2.9 Turbo Project

[kodogtwh]

2.9s are slow. In a truck application. If I owned an mx-5, it would get a 2.9. Very big British sports car vibes. But I don't, so here's my little solution to the 2.9 slowness.

Ebay turbo, generic t3/t4 sizing.

Ebay intercooler, way too big, but it fits my needs (and fits between the frame rails quite nicely)

Hot side crosses under the truck from the factory y-pipe, under the frame rail and will tuck along what's left of my fender liner to the turbo. outlet will follow a similar path. Surprisingly, the piping will clear the suspension and wheel at full compression, from lock to lock, with reasonably large 285's.

Fuel system:

• Ford taurus SHO 3.2 injectors, should support roughly 240bhp at the crank. Well within what I expect.
• Walboro 255lph pump from a local swap meet.
• upstream pump bypass/delete, stock replacement filter

Ignition system:

• Stock coil, cap, rotor, wires. NGK heat range 7 Iridium plugs gapped at .020
• Vestigial TFI, used only for the PIP signal, direct coil control from an MX-6/Probe turbo coil igniter
• Microsquirt (module only) wired to an EEC-IV Connector in the original ford PCM box. a DIYPNP if you will.

Other:

• 160 thermostat
• ebay TIAL knockoff wastegate with a 10lb spring
• AutoMeter analog wideband

All that's left is to move the battery to where the airbox originally sits to give me room to run the passenger side intercooler pipe, and go out and tune it. As long as most teething problems have been avoided with my preemptive work.

Bonus pic of my slow car being pulled by my other slow car.

 

[Vindictus]

Welcome to TRS
Nice project, will be sweet to see the end results

 

[kodogtwh]

It's all together. Still have some tidying up to do, but the core setup is complete. Still needs dyno tuned, but it runs REALLY good, and so far has survived at least 3 hours of beating on it. Gonna post pictures next time I have light.

October 12, 2022

youtube.com

 

[Blmpkn]

Hell yeah!

 

[JerrySab]

dude this thing sounds mean as hell

 

[87RangerXLTct]

sick!

 

[kodogtwh]

Here's the photo dump of the function-over-form turbo setup. After finally getting a chance to log a bit I found out it's only pushing about 6.5-7psi. I may have the wrong half of the wastegate connected to the intake. And i'm already maxing out the taurus injectors, I have a set of chevy 3800SC injectors I'll install, just need to adapt them to fit the fuel manifold. They should be somewhere in the 32lb range. And i'm updating my wideband setup to a 14point7 controller with no gauge. Figured I'd just tune it through the ecu and hook the check engine light up to light if AFR is too far from the target, to save space on the dash.

 

[kodogtwh]

It's been a minute, I've made some more setup changes.

As of the past 4 months, I've had a boost controller installed, set at 15psi. Along with associated 750cc Injectors. No issues to report from the engine, even in daily driver service. I've even towed cars on my flatbed to Virginia and back multiple times at this level, with no temp, or mechanical issues. At about 12-13, the distributed ignition system reaches it's limit, and breaks up even with really cold plugs gapped at miniscule measurements, so I've installed a Stinger performance CAS kit (originally intended for use on 2.3s, direct bolt on fit!) and rewired the ECU for wasted spark, using a coil from DIYautotune. It will technically fit a lot of early '00s Chrysler products, including a viper, but the coil density internally is way overkill.

Although, I have been chasing a breakup issue. Near redline (6000 limiter in my case) it breaks up. Definitely ignition related. Acts as if it's 'blowing the spark out', but I've got an incredibly strong coil pack, plus 8mm wires and a plug gap of 0.020, and it happens both with TR7IX iridium NGKs, and BR7EF coppers. I haven't really put that much effort into trial and error with gaps, I've tried 0.030 and smaller, and at 0.030 it's worse, but at 0.020 and smaller it makes no difference. Hoping any 2.3T guys and some more research on my part can help with that. EDIT: Decided on a whim to up the gap to stock. 0.045, I think. Problem is solved. Goes against everything I've read, but it seems the 2.9 likes it.

