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Recently got my turbo car drivable and of course there are issues.
1. I'm experiencing some god-awful lifter tick (I hope and not rod knock.) The noise quiets/goes away in neutral and when I maintain a steady throttle percentage. It's usually always present at idle, neutral or not. Seems to get worse with load/RPM. Should I be worried?
2. My turbo seems to be smoking oil. I took a video after some highway pulls to make it really visible. I have an3 fittings so I wasn't expecting to have to use a restrictor. Do I need one? Is there somewhere else the smoke could be coming from?
Update: my spool is hot garbage and I have boost creep. I upped my EBC to 100% at 5000 rpm but it won't really spool until 4000. Above that its at 0% duty and I get 13 psi at 6000 rpm (8 psi wastegate.)
Virtualdyno says i hit 250hp at 6000rpm (third gear.) I can't even hit redline or else I might throw a rod
I don't get it. My turbo is a .48 (.6 compressor.) It's spooling like a dyno queen. I thought I might have a boost leak but it's fine at high RPM. What gives?
Blankey should not be smoking, sounds like you have an exhaust leak. Drain your oil and check for bearing material.
Exhaust leak confirmed. Before I made this post I tried pressurizing my exhaust system but I couldn't hear/feel anything leaking.
But lo and behold here's soot on my header flange (in the square cutout.) Those nuts are real bastards to tighten. Checking oil soon.
I suppose not many people are interested, but I'll keep updating this thread as a log of sorts, or for people searching this 5 years later.
I think I solved my "boost creep" by hooking up my EBC vacuum lines properly.
I tightened the nuts (some were a lot looser than they should be) and the leak seems to have gotten worse if anything. After I uninstalled/reinstalled my NA headers I had a leak too. I'm hoping my block flange isn't screwed up. I'm gonna try putting red rtv on both sides of the gasket. It might still blow, but it can't get much worse than it already is.
I found and fixed 2 boost leaks though so that's nice. Spool should be a lot better after I retune VE.
My knock sensor is consistently reading around 103%. Its a Bosch resistive type. I activated the pull up on the ECU to read resistive inputs but clearly I screwed something up. I wonder what....
My best guess is that some wires are hooked up wrong. Maybe the circuit is completely open and MS reads it as maximum resistance. I can sense more cutting, soldering, and multimetering in my future.
Just found out my coolant hardline bracket was between the gasket and manifold. Now it makes sense, even why tightening the nuts made it worse.
See my signature
The bracket was on the lower stud between the red circles, and it didn't let the surrounding gasket compress properly. If you look in the circles you can see the blown graphite.
I'm considering making a new thread since no one is reading this anyways. But I'd hate to clog up the forum.
I have no idea what's happening. My AFR is good, I'm making lots of boost pressure. I should have power.
What I can think of: my spark plugs are gapped at .05 because I have ls2 coils and I figured why tf not. I have a 2.25 exhaust (waiting on jason) but that hasn't changed between the dynos. My spark table is untuned.
Did the car run properly before bolting the turbo on? What else did you change at that time?
Is mechanical timing properly set?
Within your MS, is your timing set to "use map", or do you still have it locked at 10* from when you set base timing?
What does your timing map look like?
Car ran fine without the turbo. I've changed a bunch of stuff. Everything needed to run 250hp. Ecu, clutch, injectors, etc.
I changed a couple things between the pulls. I increased my plug gap I think. (Which is why I suspect it.) I changed my coolant and coolant ratio. Got a new o2 bung. New exhaust manifold gasket.
Along with mechanical things, I changed a bunch of stuff in tunerstudio. Idle settings, VE, and changed my boost algorithm to open loop. Still tuning my TPS enrich as well.
My base spark timing is kinda sus. I didn't have a timing cover so I had to cut one up and fit on the little timing mark parts. Then I found TDC and marked my crank pulley because I don't have a stock damper either . I backed this up by marking TDC on my aftermarket cams so I could have multiple points of reference. I set base timing and its pretty close but I could be a few degrees off. Using brains basemap. I didn't change the spark timing at all.
Car ran fine without the turbo. I've changed a bunch of stuff. Everything needed to run 250hp. Ecu, clutch, injectors, etc.
I changed a couple things between the pulls. I increased my plug gap I think. (Which is why I suspect it.) I changed my coolant and coolant ratio. Got a new o2 bung. New exhaust manifold gasket.
Along with mechanical things, I changed a bunch of stuff in tunerstudio. Idle settings, VE, and changed my boost algorithm to open loop. Still tuning my TPS enrich as well.
My base spark timing is kinda sus. I didn't have a timing cover so I had to cut one up and fit on the little timing mark parts. Then I found TDC and marked my crank pulley because I don't have a stock damper either . I backed this up by marking TDC on my aftermarket cams so I could have multiple points of reference. I set base timing and its pretty close but I could be a few degrees off. Using brains basemap. I didn't change the spark timing at all.
Verified my base timing. It's pretty good. I regapped my plugs to .035-.04 and at first I thought it worked but subsequent logs were pretty much the same.
Blue is first pull, red is second. Might be a bad data point at the end. Butt dyno said it was faster but that could be placebo.
Last edited by Das; 09-29-2020 at 07:00 PM.
Reason: words dum pictures good
Checked my timing yet again and I thought it was fine, but for kicks i set static timing at TDC and it didn't appear to be lined up. I'm not sure how much I should trust my aftermarket damper and cut up valve cover, so I'm using my cam gear, and a mark I made for TDC (Stuck a wire in Cyl 1 and looked for the top.) Well the car runs ok in the lower RPM but now it's literally unable to go past 4k or so. Obviously I screwed up yet again.
I wouldn't recommend guessing on timing, figure out how to set it properly and do it. There should be no doubt.
What aftermarket damper are you running? If it's a "lightweight" aluminum unit huck it in the garbage ASAP and save yourself some oil pump gears.
I'm pretty sure the method I'm using is the best way to do it if you no longer have timing marks or a timing cover. Do you have a better solution?
I have no idea what brand the damper is, but yes it appears to be solid aluminum. How ASAP is ASAP? I'm making like 150hp right now. Could it wait until my next timing belt job?
Id get a replacement as quick as possible, IMO even a stocker is going to be better than the solid metal paperweight on there. COULD you probably be fine for a while at 150whp, PROBABLY, but its also a part I imagine you could get VERY inexpensively... shoot, I just took mine off to go ATI and would be happy to help you out in that regard if youre willing to cover shipping. Right though, your goal is more than 150 wheel I assume... I wouldnt add any more power until you get your damper figured out. Just my opinion; ultimately its not my car, so you do you boo-boo... but if you want my stock one, PM me
09-06-2020, 10:56 PM
Lifter Tick or Something Worse? + Turbo Smoking
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. I backed this up by marking TDC on my aftermarket cams so I could have multiple points of reference. I set base timing and its pretty close but I could be a few degrees off. Using brains basemap. I didn't change the spark timing at all.
