I was driving Sunday and Monday, and my full boost dropped right down to 140 kpa, about what it is with the wastegate actuator disconnected, so I figured that was it. I checked the wastegate actuator, it was all good, check the downpipe, it's all good, turbo spins smoothly and freely, visible parts of the blades look good, etc. I do more digging and eventually knock on the catalytic converter to hear a rattle. Turns out the cat broke up and had plugged up the exhaust pretty good. I removed the exhaust and shake it all around for a few hours, getting more and more pieces out of the cat, muffler, etc. I shook it until nothing else rattled, and used a rubber mallet gently on the cat and muffler bodies, shook more until nothing came out, and no rattles, and couldn't see any cat material left stuck in the cat with a mirror. Took it for a drive today, and was instantly back to where it was, maybe better, I didn't drive much. If there are any other pieces in the muffler, etc. it should break up over time and find it's way out, and if not, there shouldn't be anything big enough to cause any problems for now.
Interesting, I will have to try to figure out more research on this, because if 10w30 synthetic has a better shear strength at temperature than 10w40 non synthetic, then I might as well get that. I will also look more for synthetic or semi synthetic 10w40 around here.
This is one of the semi synthetic I use that has outstanding protection.
Alright, I checked at my work, and got some Petro Canada supreme semi synthetic 10w40 ordered in for me, $36 for 5 quarts at employee pricing, that's definitely a price range I can handle easily haha.
I also did a couple zero to 60 runs with my freshly free flowing exhaust, I also experimented with flat shift (and to a small degree, launch control, I haven't tuned that per-se, I still do some foot work in first to balance between spin and bog). I also enabled open loop boost control using an EGR solenoid (works pretty well as far as I can tell) to get to 200 kpa, wastegate only at the moment is 175. My quickest run was 4.791 seconds per the datalog, which felt great and was pretty crazy breaking pretty far into the 4 second category! ECM calculated horsepower averages about 240 at 200kpa, and torque at 265ft/lbs, I have the standard Fiero notch back/aero frontal area and drag coefficient entered for the ECM calculation, and I had 2600 lbs, although now that I think of that, I think it should be higher, but I don't know for certain, anyhow, a higher weight would only increase the horsepower number, as it's harder to accelerate. So it should be an accurate number or a bit on the low side.
I'm very impressed at how this car performs and feels, and that it still "looks" like a Fiero under the trunk!
This winter I will get a real turbo, as this one right now works perfectly at 175 kpa, but when I turn it up to 200, above 4000 rpm it makes the 2 tone sound that indicates a turbos dying or out of balance or something, so I'll not raise the boost for the rest of the summer, and I'll install a better one over the winter, this cheap one was intentionally just proof of concept, I didn't expect it to last a long time, but for what it is it's pretty good.
I was looking at Mamba turbos, they seem pretty well reviewed as a Garrett knockoff or whatever, they're made in Taiwan, not China, so that's a little better, and every turbo comes with its own balance report. The one I was looking at is ceramic ball bearing, billet compressor wheel, oil/water cooled, and comes with PTFE braided lines (as opposed to my cheap China one with melty fiery rubber lines), and an adjustable piston style wastegate actuator. $1200 cad shipped, which seems to be the price of most Garrett journal bearing turbos I can find, so if it's similar or better (ball bearings?) then I might get one.
Do you have datalogs to compare with/without flat shift? I guess you have a clutch pedal switch?
It seems unlikely that the included PTFE lines would happen to be the right length, so I would look into getting those separately.
Yes, I've done a few runs with and without flat shift at 175kpa, all in the 5s, all the time, I did a couple at 200kpa without flat shift and it was low 5s, and the 3 specific 0-60 runs I did with flat shift and turned up to 200kpa was 4.9ish, 4.8ish, and 5ish. I'm pretty sure my turbo has more lag than yours/is less efficient, etc. so keeping the throttle open through the shifts really makes noticeable seat of the pants difference.
I'm using a spare non cruise brake switch on the clutch pedal (engages as soon as the clutch is pressed more than about a half inch), and I've also found that having the engine cut ever so slightly before the clutch is actually released has sped up the actual shifting speed as well, maybe just a placebo, I don't know. I have the pedal switch wired in series with the cruise control on/off switch (no cruise, just have it for extra buttons), so I can disable flat shift and launch control entirely (otherwise sometimes it would activate on more mild accelerations, and be jerky from the switch activating before the clutch is actually disengaged. Thinking about it I could probably raise the tps threshold, that should keep it from activating unless I'm accelerating harder.
From what I can tell, the coolant lines are just short ~1 foot lines with a barb on one end, to connect to other lines of your choosing, that way you can use standard silicone or rubber coolant lines, but not worry about running them right to the extremely hot turbo. The oil lines I already have in PTFE and they should be fine to remain.
