It looks like boost controllers have come a long way with fancy displays and settings compared to the pushbutton mechanical systems of the past. I've never used one before. Technically I still haven't used one, lol. I'll read the manual soon.

 

Boost controllers have come a long long way from when I started playing with this stuff. Electronics in general have.

Here are some of the boost controllers I have used:
Greddy profec and profec b (multiple vintages)
HKS evc (multiple vintages)
Apex AVC-R (multiple vintages)
Manual boost controllers of all kinds
In my teenage years (pull the wgt hose off, plastic tees, mig welding tips, bending wgt rods,weld wgt shut,etc) the good old days full of pinging, fuel cuts, and shenanigans

Yup I'm that old lol

Not having access to boost control is a new one for me and drives me nuts lol. One of the reasons I would to move from vtg

 

Just a quick update - finally getting a taste of what these babies can do. Man they spool up really quickly. I'll compare logs with my 68s but I'd say subjectively they spool up even quicker. I know that spool was one of my big concerns with aftermarket turbos on this car. Sorting through a few issues but making good progress. Couple of 2nd and 3rd gear pulls were really good.

 

When I longpress the upper 2 the unit doesn't physically power down. According to the manual, if the letters A B and C aren't at the top of the display then it is in bypass mode and operates on wastegate pressure. Is this what you remember?

 

Yea exactly when there are no (A B C) then it's off (gate pressure) ...

 

I'm not sure what gate pressure is but the boost reading in "bypass" is pretty high according to the Cobb datalogs. Peaking at 21psi I think. The reading on the HKS is lower. Not sure who is right, lol. I will try turning on the boost controller now and fine tune it.

Did a 75-110mph 4th gear pull in 3.7s with ZERO knock sensor activity. This is the same time I got on my Champion 68s with a little knock sensor activity iirc. The new intercoolers are incredible, hardly any rise in the intake temps on the pulls so far. I would have liked to try these coolers with the 68s but obviously it didn't happen.

 

This is my first car with bovs - I can't believe how audible the "whoosh" is everytime you transition from on boost to off boost, even with the window open, car loud, and going fast. And the bovs are at the back of the car on the intercoolers. Sounds cool though.

 

Bogg where is the HKS pulling its pressure reading from? If it's on the intake manifold it will be lower because of any losses across the throttle body. If it's in the y pipe like the factory sensor it should match pretty closely. And of course before the intercoolers it would read higher since it's before the intercooler loss etc,.

Good luck

 

I believe it comes from the compressor housing? Here's the diagram from the manual, I think this is how it was hooked up. At least it was supposed to be this way, lol.

 

It does show vacuum in the display so I'm not sure if it reads from the line on the intake plenum which is the same line as the fpr. But I didn't think that was a pressurized line, otherwise the fpr reference line would blow off!

 

Thanks Sam! Happy with it. Just having difficulty understanding why on wastegate pressure alone there is so much boost??? And if the HKS is reading on the same side of the throttle body then I don't get why it's reading different from the stock pressure sensor. Purely academic but it makes me wonder if there was an error in installation/plumbing. I will check with my shop to confirm that it was installed like the pic shows...

 

If you read boost and vacuum you are reading after the throttle body

The higher boost on just wastegate could be the actuator preload. Dunno where TiAL sets those. Did the shop discount those and retighten them etc. Lots of reasons.

 

The shop didn't do anything with the wastegates other than hook them up. The Cobb reads boost and vacuum but as far as I know, the values for vacuum must just be modelled since there's no sensor after the tb. The HKS wouldn't be modelling anything, it must be getting a true reading, otherwise it would suck lol.

It's no biggie if the wastegates are just tight because in the 3-4.5k rpm range the boost is 21psi or less which should be "safe" and probably close to where we would be targeting it anyway I'm guessing.

 

As I look at the logs I see that at some point the throttle angle changes even though I've got the pedal mashed to the floor. The boost stays solid throughout without any erratic shifts. Is the car "smart" enough to adjust the throttle angle mechanically to stay within parameter targets? for example, if the boost was climbing too much and the target "load" was exceeded would the car close the throttle incrementally?

With the vtgs the car could command the vanes to open if boost was too high but I wondered what would happen if a non-vtg car boosted beyond target parameters. If I'm understanding it correctly, the car does react...

On the first couple of tune revisions the throttle body would abruptly slam shut. Looking at other threads I believe it's something to do with the ASR tables for early 2007 cars having to be adjusted.

Anyway, off to fiddle with the boost controller!

 

whats the boost do when the boost controller is off? that's how you can check where the gates are set. normally Xona Alphas will be set to 1 or 1.1 bar.

HKS has some offset settings that are tricky to get right. I wouldn't use the TPS modeling function of the HKS and only use the RPM function. First start with setting A and keep it simple raising the boost flat until you reach your desired torque MAX, then switch to setting B and start from value in A. Raising boost with RPM after the TQ peak to keep the HP climbing while holding TQ in check.

You'll have to get comfortable with the HKS because boost control is now on you.