Project Thread Vortech on a tired 1UZ-FE

The 1UZFE EGR Delete Kit is available for sale here.
Why are you using you MAF on the discharge side? Mustang guys place the MAF on the suction side of the blower about 8" from it. Try rerouting the MAF and see where that puts the AFR.

James
 
That would involve rewiring, a bunch of step-up and step-down adapters, and a custom snorkel box for the intake. You can see that I only have a couple of inches between the blower's inlet and the radiator.
Besides... the car seems to run just fine with the MAF being in the pressure zone.
 
The only concern with MAF placrement is wether or not it's too close to your bypass valve. If you had the room in the first place it wouldnt help, the IAT sensor is going to read higher temps since it's right after discharge and if you plan for an intercooler, will read heated air before it gets cooled and all the while this will tell the PCM to pull timing you will actually lose power.
 
err, I hate how we cannot edit posts anymore...

Just realized i was half asleep when I typed the last one. o well
 
With my Scangauge, I can monitor intake air temperatures on the fly. I took the car for another drive today. The IAT kept around 70 degrees until I got into boost, and from there it was a steady 100 degrees after that.
My car idles at 400rpm or so when hot. Not exactly sure why, and it was like this before I put the blower on. But at this RPM, when idling in drive at a stoplight there is a little more vibration felt in the cabin than before.
A couple of other thoughts. The blower is very quiet. From the interior, I have to strain to hear it. So I drive around with the windows down to hear the spool of the blower.
Except for the increased NVH, the car's driveability is exactly like stock, except it has a tremendous amount of power on tap in the upper RPM ranges - the blower spools just like a fairly big turbo. With more aggressive gearing, I'm sure that I'd be able to boost a lot more often, but I'm not sure if I want that. Jury's still out on fuel consumption changes, at least in normal driving. When I go for a long highway drive I'll have a better idea of the impact on MPG.
At a hot, low idle, I've also noticed that the blower's gears make a bit of a rattling noise. I did a little lookup on the internet and realized that this is a common thing with this blower. People with supercharged VQ35 Nissans were wondering about the same thing.
Final notes, there is a bit of space between the blower and the right edge of the engine compartment. There is an oil line that goes to the blower too, of course. I'm thinking of putting in a small oil cooler, to cool the oil before it goes into the blower. I could just put it anywhere there, and even mount a PC fan on it.

Driving around so far I've had no check engine lights or anything at all unusual happen. That's a good thing.
 
I took it for a quick spin on the highway. A few observations:
1) I've never noticed slow traffic in front of me being such an impediment before.
2) This thing cranks up from 55-90mph in zero seconds flat, as if it's being pushed by the fist of an angry God.

I'm happy!

Congrats Thermactor! I'd noticed you'd changed your avatar in another post and was wondering "what's up with that?". Then noticed you'd updated your build thread. I like your analogies; they are so true ;)
 
Congrats Thermactor! I'd noticed you'd changed your avatar in another post and was wondering "what's up with that?". Then noticed you'd updated your build thread. I like your analogies; they are so true ;)
Thanks John! This blower project was so, so easy to do. Compared to doing the NA-T on my old Supra, it was about 1/4 the work. Compared to changing the transmission in my driveway... jeez, I'd rather not think about it!
Do you think this thread would be more at home in the Forced Induction Project subsection? :D
 
Thanks again. The car is pretty much right where I want it right now. With a little housekeeping, I even got the engine bay shining! :D
 

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Well, I've been putting around over the past few weeks with the system.
The blower is prone to some serious heatsoak. This has the effect of keeping my IATs pretty dang high once the car is warm. I've seen the IATs reach 130 deg. F on a 70 degree day. I don't know where the safety limit is.
The transmission's shift points are disappointing. If I want to quickly gun it, I'll put the throttle down maybe 3/4 of the way. The car starts to scoot, especially as the RPMs go up, but then the damn transmission shifts at 4500!!!
I'm also interested in moving the power curve downward. I want more power - I want 5-6psi now. The answer to that lies in a smaller pulley, maybe 3", but then I'll need to install a boost-activated windshield washer fluid injection system. That's a whole stage in and of itself.
There's a wealth of information and misinformation on the internet about these systems, and I see their prices run the gamut between $200-450. In the spirit of this blower project, I want something much cheaper. Hmmm :)
 
LOL.

It's never enough.:)

I warned you about the heat. I'm surprised it doesn't get higher. Maybe due to the fact that it's a bigger unit.

You could get a Suprastick maybe, not sure how many solenoids your transmission has.

Don't use washer fluid. It does work but Methanol is cheap enough. It's 4 dollars a gallon in my area and I have just ran out of the 5 gallons I bought nearly a year ago. I probably drive my car harder than you do yours, if nothing else, I am constantly at the dragstrip, so it would likely last you longer. Then you can play around with different water to meth ratios.

I would suggest a kit from here: http://www.alcoholinjectionsystems.com/

Just keep in mind that if you are going to make your own kit, pump pressure and the nozzles are very important. Your washer fluid pump won't work well.

