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The car's FINALLY working again!
Posted: Mon Mar 08, 2004 4:43 am
by boostjunkie
... but you'll never guess why I was having problems.
Completely pissed off Sat morning I decided to go over EVERYTHING I checked last week before I attempted to tackle the turbo swap.
So I pulled the intercooler, checked all the vaccum hoses, and filled the intercooler/hose fittings with water, just to see if they would leak. When I pulled off the intercooler hose (after managing to take off the goop I used to seal it to the inlet pipe) I found something very startling.
Looking at the inlet pipe I saw that the goop had actually melted, forming a blockage in the inlet tract. The actually area of the opening was now no bigger than a dime!!
So I took to cutting out the goop deposits, hooked up the intercooler to the car, and whattaya know, I'VE GOT BOOST AGAIN!!
So after almost three weeks of frustration, I figured out that:
1. I have no cat.
2. Goop might really need the allotted 24hr period to cure (I left it for 18, but the hose was well secured without the clamps). Either that, or it reaches thermal breakdown at turbo intake temps.
Back to 16psi and lovin it!!
*crosses fingers*
Posted: Mon Mar 08, 2004 4:51 am
by georryan
< Ryan bangs his sword against his shield in a triumphant cheer> ....right...wrong time period. Anyways, THAT RULES man. I'm glad you finally figured it out. I can't wait till I can boost to 16 psi.
Re: The car's FINALLY working again!
Posted: Mon Mar 08, 2004 4:53 am
by QuickDrive
Nice,
What FCD do you use to achieve 16psi?
and I assume the V2 isn't for sale anymore then huh.
Posted: Mon Mar 08, 2004 4:55 am
by vrg3
Wow.
That's awesome that you got it fixed!
Another thing about Goop is that while it's setting it actually continues to flow a little. It flows slowly, like tar or mollasses, but it can cause unintended rearrangements of the sealant.
Posted: Mon Mar 08, 2004 4:58 am
by boostjunkie
Thanks guys!! You don't know how happy I was to get the car up and running again!! I drove through 2 tanks of gas in the past two days!!
QuickDrive, I was the test bed for vrg3's FCD, and ever since I've had no problems with it whatsoever. The intercooler sale has been postponed for now. I was test fitting a wrx intercooler and I'd need to do some reworking of the engine bay, as well as finding a way to hook up the stock bov. I'll let you know if/when I decide to sell it.
Posted: Mon Mar 08, 2004 4:59 am
by vrg3
The junkie's got his fix.
Posted: Mon Mar 08, 2004 4:59 am
by THAWA
boostjunkie wrote:I drove through 2 tanks of gas in the past two days!!
jesus!
Posted: Mon Mar 08, 2004 5:03 am
by boostjunkie
THAWA wrote:boostjunkie wrote:I drove through 2 tanks of gas in the past two days!!
jesus!
Like vrg3 said, I needed to get my fix
And believe me, after I found the car was running normally again I changed the plugs, wires, fuel filter, cleaned the k&n, put some techron fuel cleaner in . . . and then let the ecu learn . . . with LOTS of boosting!!
Posted: Mon Mar 08, 2004 5:04 am
by THAWA
sounds hott man, do you know why it messes up when it rains though?
Posted: Mon Mar 08, 2004 5:09 am
by boostjunkie
I've traced it to either the main harness that goes into the firewall just above the turbo or the harness that runs along the firewall past the stock ignitor location (or both). Probably one of the wires in both of the harnesses is frayed, so when it gets wet all hell breaks loose. Usually, a slight jiggle will get things back to normal . . . usually. But I'm sure I just jinxed myself.
It rained pretty darn hard tonight, and I had a very slight problem. When cruising with the accelerator barely touched, and with the engine under 3000rpm, I would get the crazy a/f ratios that light up four or five leds at a time, but moving the throttle a tad more would set things right.
I'm tempted to say it's the throttle sensor (or more likely the sensor harness) that is the culprit.
Posted: Mon Mar 08, 2004 5:09 am
by QuickDrive
Nice,
I burned up 1/2 tank in a day this week when I installed the K&N and took my intake snorkus off, WHOOOSH.
I don't know how much I'd burn up with 16psi, hahah
Posted: Mon Mar 08, 2004 5:13 am
by boostjunkie
Hehe, about 18miles/gallon for me
Posted: Mon Mar 08, 2004 5:14 am
by QuickDrive
Yeah I'm not much better off...
I need to change a few things to get my mileage up a little...
Posted: Mon Mar 08, 2004 5:49 am
by georryan
Hehe, about 18miles/gallon for me
That much? With that much boosting you only loose 1 mpg? That's nice. I was expecting more than that. Do you run an MSD DIS-2 at all?
Posted: Mon Mar 08, 2004 3:23 pm
by boostjunkie
No upgraded ignition components, other than the diamond coil pack.
Posted: Mon Mar 08, 2004 8:14 pm
by ciper
Help me to understand where the goop piled up.
Posted: Mon Mar 08, 2004 8:57 pm
by boostjunkie
If you imagine the inlet opening as a tube, the goop started collecting just inside of the tube forming an inner "lip." Kinda the opposite of what I wanted to do on the outside of the inlet to keep the intercooler hose attached.
Posted: Fri Mar 12, 2004 4:45 am
by legacy92ej22t
Good to hear you're up running again! I'm glad it was something stupid and not your exhaust turbine or some other huge problem.
Posted: Fri Mar 12, 2004 4:46 am
by boostjunkie
Me too!
WHEW!!!