1987 YUGO GV (great value?)

Updated : 01/28/06



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Well, here it is! The Turbo Yugo I've been working on for two and a half years. I get asked allot, what is my fascination with Yugos? For starters I actually like them! They are a blast to drive, fairly easy to work on, easy to park and will squeeze between turn off lanes and fat SUVs. Parts are actually easy to obtain since most of the parts used on the Yugo will interchange with other Fiat models . Particularly parts from the Fiat 128 and X 1/9. Even some Fiat Spider parts will fit this car. The fuel cap is from a Spider. Some unique parts you have to dig for. But there are lots of new old stock parts floating about on Ebay and from friends who have purchased stocks from former dealers that keep these cars going. Believe it or not, this car is still being produced in Serbia in the former Yugoslav Republic. Althought the Fiat based drivetrain has been replaced with something else. Peugot?

These cars also have allot of nostalgic appeal to me as well because they remind me of the days when I first got my driver's licence. The local VW dealership was selling these cars like hotcakes back in 1987. Everyone was buying them like VW Type Is back in the 60s. But sales started to decline after the car's first two or three years of sale. The cars just wouldn't take the sort of abuse most Americans have on cars. So their reputation became known as a throwaway car. The first time I saw one in person was at a mall in Nashville in May of 1986. I was just months away from getting my driver's licence and thought to myself, "That's a neat little car". Then in 1987 when the VW dealership was selling them I got into one and the first thing that happened when I tried to get out was the inside door handle broke. I thought what a piece of crap! I'll never own one of these things. Then I got one and wouldn't you know it, it had a broken inside door handle. So far the new door handles I installed were for a Fiat 500 and are holding up. Still made of plastic though. I think the trick to preventing them from breaking is to grab the handle as far back as possible. Don't pull on the very ends. This just puts more leverage on the handle and weakens the plastic and before you know it, SNAP!

This has to be the most complicated project I've ever attempted. The goal was to build an innocent looking car with a reputation for being a slug. Not riced out/ghetto looking, no turbo emblems, APEX stickers, loud exhaust system, hood scoops, deck wings. No Folger coffee can exhaust tip/fart box mufflers, 17" rims etc. Some say I should have imported a Fiat Uno turbo drivetrain from Europe but that's too easy but also costly and you don't always know what your getting. So how does she run? This car is the bomb! Boost is a bit slower to build up than the T3 I have on my Fiat Spider. The T25 is a good sized turbo to use on a 1500 engine but since it came from a 2.3 liter engine, I think the trim is allot larger than it needs to be so this explains the slow boost. But for $300 I can't complain. Slow boost is better than no boost at all.

I've decided for right now to stick with 5 lbs of boost. I'm estimating 5lbs of boost on a 1500 75HP stock engine yields around 100 BHP. That's almost double from what the normally aspirated 55 bhp 1100cc produces. One reason is the jetting on the carburator is tricky to sort out when doing a blow through turbo system. It's a compromise. If you have too much fuel, the engine will bog down and rev past 4000 rpms, too little fuel and the engine pings. I finally settled on increasing the secondary main from 100 to 150 which doubles the fuel flow. Fuel consumption seems be to around 22 mpg but the other day I was driving past one of those signs that tells your speed. The speed on my speedometer did not match the sign. Probably because the original 13" SR145 tires are unobtainable so the smallest tire I could find was a 13" 155 70 series. The larger tires must be throwing the speedometer readings off. Oh well.

The other issue was the car is so lightweight and being front wheel drive , it doesn't accept power increases very well. Every time I throw the gas to it, the front end lifts and the camber changes so the steering gets squirly. I actually had to learn to drive this car for the first 500 miles in order to get used to it and antisipate which directly the car was going to go in between shifts.

This wasn't a big bucks project. I estimate I have less than $2000 in the entire car. I only paid $200 for it. $800 for the rebuilt engine, this and that for new suspension and brake parts. I found new strutts on Ebay for $50 a piece. I rebuilt the calipers and wheel cylinders myself. I removed the interior and gave it a good scrubbing. I swapped the seats so the passenger seat is now the driver's seat and vice versa. And patched the holes from another seat. I recovered the door panels with a felt material. If there was anything I could repair myself or clean I did it. That's the name of the game. Why replace it if you can fix it or clean it? I felt like the Nissan dealership ripped me a new one because a four wheel alignment cost $500! Yikes! At least they did a good job.



Specifications/mods:

        1500 SOHC engine 8.5:1 C/R (sourced from a 1981 Fiat X 1/9)
        Garrett T25 turbo (sourced from a 1991 Saab 9000), modified discharge pipe also used from the Saab 9000
        Weber 32 DFTA carburetor and intake manifold (Yugo, also found on Ford Escorts and Fiestas)
        4 speed transmission w/1500 clutch (ring gears swapped on flywheel)
        13" rims from a 1981 Fiat X 1/9
        Personal Marine steering wheel (won at Fiat Freakout raffle for $20)
        JVC MP3 player (OK not much to brag about)
        Tinted windows
        Estimated BHP : 100 BHP (up from 55 bhp with 1100cc engine)



So how did I pull this project off? First of all, even though I designed and built this car, I did get allot of help and suggestions from people on the internet. So if you have contributed anything to this project then I would like to give you a big thanks. You may even see some of your suggestions listed here. I wish I could remember those who gave me specific tips.

I found that there is very little information out there when it comes to blowing through a carburetor. You would think as long as these things have been around there would be tons of info. Well there is not so I had to keep digging. I was surprised to learn that very few modications are required to blow through a carburetor. Well with a Weber anyway. The trick is to pressurize the fuel bowl by connecting the vent port to boost. This equalizes pressure across the jets and tricks the carburetor into thinking it's still operating under vacuum. However getting everything to work at the same time is complicated. Too much fuel pressure and you blow the needle of the seat and flood the carb. Too little and the engine starts bucking.

