HDI SBC-D-SE Boost Controller Install

Okay heres my write up of the install of the HDI SBC-D-SE, bought from Harvey Performance for the princely sum of £120 - http://www.harveyperformance.co.uk/

This install is specific to a Subaru Forester but it shouldnt be much different for most other turbo cars. This device is advertised as also working on diesels!

The unit was ordered mid afternoon on a Friday and it arrived at 6:05am on Saturday morning, so spot on delivery from Harvey.

The unit was well packaged, and came with an additional photocopy of the instruction manual, which came in very handy for using whilst installing the unit rather than getting the original manual dirty. I´m one of those sad gits who likes to keep the any manuals I get.

On opening the box everything is nicely packaged and all the parts come sealed packed in a plastic bag, with seperate compartments for different parts.

The parts and cables can be see below and comprise or 1 x Controller, 1 x solonoid, 1 x wiring loom, 5 x small cable ties, 1 metre of tubing, 1 x t-piece, 1 x carrier with two nuts and bolts, 2 x bleed nipples, 1 x big nut and bolt for fixing the solonoid and 1 x manual.

First thing to do is to decide where to fit the unit, I decided I wanted mine under the stereo in the centre console so had to remove all the plastic trim to get to behind here. Fairly easy to remove the centre console. There are two screws hidden under plastic covers in the centre arm rest. Take the covers off and remove the screws and the surround round the handbrake will come out. Then remove around the gearstick, this isnt even screwed in and just lifts out. Hold the rear and lift then pull backwards and off it comes. The stereo surround, again isnt screwed in but needs to be pulled gently from the bottom. Mines been out a few times and it quite loose but the first time I tried to remove it it took a bit of time and patience especially for the holding clips close to the top.

Once out there are four screws, as shown below, which need to be removed. Once unscrewed the stereo area comes out in one. Thats the stereo and the under tray, just pull towards you.

Next is to feed the wires and piping through the bulk head, there are two places you can do this, there is a circular grommet and a rounded diamond shaped gromit. I thought i´d get both the wires to the solonoid and the pressure pipe through the same hold but I was wrong. I managed the boost pipe through the circular grommet but when I came to push through the solonoid wire I realised that there was an end on it which plugs into the controllers wiring loom. Bugger! so I´ve had to feed it through the other grommet. Using these grommits will bring the pipes and wire into the car close to the centre console. If you dont have a hole then you could make one, as long as you put a grommet round it afterwards.

Next is to wire up the boost controller wiring loom, I have wired mine into my stereo wiring, basicially because I can remove this part of the loom and solder all the wires in place outside the car (much easier). There are three wires out of the six which need wiring up, they are Green to Earth - , Red to Battery positive + and Blue which goes to the Ignition source. You could try using those crimp blocks but I wouldnt recommend it as the wires to the Boost controller are quite thin and i m betting they wont hold the wires properly or they just just them in half.

Once the pipes and solonoid are in the engine bay then its time to connect them up.

The Blue pipe on the right which connects to the T piece (this connect to my boost gauge) a then connects to the red pipe goes to the boost controller. Its connected to the inlet manifold just to the left of the coil pack as you look at the engine from the front.

Port two on the solonoid connects to the Actuator and Port three connects to a pressure source or the compressor housing. The original piping from the actuator and the inlet manifold to the manufacturers solonoid is blocked off and is not used.

So thats under the bonnet finished.

Back to the comfort of the inside and just in time as its persisting down!

The pipe from the inlet manifold is connected to the boost controller on the port on the back as below and tie wrappd to stop it from coming off as its very loose. The first photo is of the naked port and the second is with the pipe connected.

Next is to connect all the wires. Once the above wiring has been done then to connect the unit to the supplied wiring loom and to the solonoid then all that is required is to connect the attached plugs together.

The power was then tested to make sure the unit switches on, which it did and I then put everything back together and here is the final result.

I´ve put mine in the tray under the stereo, where its out of the way, basically I dont like stuff in your face in the cabin as I hate having to explain to people what stuff is especially the wife.

Next thing to do is to dial the unit in. This is made much easier if you have a boost gauge, in fact I would say its impossible to dial this in correctly or within safe limits without a boost gauge.

First the low setting. Make sure that low light is lit and go for a drive. I turned the dial on low all the way down, same with high.

Once out on the road I accelerated and turned the dial up until the boost gauge moved. This was at 8psi. Thats the low set, so you push the dial in so it cant be accidentally changed. Next onto the fun bit, the high.

Press the select button and the high button lights up, this is now set to high. Again tuning is to turn the dial until you reach an acceptable boost level as per on your gauge. I would not start with the dial turned to high and turn it down as this risks your engine going boom!

I have set mine to 16psi (1.1 bar) which is perfectly adequate for me for the moment. Once set push the dial inwards to prevent accidental turning.

What I have noticed with this is that the way the boost comes in it different to with the standard boost solonoid. With the standard solonoid the boost comes in slowly, stays a little while then disappears pretty much the same way it come in.

With this boost solonoid, it come in much earlier down the rev range, I noticed around 2750rpm I was on 16psi. I havent tested mine on the upper rpm range yet as my car is auto and in D changes up before boost subsides.

Overall it took me about 3 hours to fit the controller, a boost gauge and then tidy everything up under the bonnet.

I have found out that the pipe highlighted in the above picture also needs blocking up, which I have done by forcing a pencil eraser into the pipe and sticking it back on the car, this is because I couldnt get anything to seal the hole to the intake pipe properly. At least if I want to put things back to normal I can just drill it out and stick the pipe back on.

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