Initial purchase and problem with a DSM

[TheRedRabbit84]

i found and have read almost everything on this site so far, and I can't tell you how thrilled i am to have a group of people who actually know something.

short story: i had an 88 ford ranger, and was trying to sell it when a guy asked me if he would take a trade on it. He wanted to swap a 91 eagle talon for the ranger, but the talon didn't run right. i figured i would come out the better in this deal since he needed a car to get to and from work and i wanted a toy to work on.

when we did the swapity-do, he left and i pulled it into my garage and popped the hood and started to take a catalog of all the things wrong that would need to be fixed. (he said that it pushed 160 PSI on a compression test and had been rebuilt, but i have heard that so much i don't trust it) but the inside DOES look like a teenager got ahold of it, no biggie

anywho, i dont know a thing about turbo engines, although I have an idea after reading this forum. and it seems that if i want to have this car run at all well, then i will have to become a DSM expert.

so, i know what the FIAV is, although i disagree with its purpose. and from reading this i know what MOST of the stuff is,(BISS, ISC motor, BOV, i just dont know WHERE anything not on the throttle body is, does anyone know where i can find pictures to show me, cause every engine i look at is different online.)

i have so many questions i could fill up a book about this so i'll shush for now, and see what you guys think.

Problem #1
guy said that it recently lost boost, and said the culprit was a boost leak (not that i will take him at his word). turbo won't spool, as if i know what that sounded like if it did... and it throws a check engine light. and after reading a bunch of stuff, i am going to try a boost leak test, but where is the wastegate, and what does it do?

Problem #2
It won't push over and up into 5th or down into reverse. at first I thought the shift linkage could have been binding, but a shop here told me that it has no linkage and my synchros went out. I have since stoped talking to ANY shop as they all know nothing about these cars. i'm just looking for verification on this one, i think the shifter assembly under the console lost a pin or something, possible or not? (its also very loose in the other gears, i sometimes have to hold the shifter UP so it wont grind out of 1st). would the shop manual (which i don't have yet, but am getting this weekend) tell me how to fix it if it is?

 

[Mr Peepers]

This may help with finding your way around the engine bay:
Virtual Tour of the DSM Engine Bay - Top index

kenamond is viewing this thread; I'll leave the detailed post to him

 

[kenamond]

so, i know what the FIAV is, although i disagree with its purpose. and from reading this i know what MOST of the stuff is,(BISS, ISC motor, BOV, i just dont know WHERE anything not on the throttle body is, does anyone know where i can find pictures to show me, cause every engine i look at is different online.)

This should be a big help:
Virtual Tour of the DSM Engine Bay - Top index

Problem #1
guy said that it recently lost boost, and said the culprit was a boost leak (not that i will take him at his word). turbo won't spool, as if i know what that sounded like if it did... and it throws a check engine light. and after reading a bunch of stuff, i am going to try a boost leak test, but where is the wastegate, and what does it do?

There are a trillion things you can check, but a few would be:

• Check the turbo out: Pull the intake pipe off of the compressor inlet (passenger side of the turbocharger) and reach into the inlet, grab the nut at the center of the compressor wheel and wiggle it. It can move side/side (toward the sides of the housing) a bit as long as it doesn't touch the housing. Try wiggling it in/out of the inlet. If it has *any* play, that's a sign of bearing wear; the turbo is on its way out. Finally, see if it spins freely.
  By the way, that bronze "canister" that's bolted to the compressor housing is the wastegate actuator. I'll get back to it...
• Consider buying a logger. Get a used PDA that has rechargeable batteries, a backlit screen, and a serial hotsync port (eBay has tons of them). Buy a cable or make one yourself (search for directions). Then download MMCd or OBDGauge for free, install it on your Palm, then you're done. Search for what a logger can do for you (I have to keep this post to a reasonable length ) It will read error codes for you and do a bunch more. It can tell you what the ECU sees from its sensors and what it's doing in terms of injectors, fuel trims, etc. Handy for narrowing down culprits.
• Make a boost leak tester and do a boost leak test (BLT) and fix all the leaks. This is probably the most-covered topic on this forum, so searching will reward you with countless posts on the subject.
• Check out compression. If you Google "dsmgrrrl compression" you'll find a good site for this including specs.
• Check your plugs. Everyone recommends NGK BPR6ES plugs gapped to 0.028" for cars running under 17psi boost. I'd read the plugs, too. If you have boost leaks, that can cause you to run rich which, if bad enough, would show on the plugs. Orange-tan is good.