The second thing is you need the correct fuel pump. The stock mechanical pump only makes 4 PSI so they wont work. What happens is under boost, fuel is pushed backwards so you need to raise the fuel pressure proportionally to boost pressure at a 1:1 ratio. So if your initial fuel pressure is set at 3 PSI and your maximum boost pressure is 7 pounds, you need a pump capable of making at least 10 PSI. You also need a turbo carburetor bypass fuel pressure regulator. The one I used was given to me by a friend who pulled it off a 1985 Maserati Biturbo before hauling it off for scrap. This regulator is made by Malpassi. It would have been a big help to know what sort of fuel pump is supposed to be matched to this regulator. I finally learned that the 1985 Maserti fuelpump makes between 44 and 50 PSI! Weird. The fuel pump I am using came from Advance Auto Parts. It makes 10-14 PSI and flows at 35 gallons per hour. I think it's for a 4 cylinder GM throttle body vehicle like a Cavalier. Be aware that if the fuel pump you choose makes too much flow, the regulator cannot dump the fuel back to the tank fast enough so you will flood the carburetor. Don't ask me how I know this! Since writing this page, this fuelpump bit the dust after only 100 miles! Well that's what you get when you buy parts that are made in Mexico. Advance Auto replaced the pump but I'm still not happy that it gave up the ghost after a mere 100 miles. Not that I would have chose this pump if I had a choice. I'm hoping to find a Holley or Carter that produces the same pressure and flow. But seems like everything in pressure range I need flows at over 100 gallons per hour.

Since fabricating a custom exhaust manifold was too complicated, I cut the original downpipe flange off the 1500 FI 4-1 manifold at a 20º angle to compensate for the tilt the engine sits once mounted and had a professional welder, weld a SS T25 flange in place. He said if the manifold did not crack while welding, it should hold up. Then I had to fabricate custom alternator brackets and use the 1500 water pump. I also had to make a split crankshaft pulley and run two V-belts because the turbo conflicted with the alteranator. So far I haven't thrown any belts so I think this was a success. Here's some photos I took before installing the engine in the car. Disregard the fuel injection plenium. I changed my mine. I was looking at using Megasquirt but decided to give the carburator a shot.

 


Another trick was the drain hose. This stumped me for weeks. It needed to have enough slope so oil would drain out of the bearing housing and not hit with the drive axle when it moves. Also as you can see the distance between the turbo and the top of the oilpan was tight. So after some careful planning and adjusting I was able to pull this off. I mounted the return fitting in the top of the pan as far to the left as possible. My theory is there is less axle movement at the inner CV joint. If you've ever seen those Chopper shows, I used the same technique. After fabricating something on the 1500 engine, I would swap it over to the 1100 engine in the car and check for clearances. So having a spare engine on an engine stand is almost critical when carrying out a project like this. Instead of using SS braided type hose I used on my Spider, I used some Gates hose rated for hot motor oil and some push lock hose fittings. I secured the fitting to the pan with a brass bulkhead fitting on the backside. I think I cut the head off an adapter. I can't remember. I also used some copper washers on both sides then soldered the hole thing together. This makes for a strong leak proof connection.

Jetting: I wasn't sure what a good starting point should be. I did not have any spare jets to experiment with so I drilled out the secondary from a 1.00mm to a 2.00mm. Actually I used a SAE drill bit roughly that size. Little did I know I was multplying the fuel flow by 4X!! Later on I determined that the distributor had way too much advance. The engine still pinged at 5000 rpms. So I retarded the static timing to 5º BTDC and settled on a 150 secondary jet. As of now the engine still makes lots of power and no longer pings.

Ignition retard: Well I thought I was really onto something here but I guess not. I installed a dual diaphram vacuum advance module from a 70s H20 VW. By applying positive pressure to the front port, will retard the timing under boost. I later determined this only gave me about 3º retard under boost. I really neede about 10º. So the only way was to retard the static timing about 5º.

Exhaust system: I decided to stick with the stock exhaust system for now and I seriously doubt I need a bigger one. Dyno tests showed no increase in power on my Spider between a "quiet"versus "free flowing" exhaust system. Now granted if you shove a potato in the end of the tail pipe, you'll see a loss in power. Turbos do require back pressure to operate. Personally I don't believe all the hype when it comes to these performance exhaust systems on the market. On a normally aspirated engine, maybe but not from my experience. Also the stock exhaust pipe adds to the sleeper effect.

Another thing I fabbed up was a strut brace bar. The main reason for this was to give the X 1/9 reaction rod something to bolt to. This prevents the engine from rocking back and fourth 3" between shifts. The Yugo didn't have this "fourth" engine mount. Maybe because it only had 55hp so they didn't think they needed it.



Finally I decided to paint the car myself. I got $300 in this paintjob. I figure this would be a good car to learn on. Now I know why a good paint job is so expensive. I had a friend come over to help me paint it. I made the mistake of insisting we paint the car while it was raining outside. So the paint orange peeled like crazy. The humidity and temperature was just too high. Or we didn't mix the paint properly. I don't know what happened but it looked like crap afterwards. I decided to wetsand the car with 1000 grit sandpaper and then buffed it out with compound and polish. The paint is really slick but I think if I had to do it all over again I would have just repainted the car. I spent more time wetsanding and buffing the paint than I did on the body work! Live and learn I guess.

Well so far that it all I have to report for now. I probably won't be making any more mods to my Yugo. I think I've reached it's limit as to what the car is capable to doing because of it's lightweight 1800 lb body. I also think I'm through with hopping up front wheel drives. Real wheel drives are more acceptable at power increases. I think.




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