'81 Tta

[JayLashua]

Does anyone here know anything bout these cars, or a site that has a lot of technical information about them?

Afriend of mine has one - it doesnt run that great and I cant ever hear the turbo on it! its pretty much stock and one thing is, it doesnt like to get going without some gas pedal pumping=/

any info appreciated

 

[Audiowizard]

Here is a link to a guy that owns a turbo T/A and has put alot of usefull information concerning the turbo T/A. I e-mailed him with a few questions about mine and he was very friendly and helpful.

http://publish.uwo.ca/~agrehorn/301shrine.html


There are a few others but this is the best one that I have seen. There is also another guy whos name is Neil Smedley that races his and has a few minor mods and is running 12.40 in the 1/4 mile. These cars have alot of potential with proper tuning and a few goodies here and there .

 

[b4black]

Originally posted by JayLashua
it doesnt like to get going without some gas pedal pumping=/

This might be related to the incoming air being too cold. Make sure the THERMAC air cleaner is working. This is the duct between the air cleaner and the exhaust manifold. Also, bill just found out that blocking the coolant lines to the plenum under the carb will cause a bog as well.

Then I would check for vacuum leaks. And make sure the ECM is functioning. The check engine light should breifly come on, then go out during start up.

 

[b4black]

Originally posted by JayLashua
it doesnt run that great and I cant ever hear the turbo on it!

You might not be able to here the turbo even if it's working. GET A BOOST GAUGE! This is the most important thing to have for troubleshooting. You don't need a fancy, expensive gauge, just someting that reads pressure. "T" into the line that has the switch for the lights on the back of the hood bump.

 

[JayLashua]

I got a boost gauge, its not my car, so will have to see what my friend wants to do about it, the electrical is all screwed up, them lights dont even work! but that hose is definitely not connected to the air cleaner.. so i'll tell him that

I got a big VDO 30 PSI boost gauge here, i'll have to get in contact with dave at the shop to get the tubing for it that I left there

and also there seems to be no check engine light!?

I dont know, there is one lgiht that manages to go on and off intermittently sometimes thats just kinda hidden in a giant mess of wire, that may be the SES light!

I havent been able to physically check, but does the car have a ALDL port that you can paperclip to get a diagnostic?

thats about it for now, thanks!

 

[81turbota]

Check if your car has an O2 sensor or electrical connections to the carb. If it doesn't, you don't have an ECM. As for the thermac, mine runs and starts fine in freezing weather with an open hood scoop so that's probably not the problem. When I got mine it barely ran when cold, the vaccuum hoses were a horrible mess but with a little patience you can figure them out from the diagram on the car and make a couple of good guesses about the ones it doesn't show. The other (recurring) problem I have is that the screws that go through the top of the carb and hold it together keep loosening. This causes some pretty major vaccuum leaks but only takes 30 seconds to fix. Also, check that your secondaries are working, you get very little / no boost without them. They should open when you floor it from an idle. Mine had a problem with the lock out which I just tie wired open.

The best quick mods for immediate gratification are to bump the timing up to 12 - 14 deg (I use 94 octane gas) and open the hoodscoop and put a small lid on your stock aircleaner assembly. I used a 14" chrome lid I had lying around and put it on upside down to make it work with the stock air filter.

I almost forgot, use a 160 deg thermostat.

 

[1badTTA]

If the car is an '81, there is an ecm and an aldl, insert the paperclip and see if that light you were talking about starts doing the diagnostics blinks, 12 12 12 xx xx xx xx xx xx 12 12 12..........
if so, plug it back into its socket. when I got my '81 someone had removed the bulb so it would not light up all the time, the computer was also fried, got that thrown in for free when I got the car and then just had to replace the o2 sensor.