P
Paul S. Brown
Guest
At Billing I decided to do something I'd been planning on for a while and
forked out for an uprated intercooler.
Tonight I decided to do the rest of the job.
First thing was a quick run to my local accessories shop to get a Turbo
boost gauge as I don't really want to blow my engine to buggery by mistake.
I should have realised that this was going to be trouble when the supplied T
piece to stick the gauge inline with the wastegate actuator was too large
for the supplied vacuum piping.
Anyway - I persevere. I didn't have appropriately sized tubing for the
actuator back to the turbo outlet so I decided to splice the gauge in
elsewhere. Eventually I track a vacuum tube coming from the turbo to the
fuel pump. I *do* have the correct size hose for the fuel pump so I splice
it in there.
I now start the engine and watch the gauge tremble as there is positive and
then negative pressure at low revs - more or less as expected.
I rev the arse off the engine and watch the gauge climb.
All the way to.....
0.3 bar
Now, the 200 is supposed to run at something approximating 0.7-0.8 bar so I
guessed something was wrong. I also noted clouds of white vapour escaping
from the back of the alternator in time with the engine.
On closer inspection this turned out to be the exhaust manifold blowing
quite badly.
"No Problem" says I. "I'll just tighten up the manifold".
Half an hour later I have managed to get the inlet manifold off and umounted
the alternator to let me at the exhaust manifold bolts which I duly tighten
to "A quarter turn" as my dad used to say - that is "A quarter turn past
bloody tight".
Start the car, rev it. Clouds of smoke escaping from the damn exhaust
manifold.
OK. So there's something wrong with the interface between the manifold an
the block. The way to fix this is obviously to drop the manifold off, check
the gasket and remate it.
I sit and take all of the nuts off and take two studs with them including
one which has decided to become a bolt by rusting into the nut on it. Not
too much of a problem really.
I try to take the manifold off and nearly gut myself.
OK - I've missed a nut. Where?
The first one I found was the bottom one closest the bulkhead. That came out
OK once I'd found my UJ for my ratchet.
Try and remove the manifold.
Nada.
I eventually find the centre nut behind the downpipe and spend 15 minutes
trying to get to it and occasionally arcing the solenoid on the starter. I
eventually get the nut undone and naturally it lands on the ground. In the
mudpile below the car with all the other nuts which have gone the same way
in the past.
At this point I bless whichever little person at Halfords decided to put a
telescopic magnetic probe into their cheapy toolkit. So much easier than
crawling under the car all the time.
Anyway, I eventually separate the manifold from the block and it looks like
a metal sliver has got between the manifold and the block causing a gap. I
clean this out and just to be safe liberally smear red hermatite everywhere
before putting the manifold back on.
I get the exhaust manifold and the airbox put back on with no particular
problems and run up the engine again.
0.4 bar.
OK - it's possible that somebody had set the turbo wastegate wrong a long
time ago - the car has been decidedly gutless since I got it. So I remove
the actuator arm from the wastegate arm and undo the locknut and decide to
go for broke and wind the actuator linkage in about half of the remaining
play available and put the linkage back together.
Start the car, rev the engine.
0.5-0.6 bar.
Grr.
Take the linkage all the way in.
0.6 bar.
WTF??
In theory this setup should be good for more than 1bar - I have no idea
what's going on there, but I suspect that the vacuum line to the injector
pump doesn't get the full boost pressure. I'm going to go and get some
decent vacuum hose tomorrow and try plumbing the gauge directly into the
wastegate mechanism.
Of course I couldn't give up there - could I? I was trying to get some more
oomph out of my disco.
So, take the anti tamper cap off the smoke screw on the injector pump, undo
the locknut and wind the smokescrew in 2 full turns. Rev engine. No smoke
coming out the back.
So far so good.
Decide to go for broke.
Take the top off the injector housing planning to rotate the diaphragm under
there.
Now, the trick here is to note the original position of the diaphragm so you
can put it back later.
Sounds easy.
Except when the damn thing sticks to the lid and just as you get it clear of
the housing falls free onto the ground.
No chance to mark it so it's "Let's guess" time.
I put it on with the checkmark pointing to the front of the car and put the
pump back together.
I go for a run.
I *think* it's a lot quicker
Problem is that that may well be down to wishful thinking over four hours
spent taking it apart and putting it back together again.
Next time I just pay somebody like Allisport to do all that stuff for me.
Much easier.
I really am concerned about that turbo tho - either the injector pump gets a
restricted airfeed from the turbo in which case I could have any amount of
boost and not know it, or the turbo is only putting out half of what it's
supposed to in which case I seem me having to replace the dratted thing
sometime soon which doesn't look like being a fun job.
