The "Toy"
 

Ok,

Performance of the "Toy" - as my wife named the SVX - was estimated for the first time. As some of you might have seen on other threads, the vehicle is a 1992 US spec car @ 120.000 miles and was imported to Finland by a doctor in the early nineties. A guy who operates a construction company bought it in 1998, had it turbo charged in 2000 and did use it untill I bought it earlier this year.

It has a single T3/T4 hybrid, runs at 4-5PSI boost and had a few very interesting mods in the fuelling and engine management. Also, the tranny was replaced with 4.444 gearing when the original one gave way in 2001.

Now it runs with a Stage 2 ECU mod from Micheal, Deatschwerk 370cc injectors and an N62 MAF. There's also a reworked valve body in the tranny, but right now I'm running with a stock TCU.

Before the stage 2 upgrade it ran flat on its face @ 5000 rpm due to a fuel cut caused by a saturated MAF. I also have an Innovate LC1 wide band (with a gauge) permanently installed just down stream of the turbo and the AFR seems fine, very steady 12 untill it tapers down to 11ish just before the tranny upshift at around 6800 rpm.

From some previous games I have a ten year old Race Tech AP22 acceleration gauge and today I made two pulls....

There's enough torque to smoke the front tires in first gear so I figured it would be safer to begin by starting in manual second, the surface was a bit damp so it still spun the front wheels - that can be seen in both attached graphs. In the first run both front wheels spun smoothly, on the second run it hopped a bit from side to side - this can clearly be seen also.

Anyway the torque peak is at around 4k and power starts to taper down at 5800rpm.

There's no intercooling so next step is to find out wheter the knock protection is activated and timing cut back or do I just need a different turbo and a cooler :D.

I didn't have enough space to drive faster to see what happens at higher rpm levels in third.

Looking at the numbers it seems to be a seven second car - in second gear. Also, it takes a full second for the tranny to upshift to third, aboslutely no flaring, though. Would be nice to compare the AP22 against a real clock. The hp numbers are just numbers - based on calculations and config data I put in the AP22, though they have added up rather nicely with rolling road values on some other vehicles in the past.

Tapani

- edit: I ran the same test with the Outback (-06, 3.0R), this time thru all gears..... pls see the images. I need to find a better spot and better traction for the SVX to be able to start in first. I think the MPT clutch can't handle the torque, so it's too biased to the front. I need start thinking about a VTD tail for the tranny :-). The wheel spin can be seen very clearly in the g-force image. The overall gear ratio in second is 6,88 in the SVX and 7,41 in the Outback. Quite a difference in the g-force :-)

Re: The "Toy"
 

Good morning,

My set up has a plastic Bosch by pass valve - the one like full pressure Saabs have.

If I recall correctly from my previous life the low pressure turbo (9000) was not intercooled and didn't have a by pass valve, ran the same T25 turbo, but at the "base boost" setting (5PSI), i.e. no boost control other than the waste gate operated by the intake pressure.

The plastic BPV is not very durable or dependable, mine leaks under boost - I can hear it. I took it off and plugged the hoses as an experiment, and the car runs much better, maintains more boost too at the same waste gate setting.

The question is, could I leave it out without causing too much stress on the compressor? An automatic transmission is easier than a manual - closing the throttle very suddenly under full boost does not happen that often.....

Any thoughts?

Tapani

Re: The "Toy"
 

I had to take the turbo system out to swap the tranny.... pls find attached a few photos related. The turbo itself is attached to the engine with a hefty steel support using four bolts. Very solid and tightly tucked away.

Tapani

Re: The "Toy"
 

Surprised to see no one has responded to your thread but keep posting the info/details, it's good stuff. 4-5lb boost is probably the best way to go and if I could afford it would love to go that route.... but it's not in the pipeline for me due to $ reasons. You have more pictures of your engine bay and SVX?

What was the reason for the tranny swap? Did it die out?

Re: The "Toy"
 

I like that setup. Simple, sturdy, and not thrashing the engine to death. Great for those who aren't super power hungry and just want a little more oomph.

Re: The "Toy"
 

I'm actually very interested in this setup. Great work.

Re: The "Toy"
 

Thanks,

A couple photos attached.

