that was my progress for another week.
dunno exactly how I managed that, but I could have a few guesses haha, regardless, this will need resolving, probably at the same time as my clutch replacement... and engine bay painting!
and found that instead of their usual red tinge they were fouled, most likely the result of a "safe" tune, after a quick clean the car now idles alot smoother, accelerates better, etc. although the plugs will probably re-foul over the next few days
) first of all was the clutch adjusting bolt "self adjusted," giving very little clutch movement. this was fixed on the side of the road - and prevented from future occurences by a spare nut i had in the car.
. No chunks of metal or sludge in the drain pan, which isn't a bad effort when using REPCO brand oil to run it in with.