VK turbo

[joellaursen]

turboing my vh

hey im 19 and own a 1983 vh sl im still on my p's but wanna start building a motor 4 wen i get my blacks. I wanna go with the 202 turbo but ive seen it done with the fuel injected vk motor and the carbied 202. Im a bit confused on wich 1 to use coz i recon the fuel injected 1 will make more power but have hurd tht the injected motor isnt very reliable can any1 give me some advise on wat i should do and around how much it should cost?
cheers

 

[hiy_po]

turbo 202

I agree EFI will be an improvement over the carbs, but that said this engine gets scary under boost with carbs. I dont see how an EFI engine is any different from the carb engine or the blue motor for that matter. The black motors ( EFI or EST ) have a better flowing head than the blue, and the EFI even had sodium filled exhaust valves. The cam in the EFI is a good turbo cam as well. The red motor is the weakest of the bunch with its crank producing a torsonal vibration at 5500rpm and its rods arent as strong. The heads dont flow as well at low lift due to the low pressure caused by the siamesed ports.
What it costs is up to the individuals budget, you can use a stock motor with a decomp plate or spend as much as you can on working the engine for balance, strength and more air flow.

 

[hiy_po]

update

fitted an alloy air duct to the carbs. its rounded inside like ram tubes and will allow me to attach a pod once the battery is out of the way.

Modified the dump pipe to clear my EFI manifold. One less obstacle to the EFI conversion.
My next big thing will be to change the fuel tank for an EFI one and change the supply lines to the ones I have off the EFI calais.
Thanks goes out to Fergy who came over with his welder and welded up the new dump pipe. Was no easy task and he kept at it the whole day and the job at the end is faultless. Thanks again mate.

Also thanks goes out to Fergy for the use of his BTM. Been experimenting with the different ways of firing it and have had some very impressive results. The difference these things made to my engine is huge. Still got a way to go before Ive got it all sorted. Im going to dyno it on the 28th of this month so Ill have a RWHP figure if all goes well after that and its tuning time up untill then

 

[Holster_VK8]

Excellent Sleeper

 

[vp_exec]

Mate this thing is terrific!! Love those that look outside the square.

 

[hiy_po]

Dynoed

Took the car down to the Dyno day put on by the West Coast Commodores club and held @ Formula Tech in Bibra Lake. I was very disapionted to get 151.7hp but it ran lean and "popped" back threw the turbo and out the intake. I have a video, Click here Beware its an movie file over 35mb. Im having a serious think about whats leaned it off, and how to get it richened, or to drop the carbs and fit the EFI. Would be a nice sucess to get the SU's to sing while I have the BTM to make the most of it.
Ill start at step 1 and check my fuel supply to make sure its not too slow to keep up with the emptying carbs. Has a Holley Blue with a red regulator set to 8psi.
I screwed the adjuster down on the fuel pressure regulator further than I think its supposed to go, so I now have 12psi fuel pressure. Couldnt get it to pop when I tested it tonight, so its an improvement but am thinking more will be better again and maybe a larger main jet in the SU's. The fuel inlets into the carbs are really small as well, so thinking may be pull them out, redrill and tap them and screw in larger fuel inlet pipes, theres always sanding down the lower third of the needle as well but I think changing main jets will require new needles to suit so Ill try get turbo or rich set ones.

 

[hiy_po]

Latest Update and dyno runs

Ok time for an update
Blew that engine up, well broke the top of number 5 piston and split the bore.
Its time for a new motor. New block is a EFI 3.3 black block bored 0.030inch fitted with 7.5cc center dished hyper pistons wearing nodular Iron top ring with gap-less second ring and acl oil control rings. Crank and rods are std with acl race series big end shells. Cam is Crow solid grind 35872 set to 0.091inch lift @TDC via crow adjustable timing gears. Deck has been notched, o-ringed and all head bolt holes have been helicoiled and screw in studs fitted. A 0.040 copper head gasket will be used. And spray on copper used after annealing. Ill never use holymar on a copper head gasket again!!!
turbo12port stage 2 - Head will get some upgrades including more work in the combustion chambers to try and get less detonation at higher boost. Valves will be upgraded to 1.65 stainless intake valves, and 308 VN/VP EFI undercut 1.6 exhaust valves. exhaust valves will be backcut. Moly retainers and locks fitted and new crow HD single valve springs used. further port work is done to exhaust and inlets are pocket ported with short turns radius. Head will be finished with new 3 angle valve seats and new o-ring wires fitted.
Some other changes will be BDD needles for the SU's replacing my BAX.
Ive made a photo gallery of the head build HERE

That was the plan BUT...Had a huge change of direction with the cam. I now have a Clive Cams 280 duration 282 lift hydraulic grind fitted. Ive set the timing +2 to give 0.058@TDC. Its not what I wanted as I would like to have run with a solid grind. But after a final inspection before I was going to fit it, I found a screwed lobe on the Solid Crow ..... Damn... !!!

So its back to the dyno 175rwhp damn seems it has good AR until 5psi boost then just goes too lean.
So in goes a set of 0.125thou needle and seats to try and increase the fuel flow into the carbs. I measured the old ones and they seem to be 0.040thou so that should make a difference.Soo of the dyno again

You Tube vid of dyno run

235rwhp is getting better but is still leaning out just when I dont want it to.
Next mod is to fit a boost referenced fuel regulator. After looking around at what was available I chose the MagnaFuel MP-9690 and fitted it in l

Seems I need to do more research on how these things work!! At first when I set the pressure I did it with the car at idle ie 14hg vacuum so as soon as the vacuum starts dropping it thinks its boost and floods the carbs too early.... So turned off the engine and just ran the fuel pump. Reset the pressure to 5psi and started the car, well seems the regulator reacts to vacuum by dropping the fuel pressure, soo at idle it has almost no fuel pressure and trys to stall when pulling up to lights and stuff.
If anyone reading this has some experience with this kinda thing feel free to post up.

 

[starfire vc]

Intresting setup and nice power figure. i thought about doing a turbo setup on one of my many red motors but decided against it for many reasons. Hows cold start driveabilty with the draw through?

 

[hiy_po]

cold start is really bad but is due to running SU's not the turbo. If I was using any other carb wouldnt be a problem but SU's and some cd strombergs NEED a choke to richen them up to start, and being a commodore if I want a choke I need to add it from scratch. I keep a can of aerostart under the bonnet next to the battery on cold mornings one quick spray into my intake and she fires first crank.

 

[hiy_po]

new fuel system

Well time for an update. I have completely changed the fuel supply, it no longer runs a holley black it has an EFI fuel pump (Bosch 050) running into an aeromotive regulator, witch then feeds my Magnafuel regulator keeping pressure up at a constant 25 psi. The holley used to max out at 16psi so I am hoping this will keep the fuel bowls in the SU's full under boost conditions. The aeromotive is boost referanced to give a 1:1 rise in pressure with boost, but I havent plumbed that up yet. Maybe get to that next weekend. Looking forward to the next dyno day am hoping 300rwhp or better will be the result. I think the fuel metering needles in the carbs will be the last thing that will need to be fine tuned to get it up to near its potential. I will find out how close they are when I get it back on the dyno. It sounds so much quieter now that the holley is no longer wweeerring away at the back.

Latest view of the engine bay