With the ‘36 running again I started to venture out onto the road but even though the car started and idled great it still coughed and spluttered trying to get down the road.
I was pretty fixated on the fuelling at this point as I didn’t want to lean it out excessively.
When I purchased all the ECU components I was talked into a wide band controller which was an extra plug-in box, lambda sensor and loom to the ECU. I didn’t fully understand the benefits at the time but I glad I’ve got it now.
Basically what it does is add and subtract fuel on the fly over the values in the base map via the AFR readings while you motor down the road.
In normal circumstances with a good base map it would only adjust the fueling a couple of % either way, if any at all. I was seeing swings of 20% in the fueling because the base map was so out of whack. This obviously isn’t idea but it shows that it’s working keeping the AFR’s in a safe range and gets me moving for the moment.
With the fueling half there I could turn my attention to the ignition.
I basically just started adding advance everywhere and this really brought things to life, to the extend I could now buzz down the road quite well!
Starting off with laps of the neighbourhood I gradually gained confidence to eventually venture out onto runs up and down the dual carriageway.
Flushed with confidence I booked the rolling road but after the utter faff of before with borrowing trailers, arranging help, trying to load up in a main road and all the other associated nonsense I took the decision to just drive there. 🫣
Driving there would allow me some run-in miles and if it made that trip without incident then it would stand in good stead for being on the rollers.
Driving around showed the breather situation was greatly improved. I had no bonnet on so I could see to a certain extent what was going on.
What I also noticed was the motor would be in vacuum for a lot of the time before the turbo spooled up.
This got me thinking.
Why couldn’t you have multiple draws on the one PCV valve? 🤔
Because I’d removed the breather can I purchased a cheap Cheap oil separator instead of the open breather can.
It was considerably smaller than I anticipated but that could prove to be an advantage.
With the temporary feed tube from the PCV valve to the turbo inlet seemingly working I wanted a more permanent fixture.
The inlet housing came off.
I thought maybe I could tap into the housing in front of the impeller.
I quickly worked out this was a no go due to the anti-surge Vents.
The best would be tap into an inlet tube, filter or air box which I had none.
So… A badly bent piece of copper tube held with cable-ties will have to suffice for now.
A package arrived consisting of vacuum line, a ‘Y’ and my secret weapon, one-way vacuum check valves.
These proved harder than expected to find as mainly I was using the wrong terminology but also having to scroll through all the one-way fuel valves listed for vacuum which I believe is wrong.
The fuel valves are much bigger and heavier construction as they design for the volume and weight of fuel but also I believe fuel valves have a small amount of poundage that must be overcome before they flow?
So here we are a MK.III breather system.
Hopefully I can explain in more detail.
At idle, cruise and other high vacuum times the draw from the PCV valve comes from the inlet manifold just like a conventional system.
To keep the suction on the PCV valve rather than back tracking down the turbo inlet leg is one of the check valves.
With the engine on boost the leg from the manifold will now want to pressurise back against the PCV valve and pressurise the crankcase. Thats where the second check valve should close at which point the turbo should be spooled enough to create a draw on the turbo inlet leg opening that check valve and continue pulling from the PCV valve.
Here it is fitted in place. I’ve left out any oil separators or catch cans for the moment to see how it works out.
I was pretty fixated on the fuelling at this point as I didn’t want to lean it out excessively.
When I purchased all the ECU components I was talked into a wide band controller which was an extra plug-in box, lambda sensor and loom to the ECU. I didn’t fully understand the benefits at the time but I glad I’ve got it now.
Basically what it does is add and subtract fuel on the fly over the values in the base map via the AFR readings while you motor down the road.
In normal circumstances with a good base map it would only adjust the fueling a couple of % either way, if any at all. I was seeing swings of 20% in the fueling because the base map was so out of whack. This obviously isn’t idea but it shows that it’s working keeping the AFR’s in a safe range and gets me moving for the moment.
With the fueling half there I could turn my attention to the ignition.
I basically just started adding advance everywhere and this really brought things to life, to the extend I could now buzz down the road quite well!
Starting off with laps of the neighbourhood I gradually gained confidence to eventually venture out onto runs up and down the dual carriageway.
Flushed with confidence I booked the rolling road but after the utter faff of before with borrowing trailers, arranging help, trying to load up in a main road and all the other associated nonsense I took the decision to just drive there. 🫣
Driving there would allow me some run-in miles and if it made that trip without incident then it would stand in good stead for being on the rollers.
Driving around showed the breather situation was greatly improved. I had no bonnet on so I could see to a certain extent what was going on.
What I also noticed was the motor would be in vacuum for a lot of the time before the turbo spooled up.
This got me thinking.
Why couldn’t you have multiple draws on the one PCV valve? 🤔
Because I’d removed the breather can I purchased a cheap Cheap oil separator instead of the open breather can.
It was considerably smaller than I anticipated but that could prove to be an advantage.
With the temporary feed tube from the PCV valve to the turbo inlet seemingly working I wanted a more permanent fixture.
The inlet housing came off.
I thought maybe I could tap into the housing in front of the impeller.
I quickly worked out this was a no go due to the anti-surge Vents.
The best would be tap into an inlet tube, filter or air box which I had none.
So… A badly bent piece of copper tube held with cable-ties will have to suffice for now.
A package arrived consisting of vacuum line, a ‘Y’ and my secret weapon, one-way vacuum check valves.
These proved harder than expected to find as mainly I was using the wrong terminology but also having to scroll through all the one-way fuel valves listed for vacuum which I believe is wrong.
The fuel valves are much bigger and heavier construction as they design for the volume and weight of fuel but also I believe fuel valves have a small amount of poundage that must be overcome before they flow?
So here we are a MK.III breather system.
Hopefully I can explain in more detail.
At idle, cruise and other high vacuum times the draw from the PCV valve comes from the inlet manifold just like a conventional system.
To keep the suction on the PCV valve rather than back tracking down the turbo inlet leg is one of the check valves.
With the engine on boost the leg from the manifold will now want to pressurise back against the PCV valve and pressurise the crankcase. Thats where the second check valve should close at which point the turbo should be spooled enough to create a draw on the turbo inlet leg opening that check valve and continue pulling from the PCV valve.
Here it is fitted in place. I’ve left out any oil separators or catch cans for the moment to see how it works out.