Canadian 1984 244 DL B21A/B6304 project log.

[amerbritcan]

Fancy schmancy oval piping

[Broke4speed]

That oval piping is stupid $$ too, so luckily I got a deal on that piece. It's not something I'd splurge on if I didn't have a very good friend who runs a performance shop in Gatineau .

I've recently sold some parts, so I may just drop the car there and get him to build the exhaust for me. I like the idea of building it myself, but I don't like the idea of doing it on my back on the garage floor. It depends on how bored I get on the weekend I guess.

[Broke4speed]

Swapped out the VERY dead stock rear shocks (blue in colour...probably haven't been touched since the 20th century) for some KYB Gas-a-Justs today. Took me 15 min...seriously. Why is the oldest car I've ever owned also the one that has caused me the LEAST amount of frustration from rusted and/or seized bolts? Everything came off like it was brand new.

Now I'm sure the fronts are dead too, but those can wait. The last upgrade for this summer will be a 3" exhaust, then the budget is done.

[Broke4speed]

3" exhaust is done! I took it for a drive today, even though it was raining ice pellets...despite it being 27*C on thursday. Canadian weather is messed up this year .

I learned that on a quick romp/kickdown, the open-diff'd rear end swings out quite nicely while rolling, which was pretty damn fun!

If you look, you can see the new 3" tip peeking out from under the bumper. I may paint it, haven't decided. I went under the axle, because it's not lowered in the rear, and I made the entire rear section removable via 3" V-band.

[Broke4speed]

Some observations on the 3.54 rear end and the AW71L I replaced the BW55 with:
-at 80kph (the speed limit on rural/county roads here), I'm seeing ~2200rpm, which is great.
-the lockup engages at ~85kph. The RPMs then drop to ~1900, which is terrible. It's a great motivator to stay at 80.
-at hwy speeds (100kph), with the lockup engaged, I'm at ~2000-2100 rpm.

I'm certain that I could get some pretty kick ass fuel economy if I added some advance to the ignition table at cruise...but it's proving kind of difficult to do with the 12x12 MS1 map. Without reducing the resolution of the table in other critical areas, I can't add too much without affecting the idle area. If I was using MS2 or 3, and had access to separate idle VE/Ignition tables, it would be cake.

...although, maybe I should just stop constantly getting in to boost...hmmm...

[Broke4speed]

RICER PLATE INSTALLED! :D



It's a slightly modified chinabay Mopar SRT4 CBV sound plate, and it was $30 CDN...so I figured I'd run it until it got irritating, lol.

[Broke4speed]

Rear end swap (1031 w/G80 and 3.73 gears) almost done.

[amerbritcan]

That plate just makes your CBV louder?

[Broke4speed]

Yeah, it now vents externally instead of diverting back into the intake.

[Broke4speed]

Observations:

1 - The 3.73 rear end is a bit nicer for sure. I haven't tested the G80 yet, but there's no whining or any other bad noises coming from the rear, so that will happen soon .

2 - The BOV plate is coming out, because the stock CBV SUCKS ARSE. It's open at any vacuum from -10 to -2, and bleeding slightly at anything lower than -10. WTF. There is no way I can allow this to continue, because it's definitely affecting the response of the turbo to slight throttle movements. I have to figure out what the next plan of attack is: stiffer spring in the CBV, or dump it for a proper BOV/DV.

[Broke4speed]

Yeahh...FYI, if anyone is reading this and can make use of the info, the stock CBV spring is nasty weak. I have a couple 1G DSM BOV/DVs here, so I cut the top off a 'crushed' one to see what I could do with the innards. Turns out the spring inside is exactly the same height as the 'volvo' CBV spring (since they're mitsu turbos anyway), but is made out of wire almost twice as thick. Also, the CBV 'cap' is pretty much the same shape as the top of the DSM BOV, which has led me to cut and shut an adjustable DSM BOV together. I'll see if it holds vacuum tomorrow .

If it doesn't, I'm definitely going to try the DSM spring inside the volvo CBV. Maybe it'll work, maybe it won't, but I won't find out until I try.

[Broke4speed]

Weekly update!
I made a CBV blockoff plate, and installed a 1G DSM BOV. As a guy who's dabbled in DSM vehicles on and off over the years, I've got a bunch of them...so I figured I'd go with what I had instead of paying for something that may or may not be chinabay crap. It works pretty well, so I'm happy. The CBV sucks for boost response, especially since it seems like the spring isn't strong enough to resist anything more than 10 in/Hg, so it opens constantly.



I also headed out on a roadtrip (2.5 hours each way) to attend a 'local' event hosted at an airstrip in Picton, Ontario called Armdrop. It's now become a huge event that hosts races three times a summer. No lights, just a flagger, and a bunch of pylons on an airstrip. A lot of oldschool stuff comes out, that would never hit a real dragstrip, so it's pretty fun. I didn't run due to concern over a dying center bearing/support, so I just cruised and watched. I got 9.3L/100km too, which is 25mpg in southern-speak, so I'm pretty happy. It got 14L/100km (17mpg) last summer as a singled carbed 3-speed NA.

http://armdropdragracing.com/index.html

Stopping for some water to put in the cooler, saturday morning.

[Broke4speed]

Today, I finished the new turbo setup. A big 16G with a 9-blade TD05H wheel in an 8cm T-3 housing...should be interesting. I think I put a 7psi spring in the ebaygate, but I can't remember. I still have to finish the downpipe, so I can't test it just yet.

I'm most interested in seeing how long the welds on the external gate extension last. It is made of cast steel, so it SHOULD be fine...but who knows .

