Tampa area. North of St. Petersburg.

 

Rotorocks,

you win Colbert's big brass ***** award, that is some nice work. I've wanted to try this idea for a while now, you get big props for actually trying to prove out the concept.

I know ther rear mounted turbo will work if sized correctly, I hope this works for you. Maybe one you get it working you should fab up some more exhausts and sell them.

how did you decide on the size of turbo?

 

I can't wait anymore!!!! I need to know your progress!!!!

I'm checking this thread like every 10 minutes!!

 

Just common sense:
too big - won't spin fast enough
too small (like greddy) don't have enough breath at hi revs, so I took something a bit bigger, but not too big. This one should provide enough flow, and spin quickly, and at the same time it is cheap as ****, so if it goes I'll get another one. I am no turbo engineer, nor a mechanical engineer. All I can do is build it and see if it works.

Thanks for the brass ***** award.

Patience my friend it is being built.
My kid is sick at home today, so i stayed in with him doing work from home. Between so here and there, I put in a couple of hours into building the system. Finalised the tubing to the oil pump (on the turbo end) and installed the oil catch can.

A question
Three hoses going to the intake:
1. the air from the engine (no problem there)
2. some vacuum hose that makes a lot of noise when disconnected (what is it?)
3. Same thing. Sucks air, but not as much, so no noise. (what is it?)

What should I do about them? just leave them hanging, cap them or put them back into the intake (though that might be a difficult thing to do as I got no nipples there?

 

Pettit racing is in West Palm. They should be able to tune the X since they are using it on there scharger project!

 

If you want your catch can to work correctly, you should hook its vent back to the intake - it is the pressure differential that allows it to draw the oil vapor.

 

yep, the oil filler one I got figured.

the other two, which is wich?
How do I tell?

 

When I run the engine with the hoses detached, one is making loud whoosh as it sucks in the air. Which one is that? Metering Pump, or the Fuel Mixing Jet?

Would it be easier to just slop a little filter on each of them and leave them be?

How much does the operation of either unit they run from depends on the Intake pressure variations? (On stock engine they feed from intake given that it is working in vacuumed environment rather than pressurised.)
Would it make more sense to not pressurise them or the operation of the units requires for the extra air when under boost?

Thanks GTAW for your answers, but I am still not clear, thus asking.

 

Got it
Thanks.

 

Are you not done yet!??!?!!???!!



Just kidding.... it's been a slow day, and all I have is this forum....

 

OK
Done!!!

Still haven't installed gauges, but the turbo is in and operational.
First Impression:
It makes boost very well. I can hear the turbo starting to wine at around 2.5 K rpm, and boost comes around 3.5 - 4K. At this point I don't know what pressure I am running, as I haven't installed gauges, but I did connect the laptop, and the the software reported 5#, but that was a very short run, not all the way to the red line and I was not on a straight line.

I initially had some trouble with the intake pipes, and had to reconfigure them a couple of times, before I figured a reliable way to run them. But everything works well now.

Today I put about 15-20 miles driving around town, and everything was smooth.

The sound of the exhaust is unbelievable. it is not too loud, but it is loud enough to let others know that there is a lot of wrooom-wrooom (not Zoom-Zoom) and get attention. Plus all the hissing and phisssssing sounds that the spooling turbo, and BOV makes, makes it unbelievably cool.

I can definitely feel the torque, even when driving in low RPM. No more need to downshift when in high gear. Just give it some throttle, and you can hear the pleasant fssssssssssss, and the car start pulling away very nicely.

At this point the BOV spring is loosened up all the way, and waistgate is set to a minimum boost. I mean it is practically opened, and probably bleeds exhaust at all times, but still I can feel the difference over stock.

Simply put: Awesome!!! I can't wait to start tuning tweaking with the boost and tuning it.

 

Congrats man I was rooting for you and your custom setup. If I was good at fabricating and welding I probably would have did a custom setup as well. Where are the pictures of the finished job man?

 

I had been working my *** off for the past 2 days, focused on getting the car running for Monday (Gotta go to work too ), so I haven't had time to take pics. I will post some in the next couple of days. I will make some videos too with time. I mean whether you like it or not, at this point mine is the only RX8 with rear turbo (at least to my knowledge), so it must be documented.