 

[rusty ol ranger]

@PetroleumJunkie412

 

[PetroleumJunkie412]

It's been a minute, I've made some more setup changes.
View attachment 92226
As of the past 4 months, I've had a boost controller installed, set at 15psi. Along with associated 750cc Injectors. No issues to report from the engine, even in daily driver service. I've even towed cars on my flatbed to Virginia and back multiple times at this level, with no temp, or mechanical issues. At about 12-13, the distributed ignition system reaches it's limit, and breaks up even with really cold plugs gapped at miniscule measurements, so I've installed a Stinger performance CAS kit (originally intended for use on 2.3s, direct bolt on fit!) and rewired the ECU for wasted spark, using a coil from DIYautotune. It will technically fit a lot of early '00s Chrysler products, including a viper, but the coil density internally is way overkill.
View attachment 92227
View attachment 92228
Although, I have been chasing a breakup issue. Near redline (6000 limiter in my case) it breaks up. Definitely ignition related. Acts as if it's 'blowing the spark out', but I've got an incredibly strong coil pack, plus 8mm wires and a plug gap of 0.020, and it happens both with TR7IX iridium NGKs, and BR7EF coppers. I haven't really put that much effort into trial and error with gaps, I've tried 0.030 and smaller, and at 0.030 it's worse, but at 0.020 and smaller it makes no difference. Hoping any 2.3T guys and some more research on my part can help with that. EDIT: Decided on a whim to up the gap to stock. 0.045, I think. Problem is solved. Goes against everything I've read, but it seems the 2.9 likes it.

TFI starts having problems at that rpm range as well, found that out with MS. Not sure if you're still on TFI; haven't read yet.

 

[kodogtwh]

TFI starts having problems at that rpm range as well, found that out with MS. Not sure if you're still on TFI; haven't read yet.

TFI is long gone, using wasted spark atm with a Bosch igniter controlled by the MS.

 

[PetroleumJunkie412]

TFI is long gone, using wasted spark atm with a Bosch igniter controlled by the MS.

Interesting. I didn't consider that route with mine. I was looking into ways to convert a 4.0 edis over and run it with the ms

 

[kodogtwh]

Interesting. I didn't consider that route with mine. I was looking into ways to convert a 4.0 edis over and run it with the ms

I really wanted to at least use the crank & cam sensor from a 4.0 but with how the reluctor is cast into the damper I can't just bolt/weld it onto a 2.9 damper. And there's no easy way to convert to a serpentine belt without ditching a belt driven P/S and figuring out a reverse direction water pump/belt route that drives it correctly. That and Edis adds another layer of complexity that's less known than just using the ECU to control a basic igniter. And if I had the money to I would have just used an ECU that can drive the coils directly. I'm actually looking into a crank sensor setup at the moment, might be machining teeth onto a new damper. Once I save up for a mill.

 

[PetroleumJunkie412]

I really wanted to at least use the crank & cam sensor from a 4.0 but with how the reluctor is cast into the damper I can't just bolt/weld it onto a 2.9 damper. And there's no easy way to convert to a serpentine belt without ditching a belt driven P/S and figuring out a reverse direction water pump/belt route that drives it correctly. That and Edis adds another layer of complexity that's less known than just using the ECU to control a basic igniter. And if I had the money to I would have just used an ECU that can drive the coils directly. I'm actually looking into a crank sensor setup at the moment, might be machining teeth onto a new damper. Once I save up for a mill.

Power steering is easy - Volvo EPAS pump wired in. I run it on mine. Love it.

The old euro supercharger builds used... something. I can't remember what, precisely. But there was a way to convert them. May have been the DOHC pump, but can't remember.

 

[kodogtwh]

Power steering is easy - Volvo EPAS pump wired in. I run it on mine. Love it.

The old euro supercharger builds used... something. I can't remember what, precisely. But there was a way to convert them. May have been the DOHC pump, but can't remember.

I wonder if the DOHC engines even use a similar pump. Don't they use a timing belt setup? either way the cover is vastly different. I've also looked into the volvo pump, once I get around to installing and rewiring a beefier alternator and move the turbo to the passenger side of the engine bay (to use the scorpio intake as well as actually have an exhaust out the rear of the truck) I'll do something like that. Might even use an MR2 pump, as that's also pretty common.