FTO AUSTRALIA

bjk wrote:

Rob Furniss wrote:I think I may run a second mini radiator for the charge cooler, can't hurt anything and it's an inexpensive option, about the same cost as an expensive case of beer.
Will mount this one behind the front grill when I get onto doing it.

For anyone thinking about using the kit in future, could they just utilise one larger rad for the charge cooler?

Absolutely, they could use whatever they want / can fit cooling wise and there is space behind the bumper for a much larger one than what I've got. I'm just using what's to hand at the moment (trying not to spend any more money right now) but I would like to fit a larger one later.
This is all separate from the normal engine cooling circuit though in case anyone's wondering.
For the pump that I've got the feed to it has to be after it's been cooled by the radiator.

Wasn't happy with the low boost so I removed the charge cooler at the weekend and tested for leaks by sealing it up, pumping air in and squirting soaping water all over.
It blew bubbles in a few places on the In-side, not on Out-side to the intake runners. I removed the inlet to the charge cooler, re-sealed with instant gasket and put it back together, could see that the flange on this side isn't completely flat after the welding that was done to it has warped it, I should have had it re-faced - lesson learned.
It did pull together nicely though when I bolted it back together and i'm now seeing a little more boost.

Currently seeing a maximum of 5psi on the gauge, starts at 4psi when at wide-open-throttle maybe at 2-3000 rpm and builds to 5psi after about 5000 I think.
I'm not convinced of the accuracy of the gauge though as I do get voltage drop on the power feed to it (reads 11.9 volts not the 12-13 that I see at the battery) so I should also plug the laptop in and see what the emanage map sensor is reading.
That aside, the scream is insane and it does feel quicker but the thing with these chargers is you don't get a thump in the back the car just generally feels, and is quicker right through the rpm range.
But I should be seeing more boost than this so still not finished yet.

The charger is noisy and I can see some scuff marks inside the casing at the rear, I think this indicates rear needle bearings on the way out. It also sounds like it's got rocks in the nose end which generally means the plastic coupler inside needs replacing.
So instead of doing a strip down and rebuild right now, i'm going to swap the charger out for my spare and see if this makes a difference to the boost (this has no scuff marks inside the casing), if not then I still have a boost leak somewhere - or two bad chargers.

Swapped the charger out earlier, now getting 5psi at wide open throttle even in 5th gear (5speed tip) at 3000rpm, getting 6psi higher up the range (I couldn't tell you where).
Got a bit of tuning to do on the emanage as it's running a little rich when wide open and boosting (afr 10.9 to 11:1) so that's good as there's gains to be had by leaning it out a little, not too much of course.
Enough working on the car today, it's been pushing towards 40 degrees up here!

I would still expect to see more boost than that though so also got more things to look at like the bypass valve is closing properly etc, could also be the belt isn't tight enough for those higher rpms, may look at the tensioner pulley again and see if I can improve things, an auto tensioner may be better.
Or last resort - see if I can get an even smaller pulley for the supercharger but I may already be at the limit, the other option may to increase the size of the double alternator pulley that drives the supercharger but there's not much room to play with there as it's already a tight squeeze.

Well at least the boost is on the safe side and not the alternative. Good work as usual, but yeah, stuff doing car things at 40 degrees!

bjk wrote:Well at least the boost is on the safe side and not the alternative. Good work as usual, but yeah, stuff doing car things at 40 degrees!

Think i'm going to change the pulley config and squeeze an auto tensioner in as they keep constant tension on the belt throughout the rpm range, that may see another pound or two of boost if i'm right.

EDIT: Ordered a nice compact little auto tensioner, should be here and on in a couple of weeks.

Haven't got around to fitting the auto tensioner pulley yet as I have to redesign the pulley bracket to fit it - I will get onto it soon.

But I did spend a little time at the weekend changing my charge cooler radiator setup.
Previous setup:
13 row mini rad tucked away behind the indicator pod with a fan on it, the pump resides in that area too as it has to be at the low point.
6 row mini rad / oil cooler behind the front bumper - it was in the shed so thought i'd give it a go - too small.

I've now got:
13 row mini rad with fan, same location (it does get air to it)
28 row rad behind the front bumper, it's quite tall and only just fits - I couldn't have fitted a taller one.

Start the car and the air temp gauge generally reads about 30 degrees, creeps up to about 52 as the engine warms up and levels off there. If I drive the car and then leave it for a while the temps creep up a little but soon start to come down as soon as the engine is started when not even moving.
This is a lot better than holding in the 60's like previous.