 

well done rotor - look forward to hearing more !

 

yup, well be looking for the dyno numbers you ARE going to get. we want to know whsat your laying down. also you really need to find out how much boost you have. you dont want to run to much or did you take any precaustions?

 

Well, Int-X has Fuel Cut off at 14 # by default, and so far no fuel has been cutoff
Yes off course, I set everything to a min.

I got a problem though. Today when I started I noticed that when cold, there was a cloud of white smoke coming out of my tailpipes. I mean a lot of smoke. So I thought that I need to let the oil pump run for some time after I shut off the engine, to drain the oil from the turbo, as I thought that it was the remains of oil in there that got spat into the tailpipes that are smoking.
When I got to work, I turned off the ignition, but the pump is wired to turn on when I Just switch the ignition key, so I let it run for like 15 seconds or so.
Then I looked Under the car, and found that the oil has not drained (I have a clear drain hose, so I can see if it is empty, or not). Basically, the drain pump broke. It still runs, but is not pumping. Now I am pissed off. The damn thing haven't lasted a day, costs a lot, and since the car is my DD am in need of a new one like yesterday.
Interesting though, that it doesn't smoke when the engine is at it's Operating Temp.

Well, Just like in any new development. It takes some time to work out all the kinks, before I can have a reliyable sustem, so I guess since I've gotten this far, there is no turning back now.

 

If your oil return pump is not working, get that fixed now! Don't drive it unless you have to and even then only very slowly. You don't want to have to rebuild a turbo as well.

 

I don't really know where your turbo is compared to your oil pan elevation-wise, but there are known issues with locating a turbo near or somewhat below your oil level and how that impacts oil flow to the turbo. Also, if you have an empty line to the oil return pump, it may not properly create suction to pull oil out of the turbo. Pumps that have too low upstream pressure cavitate.

Was your smoke pure white? Or blue-ish white? If I remember my smoking engine colors correctly (thankfully it's been a while), pure white is coolant, blueish white is oil, and black is gasoline.

Draw up some basic schematics maybe? This seems like an interesting/novel design project. Also, engine monitoring is key on these types of projects. I don't know how good of an idea it is to drive an aftermarket boosted car without a functional boost gauge/other gauges.

Edit: Also, if your turbo is in good condition, it should not be dumping oil into your intake or exhaust. Assuming you didn't 1) spool it up a lot to really get the temps up, 2) buy a ball bearing turbo, letting the oil sit in the turbo and immediately shut off the car is not instant turbo death. It's not good for longevity, but really should only augment a previous condition if done one or 2 times.

 

I had checked while on my break, and found that the pump is working is working, and drains, but at some point the elevation of the hose curve gets a bit too high.
when I shut the engine, the pump picks what it can and pushes it up, but when there is no more oil to suck on the inlet, it can't really push anything on the outlet, so the oil stays in the line and the elevated hose extension. As I shut down the pump, it flows down back into the line and some of it into the turbo.

A solution to that might be a check installation of a check valve, or something. As long as there is pressure from the pump, it flows, as the pressure drops, the valve closes so no oil can flow back.

Yes it is definitely the oil related smoke.
Yes, I did not give it enough time to warm up, and probably spooled it too fast, which caused all that.

I already mentioned that I have my boost controller and the configured to the lowest boost, the car makes power, but not that much for it to be called a lot faster. Also I drive it somewhat conservatively now, and the engine runs very well and smooth, so no worries there.

 

New turbo systems will always smoke to some degree. Its all the crap burning off for the first time. I thought my car was on fire the first time I started it up! It can last for a lilttle while. Just something to think about before chasing down a problem that might not exist.

MD

 

Glad to hear your pump is working.

 

How many miles do you think you run on it before it stopped smoking?

I looked at the car and the entire rear bumper is covered with oil droplets. Its disgusting. :-)

Is it typical for a turbo to smoke if it is spooled while in neutral?
I shoved some hoses around, and it seems ok now. No smoke when Idling at all, neither when it is starting. But if I rev the engine it will spit out a cloud of smoke. nothing like it did in the morning, but still a large cloud.