5/17/06

I think we’re going to clear out a spot for John tonight. [ Guess not... - SM ] I can’t really think of anything I want to work on on George so that is probably what we’ll do. Then again, for the last two weeks Heeter was there with his car. I guess if he’s there and they are working on that I'll do something with George. If not, we’ll clear out a spot in the paint booth for the Seven and make a bay available for John's 510. I'm not sure which one he’s going to start on first though. Not that it really matters all that much, but I think he’s going to move the red car in and get it going. I'm not sure if he’s keeping it though. We discuss it all the time but I'm so self absorbed that I forget what we were talking about as soon as we’re done. Well, speaking of me, I think I might remove the muffler that is currently rusting away under George and replace it with either a glass pack or that Flowmaster from Gil’s zorst. I'd consider one of those Smithy’s mufflers like I have on the Seven but they only come in 2” inlet and outlet. I'm running a full 2.5” system. I wonder just how loud it would be with a straight pipe. They say a turbo’s turbine acts like 1/3 of a muffler, whatever that means. Does that mean it will be 2/3 as loud as if the engine were naturally aspirated and uncorked? How does that compare to, say, a naturally aspirated engine with a Flowmaster or glass pack? I think I may have just convinced myself to give it a try. I'm afeared of two things with the existing muffler. One is the amount of rust that fell out when I took the zorst off to weld in the collector. I think that muffler is about used up. The other is I think it will be too quiet. Then again, that would add to the “sleeper” aspect I guess. Ok, so I have now convinced myself back into running the muffler that is on there for the time being. If I just can’t stand it that quiet I'll make a straight pipe and test that out. If that is too much, I'll either use the Flowmaster or go buy a glass pack. Of course if I've got the zorst out to replace the rusty muffler, I could relocate the collector off of the transmission cross member and install the 4.10 rear axle. Did I mention I decided to not swap in the 4.10 just yet until A) I have driven the car and/or 2) I need to remove the zorst again? Well, that was what I had decided. See, the zorst runs under the axle so it will be easier to change said axle with said zorst out of the way. “Zorst,” I like that “word.” Can you tell? Can you also tell I'm getting kind of excited about having George back on the road? Or is it that I'm excited about having the turbo engine finally on the road? Or is it that I'm excited about finally having the turbo engine and George back on the road? I don’t know, but I am excited. I think it is going to be cool. I still find myself making blow off valve noises while I'm “driving” down the hall even though I won’t be running one on this setup. “Ssssrrrrrreeeeeeeeeep Psssshhhh! Ssssrrrrrreeeeeeeeeep Psssshhh!” I had a thought about how I could make a variable boost regulator with existing equipment on the car. My thinking was thus, if I hooked up the old choke cable to a spring attached to the actuator on the wastegate, pulling the cable would add tension to the actuator and raise the effective boost. The diaphragm would have to exert extra force to overcome the added spring tension you see. With the “boost knob” all the way in the extra spring would be slack and the boost level would be stock. The more you pull it out, the higher the boost would creep before the wastegate opens. It is genius! As an added benefit, the thing would be self-canceling. As the wastegate fights the spring and cable, it would want to pull itself back in to the minimal boost setting. The amount of resistance in the sheath would control how long the thing stayed in over boost and how quickly it “ramped down” once the knob was released. I'm not going to do it because I've already removed the choke cable and knob, but I thought it was a really cool mechanism that needed to be mentioned. I'm trying to decide now if it would work to raise the boost once you were already running under boost. What I mean is, I'm pretty sure it would work if set before a boost situation when the wastegate is closed, but would adding tension to the spring close it off again once it has cracked at the prescribed boost level? It would probably have to be pulled to a really high level to “spike” it and then backed off to the desired boost. Then again, closing the wastegate a little might have the desired effect of raising the boost while driving. I just don’t know. Well, like I said before, I'm not going to do it so it is kind of moo. If I decide I need more boost I'll either bleed off some signal to the wastegate or add a static spring to the actuator. Then again, there is the “check valve” boost regulator. The benefit of that is it sends no signal to the wastegate until the desired boost level is achieved and thus doesn’t crack open until then. It makes the boost rise quicker since all of the exhaust goes through the turbine until the cracking pressure is achieved and that doesn’t happen until full boost. I know I just said the same thing in two different ways, deal. Well, I think I've had just about enough of this for today, besides I have to go pee. I'll talk to y’all tomorrow.