Electric Powersteering Conversion Fail
 

Howdy all,
I know a few people have converted to electric powersteering setups on their track car and seemingly have no issues. Given my luck, it seems like I'm one of the few to have an issue.

Setup
TRW pump from Opel/Vauxhall that supposedly was reman'ed. Not sure about quality of reman as was done in poland.
Russell 6-an powersteering line for both pressure and return
rebel racing rack fittings
Pentosin CHF 202 fluid
80 amp resettable breaker on power wire
986 boxster on NT01s so hardly a cup car on slicks

Issue:
On certain high G turns, steering gets heavy and then slowly returns. On some occasions, the pump will trip the breaker and will lose PS for the session. Examples include turns 8 and 9 at Thunderbolt (octopus) and Chute/Toe of the boot at WGI.

Any ideas on what I should check or consider? I'd be happy to rebuild the pump again, but I don't see any rebuild kits, making me wonder what was reman'ed in poland anyway.

Now some people will say that cup car pump and the TRW pump from pedestrian cars are different, but I haven't seen any evidence of that.

Anyway, any assistance would be helpful.

Thanks.

This thread seems to have some interesting images which may help you.
https://www.elektroda.com/rtvforum/topic3414419.html

Can you hear noise from the pump when it fails? Can you find a way to load up the steering when stationary and listen to the pump under heavy load. For it to trip the 80A breaker I would think the motor will be close to stalling.

If possible, when doing this it would be a good idea to measure voltage/and or current to the pump.

I don't have electric steering but do want a cup car power steering pump set up in the future. I am tired of seeing P/S fluid sitting on the top of my engine.....not sure If I have a vent line issue.

Assuming all is well with the pump itself....which maybe your problem. I would look at the placement of the reservoir with respect to the pump intake.

Do you have a section of line routing that impedes proper pump suction head......a bend or a loop in the wrong spot which is preventing fluid getting to the pump under G.

Thanks jaykay. I do have a bend as the lines go through the bulkhead and into the rack, but the are gentle bends. The lines do go up a bit from the reservoir but others have seemingly done the same without issue. I may just have a bad pump as others have said the pump should not draw anywhere near that many amps

[QUOTE=jaykay;640989] I am tired of seeing P/S fluid sitting on the top of my engine.....not sure If I have a vent line issue./QUOTE]

Jaykay, do you have an external steering fluid cooling radiator? These are pretty simple to install and are fairly cheap..

[QUOTE=Gilles;641000] Can you elaborate please?

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[QUOTE=Gilles;641000] I do not have one. Should you have a recommended cooler and some installation notes that would be great. I am underdriven and that is about it.....

Okay if the car is sitting and the pump is drawing too many amps you have the culprit.

Try to get the pump the Porsche cup cars use in there......ah its got to be unnerving to have a change in steering feedback on banking!! I dont track my Boxster any more but high speed turn-in feel was a problem for me ....probably more on the psychological/confidence side rather than dangerous understeer.

It would be good to see images of your set up.

[QUOTE=ike84;641013] I regularly note a pool of P/S fluid that sits in crevices on top of the engine under the intake runners......it just never goes away

I have the cupcar setup but maybe just a bum pump. Will snap some when i go back to the storage garage

Sorry, that comment was directed at Gilles - I've not heard of adding a ps cooler before and would love to know more about it (setup, advantages, etc).

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Lots of GM trucks use power steering coolers factory. I don't think its really necessary for a little sports car that doens't put much strain on the power steering system. On a HEAVY chevy front end that does a lot of low speed turning; yeah that pump is doing some hard work.

Cooler is a stretch; its more like a section of pipe that has some fins on it.

Toss a thermometer in you P/S reservoir and that'll give you an idea whether or not a cooler is necessary. I'd imagine most of the heat in the power steering system is from heat soak from the engine though; so I don't think a cooler would help that much. (this is of course if you are using a belt driven pump in the engine bay)

I can tell you that road course work, especially on tighter slower tracks, with sticky tires and an electric pump gets the fluid plenty hot. I don't know whats too hot for pentosin, but its too hot to touch after coming in from a 30 min session.

sorry i missed this thread - i'd bet you are tripping the breaker because the pump is cavitating. if you look at cup car setups (regardless of whether the pump has trw or porsche motorsport written on it) you'd see that they run an extra reservoir; i presume to keep more fluid in the system as the porsche setup uses more lock to lock than does the opel/vauxhall the pump was designed for ...