[Diy_efi] Air fuel meters

James Seabolt turbofiat
Sat Apr 16 00:27:59 UTC 2005


At 03:46 PM 4/14/05, you wrote:

>Saab and Volvo have more recently been of the "low
>boost/quick spool" mentality, where they use fairly
>low boost settings with fairly high compression ratios
>to get slightly more performance out of smaller
>engines without having to increase displacement, or
>deal with the drawbacks of a low compresion/high boost
>setup in terms of off-idle drivability and turbo lag.
>Most of their turbo cars over the past several decades
>have "felt" very much like normally-aspirated vehicles
>when driven.


While my Subaru Baja was getting it's 3500 mile checkup, I asked the 
salesperson if I could test drive a WRX turbo. At 227HP I figured this 
thing would smoke the tires between shifts.

I really wasn't that impressed with it. I think the car is geared way to 
high. Seems like the engine didn't redline in 1st gear until I hit 40 mph. 
I just didn't feel the torque I expected.
The car had no boost guage on it so I actually opened the hood to see if it 
actually had a turbo.

I test drove an 88 Saab 900 turbo and really wasn't all that impressed with 
it either. It had nearly 100,000 miles on the engine and was making boost 
but just didn't have the kick I expected.

It wasn't until I rode in a 1982 Renault Feugo. This guy reduced the C/R so 
low the engine had incredible turbolag but once the turbo started to spin 
it was hang on. So that inspired me to build my system.

Most of the turbocharged cars I've riden in that really kicked A$$ were 
homebuilt systems built in people's garages and designed by do it yourselfers.

My Fiat Spider I turbocharged on the other hand is really geared too low 
(4.1:1 final drive) for a turbo. I can pull out in 2nd gear on flat ground 
and not even shutter the clutch.

So low I can't build up any boost in 1st gear and only some in 2nd. 3rd-5th 
is where I really feel the torque. But that's the way I like it.

Some people might be turned off by this car's characteries in the lower 
gears. Maybe that is why automakers build turbocharged cars that spool up 
so quick in 1st gear even though they are sacrificing allot of power just 
for the sake of saying we built a car with no turbo lag.

Maybe another reason why automakers engineer these cars the way they do is 
so they are bulletproof and this takes away from allot of the torque. Or 
they engineer them for high horsepower but not that much torque. Since 
automakers always advertise HP not torque. Unless your talking about 
pickups. Then the talk about torque.










James Seabolt
Tennessee, United States
Homepage --->>> http://users.chartertn.net/jseabolt/

2003 Subaru Baja
1980 FIAT 2000 "turbo" Spider
1968 Ford Fairlane 500 (Not a Ford Galaxie!!)
1987 Yugo GV 1500cc also turbocharged









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