I don't know anything about transmissions, but you may want to make sure it's not something with the linkage before digging into the tranny.

Back to the wastegate actuator. The vaccuum line on the WGA provides a boost signal from the compressor outlet of the turbo (tells the WGA how high the boost is). The WGA has a diaphragm and spring inside and an actuator arm sticking out the driver's side. The spring holds the arm into the WGA until the boost pressure is great enough to compress the spring and extend the arm. The other end of the arm connects to the lever on the turbine housing (other end - driver's side - of the turbo). That lever controls an internal door (called the wastegate or WG) that bypasses gas around the turbine wheel to limit how much exhaust flow the turbine wheel gets. Limiting the flow limits how hard the turbine wheel will drive the compressor wheel (they're on the same shaft). That limits how much boost the compressor will generate. So when the boost is below that threshold, the WGA is holding the arm in, the lever connected to it holds the WG "door" closed, and 100% of the exhaust goes through the turbine. That drives the compressor as hard as it can. The boost rises until the pressure is high enough to start pushing the actuator arm and opening the WG. When it reaches the maximum desired boost level, the WG is open and only enough exhaust goes through the turbine to hold boost at that level.

That's all on a stock setup. There are ways of putting that WG door outside of the turbine housing (called an external wastegate). All of the stock turbos have an internal wastegate. But the principle is the same; the door just happens to be farther up the hallway, so to speak. Every external WG I've seen has the WGA and WG all built into one unit that bolts to the exhaust somewhere (manifold usually).

Also, the vaccuum line on the WGA has a boost controller between it and the compressor outlet nipple. That "hides" some of the boost pressure so that the WGA opens at a higher pressure, and this causes the boost level to go up. The stock setup has a solenoid that toggles this "hiding of boost" on and off depending on whether the ECU is happy with things or not. That boost controller is the BCS (boost control solenoid). Most of us replace this with an adjustable controller (manual boost controller - MBC) or electronic controller (EBC). But it's the same thing: hide some boost from the WGA to get higher boost. But in our case, we can adjust it to get more power (but only if your car has supporting mods for that boost level).

That's probably enough fire-hose-treatment for now. And 10 others have probably already posted. (had problems when I hit submit and saw Peepers' RUDE comment)

 

[Mr Peepers]

^What he said

I already got the virtual engine bay covered; too slow...

In all seriousness, holy sh!t


For your check engine light: http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/art...out-scantool-cel-testing-1g-turbo-models.html
or (1g, T, AWD) Have your own ECU diagnostic tool for less than 2 dollars!!

 

[klipschaudio]

^What he said

I already got the virtual engine bay covered; too slow...

In all seriousness, holy sh!t


For your check engine light: http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/art...out-scantool-cel-testing-1g-turbo-models.html
or (1g, T, AWD) Have your own ECU diagnostic tool for less than 2 dollars!!

Good info

 

[talon_frost]

For a boost leak tester, Look on google on how to make your own because personally i have never seen one for sale,but make your own cost me about 8$ and it does wonders. And for the shifter problem i would check the linkage bacause my talon did the same thing and it turned out to be the spring was broken and thats what made it so loose,also the cables might need to be adjusted,,,just something to help becasue those few things helped me ,,,,,

 

[voodoogsx]

The issue with the trans sounds like it could be going out. I had something similar on other gears on my old trans. It had become very loose and eventually started poping out. Eventually it just stopped going into the gears alltogether. The linkages were all okay so that ruled a possible issue for myself.

Now I'm not certian, but I thought that I read that the 1g's actually had and adjusting nut for the linkage, so if thats the case you might be in luck.

 

[kenamond]

The issue with the trans sounds like it could be going out. I had something similar on other gears on my old trans. It had become very loose and eventually started poping out. Eventually it just stopped going into the gears alltogether. The linkages were all okay so that ruled a possible issue for myself.

Now I'm not certian, but I thought that I read that the 1g's actually had and adjusting nut for the linkage, so if thats the case you might be in luck.

Both have rod-ends that can be adjusted. The VFAQ has a shifter adjustment article for the 1g (notice that the 1st bullet says, "You can't get it into 1st/2nd or 5th/R - this is because the side-to-side adjustment is off"):
http://www.vfaq.com/mods/shifter3.html