Ten Tech Tips

Squires Turbo Systems (www.ststurbo.com) in the US has a very interesting “remote mount” turbocharging approach, where they mount the turbo in the position of the factory rear muffler. This approach is said to eliminate under-bonnet heat issues associated with normal aftermarket turbo installations and requires less modification to fit. While the STS kits are for US-market vehicles only, the idea of remote mounting should awaken some interest in local home tinkerers. Got a naturally aspirated car that needs some more torque? Well, grab yourself a suitably sized turbo and start developing a new exhaust system, induction passages and a stand-alone lubrication system. Depending on the construction of the factory exhaust manifold(s), you might be able to get away without fabricating an expensive custom turbo manifold. It’s worth a look.

Intercoolers are so cheap these days there’s no excuse for not having a good one. But all too often people overlook the importance of decent intercooler plumbing. Mild steel and stainless plumbing are the most common approaches for plumbing but what about using copper pipes? Various copper bends are available off-the-shelf in diameters from 40 to 100mm – and all at a modest price. The copper pipe won’t corrode, is relatively easy to work with and helps conduct charge-air heat to the atmosphere (which can be an advantage on the path to the intercooler).

For more see Copper Intercooler Plumbing

Looking for a special cosmetic touch for your car without adding a kilogram of fiberglass? Well, a trick little job is converting from conventional filament bulb brake lights to high intensity LEDs. To perform the swap you’ll need high output LEDs, each with a resistor for current limiting.

See Hi-Po LED Brakelight Upgrades for details. The LED brake lights look far better than filament bulbs plus with their very quick illumination time, improve safety.

Second-hand windscreen washer pumps are commonly used in home-made intercooler water spray systems. The water pressure and flow varies from pump to pump, but for maximum possible performance, you should be on the lookout for a headlight washer pump. These generate around double the pressure of a typical windscreen pump. (See IC Spray Pump Test - Part One for our spray pump test.) However, AutoSpeed reader Bas van Elten has suggested that these headlight washer pumps will eventually leak and break down when used in an intercooler spray application. Instead, he runs a pair of windscreen washer pumps plumbed in series for maximum pressure with reliability. A great idea!

When it comes to boost pressure control, most people think you’ve gotta get boost up as quickly as possible and keep it there. This is true for certain applications, but in real-world driving and on the circuit a more sophisticated approach is to vary boost pressure with engine load – as done by Silicon Chip’s Independent Electronic Boost Control (IEBC). With this approach, you receive boost pressure that’s proportional to throttle position (because throttle position is proportional to load). This gives progression to the engine’s torque delivery and much improved vehicle control. See The Independent Electronic Boost Control, Part 1 for more.

When you add an amplifier, intercooler water spray or electric cooling fan, you’ll need a fuse to protect the circuit. In-line fuse holders are available at your local auto parts store but a neater option is to use an OE fuse box (as arrowed here). Second-hand fuse boxes are available from wreckers for just a few bucks. Wherever possible we suggest looking through a ‘self serve’ wrecker to find the fuse box that’s best suited for the application. You might also be ale to scrounge some split convoluted tubing for an entirely stealth installation.

It’s a good idea to pay close attention to your engine’s spark plug leads. Ensure that plug leads are kept a generous distance away from hot header pipes – you don’t want to melt the insulation or ruin the lead’s performance. And be wary of aftermarket plug leads that are longer than their OE counterparts. The excess lead length can catch on moving under-bonnet components with spectacular results – we recently had a throttle jam wide-open thanks to a stray plug lead!

If you’re interested in handling, it pays to perform a routine inspection of your car’s tyres. Irregular tread wear patterns are a great indication of the car’s handling balance (or handling imbalance, as the case may be). This photo shows the front passenger tyre on a hard-driven Subaru WRX. Notice the huge amount of wear on the outer edge of the tyre – a sure pointer that the car has been understeering in a big way. When tuning your suspension set-up, the aim is to achieve even wear across the tread of each tyre – this means the car is neutrally balanced.

An interior enhancement needn’t cost the earth. This modified Toyota Camry interior shows what can be done with clever use of leather (applied sparingly to seats and glovebox cover), colour-coding the steering wheel and tackling the factory plastic trim pieces with spray paint. Be prepared to give the spray paint a regular touch-up (some paint wear can be seen here near the ignition switch) but it’s certainly a lot cheaper than alterative approaches. Oh, and you don’t need to go all-out with the spray paint if you don’t want to – small splashes of colour can be equally effective.

It seems people just love to display their mods – no matter what the consequences are from a theft and legal point of view. Programmable management handsets are the case in point. Let’s face it people, there shouldn’t be any need to adjust the mixtures or ignition timing once the engine has been tuned. So why have the handset on permanent display for everyone to see? You’re just asking for trouble.