The Turbo TR1 - oildrain and first start (part 6)

Instead of this blog entry there should be a success note on how I got the flatslides on the sidecar spot on and am rolling around on three wheels like an absolute boss. To be honest, I tried my very best and at some point I needed a break from working through all the jetting options chasing both a consistent idle and also some top-end power.

And during that break, I simply decided to get the turbo in running order. The first (and one of the more simple tasks) was to to modify the turbine housing to get a boost-reference port for the wastegate.

Then secondly, because some numpty (that'll be me, thank you) put an exhaust where the oil-drain wanted to go, I had to fabricate a slightly more elaborate oil-drain-pipe than I originally anticipated.
(The picture actually shows the final version, if you compare it to the video clip and some of the pictures above and below, you will notice, that this wasn't exactly the only one built... 😏 )

As I pointed out before, I was a tad grumpy that day, so I decided to hook up a fuel line, plug some of the open ports on the inlet rubbers and see what happens next.

To my utmost surprise, it fired up more or less instantly and after somewhat clearing its throat it fired up.

One of the backfires "fine-tuned" my boost gauge and inspired it to from here onwards give some rather "optimistic" boost readings. (That's with the engine not even running.)

A bit more fine tuning and well the whole engine and setup proved to be hopelessly overbuilt as it lasted more than a quarter mile already.

Next step will now REALLY be to swap out the inlet-rubbers for the ones, with plug vacuum ports and space them in a bit to clamp the inlet manifold a bit tighter. Oh and a seat might come in handy, sitting on a rolled up rag is dead cool, but not exactly compliant with some of the rules and regulations of the racing bodies I want to take part in OR local vehicle road safety legislation. And talking of the latter as some people dropped me DMs on Instagram - nope, I don't see a simple legal way to get this on the road in Austria. Might be a different game in Germany or some other European countries, but I have received a big, fat "no way, mate" from the local authorities, when I presented the whole project to them.

The Turbo TR1 - new manifold (part 4)

Slowly, but steadily this stuff's coming together like it should... to admit I am a bit excited by now is a wild understatement. It all seemed rather theoretical up to now, but by now it's basically down to finishing the oil-suppy and then find out which parts I robbed off the bike in the last one-and-a-half years. But I am getting ahead of myself.

First step was to clock the turbo, which is a dead simple job on a new turbo, but a lot less so, when years of caked on oil and diesel-soot glued the whole lot together for good. Weeks of penetrating oil, a heat gun and some (not overly) gentle taps with a Newtonian particle accelerator (a PROPER rubber mallet) and it finally freed up. And just to give you an idea, just how small that lil' turbo is – that's a 10mm spanner below it.

Following the tradition of this being a proper parts-bin-special, this is a wastegate actuator from some Volvo (I think) with a GT1752 as the original actuator worked from vacuum and not boost, because it was operated by the Opel's ECU and not directly. (They were waaaay ahead of their time back then...)

A bit of fitting up of all the components and that VERY satisfying moment of: it's tight, but all fits in there... somewhere.

From a design point of view, this has got to be the single most elaborate plenum/intake manifold, I have designed to this point. It's every bit as three-dimensional as you would think, when looking at these pictures.

And that's actually the fabrication side of things on the cold side of the turbo mostly done.

So what's still missing at this point: I have to drill and tap the compressor housing to get a boost-source for the wastegate-actuator, sort out the oil-lines (both feed and drain), tap the engine case for the oil-supply and then sort out all the electrical gremlins that mostly stem from me "borrowing" parts for my daily and friends' projects.

I do not see a silencer as a high priority item. 😉

The Turbo TR1 - GT15-turbo build (part 1)

"Auferstanden aus Ruinen" used to be the national anthem of the former German Democratic Republic and pretty much the same goes for this turbo setup. (Guess what, I haven't been working on the turbo for no reason...)

As I am a dedicated believer in recycling, I took an older set of turbo-headers, which I built for a TD04 and cut the flang off, as the waterjet-cutter messed this one up ages ago.

Turns out, with a bit of wiggling around you can fit a GT15 flange onto a TD04 flange, even when the whole flange came out roughly 10 percent too small. 

Drilling 10mm stainless steel, which has already work-hardened due to welding, is no fun though.

Not perfect, but it seals up good enough and it meant reusing some older headers. 

Fitted to the bike. It's just incredible, how much smaller the GT15 is compared to the T3 that was on there before. 

Next up on the list is to build a new 2in1-inlet-manifold and make an exhaust-flange from some stainless plate. As this is a bit of a side project, please be patient, this will take the backseat more than once against other projects like building the new everyday TR1 engine.

The Turbo TR1 - maintenance

Judging by backlog, the last time I worked on the Turbo TR1 was in January over a year ago.
As I admittedly have plans of making this work again this year and also have a rather nice (in my book at least) idea on how to tackle the boost-crisis, it wasn't out of place to do some maintenance.

So that's what the brake fluid looked like when it came out. Mind you, this bike hasn't been driven a single mile in 2017.

This is actually Everyday TR1's brake pump (as identifiable by the mirror), so did those brakes too. Oh and while I was at it, found out that the old brakepump on the Turbo is on its last legs, so a "new one" (14mm) has been ordered.

While I was at it, I also (finally) fitted a left over lower clutch cable cover and some new (to me) solid handle-bar holders as the bar-mount rubbers are well past it.

So what's hot and cooking for this old girl?

That's a Volkswagen-branded Eaton M24 out of a 1.4TSI Polo. Now I hear you say, 24? that means it will only displace 24ci per revolution, doesn't that mean you're going to spin the living cr*p out of it? Well, you see that snout? It's got 1.93:1 step up gears on it, essentially turning it into a blower that displaces 46,3 ci per revolution. Why put that in, instead of the M45, I used to have? Simple packaging really. The M45 just wouldn't fit in between the front of the engine and the frontwheel.

Excited? Me too.