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Chapter 7
6/22/00: Yesterday
I drove 800 miles(not in TurboStude...) back and forth to Madison to the
Studebaker national meet. Saw lots of knowlegeable folks and asked lots
of questions. Ted Harbit reitterated how important it would be once I
got some boost to have plenty of carbueration. He suggested getting the
heck to 12 volts so I could use a Holley blue fuel pump, and regulate it
up with pressure from the turbo output, as I had with the mechanical
pump. I found a 12 volt solenoid for the overdrive. It apparently has
an integral relay. There are three terminals on it with numbers. I
don't know which goes where. Any ideas? Having 12 volts would also
allow me to watch rpm on a tachometer. This website discusses the
conversion well:
http://www.classictruckshop.com/12volt.asp Also,
check this out:
6 to 12
by Steve Delanty
Ted said that it
probably wouldn't hurt to try running the turbo without the water
cooling hooked up to see if the smoke is indeed coming from antifreeze
leaking thru at the turbo seal/bearing. He told me how to properly
install a composite head gasket (bought one in case I did blow the
gasket between a water passage and a cylinder). First you soak it in
water, then "wave" it dry. Spray on your aluminum paint and tighten
away. He said I probably will need to run colder plugs than the AC
R-45's that I was able to find. The car is out of my reach for a few
days, but when I get it back, I'll try the water deprivation and drill
some holes in the "waste gate".
9/23/00: After a long
hiatus to get some other stuff done, I have resumed development. I
figured out that the reason the fuse kept blowing on the overdrive relay
was that the wires on the solenoid were reversed, thus every time the
governor reached speed and provided a ground, the relay bypassed the
solenoid altogether and shorted out! Well, the plan is to get
everything over to 12 volts as soon as I can get the car back to my home
shop 65 miles away. I have found an AFB carb which I believe is 500 or
600 cfm. I picked up an aluminum carb-base which might be from an old
turbo trans-am which could hold the AFB if I put in a 3/4 inch spacer.
Any ideas about what this is?
1
2
3
4
To use this, I'll need to
make a 90 degree bend into the manifold. Also, is the cross-sectional
area of the 'outlet' tube realistic or does it just act as a restrictor
to flow, minimizing the effectiveness of the larger carb? I am in
pursuit of a Holley blue fuel pump now and have learned how to modify
the regulator (ala Harbit). I'll show this soon. I have found that the
routing of the reference tube into the same line as the carb vent was a
bad idea. The carb fuel bowl needs a vent to run, and instantly shuts
the engine down when it was plugged temporarily. I think the negative
pressure waves from the top of the mechanical fuel pump were transmitted
to the fuel bowl. I will reroute each line separately into the large
bore of the turbo outlet. I'll reroute the boost gauge into the intake
manifold below the carb. I may need to place one direction valves on
the pump or fuel bowl at some point. We'll see.....
10/12/2000: Got the
blue pump for $15 at a swap meet, but no regulator. Also found out
that a red pump, which is considerably cheaper new, can be
modified with a little spring (Moroso $5) which increases gpm and
pressure. Since the red pump is brand new, I'll put the spring in and
see what happens in terms of pressure at the carb. Purchased a new
regulator which usually comes with the blue pump (#803 $26). Ted
Harbit suggested a mod to reference the pressure that the regulator
"sees" to boost. I removed the locknut from the spring tension screw on
top of the reg and
measured the distance to the body of the reg (17/32 inches).This is
a factory pre-set adjustment of fuel pressure which I'll return to as a
starting point when I put the regulator back together. I then
ground down the top of the regulator to remove the "V" shaped groove
which vents to the atmosphere. The tension screw then was
drilled out to 1/4 inches and fitted with a copper tube which will
be plumbed up to the turbo output along with the reference tube from the
mechanical fuel pump. The tube is an interference fit which was
sealed with flux and solder. Place a soft washer of some kind under
the locknut. The
finished regulator needs to be mounted just before the carb.
10/15/2000: I've come up
with a better way to mount the swapmeet
AFB
(500 or 600) 4-barrel which I found. I'll put it directly on top of the
location used for the single carb using a
5$
aluminum adapter I found at the same swap. To give the gas mixture
a bit more room to straighten itself out, I made a
plywood
spacer and sealed it with paint. Couldn't resist adding an "injector"
like the
NOS guys have which may be used to leak a bit of water and alcohol
into the mix if I start detonating with more boost later..... Next I
rebuild
the carb and try to plug the vents and accelerator pump. I'll study
the floats and find an extra set to play with but not change them till I
have to.
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