We have officially proven our claims. Today's dyno day was a complete success showing an increase to 224/228
wHP/wTQ still using the stock intake, exhaust, and stock Volvo ECM with no additional tuning.
This was at the stock
10psi boost. 1st run at 9psi put down about 215wHP and we turned up the boost incrementally until on the fourth run
the ECM shut down the boost by opening the bypass valve. The Bosche 9.0 system is in complete control of the air fuel and
the boost limits. This engine is ULEV, ultra low emission vehicle and apparently uses wideband O2 sensors stock. It
keeps the air fuel ratio at 14.6:1 at almost all times, at cuise, idle, or even under 10psi boost. The only time
we got the computer to richen up the A/F was when we tried to exceed the 10psi factory limit. Apparently it does have
the capability to add even more fuel because we did runs from 6psi boost up to 10psi boost and the air fuel stayed exactly
14.6:1 throughout every run at every point.
In any case we are extremely excited because we bested the stock wheel horsepower
of around 165 by almost 60 additional wHP! This is exactly in line with our calculated estimates.
Time to celebrate!
So far so good. The car is running well and is extremely fast. Anything over 4000 rpm and the car is very quick.
Actually it is kind of behaving like a very big Naturally aspirated motor that breaths well in the top end. I'm
comftable enough with the miles I've put on it now, about 200 or so and now I'm going to run it on the dyno as soon
as today if they'll take me as a walk-in appointment or by this weekend for sure!
Based on my comments earlier
and the first responses of the Volvo forums people are worried about loss of low-end torque. Listening to these issues
I'm ordering in a new turbo at this time.I'm trying to find a T3 Super 60 from turbonetics at a reasonable price so
I can try it out next and if that doesn't work then I'm looking at a GT2540.
When the kit was first installed
and started I had a vacuum leak and it threw a check engine light. I found it and fixed it but the light wouldn't go out.
I reset the ECM by pulling the related fuses and then restarted the engine and verified the light was out. There was
a huge difference in the way the engine performed before and after I reset the ECM. It pulled much harder and I'm
guessing when the check engine light came on it was in some sort of limp-mode or at least limited mode. So far there
has been no check engine light from operations, A Big Plus indicating everything is sealed.
I've had a bunch
of questions about tuning. One person has implied that it is foolish to run a new turbo on a car without a tune.
Well a turbo is just an air pump. Even if I change the pump as long as it pushes air in the same way and I constrain
it to operating in the same way as the original then it shouldn't matter. Then what about the stock engine code?
I have a perfectly good engine management system that has been working the car since new. Again, as long as the pressure
is limited then it should operate exactly as designed and keeping the air fuel perfectly in line. If the air fuel were
NOT in line and going lean there would have been a check engine light for a lean condition....and loss of power, and maybe
engine damage.
When I get to the dyno and I can watch the air fuel, I'll increase the pressure slowly and observe
any changes in air fuel to identify a lean condition. Then I'll measure the pressure and RPM where the A/F is starting
to go lean and calculate out the amount of fuel delivered in order to get an idea of what the stock fuel system can take.
Wish me luck!
As of 8pm this evening we have a working turbo kit! We all feel like celebrating here at Nautilus but there is still
more work to do. The generation3 manifold is working well and with the header wrapped primaries the underhood
temps are now under control. With about 20 miles on it tonight and a few good 0-60 runs we can tell it is much faster
than stock even on about 7.5psi boost.
We'll run this for a little while to test the reliability and make any necessary
changes. So far it looks like the kit can be made a complete bolt-on setup so that it only replaces stock hardware.