[LC4CARL]

Sweet build!

[Broke4speed]

Thanks!

[quillc]

I like the fact that you used a real air filter instead of a cone filter that so many use.

[Broke4speed]

Thanks, I much prefer airboxes over cone filters, when possible. This one is from an early Dodge turbo 1 car (with a draw-through setup, TB in front of turbo). I've used them before, and a properly clean paper air filter costs me almost no power loss over a K&N panel. There's also a nice port on the side to run the PCV line to, with a sponge in a compartment inside to absorb the oil condensate .

The intake to the box is 3", and the outlet to the turbo is also 3". It's a nice little piece.

[Cwazywazy]

Neat, but why not run a stock turbo box? I would if I could be bothered to deal with the washer and coolant tanks.

[Broke4speed]

Quite simply, I didn't have a 240 box at hand. My car was originally a B21A Canadian carbed car, and the box was near the battery, beside the rad. It wouldn't have worked with the intercooler piping at all. I tend to work with what I've got, or build something, instead of shopping online/spending if I can...mainly as a discipline thing, because I'm constantly buying things I don't need. That's how I ended up with a Turbo Dodge airbox, btw, lol. It's been sitting on a shelf in my garage for a while.

[quillc]

Originally Posted by Broke4speed

Thanks, I much prefer airboxes over cone filters, when possible. This one is from an early Dodge turbo 1 car (with a draw-through setup, TB in front of turbo). I've used them before, and a properly clean paper air filter costs me almost no power loss over a K&N panel. There's also a nice port on the side to run the PCV line to, with a sponge in a compartment inside to absorb the oil condensate .

The intake to the box is 3", and the outlet to the turbo is also 3". It's a nice little piece.

Personally, I'm a big fan of a nice deep pleated paper filter. I do HVAC design for a living, so filters are a 'thing' for me. There are a lot of snake oil solutions out there involving oil misted filters, foam filters, electrostatic and so on. In the end, you really cant beat a good paper filter. For the K&N lovers out there, the only real reason that there is lower pressure drop is that it doesn't filter as well. In other words, it lets more dirt into the engine. In the end, if you drive on the street exclusively, it really wont make that much of a difference. On the other hand if you are like me and take your car up into the mountains, an 'oiled' cone filter will only hurt your engine.

[Broke4speed]

The latest!
I solved my driveline vibration, finally. When I swapped to the big driveshaft to fit the AW71L, I made sure that it NEVER came apart. As it turns out, someone had definitely split the halves, because the marks were not aligned at all. I put in a new center support, spring, and washer while I was down there. No more vibration when pulling away .

I also put a bushing in my auto shifter lever, which I didn't have. It's awesome to not have 1/2" of play between gears on the auto shifter, lol.

The final bit of work I did was to swap to a big 16G and 3" DP. I've never liked the spool on mitsu TD05 turbos, and this is no different. I start to get boost at 2500, but it doesn't top out until near 5k. I'm seeing 15psi at that point (gotta change the spring), and I think I'm blowing out the spark. At 5grand, and 15psi, the car starts to buck until it shifts at 5700, which drops it down to 4400rpm and ~10 psi. I need to look in to that.

Even though the spool sucks, it's DEFINITELY got top end now ;).

[Broke4speed]

I ported the hell out of the wastegate setup, and I'm seeing a proper 4 psi (running a soffffffffffffffffffffffffft spring, as a tester) until the RPMs start to climb, when it starts to creep again. It hits 15psi at the WOT shift point, then drops to 10, and back up to 15, but no bucking this time. I guess I'm going to try an external dump pipe and see what happens. I think I've run the recirc for the wastegate back in to the DP in a bad spot, or way too close to the outlet of the hotside.

It is definitely a LOT faster with the 16G though, even at 4 psi. The 16T I had on it previously was nice...but not this nice .

[Broke4speed]

The saga continues.
I got an internal gate T3 hotside from Mamba Turbo (same stuff as Kinugawa, just cheaper), and have been altering my setup to work with it. Re-did my oil return (needed to be an inch longer), modded my 3" downpipe, etc etc. While I was re-installing my oil return, I happened to look at one of the engine mounts...and it's torn. Checked the other one...torn too. FFS. I've got a set of Classicswede red poly mounts on the way, and I'm guessing that driveline vibration was definitely caused by the torn mounts. Looks like I'm in no hurry to finish the re-assembly, since I can't drive it until I fix the busted mounts.

Sigh :(.

[Broke4speed]

Got impatient and installed a 'custom' pass side mount (an industrial vibration damper purchased at Princess Auto for $6. Princess is Canadian harbour freight.), and a stock driver's side so I could drive the car.

Then blew out the rear frost plug, because it was a stupid block heater, and overtightened when installed. Sigh.






I've got to order a replacement plug from Volvo tomorrow, and am going to look in to that waterless coolant. If pressure is the problem, then pressure should be removed.

[Broke4speed]

Frost plugs arriving tomorrow, and ClassicSwede poly engine mounts arrived today.



I am (well, was) still experiencing crazy boost creep when I stomped the throttle and it kicked down, so I ported every part of the wastegate portion of the exhaust housing that I could reach, and fabbed up a new internal gate actuator setup. This one is from a T3 that was on a 300zx, and has a longer throw than the DSM one I was using. I also clearanced the area around the flapper, so it could move freely to it's maximum extension. I know it won't, but it certainly won't hurt. I have to weld the cap back over the flapper area, with a spacer, since the flapper moves a lot more now, but that's cake .