Newbie w. New GN

[bryes]

Just how did you communicate with Tomco?
they seem to be stuck in the 70's

Yeah, their website seems like it's from the 70's too!


I tried to order from the website but gave up and I called the number on their website and got ahold of a couple people. After that it was great.

[Steve Wood]

Put an 1/8" tension on the rod..that is approximately what the factory used...in other words, you have to pull the rod about an 1/8" to slip it over the wastegate arm.

The actuator is the can mounted on the turbo.  The wastegate solenoid that controls the boost is on the valve cover.  Pull the hose off the solenoid and plug the end of the hose.

The tranny should shift cleanly without any slip.  Maybe your tv cable needs to be adjusted?   http://www.vortexbuicks-etc.com/tvcable.htm

[bryes]

Ok, tomorrow this is the plan as I understand it.


To put wastegate at the factory location:


1: Disconnect the adjustable actuator rod.
2: Pull wastegate arm to the closed postition (as far to the driver's side as it will go)
3: Adjust the rod so that eyelet lines up about 1/8" to the driver's side of the wastegate arm.
4: Pull the rod toward PS until it engages on the wastegate arm and reinstall snap ring.


To bypass wastegate solenoid insuring no overboost:
1: remove and plug vacuum hose from wastegate solenoid on PS valve cover.


I'll reserve the TV adjustment for another time I think.


Do I have it right?

[Steve Wood]

the wastegate actuator rod is spring loaded.  When you remove it from the wastegate arm, it will automatically be retracted as far as it will go by the spring inside.  Adjust the length so it has to be pulled out of the retracted position by 1/8" to be able to get it over the wastegate arm when the arm is pushed back toward the actuator can....that way, you will have about 12 psi of spring force holding the wastegate puck closed.  It will take some muscle to pull the rod out of the actuator to get it over the arm.

When the car makes boost, the boost pushes against a diaphragm on the other end of the spring in the can and forces the rod further out so that the puck can open and bypass exhaust.


Any exhaust leak is bypassing the turbine so you don't make boost, or not much boost

[bryes]

I test drove the car today with the wastgate rod adjusted as described previously and the wastegate solenoid vacuum tube plugged.  I also replaced the missing bolt in the turbo. As expected I finally have some boost or a little more than expected.


I couldn't resist and accelerated a little before I hit the highway, closely watching the boost gauge. The needle quickly went past 10 psi and I let off the gas because it seemed like it would only go higher. It felt much quicker then the car I drove the day before of course.


I hit the highway,  accelerated to about 60 and hit it, I was looking at the boost gauge and the boost went past 10 and I let off. I did this a few more times, noticing zero knock on the scanmaster each time. The final time the gauge flew past 15 psi when I let off quickly. It built up boost so quickly I really let it get higher than I would have liked (17-18psi), but still no retard on the scanmaster when I hit the recall button. All this time I wasn't paying attention to the fuel pressure gauge. So since I had a feel for what the boost was doing, I did a pull enough to get the boost up past 10 psi. I noticed the fuel pressure gauge hit about 51 or 52 psi, then hit a brick wall and started decreasing. Knowing this I gave it up for the day and likely won't test my luck again until I get the hotwire and a fuel pump installed.

Worse yet

When I was in some traffic I smelled an electrical burning smell.  I immediately headed for home but before I got there my brake light flashed on. Sure enough I had no brake assist after that point. I bet that internal leak got worse and the pump running continuously melted down.

 So now I'm dead in the water. I'll have to figure out what to do next.

[Steve Wood]

Sounds like it has a heavy duty actuator on it. Can you see the number on the actuator can? Should be a tag on it.

Convert to vacuum brakes.

Sounds like the fuel pump is weak. At least you know it will run!

[bryes]

Yeah, I'm just glad that I listened to you and others and had the gauges installed. That was a recipe for disaster! Fun while it lasted though.


I just got back in from pulling off the powermaster and am not going back out tonight, so I'll have to get back with you when I get a chance to read the number. There is a tag on it with a bar code I think.




That's exactly what I am going to do do now (convert to vacuum). Those PMs are neat devices and I still like them, but there are too many things that can go wrong. Anyone have an NA brake pedal?


 Finally, I have a sneaking suspicion that my transmission has an NA converter in it. The reason I think so is because I have never driven a car with anything but a stock converter, and this on feels no different... the car is kind of a slug off the line. I tried to brake torque it once and couldn't really build any boost whatsoever. I didn't notice what RPM it stalled at on the SM, and obviously I won't be brake torquing again anytime soon, is there a way to tell by looking at the converter???










 

[Steve Wood]

no...brake torquing will not hurt anything unless you hold it for a few minutes and let it get hot.  Just watch the rpm and note when it stops increasing, or when the car tries to move against the brakes.

I think the stock converters were about 1700 rpm and the turbo converters were about 2200 rpm

I believe either Dave is missing or I put a picture on here showing where to drill the hole in the pm pedal for use with vacuum brakes.

You have made a lot of progress with the car.

[Scoobum]

NA convertor in my car when purchased...st alled at 1700. Had 7's embossed around the circumference of the convertor.

[Steve Wood]

here is the thread   http://www.ihadav8.com/forum/index.php?topic=4054.msg59630#msg59630

[bryes]

I think I found out why the boost went higher than expected yesterday. I didn't tie wrap the plug that I used to block the vacuum line,  and it blew off.


Today, to make sure the actuator was OK and to try to determine the pressure it opened, I pulled it out and put pressure to it with a mityvac. It has a hole in the diaphragm as well. I'll have to keep an eye out for one of those as well I guess.

[Steve Wood]

smh...yeah, that will do it every time!   LOL

[Steve Wood]

the earliest form of boost control was to pull the hose off and stick an aquarium valve in the end and crack it further open until we got the boost we wanted

Some left it connected but spliced a tee valve in the line and cracked it open a bit-made for a finer adjustment

[bryes]

Funny!


I think I'm going to go with a hydroboost conversion this weekend. I can see no disadvantage other than the price?

[Steve Wood]

probably more reliable than a powermaster... maybe not as reliable as a vacuum system?  Not sure how the pressure compares to a pm but I guess similar.  TB3 here did one....don't know if he every drove it or just parks it beside the four cars worth of spare parts he accumulated.