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Tom @ Fast Forward
03-23-2007, 03:50 PM
If some of you with the BRP/SOT Hotside believe you are making less boost than you should or are running lean, this could be your problem. Awhile back BRP/SOT changed from the cast Dummy Throttle Body (DTB) to a weldment. The new ones have a 1/4" plate welded to a 2.5" (?) tube to connect to the crossover tube. On the side of the tube they welded a fitting and inserted a fitting for the vacuum/Boost pickup. Inside the tube is a very tiny hole feeding the fitting.

http://www.FastForwardSuperchargers.com/Hotside/BoostPickup.JPG

The hole inside the tube is very small and lends itself to Bernouli's principles. The air flow coming in is probably very laminar and creates a negative pressure at the hole inside the tube. We discovered this while trying to get Jim Walton's car running well. We installed the PC-pros and, with normal settings for the main and e-cool cards, were running extremely lean. We noticed the boost seemed to hit ~6PSI almost immediately and then sit there almost all the wat to redline. However, after forcing the cards to add fuel, we were making what seemed to be too much WHP for only 6 PSI boost. We checked the engine (compression and leakdown), checked the bypass valve on the SC to ensure it was closing, checked the belt to ensure it was not slipping (FFS pulleys and BRP/SOT auto-tensioner). Nothing appeared wrong. Then, while the crossover pipe was off, I felt the hole on the inside of the tube for the Vac/Boost line. It is a very small hole. So, we disconnected the cruise hose and connected the VAC/Boost line there. Voila!! Boost is back and the cards, seeing the proper boost, now add the proper fuel.

http://www.fastforwardsuperchargers.com/Hotside/CruiseControlVacuum.JPG

Then, I cogitated on why it used to work with the cast DTB. I believe the answer is that the cavity in the cast DTB that the line connects to is significantly larger in diameter and totally open to the intake.

With the weldment, when you first hit boost, the IM fills with air and fills the small hole. As RPM increases, the amount of air the engine can consume increases significantly causing more flow across that small hole causing an offsetting negative pressure which causes, in turn, the boost gauge to read a constant pressure. The larger hole in the cast version just doesn't react the same. I believe the phenomina that is at work is that between the tube and the fitting is a cavity. It is sealed except for the small hole in the tube. If the hole could be opened up to the size of the cavity, it "might" help. Best is to move the fitting elsewhere. The cruise control location is ideal as it really shouldn't be connected there anyhow as located there and climbing a hill will cause cruise to drop out. Cruise control to work effectively needs to be connected between the TB and the SC where it always sees vacuum and never sees boost. So, you can kill two birds with one stone, if you happen to be hunting bird for dinner?

Anyhow, that is what we found and you should take a look at yours if you are having trouble getting proper fuel control. As boost increases, you need more fuel and, if the cards don't see it, the curve will be all wrong.

Silverstreak02
04-09-2007, 06:52 PM
Tom

What year car was this and what size pulley is he running? You mentioned he was getting more power than you expected from 6 psi. How much power was he making?

Jeff

Tom @ Fast Forward
04-09-2007, 08:08 PM
It was an 01 with 9:1 pistons in it. He ended up at about 190WHP. After moving the boost line, WHP and Boost seemed to be a lot better.

It was Jim Walton's car. I don't remember the pulley size. I'm lucky if I remember my waist size.

Silverstreak02
04-10-2007, 07:17 PM
Tom

The reason for the question is I have an 02 with 100/65mm pulleys and get 181 RWHP from 6psi. The PCPro is set high, but is controlling the fuel just fine all the way to red line. My J&S pulls timing when I first step on the gas, but the light goes out within a second. I was wondering if a differant boost location could help with the initial ping.

Jeff

Tom @ Fast Forward
04-10-2007, 09:10 PM
Jeff, that was my point about Jim's car. He was in the 190WHP range but only showed 6PSI boost. The actual boost was quite a bit higher and made sense out of the 190WHP. If you could get 190WHP from 6PSI on a Miata, the M45 kits would be doing it. If your boost hookup is connected as in the picture, move it to the cruis control spot, leave the cruise control disconnected and plug the hole in the current spot. I used a standard pipe plug on his (1/8" NPT, I believe). You could take a short piece of the tube in the fitting and fold it over and put a tie wrap on it for a 5 minute fix. See if you are not really making more boost than you think. If the PC-Pro thinks it is lower boost than actual, that is the reason you have to turn it up high. It will also not add fuel soon enough and could cause tip in ping. It needs to see the real boost to properly control.

jwalton
04-11-2007, 02:17 AM
Silverstreak02,

Tom is right, I have an '01 head sitting on a '96 block, crank, rods and pistons resulting in a 9:1 compression motor. The crank pulley is 110mm and the supercharger pulley is a 65mm. Tom and I chose the 110mm as it would most closely perform to his coldside 105mm. The extra 5mm is used to offset the losses in running the boosted intake through the extra piping of a hotside install.

As far as your 6psi, something doesn't sound quite right. The easiest way to tell if you have the same problem I did, is to watch a boost gauge as you rev out the motor. If your boost readings behave more like a turbo (jumps to a preset boost level and stays that way until close to redline) then you got what I had and your motor is seeing a couple of psi more than your pspro's think it is. Bad news. The boost should climb steadily from ~6psi to 9psi or so (whatever your ratio peaks at) with no flatspots.

Hope that helps.

Silverstreak02
04-11-2007, 03:06 PM
Jeff, that was my point about Jim's car. He was in the 190WHP range but only showed 6PSI boost. The actual boost was quite a bit higher and made sense out of the 190WHP. If you could get 190WHP from 6PSI on a Miata, the M45 kits would be doing it. If your boost hookup is connected as in the picture, move it to the cruis control spot, leave the cruise control disconnected and plug the hole in the current spot. I used a standard pipe plug on his (1/8" NPT, I believe). You could take a short piece of the tube in the fitting and fold it over and put a tie wrap on it for a 5 minute fix. See if you are not really making more boost than you think. If the PC-Pro thinks it is lower boost than actual, that is the reason you have to turn it up high. It will also not add fuel soon enough and could cause tip in ping. It needs to see the real boost to properly control.

Tom

I'll give it a try. Thanks for the help.

Jeff