Turbo-ing a 1.4 mk1

[Blackdavid]

Hello guys. I was thinking of doing this for a long time now. To start, i know its not worth it for you guys, and i know people will tell me this in every post. Now, i have a 1.4 single point lump in my bay, and want to add a turbo obviously. I already have everything i need. A brand new garret m85, oil feed and return lines, exhaust and manifold already made, oil feed goes from the pressure sensor, and oil return in the sump. i spent about 30£ on all of it. I want to know if its possible not to blow it all up just by putting it in? I don't know if the stock ecu can be remapped in any way, but on the other side, i shouldnt have much problems with that on a single point, right? Now that i have the materials needed, i just want to know if its doable with what i have. Thanks

 

[Djw John]

Usually when people go down the turbo route on a mk1 it's with a 5 GTT or Volvo engine. I think someone in Skye supercharged their standard engine but only with a tiny bit of boost.

I can't imagine it'll take much more than 6-7 psi.

Back in te day people used to play with the ecu but as it was only a couple of bhp I can't imagine the settings changed by much, I'd be amazed if it had the capacity to deal with boost. Mega squirt on the other hand....

 

[Blackdavid]

Usually when people go down the turbo route on a mk1 it's with a 5 GTT or Volvo engine. I think someone in Skye supercharged their standard engine but only with a tiny bit of boost.

I can't imagine it'll take much more than 6-7 psi.

Back in te day people used to play with the ecu but as it was only a couple of bhp I can't imagine the settings changed by much, I'd be amazed if it had the capacity to deal with boost. Mega squirt on the other hand....

Im not looking into making a lot of power out of it. My goal is to reach about 120hp or something like that, and i think its pretty achievable knowing that it has 75hp as standard. And adding a turbo i the easiest way for me to make more power without chaning engine, because here in Croatia there are no f7p's to buy, and of course neither the f7r's. So i was looking for ways to achieve that power figure without changing the engine, and that seemed okay to me.

But it won't lean ot and explode if i don't change the ecu too?

 

[Martin_172]

Im with john to do it properly you gonna need management, megasquirt or somthing more expensive.

Stick a d4ft in it with the wiring, ecu and twingo dash

 

[R3k1355]

You'll need some way of increasing fuel with boost.

If you can't do anything with the ECU you can use an Auxillary fuel pressure regulator, it's not an accurate way of doing things but for 4-5psi you won't do any damage.

Running more boost you'll need something that can adjust the fuel and timing on boost, otherwise you'll just put a massive hole in the piston.

 

[105e]

Think this has the potential to end badly, but good luck with it.

 

[Blackdavid]

Running it at low psi, lets say around 6-7, how much hp am i looking at? I was thinking of sticking a valvler fuel pump in it, it should theoretically add more pressure to the fuel. I doubt there are many upgrades that i can do to a 1.4 mk1, it has no real ecu basically, so i can't control any parameter engine-wise. I think upgrading that fuel pump would be good enough for 6 or 7 psi.. but again, at which power figure am i looking at with 7psi?

 

[R3k1355]

Just sticking in another fuel pump won't automatically give more fuel, the FPR will just cut it down to what it needs to be.
You need something that adds more fuel in as more boost is made.

You'll probably end up with 80-90BHP.

 

[Blackdavid]

I forgot to list that thing up. A valvler fuel pump and aftermarket fuel pressure regulator, running it on 5-6 psi. I also thought about adding another injector, but that i have to really figure out.

 

[R3k1355]

How are you going to run another injector with standard management tho??

I take it this thing will still have to pass some kind of emissions test??

 

[Blackdavid]

In my country the "MOT" is done in specialized places, and if your papers say its a 1.2 engine, and you have a 2.0 engine no one even notices, nor they ask you anything. Same is with the emission test, its not a real emission test because if you are close to passing jt, you pass it, and the other injector and everything else can come off easily before the test anyways. I talked to this guy that had an mk1 1.2 turbo, he was running it at 10psi, with an additional fpr, and another injector put somewhere on the manifold. He connected in some way the fuel from the original one and the electronics. My theory is that he put an injector on the manifold, split up the fuel intake hose and connected both of them to the same line, then split the cables and connected them too so when the first injector is operating hes really operating both of them, with a much higher fuel pressure. I never asked him how he has really done it, but it was making a pretty good ammount of horsepower from that thing.

 

[R3k1355]

but off-boost fuelling would be f**king s**t, it'd run like a complete dog.

You'd have twice as much fuel needed for idle, part throttle and cruise - I'm surprised it even ran?

 

[Laine_16v]

Do it really crudely, use a 5th injector as said in the manifold, give it a regulated feed of petrol, splice into the injector wiring and use a hobbs boost switch in tandem so its only active on boost*

Providing you did a bit of testing and tested a few different sized injectors, it might work for a few minutes and drive about 10 miles.... maybe.... at best.

 

[Blackdavid]

Guys lets say you have tp turbo your own mk1 1.4 single point, what would you do?

 

[Djw John]

Just because you're not getting the answers you wanted doesn't make them wrong.

If for some reason I absolutely had to I would 100% get an aftermarket ecu that was capable of running it as my first purchase.

 

[R3k1355]

Something like a mega squirt is whats needed, especially as you are so dead against dropping in a GT Turbo engine.

To be honest if your goal is 120BHP off the Turbo, the ONLY way to hit that is with proper management.
Anything else and you're pistons will be in a million pieces.

So stop being *fussy* and take the advice you're given.

 

[rctempire]

Hi all,
This is an interesting thread. I will see what happens. But please all be civil.

 

[Blackdavid]

Guys im not saying your answers are all wrong, im just replying. Isn't this a discussion? Im not against putting a valver engine in, its just that THERE IS NO ENGINE TO BUY IN CROATIA! I surely would put it in, but there is none, or at least they're not for sale. I am aware of the fact that many of you know way more than me, im not a beginner, but surely im not a pro.

I was also wondering about the megasquirt, but how hard is it to fit in on the original loom, and then program it? There are a bunch for sale, and they all say its not that hard to learn mapping it. I doubt its that easy, either programming it or installing it.
Any help from megasquirt users?

 

[Dan@SJM]

Best option is finding a mapper and getting them to do the mapping. Installing is very easy (about 12 wires on an SPI)

 

[Blackdavid]

So i basically cut the connector off the original loom, and connect the megasquirt to it?

 

[Dan@SJM]

No, just cut/splice into the loom. So it's piggy back to the oem ecu

 

[Blackdavid]

Oh so its an additional ecu, not a replacement one.. and when it is mapped properly, what can the megasq control? Fuel flow,pressure etc or? Sorry im not that familiar with engine management..

 

[Dan@SJM]

It'll control fuel flow (via injection duration) ignition timing, boost control, Rev limit, cold start enrichment etc, literally everything you need for running.

 

[Blackdavid]

Wait, isn't the ignition controlled manually by the canopy on the side of the head? (I forgot the english name for it) how can it change the ignition timing?

 

[Dan@SJM]

Change it to coil pack.