On this page I will present the means by which I finally turbocharged a Niva engine. The other methods by which I was building a turbo engine were taking way too long so I decided to just take the plunge and turbocharge my daily driver 1700 Niva's engine. To cut corners I dropped the idea of using an intercooler, and I stuck with the stock fuel injection, but found other methods of fuel enrichment to compensate for boost. Now the downsides of taking this approach:
-This Niva's engine has had bad rings on the number one cylinder since I got it. When I would take off the oil filler cap, I could feel a strong blast of air coming out of the valve cover. This combined with a certain amount of oil consumption indicated to me that the engine had bad blowby. I confirmed this when I took off the cylinder head to have it milled (see article: HERE). The number one piston could actually be moved side to side a very small amount just using my fingers. A compression test would have also confirmed the large amount of blowby on that cylinder.
-With the milled head, compression was now over 10:1, hardly ideal for high boost (10+psi) turbo engines which are usually built with CR in the 8.5:1 range.
-Adding fuel enrichment on top of stock FI is tough to do unless you can get a kit designed specifically for your application (guess what, no kits for Nivas).
-Computer on Niva isn't equipped with a microphone to detect detonation and retard ignition timing when present (to stop detonation).
-Finally, no intercooler means a greater chance of detonation due to higher temps.
Mocking up the turbo.
-Since I already had the motor out of my 1993 "Vars" Niva, I used it to jig up some parts before I installed them on my '95.
Pictures:
-First off, a bit of partology. In the following three pics, parts are numbered 1 through 12, and correspond to:
1.Compressor Inlet / Impeller
2.Coolant Pipes
3.Oil Feed Line
4.Compressor Outlet
5.Wastegate Actuator
6.Intake Manifold Inlet
7.Oil Drain Line
8.Exhaust Manifold
9.Up-pipe
10.Turbine Inlet
11.Turbine & Exducer
12.Wastegate
Fitting.
-From there I was able to mock up the first fitment of the turbo on the engine and start finding bugs to work out. I had to modify the up-pipe slightly to make the turbo sit farther away and higher than the original, since I wasn't going to make a custom intake manifold this was needed to clear the stock peice. I also had to lengthen the throttle cable support slightly to clear the top of the turbo.
Pictures:
1.Here you can see how the turbo sits relative to the other stuff under the hood.
2.In this picture you can see how the throttle cable support was lengthened about 3/4".
Fluids.
-Next up was running lines for the oil and coolant going to and from the turbo.
-For coolant I just took the hose that went from the fitting on the intake manifold and cut it, stuck the one end onto one of the coolant pipes and the other end onto the other pipe. This hose runs right back into the rear of the waterpump so I knew that coolant flow wouldn't be a problem.
-For oil I took out the normal oil pressure sensor that feeds the dash light. Then I took a Y-fitting from an older Niva which had both the potentiometer for the oil pressure gauge and the oil light sensor, and I put in the new sensor and a brass fitting (I think it was 1/4"NPT Male to 1/8" barbed male). From the brass fitting I put on a rubber fuel/emissions line with a fuel injection-style fuel hose clamp. I ran this rubber line to the oil feed on the turbo.
-For the oil return line I just cut a hole in the oil pan above the oil level and screwed in a peice of pipe w/flange from an old Niva heater core. Then I ran a rubber fuel/emissions hose from the peice of pipe to the turbo oil drain pipe. I made sure to keep any metal filings out of the oil pan by squirting comrpessed air into the dipstick tube, the positive pressure created in the sump blows any peices of metal out of the sump and into my eyes where it can't hurt the engine.
Pictures:
1.This is the hose I used to put the turbo in series with.
2."Banjo" Y-fitting from old school Nivas.
3.Located at the bottom drivers side corner of the block, near the bellhousing.
4.Blowing the dipstick hole.
5.Oil Pan hole.
6.Heater core pipe on oil pan.
7.Location of oil drain on the turbo.