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Screen door spring together with the Vac control for BOOST!

Crankme69

Crankme69

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Today I unplugged what I hope to be the fuel heater for my 6.5 in an attempt to determine what is blowing my 20 amp IGN A fuse. This fuse powers the vac solenoid, GP controller, along with the fuel heater & water in fuel sensor from what I have been told and researched. Thanks Barry!!!

In a pinch with NO boost I slipped a screen door spring over the end of my boost rod where it attaches to the wastegate arm on the turbo. This gave me about 3lbs boost at 70mph & about 8lbs at WOT. Not great but better then nuttin when yr 650 miles from home on a fishing trip. We had to remember to pull the cabin screen door shut but that was no biggie LOL!

Well today I unhooked the fuel heater at the filter manager to further trouble shoot the problem with the 20 amp fuse blowing. I then was going to unhook the spring and thought why not just leave it on there until I can confirm what is blowing the fuse...and run the vac control along with the spring?

Well I took the ole girl for a short ride & promptly placed the go pedal to the floor WOT & to my surprise the boost jumped to about 15lbs and then quickly leveled back off at 12lbs with my HOE made spring assist along with the vac control & my custom chip! NO smoke what so ever & this thing has never run like this before.

I am amazed at the reaction I got from assisting that vac boost control with a cheesy little screen door spring...WOW!

Kinda thinking like I might leave it like this...what say you? Nice knowing that I can have the vac control for accuracy along with the spring for security. This seems like the best of both worlds to me, maybe I should patten this LOL!!!

TIA :rof:
 
It would keep the vac system from dumping all boost when you need it. If peak boost is too high a weaker spring might work.
 
:nopics::hihi: Probbly top secret. Waiting for copyrights.:D
 
Crankme69 said:
I was gonna post a pic but can't find me dang camera...
Click to expand...

Ok had to use the Ms phone, here a couple of pics

The end of the spring the loop that you can not see is slide over the end of the boost rod where it attaches to the the wastegate arm on the turbo, sorry I would have to pull the air box to get that view.
homadeTM top.jpg


homadeTM front.jpg

As you can see now the spring is about 8" long and I really did remove it from the old wooden screen door off the front of the cabin. It is just looped under the round air inlet of the turbo where the AC attaches & then the eyelet is locked on the furthest clamp where the rubber hose attaches the turbo discharge into the upper intake.

Far from professional but it was quite effective...
 
That kinda how mine is set up right now. I was not happy at all with the Kennedy tunes ability to control the boost. He told me it would hold 15 psi but I never saw it over 10 psi. I put a spring on it just screwing arround with the vac line disconnected and got arround 10psi so then I hooked the vac system back up and bam it was the perfect combo no more constant pouring black smoke.
 
I hate to say this, but how about a comment or two regarding all the past thoughts and comments to us TM supporters... seems to me I heard we were all wrong, and vacuum wastegate control was far better - if only we were smart enough to have the right chip... or something like that.

LOL, Crankme... Sorry, I just couldn't help myself. I'd tell you that I hate saying 'I told ya so', but that would be a lie. :D

I really AM glad you got 'er done and got home OK... innovation, persistence, and talking things out / sharing with this community of learners is what makes it all go around!
 
Are you sure it's the IGN A fuse that is blowing? My diagrams are for the SUB, but they show the IGN A to be a maxi fuse that is supposed to be 40 amps and feeds one of the bus bars inside the fuse panel.
 
U B Right!

JiFaire said:
I hate to say this, but how about a comment or two regarding all the past thoughts and comments to us TM supporters... seems to me I heard we were all wrong, and vacuum wastegate control was far better - if only we were smart enough to have the right chip... or something like that.

LOL, Crankme... Sorry, I just couldn't help myself. I'd tell you that I hate saying 'I told ya so', but that would be a lie. :D

I really AM glad you got 'er done and got home OK... innovation, persistence, and talking things out / sharing with this community of learners is what makes it all go around!
Click to expand...

You be right, got me & no arguement here, many here have every right to say I told you so...:agreed:

Here is a little more feed back link from my other post also...:eek:

http://www.thetruckstop.us/forum/showthread.php?24638-Fishing-trip-not-without-issues...&p=298522&viewfull=1#post298522
 
THEFERMANATOR said:
Are you sure it's the IGN A fuse that is blowing? My diagrams are for the SUB, but they show the IGN A to be a maxi fuse that is supposed to be 40 amps and feeds one of the bus bars inside the fuse panel.
Click to expand...

I could be calling it the wrong name? The fuse is a 20amp that supplies power to the GP controller, the SOL's for the boost & EGR along with the fuel heater & H2O sensor in the fuel manager. Sorry if I got the name wrong...I'll take a peak under the hood if I get a chance at lunch time today.
 
Hmm JiFaire, how this experience proves anything about a TM performance I dont know, since it worked with a screen door spring, but not as good, and it worked better with both. Unless you knew how the PCM was programmed you cant say whether or not it was working as designed, or as intended. A spring makes it easy to get more boost, if thats what people are after it can be programmed in as well. Granted, having something unrelated take out your solenoid power is unforseen and not possible with something mechanical, that is not one of the factors in what I would call performance.
 
Ok little more feedback with operating with both spring & vac boost control.

I reduced some tension today on the spring, because the boost was spiking at 15lbs under WOT then leveling back off at 12 or so...under light/moderate acceleration entering the expressway this setup was hitting 10lbs at 22~2300 rpms and motor truck felt extremely efficient no smoke and way more responsive then vac control only. My current tune I'm running is for economy so the boost was intentionally kept on the light side. With the spring helping things along...the additional boost seemed to really take advantage of all the fuel being delivered, light pedal would provide a very nice pull under normal driving conditions.

After I reduced the spring tension a little the boost would spike to 12lbs but under the same moderate acceleration on the expressway the motor did not pull as well. I like the 12lbs max better then the 15lbs spikes at WOT, my motor is just about to click up 212K on the clock & that 15lbs spike makes me :eek: SKEERD! I really do not want to blow a head gasket. The EGT's have come down at WOT & cruise with the additional boost, no surprise there.

I will be loading a new 3 position chip soon, so the spring will get removed and placed in the emergency kit along with my spare PMD and other miscellaneous tools & parts, just fooling around some & having fun :)

Just wanted to share my experiences!

B/r 69
 
If you really want to know what's going on, remove the vac line from the pot and see if it still behaves the same.

I would suspect if you're seeing higher boost than with the vac system only, you've taken the vac system "out of the loop" with spring pressure and have essentially installed a home made TM.

After all, the TM is nothing more than a spring which holds the gate shut until it is overcome by pressure....which is what you have with the screen door spring....
 
Hmm well I ran it home 650 miles or there abouts with only the spring...so me thinks I got a pretty good idea of how it acts with the spring only...maybe I didn't explain it that well?

On the trip home spring only 7~8lbs boost at WOT & about 3~5lbs boost depending load at 75mph with cruise on.
 
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Crankme, I'm really curious about your fuel mileage... have you run through a tank under normal driving conditions, yet?

One of the myths that keeps arising is that having a TM (or higher running boost) kills your fuel mileage, and yet myself (and several others) report that our mileage increased with a TM (both empty and pulling trailer).

I'm curious how yours fares, since you are running a chip that is programmed properly?
 
Thanks! - PS; glad you found the problem in the FFM! You done some good diagnosing there, amigo!
 
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