I still need to get hold of a proper header tank as my home made one is quite small, and crap.
It would be nice to switch to braided hosing at some stage too but just for looks, if I could be bothered with the expense and hassle changing them.
Are there sleeves available on the market?

Main thing to focus on next is the belt squeal that i'm getting when I open the throttle more than about 40%, i'm hoping this is the cause of my lower than expected boost figure and also hoping that the new tensioner pulley will fix it.
Might also be the very high humidity not helping things.

Good to see some more progress

Now have an auto tensioner as well as a manual tensioner pulley.
I had to butcher the pulley bracket to fit it so will change the cad design and get a new one laser cut which will be the final version.



This isn't the main news though as the above didn't fix my low boost issue (although it may have helped a little).
I pushed on the blue outlet from the side of the supercharger and noticed I could move it / push it towards the supercharger a few mm so that's not sealing. To prove my theory I put on a load of clear sealant on the edge nearest the belt last night and today took it for a spin.
The car drives a whole lot better and is quieter - I had previously thought the supercharger bearings may be on their way out but not now.

I now have an instant 7psi even on part throttle from about 2500 / 3000rpm, that's with the crappy gauge, I'll have to do some logging with the emanage and see what i'm really getting.
Very pleased to now have torque steer.

Long term fix is for me to get a plate laser cut from ally that will fit over the blue outlet and clamp it to the charger, it will just follow the edge of the outlet.

Here's my solution to clamp the blue outlet to the charger to properly seal it (since the blue outlet is nylon and flexes a little), will get it laser cut from ally and it will stiffen up the edge.

Nice progress!

And here's the actual thing in ally just arrived from the laserbeam shop, and a redesigned supercharger mounting bracket to fit a manual (hopefully) as the original one that I have for my Auto would foul on the clutch cylinder.



This is the reworked main mounting bracket part 1of2 (or the Diplodocus).
I'll know if it clears the clutch master when we get my sons engine back from RPW as we're also in the process of converting his to manual.

Pulley bracket has been redesigned to fit the auto tensioner instead of my hack-together version


Did a quick 3D print just making sure it fits before ordering this to be made from aluminium.

The left side of the smooth tensioner pulley has to clear the brake master (in this iteration I've moved it over right a few mm to improve the clearance) everything is a tight fit but should work

The back of the tensioner just clears the cambelt cover.

Diplodocus Maybe you should have all your brackets painted with dinosaurs??

Good stuff, must be handy having that printer to do mockups like those.

bjk wrote:Diplodocus Maybe you should have all your brackets painted with dinosaurs??

Good stuff, must be handy having that printer to do mockups like those.

Ha ha.

Yeah the printer has been very handy for mock-ups, I was sure this one was right but just had to move one of the holes slightly - i'm reprinting now, it's saved me a few dollars in what would have been wasted ally versions for sure.

New FINAL pulley bracket has arrived, well two of them so I have 1 in stock for when i'm ready with the other bits







I've also been designing the charge cooler air inlet tank and prototyping with the printer, I think it's almost done but I need to check the angles again and distance between the two.
This links up the supercharger outlet to the charge cooler and the one I currently have on the car was all fabbed up by hand, on the car, so isn't easy to get made (was expensive too).
In future I'll be able to get these made simply by placing an order with the laser sintering company, it will be made from Nylon - the rest of the charge cooler is aluminium.

Will nylon hold up to the pressure?

evo-gsr wrote:Will nylon hold up to the pressure?

It will for sure yes, it's thick enough and the boost isn't too much.

Fitted the new pulley bracket to the car and got the belt on this afternoon, plus the clamp for the supercharger outlet.
My belt was too short as I've moved the auto tensioner over slightly but I had a longer one in the shed - a bit too long so possibly a bit slack for my liking but that's an easy fix (slightly shorter belt).

Good news - boost is back, 7psi and that wasn't wide open throttle.

Tried wide-open-throttle and got a bit of slip and squeal but i'm putting that down to the belt length, won't know for sure until I get one in-between my old one and this one.

New pulley bracket on, and the clamp on the supercharger outlet is working a treat to stop boost leaking.

Nice. I see how the clamp works now.

bjk wrote:Nice. I see how the clamp works now.

Cheers, it's doing it's job as intended and doesn't look too bad.