Turbo Project Update

The 4 gear pump solved the turbo drain issue. I got a few more test runs on it and a little bit of taxi testing just to see how it pulled from a standstill. Wow is about all I can say! So far I have run it up to about 55" or about 13psi but that is as far as I am going to test it. I figured that if I was going to blow it up I should do it before the motor gets torn down.

The air is still cold here, in fact I am watching it snow out of my window as I type this. With the power set at 45" the its drawing more than 9gph. The gauge was still climbing when I pulled the power back but its safe to say that it is making more than 100hp at 3500rpms. The log file from the ignition shows that 55" spun the prop up to just under 3785rpms static, a full 900rpms more than it would without the turbo.

Boost comes on at 2900rpms, which was the max static rpm before the turbo. Throttle response and engine acceleration is actually better than it was before the turbo and carb change. I attribute it to that shorter intake manifold and the bigger carb. The turbo is free ranging, meaning that there is no wastegate so your throttle hand is what controls boost levels. Once its boosting, it takes very little throttle movement to make a lot more power. I ordered a wastegate and the solenoid required to let the ignition module control the boost but I am not going to install it until after I can see how hard it is to manage in the air. At this point I have collected all of the data that I need so its time to move on to the cowl and cooling baffles.

 The first step was to mock up what I thought the cowl could look like using photoshop. It will look something like this:  
 









Next was to clearance anything that was hitting the cowl and cut off the existing nose bowl.

   


Tomorrow the foam shaping begins!