Today I converted to a blow through VAM setup! I had been thinking about doing this for a few months, but never gave it any serious thought. A week or so ago there was a long thread about it on TuboFord. After reading that thread, I decided I had to give it a try. The hardest part was getting the mandrel bent pipe angles cut correctly so that everything would line up. There's not much room between the IC outlet and the TB. It took a while to get the VAM tuned right. I tried many different tension settings on the VAM door spring. In the end, I tightened the spring by about 1/3rd of the wheel's diameter, and so far with 17psi of boost, the A/F ratio seems to be pretty good. It's a little rich at idle, but nothing that I can't live with. Moving the VAM close to the TB made a huge difference. Engine cranks faster, idles better, much more responsive at any given point on the powerband or load, no more bucking when slowly getting out of boost, and the turbo sounds cooler. It feels like a different car! 17psi with the blow through setup feels stronger than 17psi with the stock draw through setup. I wish I had done this months ago. I should be able to get 19 or maybe 20psi out of it before I have to start tuning the VAM spring tension and fuel pressure again. I might just have to deal with an overly-rich idle in order to get enough fuel at WOT, but I'm not sure yet. That is a small problem compared to the issues that the blow through VAM setup solved.
So far I only have about 150 miles on it, pretty much all of it highway. However, at this point, the results are very good! The difference is amazing. Hopefully over the next 2 or 3 weeks I'll get a feel for how it's going to work for me in the long term... but based on what I've read on TurboFord, I should be good to go since my A/F ratio is about where it needs to be.
Summit is going to love me for doing this conversion.. I now need so many more t-bolt clamps, it's not even funny.
So far I only have about 150 miles on it, pretty much all of it highway. However, at this point, the results are very good! The difference is amazing. Hopefully over the next 2 or 3 weeks I'll get a feel for how it's going to work for me in the long term... but based on what I've read on TurboFord, I should be good to go since my A/F ratio is about where it needs to be.
Summit is going to love me for doing this conversion.. I now need so many more t-bolt clamps, it's not even funny.