Maximum Boost: Designing, Testing and Installing Turbocharging Systems
If you are looking for a complete, easy-to-use, hands-on book covering automotive turbocharging systems, Maximum Boost by Bentley, is the one you'll want to have.
Maximum Boost provides the most detailed info available on the design, modification, setup and testing of car turbo systems. It will show you what works and what doesn't. Which one will allow you to extract the most horsepower out of your engine. And which turbo system is right for your needs.
You will learn:
How to select a turbocharger
How to install a turbo system in your vehicle
How to prep the engine
Sizing a turbo
How to test a turbo system
How to integrate a turbo with an EFI system or carburetor
What's intercooling
How to troubleshoot a turbo system
Info on OEM and aftermarket turbos
Fuel system tweaks
Exhaust system design
Designing and installing your own custom turbo system
Book Excerpt: Maximum Boost: Designing, Testing and Installing Turbocharging Systems
INSTALLING A TURBO KIT
It is profoundly unnecessary to know anything about the science and engineering of turbocharging to competently install a well-designed aftermarket turbocharger system.
The installer need only be a competent hobbyist mechanic. The experience level is about equivalent to that of changing a clutch or removing and replacing an intake manifold.
A German proverb clearly states the problem of accomplishing such a job: "The devil is in the details."
To illustrate the accuracy of this proverb, it is easy to imagine that most people could install an exhaust manifold correctly.
Yet a simple air hose not properly attached to a fuel pressure regulator can keep an otherwise faultless system from functioning correctly.
Therefore, thoughts about one's competence to install such things should center around how conscientiously one can do the details.
This chapter is a walk-through of the installation of an aftermarket turbo system into a Mazda Miata. The vehicle is stock. The system carries the CARB EO number D-349.
Follow the instructions faithfully. When a system has a street-legal exemption order, it is absolutely necessary to follow instructions to the letter to maintain the legal status. Furthermore, the installer should presume the designer knew what he was doing.
There is some logic to the process. Read the instructions and make notes of questions, if any, to pose to the kit maker. It is both easy and natural for instruction writers to gloss over many points of the installation, since they know all the pieces and processes intimately.
Service is supposed to begin after the sale. You purchased a kit in good faith and were told that with modest ability, you could properly install it. You will likely need many points of the instructions addressed before and during the installation.
It is entirely fair to require the kit maker to give you guidance on the procedure where necessary. Clearly, this form of feedback also improves the writer's ability to create proper instructions.
Familiarize yourself with the parts of the system. Learn the name the writer has given each part. Inventory the parts with respect to the packing list, to be certain all items were included. Call the manufacturer for shortages at the earliest opportunity.
No kit maker should be shipping parts less than spotlessly clean. However, it is a serious error to assume they are clean and ready to install. Any installer worth at least his weight in salt will insure that every part is perfectly clean.
TABLE of CONTENTS:
An Engineering Look at the Basics
Acquiring a Turbocharged Vehicle
Selecting The Turbocharger
Turbocharger Lubrication
Intercooling
Intake Manifold
Electronic Fuel Injection
Carburetion
Events in the Chamber
Exhaust Manifold Design
Exhaust Systems
Boost Controls
Preparing the Engine
Testing the System
Trouble
Developments in Turbocharging
Bringing it All Together
Installing a Turbo Kit
Whether you're interested in better performance on the road or extra horsepower at the racetrack. Maximum Boost provides the information to get the most out of your engine and its turbo system.
