Don,
I have been following this for a while, the setup on your converter and turbo is wrong, your using the nitrous to band aid that. You have a 2000$ converter that isnt capable of doing what a 1000$ converter will do. There is no need to have a turbo that big on your car, your fighting a losing battle.I know because I ran a T5 94 on my car with my Neil Chance for 3 years!!! I ran 8 teens with my T4 91/PTC pro tree ready. So my question is why Money ? the converter is half the price, and no expense on the nitrous. Real world is whats been DONE!!! I wish you all the best (honestly)
I don't know what the rest of your combination is, but if it's anything close to being similar to mine, I would have to agree that trying to spool a T5 94 with a N/C T/C without nitrous is plain nuts.
If you've been following my trek for some while, like you stated, then I think you've missed something very important early on about my original goals with this project. That could be my fault. Maybe I never did clearly state it.
There was never any intention of not using nitrous on this car. Nitrous and alcohol were the first criteria put on the original project specifications list. One of the major questions put to this project that I wanted to answer was,
What would the use of nitrous oxide injection allow me to do to increase top end efficiencies with the engine and drivetrain?
It's well known that compromises have to be made inorder to have a quick spooling combination. No matter how slight they may be, there are compromises.
If I simply wanted to go fast and do it as simply as possible, I would not have done it this way. I would have built a big cubed BBC, put a big carb and a simple ignition system on it, and ran it on gasoline. Sure I would have been going fast much sooner than now, but I would also be extremely bored. As I stated previously, I'm a tinkerer. I love the problem solving that I have to go through making this combination work. On top of that, I'm learning so much about the interactions of all these different systems. Some people just want to drive a fast race car, be able to put it away at the end of the day and forget about it until the next race day. THAT IS NOT ME. I'm more like the crew chief that is tinkering with different systems of the car looking for something that will make the car more efficient and hopefully faster. That type of person is not looking at what other people are doing and copying them. He's experimenting with new ideas to see if there's anything worthwhile to learn from it. It's like an inventor that may go through 1,000s of designs that are complete failures, yet one day he may come across the one idea that works or at the least teaches him something useful that he can carry on to his next venture.
Another one of the kicks I'm getting out of this project is exploring the unpopular theories related to turbocharged engines. Mainly pressure pulse tuning. Another theory that's believed not to go together well with quick spooling.
Do I think that maybe I've just been wasting my time? Heck no. I love to learn from doing. This car has taught me so much.
It's taught me the limits of burning alcohol fuel.
It's taught me how to tune alcohol.
It's taught me how accurate computer simulations can be.
It's taught me how to use nitrous oxide.
It's taught me a ton on fuel mapping development.
It's taught me that you can tune a modern fuel injection system to within 1% without a dyno. Remember the old carb tuning days without dynos?
It's taught me how quickly you can spool a turbo on nitrous.
It's taught me that you don't have to use a high stall T/C to get a good 60 foot.
It's taught me that pressure pulse tuning with a turbo engine is not something to ignore.
It's taught me that you don't always need the killer heads to match performance.
It's taught me that cam specs can be used to make up for deficiencies of the heads.
It's taught me how the lower thermal loads put on the engine with alcohol fuel allows header piping to last longer, even when wrapped. No need to use 321 grade stainless.
It's taught me how to maintain an engine that's run with alcohol.
It's taught me that blowing up an engine with nitrous is the least of the worries when the system is setup properly.
It's taught me how resistant people are to the idea of using nitrous with turbocharging. In the Buick community anyway.
And so much more.
I think many people don't realize or they just forget real quick the successes I've had with this project. Progress with this project has always moved forward and improved. It may have been at a snails pace at times. My resources are limited. But, the car has never ceased to amaze me.
Probably what I like most about this project is, it's still teaching me things. New and different things.