Ryfrog

Okay guys so I figured out why I was "leaning out" in cruise. I was never leaning out. I had an exhaust leak growing worse with each drive. On the way to work one day it was leaning out in cruise even worse than normal. I didn't see anything obvious under the hood when I quickly looked so I took it to lunch on break. On the way to lunch it only made about 5psi. Weird, but okay. on the way back it made 0 boost. Pop the hood, and 2 bolts on my t3 flange are missing and the turbo is LOOSE. Thankfully I had a sheet of exhaust gasket, the cage had some bolts of the right thread, and I run a waterjet so I could just cut a new gasket and bolt her back down to get me home. Some of those bolts are pretty difficult to get a wrench/socket on but I got it tight. I also ordered some ceramic infused 2000F rated thread lock that I intend to use, but haven't gotten around to applying yet. I reset my ve table back to before I started tuning as I don't know how much my tuning with the exhaust leak impacted it and set out to restart tuning the next morning on my way to work. The next morning I get goin and the car warmed up and finally do a light pull to make sure we are still making boost and such, and let the table start to tune itself throughout the rpm's. It stuttered hard and I let off immediately. I thought it was breaking up or something. AFR looked good(had my eye on it whole time) a little rich but definitely nothing bad. Did it again watching boost better and it was hitting boost cut at 18psi. I then knew my wastegate wasn't wastegating but didn't know why. I drove rest of the way to work staying mostly out of boost or lifting before 14psi if I did get into boost to stay off boost cut. On break I went out to check it out and the line from my EBC to my wastegate actuator had popped. There were not 1 but 2 holes in the line. Well that explains that. Replaced those lines with stiffer line and that has been good since. Yesterday my battery was dead even though it had charged overnight so I took a different car. Today the miata had charge once again so I got to take it. It didn't overboost, and stayed in reasonable afr's the whole trip so that was great. I went in and out of boost up and down a lot all the way here to try to get the map to tune all over. I think in doing this I popped off a vacuum line somewhere or something as when I got here it wanted to idle up at 1800rpm. Sounds like it's got to be an obvious vacuum leak but I have yet to go look at it. One day everything will finally be secure and I will drive the car without anything going wrong. That doesn't seem to have happened yet, but it is still a blast every time I get in that thing. Got a taste of what it will feel like as far as spool up with EBC set up with the blown line and wastegate actuator not actuating, now I can't wait to get that going. Boost is just so dang addictive. Gas pedal is basically a smile pedal.

Ryfrog

Post break update: a vacuum line popped off the intake manifold. I need to get some mini clamps they're all just friction fit right now which is awful. Its back on for now.

SimBa

Nice, always satisfying to realize it's a relatively simple fix.

For the turbo hardware, the common route on here is to get the Stage 8 locking hardware, which physically prevents the nuts from loosening. Pricey at something like $40 for 4 nuts, but if it keeps your turbo on then I suppose it's worth it.
FWIW I've only had one downpipe nut loosen on mine, so it could be initial heat cycles loosening things. Either way, sounds like you've got a solution. I'm also not running a gasket between the manifold and turbo, which I believe is what FM and a couple others recommend.

Ryfrog

I didn't surface either surface. I don't trust either surface. I trust my custom gasket. Should be okay. Not saying it's right, but should be ok.

Z_WAAAAAZ

Nice going dude! Getting closer and closer to dialed every day.

Keep us posted on how that super hi-temp threadlocker works. I've never head of anything like that working on a turbo system. I recently switched to ovalized Ford Explorer exhaust manifold nuts on my NA and they seemed to be holding on pretty well. Didn't get enough time to test them extensively though.

sixshooter

iTrader: (12)

I used teeny black zipties on all the little vacuum lines.

High temp wheel bearing grease on the mating faces of the turbo and manifold will cook into a carbon crust that takes up slight imperfections in the surface if gaskets don't survive.

Ryfrog

Well I have an interesting problem that I haven't had enough time to diagnose and fix but I figured I'd let y'all know what I've been working on. When I got the car it had a bad ignition switch and would sometimes not work or take multiple tries to start. I spent a weekend wiring in a passive keyless entry system and push to start with a fob and power locks alarm etc. That worked good for a while until I washed my key fob one too many times. I contacted the company to get a replacement fob, and got one that was not compatible with my control box. I just used the manual override button for the longest time, but recently resoldered the buttons in the keyfob and they started working so I could have a key again. Great. But now the car doesn't consistently shut off. I will have to kill it and then the battery is dead when I go back to it. When I was having key troubles I ordered a new (same exact link reorder from amazon) box to try to replace the whole box and use the new keys or reprogram the keys that came with it to the new box. Turns out even though I ordered the same item from the same place they have changed the design and it has the different keys and the box has a slightly different pinout. I thought that my problem was a stuck relay inside that chinese control box, but I repinned the connnectors for the new box, got it working, and it still has the same issue where it won't turn off. Somewhere I must have a short, bad ground, stuck relay, or something but I haven't had time to tear into it. Also I've been noticing when it has these problems it also messes with my speakers. This makes me think it could be ground related or a short somewhere. Hopefully I can get it working with this box, if not It will eventually get a switch for power a switch for ign and a button to start.

Z_WAAAAAZ

Woo! That sounds like my personal nightmare haha. I hate dealing with anti-theft stuff but it seems like you've been pretty tenacious in dealing with the current issue. Fingers crossed you find a smoking gun here soon!

How's she running aside from the ignition switch issues?

SimBa

On the upside, if you go to switches and buttons it looks way more racecar

Ryfrog

Okay guys so I think I found the issue. I believe my main relay was sticking open. When I swapped it the problem went away. When I swapped back the problem didn't come back. I ordered an upgraded one and will swap to that when it gets here, but am going to keep testing with this and see how it goes. Now that it shuts off I'm trying to get a good charge to it so I can do more diagnosing and driving.

Z_WAAAAAZ

Good stuff man. Keep us posted!

Agreed with Sim, though. The more switches and gauges and doohickeys the better. I was able to convince many people my car was faster than it was because of all the additional switches in the cabin!
Jokes, lol.

Ryfrog

I do like switches and gauge and things, but I also like my push to start button that has a key fob and power locks, trunk pop, and I plan to add power windows eventually. I like my afr and boost gauges, and want to switch to my nb cluster with na oil pressure gauge. Also have a radar detector. Want to add a dash cam. I have switches for the light bars. Eventually hopefully I'll also have a winch switch, air compressor switch, and boost control switch.