Meth safety solenoid idea

[randy merritt]

I thought I would try and use a factory boost solenoid to act as a safety device that would limit turbo boost to spring pressure only in the event meth flow is not detected. This setup should protect my motor by limiting boost if either I run out of meth, or if there is some sort of pump or electrical failure preventing the Alkycontrol from building pump pressure and flowing meth. Please review my diagrams, and give me any thoughts.

In both at rest and energized conditions, the bottom port of my dual port wastegate will see compressor boost.



Under the at rest condition, air is free to flow in and out of the waste gate dome via the "vent", but it can not receive any compressed air from the turbo, thus limiting it to spring pressure boost only. When energized, the solenoid will allow compressed air from the turbo to compress the wastegate dome, thus building boost to the preset limit of my manual boost controller.



The energized condition will occur when meth pump pressure is detected. My meth turn on is set around 5 psi. I understand that this setup will not allow any pressure in the wastegate dome before my boost reached 5 psi, but I have a 15 psi (I think) spring in my wastegate. I don't think the missing wastegate dome pressure of 0-5 psi will affect my spool up time, but we shall see.

It should be easy to make this system work with a stock, single port wastegate also.

 

[Syclone#2960]

Re: Meth safety solenoid idea

It would not be a bad idea to loop in Julio@alkycontrol on this. He is always looking for ways to improve his kits.

 

[randy merritt]

Re: Meth safety solenoid idea

It would not be a bad idea to loop in Julio@alkycontrol on this. He is always looking for ways to improve his kits.

I already talked to him. He is the one that suggested using the built in pressure sensor output that his kit has.

 

[randy merritt]

Re: Meth safety solenoid idea

EDIT: Never mind. I don't know what your set up is. Maybe it will work as diagramed on what ever wastegate you're running.

I know that the single hose STOCK wastegate can MUST be connected to the compressor to achieve the 8psi "base boost". If there is NO pressure on the stock can (ie, the hose blew off), the boost will exceed 30psi.

I agree 100%, because on a stock actuator, the compressor pressure is trying to force the wastegate open, however, on my dual port wastegate, the pressure is both trying to force the gate open, and at the same time, adding pressure to oppose the force trying to open the gate, effectively making for a higher "spring pressure".

 

[randy merritt]

Re: Meth safety solenoid idea

Any more thoughts, critiques? Bueller, Bueller???

 

[ziembic]

Re: Meth safety solenoid idea

You could buy my 3 year old Aqua mist kit that has a flow meter, that activates saftey measures if the volume goes down. Kit comes with a float switch as well to ward off low meth level. Hit me up if you have any interest. I was going to run this in my Subaru, but I decided to go with E85. ave mounted some of it, but it has never flowed any meth.

 

[bezerk]

Re: Meth safety solenoid idea

mark has done this to his truck (quicktopUK). wire the low tank indicator to your stock boost solenoid.

 

[randy merritt]

Re: Meth safety solenoid idea

So after a lot more thinking, I think I am overthinking this thing. Instead of using a relay to trigger a solenoid, I am just going to trigger the solenoid directly using a switched 12v+ and the negative/open circuit of the Alkycontrol. This setup will have the same boost control vs. meth flow that the other proposed setup had, but this is much simpler. The only down side is that the boost solenoid will be energized most of the time, but that should be OK. Thoughts?

 

[randy merritt]

Re: Meth safety solenoid idea

Well...... It works like a champ. After some bench testing, I installed it. I used on of my 12v+ outputs from the Holley to only send power to the solenoid after the motor has revved past 2500 rpm, as this would eliminate any boost leakage at lower boost levels. The Holley can handle up to 2 amps on the output, and the solenoid only draws 500 miliamps. I had to bump the "initial" on my alky control to the 12:15 position, up from the 11:45 position that I had in order for it to build enough pressure when it first came on to be able to trigger the pressure sensor. I also lowered my "turn on" a little to avoid a boost bump caused by a lag between the initial turn on and full pressure building. It now comes on about 5 psi. I got brave and unhooked the gain controller from the main alky controller to simulate a total electrical failure, and the setup worked perfectly by limiting boost to spring pressure only, which in my case, is 8 psi. When everything is hooked up and working properly, you can't tell the safety solenoid is there, and boost is restored to my manual boost controller setting, which is 20 psi. Total cost = $0, thanks to a generous Tom at Sportmachines who gave me a spare stock boost control solenoid.