Someone *please* tell me I'm not seeing that I think I'm seeing

Today marked the beginning of the "final push" to get the Talon running OK. As in, if I haven't sorted out the majority of issues by Monday I'll throw the towel, eat my losses and try to buy a working car for a change.

Anyway the Talon assumed the DSM position quickly:

I must say that I do like these newly acquired ramps, finally I don't get claustrophobic under the front end of the car. Today's plan was to formulate a plan of attack and fit a better engine temperature gauge as the OEM one is a little on the useless side. Of course that didn't quite work out yet as I have to sort out a couple of wiring issues to the existing aftermarket gauges first.

While measuring to get an idea how much sheet metal I'd need, I also had a good poke around the engine bay and this caught my eye:

Someone please tell me that the little lever in the middle of the picture is not the lever that would move turbo's internal wastegate flap if it hadn't been welded to the exhaust turbine housing...

Seems like a reasonable assumption. Does it have some sort of aftermarket external wastegate/blowoff valve thingy?

It'll make lots of boost with that stuck shut, but maybe not for long...

Yeah, that thing in the right top corner is the mount for the massive external Tial wastegate with its attached screamer pipe. The mount's been welded to the front of the exhaust manifold.

One of the nice things about the position of the external wastegate is that it also prevents me from mounting a decent sized second fan to the radiator . I could get the need for an external wastegate if the turbo didn't have an internal one but closing off the existing one and use up a lot of non-existing space in the engine bay this way doesn't sound like a brilliant idea to me.

OT, but where did you get those ramps? I'm still slumming it with Rhino Ramps and scrap planks. The RX-7 goes up the ramps alone just fine, but the Mazdaspeed3 is about 3mm too low. It always makes me cringe when I hear the boards get shot out from underneath the front wheels.

They're Race Ramps - got them from Amazon. It's the first time I've used them and so far, I'm pretty impressed.

I'll have to see if I can get them under the 'vette as well, that was the main reason for purchasing this particular model.

Amazon said: Race Ramps RR-XT-2 67" XT Race Ramp - 2 Piece Price: $334.00

Well, those boards usually just hit the back tires, so no harm done...

Heh. I guess I could have warned you...

There only seem to be cheap ramps out there or ramps that go under low cars properly that cost a lot of money. Oh, and these things are made in the US, if that matters to you.

BoxheadTim wrote: I could get the need for an external wastegate if the turbo didn't have an internal one but closing off the existing one and use up a lot of non-existing space in the engine bay this way doesn't sound like a brilliant idea to me.

Internal wastegates don't really like greatly increased boost pressures. Anything from exhaust pressures blowing the WG flapper open, boost creep due to too small of a WG and strange boost loss/gains can happen. I am fighting this right now with a volvo turbo thats internal wastegate is designed to hold 5psi and I am running 18. Welding shut the internal and installing an external is one of the first things a lot of tuners do when cranking up the boost. I am having to resort to it myself

The turbo is supposedly a fairly substantial upgrade over the standard 14g that flows a lot more air without running stupid amounts of boost (currently it's running about 15psi) and even something like the Evo-3 spec 16g that is supposedly good for about 300-350hp still has an internal wastegate.

OTOH I have this nagging suspicion that the turbo might "of comparable spec" to a fairly well known aftermarket turbo for DSMs as the manufacturer's plate is conspicuously absent. Not to mention that the spec of the turbo is a little too much for the rest of the fuel system and potentially engine.

All in all there might be a good reason for running an external wastegate (and the one on the car is of high quality) but it's causing massive packaging problems at the moment.

Internal wastegates are fine, and operate the same way an external does. The only inherent 'problem' with internal gates is that it is not easy to vastly increase their flow (compared to installing external gate anyway).

Internal gates dont give you 'weird up/down boost'. Not knowing how to diagnose 'weird' boost issues might make someone extrapolate their confusion into a vast generalization, though.