I often see people getting confused when told to set their actuator to "half a hole" of preload so thought I quick example with some pics might help a few people out.

Here's the hole, in the end off the actuator rod...



This would be a whole hole...



And this is half a hole...



The preload is how far you have to pull the actuator rod to get it to slide onto the wastegate arm in the closed position (fully towards the actuator), half a hole or three full turns from being able to just about slide it on is correct for most applications.

 

Good pics Karl going to help a lot of people out,

Now I want to see you doing it with the turbo fitted to the car with no ramps It made me swear so much that I bought a hand held vac/pressure pump to make life easy.

Rob,

 

Mole grips, level bar lol

 

Great info.

Here is my top tip put a extra 1/4 unf nut on threaded section loctite wind it to the end of thread. Once set you can now use this nut to adjust without need for mole grips which chew up the actuator rod.

 

I think Rob meant he was struggling to get it over the waste gate arm (hence the vac/pressure pump to open it out), I just have the mole grips closed but not actually gripping the rod, simply sat loose behind the nut and then lever against them to slip it over.

I personally would always remove the rod from the wastegate arm to make any adjustments rather than twisting it, but your extra nut would certainly make the twisting method easier.
Yours must be the most accessible actuator I've ever seen?! lol

 

lol, yes. Hot engine, rad and intercooler still installed on an RS Turbo makes adjusting the actuator fairly tedious.

 

I can certainly agree with that. Burnt my forearm last time

Lee

 

you dont need a flash tool or strength to fit the actuator rod.
just find an old tyre pump out the shed. cut the valve off and slide on to actuator fitting, then pump untill rod fits on wastegate with ease. You can use the valve again for tyres if you join it back together.

 

Thats a good tip Jano, luckily the hand pump I use is pretty cheap on ebay and tyre pumps seem to go missing from the workshop nearly as quickly as pens

 

i used a compressor with adjustable flow
i couldnt even pull the arm when it was in my hand let alone on the car

 

Nice one Karl this will help a few out in understanding preload settings.
Actuator spring strength plus what they do would be another good post.

 

The spring strength determines the minimum pressure needed before the actuator starts to move, so -31 is about 8psi -34 about 14psi etc.
Ideally you would choose an actuator based on roughly half your target boost and then use a suitable boost control method to achieve the rest, bleed valve, EBC, there are other variables too but that's a rough guide.