Porting the wastegate

[Sy V]

OK, I think I must have missed the 'temporary' bit.

[max and andy]

we are getting a new Piper RS and PCE fitted at Lakeside Engineering. At the same time they are going to port the wastegate. Lakeside have never done a port on the Elan before the said they would send it to their machinist. I thought it might be a good idea to send them the photo's and the how to guide off the site. Is this possible? They gave us a ball park figure of £450. Max & Andy

[ektrolleyboy]

Bloody hell...
These piper exhaust are proving to be very, very costly invesments to the mechanical numptys amongst us.
I'm trying mine without the porting first and hoping for the best from the cat's. Otherwise it'll be another case of 'Bend-over sir and let me extract some more money".
I think I might be getting bent over quite soon...

[Enright]

Bloody hell...
These piper exhaust are proving to be very, very costly invesments to the mechanical numptys amongst us.

It's not Piper specific. ANY free-flowing exhaust can provoke the same symptom from Elans.

[ektrolleyboy]

Yes you're right. I should have clarified.
Buy any larger diameter after market exhaust and you'll be bent over! I think that's what I wanted to say...

[GeoffSmith]

we are getting a new Piper RS and PCE fitted at Lakeside Engineering. At the same time they are going to port the wastegate. Lakeside have never done a port on the Elan before the said they would send it to their machinist. I thought it might be a good idea to send them the photo's and the how to guide off the site. Is this possible? They gave us a ball park figure of £450. Max & Andy

Pictures on their way.

[max and andy]

Thanks for the photo's Geoff there great. Does anyone have the part number for the studs that come off the left side of the turbo? The ones that get snapped removing the turbo. We tried the Wiki but find it hard finding things. Andy & Max

[GeoffSmith]

SJs or stainless wastegate stud set.

[dapinky]

But if you order the Stainless ones, the typical delivery time is best measured with a calendar, not a stopwatch

[max and andy]

The 3 in the SJS list. I need all 3 ? In Geoffs photos of the stainless there are 4 bolts? I think i get it you need 2 of the smallest ones. Andy

[dapinky]

The 3 in the SJS list. I need all 3 ? In Geoffs photos of the stainless there are 4 bolts? I think i get it you need 2 of the smallest ones. Andy

[ektrolleyboy]

Now I've ordered a PCE and obviously need to have that fitted alongside my exhaust. Should I automatically get my waste-gate ported?
I was going to wait and see what happened with regards to boost creep before I decided to order a PCE. But now I've taken the plunge would I be mad not to get the job done whilst the PCE is going on? Or do you still suggest I wait and see if the sports cat' stops the creep?
Also. Would a mountain chip with its raised fuel cut levels stop the creep problem alongside a sports cat' ?

[max and andy]

You know your going to,bite the bullet get it done. Or you could test the sports cat see if it stops it. What do Mattys say now you are going for the PCE. Does he recon his sports cat will stop the creep? Whats the port increase is it 4mm. 16mm to 20mm when ported? A&M

[ektrolleyboy]

I haven't discussed it with them.
My quandry is labour cost orientated? Is it silly not to get the wastegate ported during the PCE fitment from a financial and ease of work point of view? Or does it make little to no difference and experimenting to see if I get over-boost is preferential? Which situation will be a waste of money? Getting it done without testing for boost creep? Or not getting done regardless?

[Elanlover]

I haven't discussed it with them.
My quandry is labour cost orientated? Is it silly not to get the wastegate ported during the PCE fitment from a financial and ease of work point of view? Or does it make little to no difference and experimenting to see if I get over-boost is preferential? Which situation will be a waste of money? Getting it done without testing for boost creep? Or not getting done regardless?

I don't recall but are you leaving the main cat installed? If no they get the wastegate ported. If yes, I'd leave it. Its not a given that you will get boost creep. Some do and some don't. Yes, it will cost you more money if you need to get it ported after the fact. That's the down side. However, I have a personal preference to leaving the certain thins on the car "as is" where possible. Changing the seats, adding a roll bar, installing a sub, etc. are all things that can be reversed fairly easily. Once you enlarge the wastegate opening you can't make it smaller if you want/need to.

This is, however, my personal opinion only. So, take a chance, leave it and save some money. Or, take a chance, find you do need it and spend a bit more money that you would have in order to do it after the fact.

[ektrolleyboy]

It's also the inconveninence... Of having to take it back at a later date.
I'm having the PIPER 2.25 with Sports cat'.

[Specky]

IMHO it's down to driving style....

If you plant your right foot in the mat and only lift it when the needle hits the red line then it'll be very annoying. Couple this with a code 31 and the 4000 rev limit it's not what you need, especially when you're overtaking; infact it's dam right dangerous.

If you like a nice bit of quick driving then you'll never notice...

hope that helps

TTFN

[vi11ain]

It all depends on if/how badly you get boost creep and the susequent overboost.

On my car - a 1990 SE to which I fitted a 2.25" Peco exhaust, it resulted in boost creep so bad that I had to be very careful about using more than half throttle in third gear or above. Until I finally decided to bite the bullet and pull out the turbo and get it sorted I wasn't really able to use the accelleration at all in higher gears.

Fitting an Everest chip won't really fix the problem as the increase in boost pressure before fuel cut is only marginal - it would only delay it for a very short time as it's not actually fixing the underlying problem at all, which is boost beyond the control of the ECU. The only real fix is porting the wastegate.

In my case (which proably became the worst case scenario for boost creep when I also fitted a PCE), I had to port the wastegate out to 20mm using the Bosch grindstone, then widen it a little further and smooth off and relieve the obstructions to flow out of the wastegate on the inside, as the initial 20mm bore didn't cure it entirely.

Having said all that, if you get the exhaust and precat fitted, it's not really any more work to go back and remove the turbo rather than having it done at the time - the exhaust doesn't really get in the way at all and the fresh nuts and bolts will be easy to undo. The only real inconvenience is sending the car back to the garage for further work. Hopefully you'll be lucky and the cat will restrict your exhaust enough to prevent boost creep - not having the porting done would be much cheaper than having it done unneccessarily!

Ben

[Specky]

My system is slightly different a 2.5" Piper (No sports cat or second silencer)

I haven't ported my system yet as I was waiting to fit a 2.5" stiffy (Inner flange removed), (now that cast iron monstrosity and dummy PCE are destined for the bin.... )

TTFN

[ektrolleyboy]

I think I'll get the exhaust and PCE fitted then and wait and see what happens with regards to boost-creep...

No-one else on here seems to have fitted an exhaust with cat's. It seems I'm testing the water somewhat. I have read though in varios posts that some of the U.S boys that have fitted larger bore exhaust in the past and obviously must have a cat' on their system, haven't had any boost-creep. Fingers crossed.