A beautiful weekend for a nice ride on the Turbo

We lucked out here in MD with just fantastic weather for the weekend. I have been remiss as of late having not ridden the turbo in a few weeks. I fired it up and let it warm up slowly before rolling it out of the garage and going out for an hour or so. Unfortunately, too much longer and I begin feeling like a pretzel from it's comparatively cramped riding position.

It ran flawless and I got in 3 real nice "turbo blasts" on the way up to the island gate where I have to turn around. Fully awake then, I took it down Rt 100 and up Rt 10 till I got near Baltimore before returning home I have a Historic tag on it so I'm really not supposed to be out riding like an every day bike but the cops don't ever give me a hard time, but in the same token, I don't take too much advantage of it either. I once had the local guys(county cops) pull up to me at the gas station and tell me they see me out riding my historic bikes but since I'm "responsible", they don't bust me. Ever since then, I don't worry too much. My daughter calls me the OWWG (old wrinkled white guy) <LOL>.

I took a couple of pictures with the Chesapeake Bay in the background and you can just make out the Bay Bridge in one, behind the guardhouse.

By every right I should sell that bike since I only ride in once or twice a month at best...but every time I do, it convinces me to hang on to it because it's just so fun to ride!

jeff

 

It was nice weather, I didn't get to ride, too many other things going on.

From the MVA website "The vehicle owner will certify the vehicle will be maintained for use in exhibitions, club activities, parades, tours, occasional transportation and similar uses. The vehicle owner further certifies the vehicle will not be used for general daily transportation or primarily for the transportation of passengers or property on highways."

So I consider myself a one man club and everywhere I ride is an event.

Also, My bike is also not primary transportation and I ride on occasion. Seems like your in the same boat just more and different occasional rides.

Very loosely defined and they'd have to prove you were not using it for "occasional transportation" to ticket you as if that actually has a definition in the law.

 

"So I consider myself a one man club and everywhere I ride is an event"

LMAO.....I laughed out loud at this Iwin.....very good! Yes, I knew that i was allowed to ride back and forth to shows but I did NOT know that it included "occassional use" so thanks for posting that....now I'll worry even less since according to that, I've been worrying for nothing anyway!!

jeff

 

". . .the vehicle will be maintained . . ."

As you know, it takes a half hour ride to warm it up for an oil change.
And a good hour to charge the battery :wink:

 

Sweet man... sweet -- love it down there

 

Man that's beautiful. What are the stats on those (0-60, etc.)? How much improvement does the 18psi make?

 

Great pics Jeff. Now that mine is fully operational, I try to get her out every week even if only 30 to 40 miles.

 

lol here in wisco, they dont care about plates - my buddy has collector plates on his car and he drives it year round as his daily driver. never been pulled over or even questioned for it.

looks like great riding weather!

 

Yes, we've been lucky the past week with a bunch of nice days in a row that weren't 90 degrees. Historically, we get 3 days of "Spring" then the heat and humidity set in...Iwin will back me on this. This year however, we've had a bunch of nice days 70-80 with low humidity that makes for fantastic riding weather. I ride with a perforated leather jacket in the summer but it's still like riding in satans back yard when it's 90 & 90 out.

Fin, I never ran the bike "stock" with the 10-12psi is had with the "powerup" kit that the factory sent out with the '83's so I can't compare other then to tell you that the fun really starts around 14psi....before that....YAWN!

I really don't know the performance stats but I seem to remember seeing something, somewhere that claimed 90 some HP & 1/4's in the low 12's but I can't imagine it was very fast 0-60 simply because it's trying to move all that weight from a dead stop and of course it's like a 550 till the boost builds because of the lower compression and smaller carbs. I do know that at 15-18 pounds of boost, it's moving down the road with pretty serious intentions.

I know for sure though that if it only went to 12psi, I would have sold it long ago because it wouldn't have had any redeeming qualities to offset the weight. It's a pig at 550 pounds....but with 18psi, it's a mighty fast pig<LOL> and it goes to show that in some cases, pigs do fly!

Sloboat- you're following the accepted mantra of "ride it every few days or it won't like you" and from my experience, it's true. I I ride it at least once a week, it starts and runs great....if I don't, it gives me fits to start then has to burn through the oil that has accumulated in the turbo chamber......I had an extra check valve on the return oil line and it leaks a little now....not much but a few drops per month into the turbo then works its way past the rings into the chamber. I didn't want to split the cases when I built the bike to repair/replace the scavange pump check valve so I simply added a very low opening pressure check in the rubber section of the oil return line under the engine.

jeff

 

Agreed. It's been nice of late, which makes me wonder what's in store....

 

The only rules for Wisconsin collector plates are you can't operate it in January (unless you purchase temp plates) and you have to own another vehicle with regular plates on it. Pretty easy requirements to meet.

 

the fun really starts around 14psi....before that....YAWN!
JeffK I used to belong to a webring for the 89 Dodge caravan Turbo and from there I have a link (check "step # 2).
http://www.turbominivan.com/faster.htm

if u could use that on yr bike - no more YAWN

 

I think that we're going to find out....TODAY!!



Shang, I checked out that site and they have some great ideas....for cars/vans where there is space available for exhaust changes and bigger turbos but I'm afraid we are restricted is we want to remain streetable and be able to still attain reasonable lean angles. A couple guys on the turbo board have modded their turbos and others have installed larger ones but found it too too long and too many rpms before boost production began. There's a huge difference between these systems and those on cars other then basic principles. If we use larger headers for example, they won't spool at low rpms since there just isn't the same volume of gases and it will be moving much slower....etc....but I appreciate the thoughts.


jef

 

I guess you turbo heads are all over this?

http://pw1.netcom.com/%7Ervtucker/Seca.html

 

Thanks Adrian...Vinces, was one of the first sites I found when I bought my turbo. I had bought it in Nov but didn't get around to actually picking it up till the 2nd or 3rd week in December so that gave me time to research. I'd written to Vince to thank him for the info but he never answered but there's some great info there.

jeff