Safari Turbo/Megasquirt Fuel Injection Project

[Clonebug]

Mileage 86,680

I've been a little busy working 13.5 hr days since I got back from the Vintage Meet and didn't have the time or energy to post all week due to leaving the house at 4:45 am and not getting home again till almost 7:00 pm most days......

I had the whole day off so I headed out about 12:20 pm after stopping to see the Wife at work and drove about 50 miles where I stopped for a bite to eat and a beverage. The Buggy seemed to pull the trailer with ease although it took a little more throttle load to keep the speed on the hills at 60-65 mph. I kept the speeds down a little due to the trailer law that states no fast lane travel and speed limit of 60 mph.

I pulled into the BurgerMaster at about 3:00 pm and it was already half full by that time......backed into a shaded parking spot and unhooked the trailer to keep from sticking out too far. I then parked my butt in my chair until the spot next to me opened up and I promptly moved my buggy into it. I think a butt hurt a couple people by taking up two spots but I just told them to talk to the Bus guys that were holding up a spot next to their bus with six chairs...besides....I needed it for Mario and Travis"s sharp 70 Bug to park next to me.......



Here is Travis's very nice EFI bug......probably the cleanest engine compartment on any aircooled or other car........it's a beauty.....



Forgot to get an engine pic at the Berger Meet so here is one from the Vintage Meet the next day.......washed out pic from the sun....sorry...



I stayed there until 8:30 pm and when I left I just had to give them my usual 2nd gear scratch.....pulling the trailer.....


I took the Buggy and trailer and ended up staying at Wythac's place which is just a couple miles from BurgerMaster on Friday night.
Thanks to him for a nice spot to camp to the night...saved me 200 miles of driving late at night and early in the morning.....this way I had time to go for breakfast and still get to Vintage by 7:30 am...



Vintage Meet was pretty well packed and with the track area full all the way around with a swap meet.

It was pretty warm but I had some shade there till about 1:00 pm.

Some pics of the show...









It was a pretty good day and I had a good time.....

[andy198712]

come on, what turbos did you buy?

[Clonebug]

VW peeps don't have any turbos for sale.........I never saw even one there........

Carbs, distributors and door handles were in abundance.....most were junk and since I don't use carbs or distributors and have no doors.......

[andy198712]

these guys need to get with the times!!

[Clonebug]

Mileage 87,159

Did my 3000 mile oil change for this driving season so mileage for the year is looking good.

The Wife and I are heading out for our anniversary cruise next week so starting with a fresh oil change is a good thing. I switched to 15-40 wt oil since I see a little low oil pressures at idle when it's hot outside or when I get it pretty warm like climbing steep grades for extended time periods. Both of which We will encounter next week heading over the mountains to Eastern Washington.
We plan on basing out of Ellensburg and do little day trips out to see the country. I'm thinking we should be able to clock on at least a 1000 miles in four days......

Now on to something a little off topic but still aircooled and Fuel injected related.

As you know from before I went to Sturgis with my Brother-in-law in 2015 with his two bikes. This year he went by himself since I couldn't go so he left last Friday afternoon on a power run.
Sunday morning in church my Wife's sister tells us He is in Billings, Montana with a bike issue. So after church I called him to see what was up.
He had a problem in Butte but the Harley dealer drained the gas and replaced it and it seemed to fix the issue....he then went 146 miles and it started missing again.
In Billings the Harley Mechanic told him he had a bad injector on #1 cylinder and wanted to order a new one to the tune of $500.00 installed.......
I told Roger that injectors don't go bad and it was probably a wiring issue. They couldn't order it till Monday and it wouldn't show up till Tuesday and if that wasn't the issue his vacation would be ruined since they would then have to start over on diagnosis.
I then told him to wait and see what we could come up with.
I then asked my wife if she wanted to go on a road trip rescue mission.....So due to some understanding employers on short notice and a borrowed trailer we were off with the spare bike to for him to continue to Sturgis and us to take his black Bike home...

We left at 3:15 pm Sunday and arrived in Billings at 6:10 am our time on Monday morning......He bought us breakfast and then we waited for the Harley Shop to open at 9:00 am to grab the problem bike.
At 10:00 am Roger was on his way to cancel his hotel room on his Blue bike and we were on the road heading home with the Black one.
We drove straight thru till 6:00 pm and decided there was no way we would make it home before midnight so we stopped for the night in Spokane.
There was no hanky panky going on as we were dead to the world at 7:30 pm and sound asleep till 5:00 am.

We stopped for breakfast at 9:00 am in Moses Lake where I called Mario and asked him if he had any FI wire connectors and could he check it for me.
He said yes so we diverted to Highway 2 and stopped in Monroe where Mario and I pulled the tank loose and slid it back far enough to get at the connector.



We then found that a wire seemed broken just above the connector so Mario cut it off and ended up putting a newer style connector on it with his crimping pliers.



Here was the culprit.....



Once we got it all back together we test fired it and it purred like a kitten..

Needless to say thanks to Mario for the short notice repair job and a very reasonable price.

So after 1920 miles we were back home with a fixed bike and a happy brother and sister in law.

[andy198712]

the hanky panky but made me laugh

very nice of you to drive all that way!