Any comments?
P.
forked out for an uprated intercooler.
Tonight I decided to do the rest of the job.
First thing was a quick run to my local accessories shop to get a Turbo
boost gauge as I don't really want to blow my engine to buggery by mistake.
I should have realised that this was going to be trouble when the supplied T
piece to stick the gauge inline with the wastegate actuator was too large
for the supplied vacuum piping.
Anyway - I persevere. I didn't have appropriately sized tubing for the
actuator back to the turbo outlet so I decided to splice the gauge in
elsewhere. Eventually I track a vacuum tube coming from the turbo to the
fuel pump. I *do* have the correct size hose for the fuel pump so I splice
it in there.
I now start the engine and watch the gauge tremble as there is positive and
then negative pressure at low revs - more or less as expected.
I rev the arse off the engine and watch the gauge climb.
All the way to.....
0.3 bar
Now, the 200 is supposed to run at something approximating 0.7-0.8 bar so I
guessed something was wrong. I also noted clouds of white vapour escaping
from the back of the alternator in time with the engine.
On closer inspection this turned out to be the exhaust manifold blowing
quite badly.
"No Problem" says I. "I'll just tighten up the manifold".
Half an hour later I have managed to get the inlet manifold off and umounted
the alternator to let me at the exhaust manifold bolts which I duly tighten
to "A quarter turn" as my dad used to say - that is "A quarter turn past
bloody tight".
Start the car, rev it. Clouds of smoke escaping from the damn exhaust
manifold.
OK. So there's something wrong with the interface between the manifold an
the block. The way to fix this is obviously to drop the manifold off, check
the gasket and remate it.
I sit and take all of the nuts off and take two studs with them including
one which has decided to become a bolt by rusting into the nut on it. Not
too much of a problem really.
I try to take the manifold off and nearly gut myself.
OK - I've missed a nut. Where?
The first one I found was the bottom one closest the bulkhead. That came out
OK once I'd found my UJ for my ratchet.
Try and remove the manifold.
Nada.
I eventually find the centre nut behind the downpipe and spend 15 minutes
trying to get to it and occasionally arcing the solenoid on the starter. I
eventually get the nut undone and naturally it lands on the ground. In the
mudpile below the car with all the other nuts which have gone the same way
in the past.
At this point I bless whichever little person at Halfords decided to put a
telescopic magnetic probe into their cheapy toolkit. So much easier than
crawling under the car all the time.
Anyway, I eventually separate the manifold from the block and it looks like
a metal sliver has got between the manifold and the block causing a gap. I
clean this out and just to be safe liberally smear red hermatite everywhere
before putting the manifold back on.
I get the exhaust manifold and the airbox put back on with no particular
problems and run up the engine again.
0.4 bar.
OK - it's possible that somebody had set the turbo wastegate wrong a long
time ago - the car has been decidedly gutless since I got it. So I remove
the actuator arm from the wastegate arm and undo the locknut and decide to
go for broke and wind the actuator linkage in about half of the remaining
play available and put the linkage back together.
Start the car, rev the engine.
0.5-0.6 bar.
Grr.
Take the linkage all the way in.
0.6 bar.
WTF??
In theory this setup should be good for more than 1bar - I have no idea
what's going on there, but I suspect that the vacuum line to the injector
pump doesn't get the full boost pressure. I'm going to go and get some
decent vacuum hose tomorrow and try plumbing the gauge directly into the
wastegate mechanism.
Of course I couldn't give up there - could I? I was trying to get some more
oomph out of my disco.
So, take the anti tamper cap off the smoke screw on the injector pump, undo
the locknut and wind the smokescrew in 2 full turns. Rev engine. No smoke
coming out the back.
So far so good.
Decide to go for broke.
Take the top off the injector housing planning to rotate the diaphragm under
there.
Now, the trick here is to note the original position of the diaphragm so you
can put it back later.
Sounds easy.
Except when the damn thing sticks to the lid and just as you get it clear of
the housing falls free onto the ground.
No chance to mark it so it's "Let's guess" time.
I put it on with the checkmark pointing to the front of the car and put the
pump back together.
I go for a run.
I *think* it's a lot quicker
Problem is that that may well be down to wishful thinking over four hours
spent taking it apart and putting it back together again.
Next time I just pay somebody like Allisport to do all that stuff for me.
Much easier.
I really am concerned about that turbo tho - either the injector pump gets a
restricted airfeed from the turbo in which case I could have any amount of
boost and not know it, or the turbo is only putting out half of what it's
supposed to in which case I seem me having to replace the dratted thing
sometime soon which doesn't look like being a fun job.
Any comments?
P.
