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Some pictures of my 87 Spider, 2.0 Turbo, 230whp STOCK engine

12K views 31 replies 12 participants last post by  PSk 
#1 ·
I thought I might share a few pics and details on my turbo Spider. Its a 1987 Graduate, furnished with 3/4s of a quadrifoglio body kit. It is powered by its original 2.0L twin cam, which has previously done 112,000 miles and has not been modified. The turbo setup is a custom job fabricated by me, using a Mitsubishi TD05-16G turbo on a SCH40 mild steel log manifold, a Hyundai sonata intercooler, and a Jeep throttle body on a custom intake plenum. The fuel system consists of a Bosch 044 fuel pump, AEM rising rate fuel pressure regulator, 4x 480cc/min primary injectors, and 4x 550cc secondary injectors. The ignition uses GM D585 coils from an LS small block chevy. All this is controlled by a Megasquirt MS3x ECU. It was tuned by me on E85 fuel, running 18.5psi of boost.
As of now, the stock driveline is holding up.
 

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#7 ·
These are turbofan wheel covers, which started out as BBS replicas, that I painted and made the decals for. They were popular on racing cars in the 80's, but were banned by many sanctioning bodies. Their primary function is to cool the brakes, but they serve a secondary aerodynamic function by creating a low pressure zone under the car. While the brake cooling function can't be argued, the aero function is minimal in this case because my spider simply is not low enough to benefit. I just happen to like the way they look.
 

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#8 ·
Yes, boost is controlled electronically by the ECU. I am using throttle position and RPM to modulate the boost via a boost control table in the ECU, which controls a solenoid regulating pressure going into the wastegate. For example, at 5500 RPM and 80% throttle I would only be able to make 12 psi of boost, but at the same RPM and 100% throttle I can make 18psi.
 
#15 ·
Standard cams. The actuator was only to test the VVT on the dyno, it was boost activated at 5psi. Unfortunately the VVT can only advance the cam, not retard it which is what you want, in theory, for a turbo motor. Advancing the cam using the standard setup with the boost actuator made a negligible difference on the dyno. I left it in the fill the space, it is not hooked up anymore.
 
#16 ·
Akaxauto
Nice job. That e85 sure works well on a turbo. You having any trouble with cold start up?
No major issue on startup, slightly longer crank than with gas, but i can dump a lot of fuel on startup with 8 injectors. Might have more of an issue once the cold weather comes.
 
#19 ·
Today I added a NACA duct to my louvred hood, which only gets used for racing, so no need to worry about rain. It feeds the intake tube attached to the inlet side of the turbo. I have a screen there for a bit of protection, filters are overrated anyway /s. I've wanted to build an airbox setup with a filter, but i do not have the time as the car will be shipped to Florida tomorrow for some racing next week. The duct will get painted red to match the hood in the morning.
 

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#26 ·
It was 60 WTQ that was gained running the cam in the retarded position. 2 back to back dyno runs showed the advanced position produced more power @5600RPM so the VVT is deactivated at that RPM. It works seamlessly and of course Jim made the original cam cover look factory VVT!

 
#22 ·
Grabbed some shots yesterday while it got loaded up on the car carrier. The duct looks good all painted up. I removed the turbofans and put them in the trunk to keep them safe during transport. It arrives in Florida on Sunday and I will be there next Friday for my first autocross with it.
 

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#24 ·
Very interesting !!!! Why the dual set of injectors? What have you done to the cylinder head? Custom head gasket? Did you have the exhaust header fabricated? Where did you tie-in the oil pressure line and return line? Is that a water cooled turbo housing? Great job!!!
BTW: do you know where one can buy an exhaust manifold for a turbo?
 
#25 ·
Double set of injectors because I had originally installed the outside set of injectors with the mindset the the factory style injectors were special and expensive and hard to upgrade. I originally had plugs in place of the factory injectors. What I found was poor low rpm response and difficult idle tuning. Further investigation revealed the factory injectors were standard Bosch EV1 style injectors with an integral hose. I fabricated some adapters to go to braided line and another fuel distribution block was added to accommodate them. Now I have superb idle and low speed performance from the standard location injectors, with the superior atomization of the upstream injectors. The injectors are running staged so the upstream ones only start operating above 2000rpm or so.
As far as the head and headgasket goes, they’re factory original. All i did was retorque the head to 75ft lbs.
The exhaust manifold is my own creation, sch40 mild steel elbows and tees tig welded together by me.
Oil feed is from the oil sensor port for the dummy light on the dash. Return was tapped into the top of the upper oil pan.
The bearing cartridge of the turbo is water cooled, tee’d into the heater lines.
Unfortunately I haven’t seen any turbo manifolds for sale for an Alfa twin cam, aside from some old jafco units occasionally.
 
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