[Clonebug]

Mileage at end of trip.. 88,329
Mileage at start of trip. 87,223
Total mileage 1,106

We made it through 4 days of traveling on the east side of the Mountains of Washington for another great Anniversary cruise.
The only tools I carried were a 1/2 inch wrench for my hood bolts, a lug wrench kit and a flashlight.
We covered a lot of country and climbed the Vantage pass at least three times in our travels. 65-75 mph at 0-3 lbs boost will maintain speed on a 6% grade at less than half throttle. It does start to get a little warm when pulling like that but cools down fairly quickly when going on the downside. I can tell by watching my oil pressure. It will go to 22 lbs pressure at 3000 rpm when hotter.

Cruised the Vantage highway a couple times and even stopped at the Wild Horses Wind Farm for a tour of the wind generators. That was pretty cool.

Views on the vantage Highway.



Wind Farm.....





My Favorite Brewery in Ellensburg...



Tried a flight of beers...



Went to the Airfield Winery again and ended up leaving with a Box of Wine......



Some views.....





Stopped at Grand Coulee Dam overlook.....





We traveled through a LOT of desolate country out in the middle of nowhere. I took video of some of the roads and while I think they are beautiful for their scenery they end up being really boring videos of the buggy headlights traveling down the road.

All in all it was a great trip...... I just am thrilled with how the Buggy performs without a worry in the world. It is truly a daily driver as long as the weather cooperates even though it will kick ass on most anything on the road if I feel the need to hammer it.
If I don't feel the need I can easily hit the two "Oh poop" switches on the dash and hold it to 6 lbs boost and be able to go anywhere with plenty of power to climb any hill.
I don't need to pack a bunch of tools along because really there is nothing to break...... the ignition is bullet proof and it seems the MS-2 is too.
What more could you ask for..........

I have now gone 31,000 plus miles with a turbo and have enjoyed it all.

[rubenski]

Verry cool!

[yellow_snocone]

That's an awesome place to be with an older car

[andy198712]

beautiful views!

i don't even have a turbo on my beetle but check this sub forum most days for updates from your travels, keep it up!

[petew]

I hope you did a little drifting on those gravel roads.

[Clonebug]

Well well.......

I just paid my Photobucket for another year and since I had a plus 20 account I get to keep my Hosting status.... All my pics will show till at least the end of August of 2018.....

[Ol'fogasaurus]

Whoof! They want a billion dollars from me to continue to use them.

Art, how close are you to Grizzly Tools.

Lee

[Clonebug]

About 14-15 miles

[Clonebug]

Mileage, 89,275

It's been a long time since my last update....
As you can see from the mileage, I have been putting the miles on throughout the summer and have logged just about 5300 miles for this season.
I started out at 84,003 miles at the beginning so I have gotten good use out of the buggy and above average miles also.
An average year has run between 3500-4500 miles per season with a high of 8500 miles last year due to the trip to California.

This year with my stock heads back on has been a flawless, trouble free drive without any issues whatsoever. There has been no blow by, no oil leaks and no problems for the whole summer.

I have been messing with my tune for the last month when I have time due to a little lean spot on throttle tip in......I tried to tune it out without accel enrich but I am now back to tuning the accel enrich portion and it is getting better and better.
I do have to admit that I have very little time to mess with it since I work long hours all week so the tuning session is a run from work to home if I have a computer along and weather permits.

The last week or so has been cooler due to October coming in so it is an excellent time to test my maximum boost. Of course I myself can not resist so I turned up the boost this week to see what it would do.

I have a new max boost record of 24.3 lbs boost and boy.....does it pull hard!!!!! My IAT's are back down to 130-135 degrees at max boost from 170 degrees during the summer and the engine just loves it.
I am running a max of 70% DC on the 45# injectors and it is pulling the hardest I have ever felt. I can not hear any detonation either with the lower air temps.
Doing the math with these injectors being able to support 360 hp at 100% and 70% DC gives me a fuel burn of 360 X 0.70 = 252 hp at the crank. Considering I run at 11.0:1 AFR with W/I and the alcohol in it at 3.0 gph I am right up there on hp.
My fuel map is quite interesting due to the alcohol pumped in at anything over 9 lbs boost. It really affects the afr and the computer takes out a lot of fuel at full boost to lean it out to compensate for the alcohol.

Here is a pic of my my log at my new max boost......



Granted it was just a short pull and I haven't tried it much again but it seems to be handling it quite well.

I have been working on installing an intercooler and I ordered some parts to make it fit. I think I might be able to get it to work and not look too stupid.
I am waiting for a clocking bracket for the TD04L-13T turbo and already have the silicone connectors for it. Once the bracket arrives I can mount the intercooler and install some supports and then build a new intake. I am going to install a 7 inch diameter fan on the intercooler and wire it into my WI switch with a timer to blow air through the intercooler while on boost and for a preset time afterwards.
If I can get my IAT's down to 110 degrees while on boost I will be just giddy!!!!
As you all know.........cold air is dense air and can hold more fuel.......

If I am lucky I'll be able to get one or two more weeks of driving out of it and during that time I am going to work on my launch control and Flat shift.
I did try the Flat shift once for a total fail but in my defense I have no clue on how to set it up and what parameters to use.
I do have launch control set at 4000 rpm and have used that to show off at work a couple times but only to make the popping noise while on the limiter......I have not dared to launch the clutch with it activated............
I don't really want to blow it up or anything......I have seen 10 lbs boost with the launch control just revving with the clutch in so an actual launch would probably be quite violent!!! Who knows what would happen if I never let off between shifts.........