KC

Well, I've been putting around over the past few weeks with the system.
The blower is prone to some serious heatsoak. This has the effect of keeping my IATs pretty dang high once the car is warm. I've seen the IATs reach 130 deg. F on a 70 degree day. I don't know where the safety limit is.
The transmission's shift points are disappointing. If I want to quickly gun it, I'll put the throttle down maybe 3/4 of the way. The car starts to scoot, especially as the RPMs go up, but then the damn transmission shifts at 4500!!!
I'm also interested in moving the power curve downward. I want more power - I want 5-6psi now. The answer to that lies in a smaller pulley, maybe 3", but then I'll need to install a boost-activated windshield washer fluid injection system. That's a whole stage in and of itself.
There's a wealth of information and misinformation on the internet about these systems, and I see their prices run the gamut between $200-450. In the spirit of this blower project, I want something much cheaper. Hmmm :)
 
You could also pick up an air-to-water intercooler and plumb it in-line with your piping. Use your washer reservoir for coolant and mount it inside your air conditioned cabin and simply click off the A/C at the last minute for a race scenario.
AW2.jpg

AW1.jpg
 
Well, maybe the factory reservoir was a bad idea for mounting inside the cabin, you would need some sort of heat sink mounted inside your car to utilize the A/C. What about using the air/water IC and a seperate coolant radiator mounted externally? I know you have room behind the aluminum bumper support beam.
 
Also, does the 1995+ have a kickdown cable like the 1st gen has? If you do, tighten it 1-2 full turns and go try it out. It will change all your shift points directly based on pedal input. I used to be able to grab 3rd gear only up to 65mph, after tightening, I could still drop into 3rd at 75mph... effectively throwing it into full boost for lethal freeway passing abilities :)


I was forced to tighten mine because at factory settings my transmission was shifting so slowly that my engine was over revving to 7,000 and I ended up with a blown HG a week later. The engine was sort of "free wheeling" during gear shifts. Are you seeing this at all with your vortech?
 
LOL.

It's never enough.:)

I warned you about the heat. I'm surprised it doesn't get higher. Maybe due to the fact that it's a bigger unit.

You could get a Suprastick maybe, not sure how many solenoids your transmission has.

Don't use washer fluid. It does work but Methanol is cheap enough. It's 4 dollars a gallon in my area and I have just ran out of the 5 gallons I bought nearly a year ago. I probably drive my car harder than you do yours, if nothing else, I am constantly at the dragstrip, so it would likely last you longer. Then you can play around with different water to meth ratios.

I would suggest a kit from here: http://www.alcoholinjectionsystems.com/

Just keep in mind that if you are going to make your own kit, pump pressure and the nozzles are very important. Your washer fluid pump won't work well.

KC
All right, a complete made-to-order kit is the way to go then. I'll keep my eye out for used units. I guess there are several places I could put it. There's room behind my bumper where I could mount the pump and tank.
I don't drive my car very hard at all, but I do try to get a little bit of boost in every time I drive the car long enough to warm up. For fun. :)
 
Also, does the 1995+ have a kickdown cable like the 1st gen has? If you do, tighten it 1-2 full turns and go try it out. It will change all your shift points directly based on pedal input. I used to be able to grab 3rd gear only up to 65mph, after tightening, I could still drop into 3rd at 75mph... effectively throwing it into full boost for lethal freeway passing abilities :)


I was forced to tighten mine because at factory settings my transmission was shifting so slowly that my engine was over revving to 7,000 and I ended up with a blown HG a week later. The engine was sort of "free wheeling" during gear shifts. Are you seeing this at all with your vortech?
I'll have to tighten the trans kickdown cable. Great suggestion, thank you. I haven't seen any freewheeling between gear shifts, fortunately, but I certainly don't want to wear the transmission to that point so quickly.

Thanks for the pictures of the air to water intercoolers. I think that for the same amount of effort, maybe less effort, and less cost, a good methanol injection system would be able to reduce intake air temperatures much better than the intercooler, and not restrict airflow at all. And it would raise the effective octane levels too, which is a sweet benefit. Then I can run six pounds with confidence. Heck, I could run a tiny pulley and use a boost limiter valve in that setup. That ought to turn my car into a completely different machine.
 
Are you using a bypass valve? I am not currently using one but have in the past. Using one dramatically decreases intake temps for normal driving since no boost is actually made. Most noticable on the highway.

I don't think your "kickdown" cable is actually that. At least its not on my car. It is simply a pressure control cable. My car uses the TPS for shift points. You can adjust it but doing so can change a few other things. You could try disconnecting the battery for a bit then driving the hell out of it for awhile.

KC
 
Are you using a bypass valve? I am not currently using one but have in the past. Using one dramatically decreases intake temps for normal driving since no boost is actually made. Most noticable on the highway.

I don't think your "kickdown" cable is actually that. At least its not on my car. It is simply a pressure control cable. My car uses the TPS for shift points. You can adjust it but doing so can change a few other things. You could try disconnecting the battery for a bit then driving the hell out of it for awhile.

KC
KC, I actually did think of that. The highway speed coast-downs with the throttle plate closed, and nowhere for the compressed air to go, HAS to have a tremendous heating effect on the blower.
While a higher IAT and higher temperatures should generally be optimal for high engine efficiency, I definitely do lose power on the top end and run the risk of damaging knock with the hammer down.


At 3PSI and with a rising rate fuel pressure regulator, it's impossible for me to damage anything at this point, but like you said, it's never enough :D

Until I find a job I'll have to stick with this pedestrian boost setting. This Lexus is my only car right now. I need it, haha.
 

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By the way, thanks for the pointer on the trans line. I guess you're right, it has to be something to modulate the line pressure. I think it's undertightened, so I'll adjust it soon. Right now I'm in the middle of finals week. Two more tests and I'm done forever!
 


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