I been readin and learnin bout turbos lately, and some things i still dont understand.
1.The wastegate, i understand what it does, i dont understand the whole internal/external wastegate thing, and does the exhaust coming out of the wastegate run thru a pipe back into the exhaust system or just go off into air. And then theres another pipe running off the turbo back into the exhaust system right?
2.Ive also seen intercoolers that just have one pipe going into them from one side?
3. The BOV, which goes off in between shifts, what is it doing?
4. Is aftermarket turbo CA smog legal?

I know i got some questions that may be dumb to some of you guys but i figure the forum is a good place for me to learn from some people who know alot about it. So Thanks.


Modified by wish4RWD at 5:33 AM 7/1/2003


Modified by wish4RWD at 5:33 AM 7/1/2003


Modified by wish4RWD at 5:34 AM 7/1/2003

 

A turbo works like this. It has two turbines connected together, the exhaust turbine & the compressor turbine. Your exhaust gasses coming into the exhaust mani spins the ex turbine. The exhaust spins it, & goes down the down pipe in to your tailpipe. When the exhaust turbine spins, the compressor turbine spins at the same speed, which sucks clean air in, & blows it under pressure into your throttle body....more air, means you can have more fuel, bigger bang, more power.

The exhaust spins the turbo very fast, fast enough to create 10-15-20-25 psi boost depending on how big yer engine is, & how big yer turbo is, & how hard you're stomping on the gas. You can't run 20 psi, with out blowing your engine up. The waste gate is basically a spring loaded door, that bleeds off extra exhaust pressure. Is located before the exhaust turbine. It can be built into the turbo, or attached to the manifold. Setting the wastegate spring, determines how much boost your car runs. Set at 8 psi, whenever the pressure in the exhaust manifold b4 the turbo builds up to higher than 8psi, it pushes the springloaded door open & the extra, "waste", exhaust blows out. Internal wastegates route the "waste" exhaust into the downpipe. Some people with external high-end waste-gates, route the waste exhaust into the tail pipe, some don't. If you don't, your car sounds like it has a loud exhaust leak, whenever the WG opens.

Intercooler cools the compressed air. It has to have an inlet coming from the turbo & an outlet going to the throttle body. Turbo compresses the air....this heats it up. Turbo is really freaking hot from having hot exhaust blown thru it. This also heats the air. The intercooler cools this compressed air. The most common type of intercooler is air-to-air. Compressed air goes into intercooler, where it is routed thru a bunch of thin fin-shaped aluminum tubes, which gives alot of surface area of really heat conductive material, to dissipitate the heat from the charged air. The intercooler works best if it has cold wind blowing thru it's fins. The cooler air then continues to the throttle bady.


The blow-off valve. You have yer foot pinned on the gas, turbo boost thru yer charge pipes. You take your foot of the gas to shift....the intake valves shut...that 8psi in your charge pipes can't go into the engine, so it goes backward, trying to spin the turbo backward. Potentially damaging to the turbo, & slowing the turbos spin down, so that when you slam on the gas again, you have to spin it back up again= turbo lag.

You should by the book "Maximum Boost". I had been lurking on honda-tech for months, but reading this book helped me understand the fundamentals.

 

the only smog legal CA kits i believe are Greddy and the new JG Edelbrock(only make the d16y8 kit) all else isn't "smog lega" but honestly it is so easy to remove your turbo/ manifold and just toss on your stock headers to get smogged..

 

Thanks for the answers guys, especially wagon for that long description. Helps alot.