The tranny project is here:

http://www.subaru-svx.net/forum/showthread.php?t=58965

Tapani

Re: The "Toy"
 

Thanks for the pictures, that's really cool :)

So a new ECU, different MAF, Injectors, the turbo itself plus waste gate and tubing is all that's really needed to run about 4 lbs of boost reliably and without intercooler? How much does a setup like this realistically cost... possibly under $1,000?

Re: The "Toy"
 

Plus blow-off valve, plus getting someone to do all that plumbing.

But yea, this is a very clean and simple setup. There is a lot of discouragement on the forum toward people attempting to turbo the SVX. This can be thought of as an entry-level setup. It's not going to make huge power, but it will be quite a bit more fun than stock. Tapani sure seems to be enjoying it.

Re: The "Toy"
 

I've been telling quite a few people (in person) that it would be possible to do a lower boost setup (10psi or less) for "cheap" and no issues.:)

Re: The "Toy"
 

This is very relevant to my interests.

http://magsol.files.wordpress.com/20...vant.jpg?w=640

Re: The "Toy"
 

I replaced spark plugs to the wifes 2007 n/a Forester yesterday... what a PITA. Less than an hour for the first 3 and then over two hours for the rear drivers side.... this made me think about the SVX:

Which plugs are you guys running with turbo engines? The Forester has expensive ILFR6B... almost 20 bucks each :eek:

I have also wondered about the size of the iris valve vacuum can... is it large enough for a turbo application? I thought about hooking up the boost gauge to the valve actuator itself to check the operation under WOT.

BTW, I still love the low pressure set up I have :) you couldn't even tell it's blown from the driveability.... still have not tried E85 fuelling - I think I should be able to increase the boost from the current 5 PSI with the intercooling effect and the high octane numbers.

Cheers,

Tapani

Re: The "Toy"
 

Subaru Club Finland had a track day yesterday :-)

A few observations:

The SVX spat coolant twice. I made 100% sure I never exceeded 5000 rpm, but drove at WOT and pressed quite hard at times.

The temp gauge was normal while at the track all the time. First round I did not have a lap top hooked, but second time did - and had a co-driver looking at it. The ECU readings varied between 87 and 96 degrees - lap after lap.

Both times the spikes happened after I returned from cool down lap - into the slow pit lane - maybe 1km long in total.... both vehicle speed and engine revs came down.

I lost almost 2 liters of coolant from the radiator into the expansion tank both times. The spill out (out from the tank) happens thru a small vent hole on the top surface of the tank - it's under the black plastic cover and not visible w/o removing it. I did. So the coolant leaks out thru there.

The ECU temp spiked between 86C and 118C when I kept the car at around 40-50km/h trying to cool everything down. (BTW, the gauge needle starts to move from the normal position at 105C.) The coolant level within the system was way down and that probably caused the spikes.

There was another SVX - completely stock. He drove it to the limit all the time - no problems what so ever. Only minor splashing thru the vent hole while cornering caused by a little bit too full exp tank. He accelerated in manual 2nd and let the rev protector upshift @ 6800 rpm - no drama.

Today I dug into all this a bit. I browsed the net and found this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=CHp5E7XnbXo

I ran to the local auto parts store and bought a kit.

I siphoned some coolant out , let the engine idle and run at higher revs for quite a while so that fans kicked in and off a few times. Then tested for a looong time. Nothing.

Then I accelerated in manual 2nd five times on our drive way (100m or so) and retested. It turned green :barf: after a minute or so. It's supposed to turn yellow with a bad case, but green indicates an elevated CO2 - it goes back to dark blue by pumping air thru it.

Has anyone else done this test :eek:?

Other than this the car did well for what it is :-). I could be a lot faster if I had the confidence to push it. Fun stuff !

Kind regards,

Tapani

Re: The "Toy"
 

Head gasket....CO2 = bi-product of combustion :(

I'm a little confused by the turbo set up. It appears that you're not blowing through the MAF? If this is true, then you're going to go extremely lean on boost, as the MAF won't see the additional air being pumped in by the turbo.

Maybe I'm missing something in the pictures?

Bill

Re: The "Toy"
 

it looks like the turbo is sucking air in through the maf. you cant build boost without the air flow so it should still be reading total air.