Hi Guys,
THE TURBO IS DONE! I've actually been driving it a couple of days and it is pretty neat. My overriding impression is that the turbo actually makes the van drivable. I can cruise down the highway at 75 with the cruise control and use between 2 and 5 pounds of boost. It doesn't down shift all the time like it used to. I can merge into highway traffic WITHOUT FEAR!!!
Now, you cannot get on it in first or second gears. Its all over the place. The gearing is so low and even with the new tires, its just too much power/torque. Top gears are nice though, so 1/2 throttle through 1st and 2nd and then wot in 3rd and 4th.
We added another transmission cooler so the van now has 2. With an outside airtemp of 85, the highest the transmission temperature reached was 125. After some 'normal' driving, the temp returned to 100 after a few minutes. I thing the transmission is going to survive. I don't flog it and I try to work with it so I am not abusing it. You can turn the overdrive off and just power out in third gear. Great fun!
There van is speed limited to 90, but I am sure it could go must faster. We are going to switch to an electronic boost controller. Bob turned the manual controller (comes with kit) all the way down because we were seeing big spikes. With the new controller, we should be able to stay around 10psi (7-8 now) without spikes. This should make another 30hp available.
I would recommend this to you guys. If you use the van as a work vehicle, it actually makes it much more usable. I only drove it for a few days before it went in for the turbo, but it was frustrating and even scary (merging) sometimes. The van is actually really cool now!