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LH injected and turboed Waterboxer

Posted: Fri May 14, 2010 9:54 pm
by Joe vw
I haven't updated my vanagon 2.1 turbo project in a while. I have been sidetracked by my wasser cooling conversion which is still to be installed into my buggy.
Well now I'm back on the vanagon project due to neccesity. This is the before picture:
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http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d88/J ... xer042.jpg
New pictures will follow soon.
I had originally planned on using my megasquirt injection due to the extreem poor milage I was getting from the blowthrough carb. Unable to controll the cruise mixture and the low mounted turbo oil return issue caused me to park it for a while.
Then the solution came unexpectedly when I was offered any parts I wanted from a 88 Volvo 740 turbo wagen (overheated) for free.

My Vanagon 2.1 now runs the whole engine management and turbo from this Volvo.
It's a perfect match! Honestly no tuning other than setting the Idle mixture is required.
The system is LH Jetronic 2.2 and EZL ignition timing and knock sensing (2 separate units).
Driving with my wideband shows an avarage sweep of 14.7 all the time while just cruising and as rich as 11.5 at full boost. I am running a rising rate fuel regulator and am considering installing the stock Volvo fuel regulator. system pressure is 44 psi so the vanagon reg is no good.
Drivability is excellent and with the stock boost setting power is more than enough for my driver. A guesstimate of 150-180 hp with no intercooler and no ping.
A hill nearby that would top out the stock vanagon at 60mph will now push past 90mph without a problem. Yes, there is more in it but this is a daily driver and my clutch is standing on the edge. There are simple upgrades for this system that allow up to 16lbs of boost I read about on the Turbobricks Volvo forum.
The hardest part of this addition was removing the integrated injection harness from the volvo and reassembling it according to the wiring diagram I found on the net. Not that hard, just time consuming labeling and splicing wires
Heres the best part: the distributor plugs right in and the timing range is very similar to the stock wasserboxers. The coolent sensor terminal plugs right in. The stock throttlebody and micro switch work after you grind off the full throttle switch cam and replace the connector on the harness with a 2 terminal socket such as an injector connector. The Vovo throttle switch has 3 terminals but only 2 are used for idle
The Idle valve is an easy swap. And the LH airmass sensor is round an small enough to easily mount. Other componants are the ignition module (looks like one from a 1.9 wasser) the fuelpump relay and radio supression relay.
Well that's it for now, as I said I will post pics soon.

Re: LH injected and turboed Waterboxer

Posted: Sat May 15, 2010 2:10 am
by fastback
cool :)
thx for sharing.
did you adapt the knock sensing to the WBX, if so where did u fit it?
how many HP is this setup capable of? ~ 200hp??

Re: LH injected and turboed Waterboxer

Posted: Sat May 15, 2010 6:40 am
by Joe vw
I tapped and 8mm helicoiled one of the 10mm holes where the ac compressor bracket mounts between 3 and 4 on the water jacket. The surface is machined flat there. There is no A/C fom a previous engine fire.
Someone on the Turbobricks forum makes a Knock sensor warning Light adapter for around $60.
I have yet to hear any signs of pinging even under long uphill loads.
200 hp would be easy with this setup intercooled and more boost. I don't even have a boost guage hooked up but read the boost is 5 or 6 lbs. I would intercool if I ever go any higher.

Re: LH injected and turboed Waterboxer

Posted: Sat May 15, 2010 8:05 am
by tencentlife
Very cool, joe. So did you put back the stock wbx intake plenum and runners, and the Volvo injectors just mount in the same places? I assume you need higher-flow injectors, no?

Do you have the wideband feeding back into the lambda line or are you just using it to monitor?

I'm really interested to see if a knock sensor generates any signal, keep us posted if you add that warning monitor. This seems like something that's so particular to a given engine, having the sensor tuned to the knock frequencies exactly where the sensor is mounted on that crankcase. The kind of thing that takes either targeted R&D or extensive trail and error. I'm really curious to see what you learn about that.

Re: LH injected and turboed Waterboxer

Posted: Sat May 15, 2010 6:46 pm
by Joe vw
update:
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I finally got a boost guage hooked up and was surprised to see 9lbs of boost :oops:
Oh well, it doesn't ping, must have increased when I remounted the wastegate actuator.
I meant to do some knock testing, just to verify it's working. The sensor is mounted just below the head between the middle 2 cylinders very similar to where I have it between 3 and 4.
Volvos are known for being noisey in the valvetrain area and some on their forums refer to them as tractor engines.
The injectors are the stock Volvo units rated at 29lbs low impedience. I modified them to install on the stock wasser manifold. I swapped the plastic injector nozzel tips for the stock vanagon ones and cut the platic o-ring holders off the inlet side of the injectors then machined barbs on the raised rings that are present using a metal lathe. This may sound sketchey but I read about it somewhere, tried it and it works great. I have done this to replace stock wasser injectors with similar late model ones from the J-yard for next to nothing.
I am using my Wideband side by side the stock sensor.

Re: LH injected and turboed Waterboxer

Posted: Sat May 15, 2010 6:49 pm
by Joe vw
Tomarrow I am doing some tidying like mounting the controll units and some harness cover.
Also, the EZL unit retards the timing up to 9 degrees under boost calculated by the mass of air from the LH unit. Knock is in addition to the boost retard and is a safety backup.
One thing I was surprised at was the lack of a map sensor or throttle position sensor.
The 3 main inputs are distributor (obvious), airmass and coolent temp.
Throttle switch is mainly for idle controll.

Re: LH injected and turboed Waterboxer

Posted: Wed Oct 14, 2015 11:46 pm
by tga
Does all 4 exhaust pipes go into the turbo?