Dudeman
Now that you have owned a few, how would you rate each different engine type? You've had a beams, a 3vz v6 and now a turbo.
What's your favourite so far? And did the beams live up to its reputation?
It's hard not to love the turbo. The BEAMS car was light and agile and fun to scream around in, and the turbo is def a bit heavier, but it's far more smiles per mile as they say. I enjoy having the EHPS steering too. The 3VZ funnily enough sits somewhere in between but with the best soundtrack by far and the least effort to drive. It's good to have choices!
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First of all, my new plates arrived.
While I like them, I'm not perfectly happy though because everyone seems to think they're meant to say 'toot'. Which wasn't the idea :P I was happy for that to be ALSO something they say, but the point seems to be being missed. Considering changing them. The idea, anyway, was the use the least letters and stick as close as possible to the japanese all-numerals xx-xx format without paying the RMS a fortune for 'full custom' plates. Using the letter O was the easiest way to achieve that and it makes sense with a 2000cc turbo engine. Right? No. Just 'toot' apparently. Too cute for my taste! :P
Fiddled around with the car a bit today in preparation for the MR2 Wakefield Park Challenge this month (in which I'll be competing, yay!).
It's been pinging a lot recently and the rather dodgy looking boost gauge I have has never read over 6psi, so I decided to investigate.
What I found was this;
- Ignition timing set to 25+ degrees of advance! WTF? Set this back to the factory setting of 10 degrees. Pinging gone! Still running 6psi.
- T-VSV looped off (fair enough)
- Vac hose from inlet manifold connected to > BPV (bypass valve or "blow off valve" (larger port). > BPV (smaller port) > connected to - get this - manual boost control valve. Then the output side of the MBC valve > connected to the wastegate control port.
Yeah, thats right, an aftermarket, inappropriate looking, manual boost controller valve with no bleed port (looks like this came from Bunnings?) connected to the BPV. WTF?
This made no sense whatsoever. The BOV was sortof working, but I suspect not correctly, and also this explains the (indicated) 6psi, which i think with a dodgy-boost-gauge-correction-factor of 1psi represented the turbo running at "wastegate pressure" - in other words, no boost control at all.
I also noted the BOV was missing the factory VTV (vacuum transfer valve) and appropriate hoses and tees, including the bracket to hold them. It's held that the BOV doesn't work properly without this arrangement, so I simply deleted the BOV from the control circut by looping the two ports together with one of the hoses. This created some flutter, which I'm personally fine with (remember GT-FOUR's don't have BPV's at all, and are the same engine and turbo).
I then arrange the MBC with one side going to the wastegate control port and the other open to atmosphere. I started tuning it with the valve closed and opened it in 90' increments whilst booting around the backstreets behind the local markets trying not to look like too much of a hoon, and observed a 1psi max boost increase for each 180' i turned the handle. I got to stock max boost of 10psi, no pinging :) Then I kept going to 11psi. I was aiming for 12, but it doesn't seem to go higher, and that's OK, as I was concerned anyway that the handle would turn on its own under vibration and cause overboost (i'll tie it off now). It clearly wasn't designed for an automotive application.
TLDR;
- Pinging, max boost 6psi
- Ignition timing was wrong @ 25+ degrees advance. Set to 10 degrees
- Boost control and BPV plumbing was all back-assward. Fixed
- Set to 11psi, no more pinging
Needless to say, it feels like a whole new car :) Realistically, it's basically still just at the stock level. But it was somewhere well below this before and I think this new arrangement is preferable for the upcoming track day, along with considerably less risk of engine explosion!