gio

Yesterday, I reversed my Bailey DV so it would be in the right direction. I guess when I had first put it in last year I had over-tightened the hose clamp and I must have stripped the thread, so when I reinstalled the valve yesterday I was unable to make as tight as it should have been.

So after some hard driving one of the hoses on my DV slipped off last night and the car died with a loud "huff". The hose clamp also slipped off never to be seen again. I reconnected the hose but less than a mile later it slipped off again. It did this 5 or 6 times of the way home - in the middle of the road. Half the time people yelled "Buy American" at me. The other half yelled "I love your car". I certainly attracted a lot of attention as I ran to push the hose on a little more at stoplights. Somehow by keeping the RPMs below 2500 I was able to make it home. This meant driven mostly in 4th and 5th gear or neutral.

This morning I ran to the hardware store, bought some more hose clamps, and the problem has been solved. This is why you should always have duct tape in your car. If I had duct tape with me I would have been fine.

Skydive69

You are the second person I have seen reversing their Bailey DV. I am in the research mode as to what if anything I want to do to my ride. Is their any particular reason that people put the valve in incorrectly in the first place? Poor instructions, confusion, etc.?

gio

Someone correct me if I'm wrong but this is how I understand it:

The diverter valve, or "blowoff" valve, keeps the turbo spooled up. When you let off the accelerator at above 2000 rpm or so, the blowoff valve lets the pressure out of the turbo. The valve is controlled by the small tube on the top of it. One large hose comes from the engine (turbo specifically?). The other goes to the exhaust. Air only flows one way. The OEM valve is a simple rubber diaphragm-type valve. Some people believe it was built backards (ie. one hose goes straight towards the diaphragm, the other is at a right angle to it). It still worked as a valve though. Except when it broke.

The Bailey Diverter Valve mimicks the OEM valve except it uses a metal piston instead of a rubber diaphragm to release the pressure from the turbo. When it is installed the same way as the OEM valve there is a "whooshing" (darth vader-like) sound when you let up on the accelerator. This isn't bad (as far as I heard) and the valve still works fine but the sound is annoying to some. I'm not sure of the details but the whooshing is caused as the piston lifts up and air is allowed to escape. It was discovered soon after the Bailey valve came into common use by TT'ers that we were all installing the valve "backwards" (we were just mimicking the OEM valve). By swapping the two large hoses the piston now faces the other way (the exhaust or turbo - I've actually never looked to see which way the piston points now). This is the way blow-off valves are supposed to operate and it eliminates the Darth Vader noise. The OEM didn't use a piston so it didn't have the Darth Vader side effect.

Why did I install it the wrong way? Well, when I got my valve back in late July of last year nobody knew it was backwards. I meant to change it but didn't get around to it until yesterday since it was working fine backwards. There are instructions for installing the valve floating around on the web - I'm not sure if they advocate installing it reversed or not.

For pics see my post a little bit above this one.

Skydive69

Thanks for the very detailed answer.