So I just swapped my APE II chips (coming to a FS thread near you) for a set of the 951MAX chips (sourced from a fellow lister) yesterday. After making the swap, I took it for a spin - all runs well, and the car seems smoother at idle and under acceleration. Good news.

Later that evening, as I was driving to a friend's house, I remembered I had not removed the banjo bolt from the boost tube under the hood.

My question - What damage can this cause?

Since I'm more or less clueless as to how the banjo truly functions (something about delaying boost), I can't reason myself into a good explanation.

Any ideas? Is there a benefit of leaving it in versus taking it out?



Ryan

 

As long as your boost is correct, then there is no harm leaving the banjo bolt in.
The main thing is to make sure your boost is set to what your chip was programmed for.


-Rogue

 

From my understanding the chips are setup for a stock 86 951.

I don't mess with boost, so it should all be at the stock settings.

 

It's NEVER a good idea to start tinkering with boost related gadgets and not have a boost gauge installed to know exactly what you're doing. The main reason people chip a car and add contraptions like the LBE is to build boost faster and creep max boost up past stock to get more HP. With the LBE and the 951MAX chips you can reliabily get into the 15PSI range on high octane fuel. Any more than that and you are heading down head gasket repair lane...

 

And, to point out, you're not supposed to do anything with the "banjo bolt" but rather a restrictor jet that's screwed into the banjo bolt. And that's an after market thing. Stock was a banjo bolt with a smooth inside and just a large opening.

So you know Ryan, the banjo bolt essentially connects the wastegate's pressure line (how the wastegate actuates) to the intake system (where the pressure - boost - is). There is the cycling valve (or some other boost controller) between the banjo bolt and the wastegate. When the proper boost level is achieved, the cycling valve uses the boost pressure in the intake to open up the wastegate, which vents exhaust gasses away from the turbo, thus slowing down the turbo's spinning, which decreases boost.

Putting a restrictor in the the banjo bolt decreases/delays the amount of boost pressure your cycling valve can use to open up the wastegate - which opens up the wastegate less - which reduces the effect of "lowering boost".

 

Hey Ryan, if you want, you can buy my Scivision and have a nicer setup