The Central Hub for DSM Community and Information

For 1990-1999 Mitsubishi Eclipse, Eagle Talon, Plymouth Laser, and Galant VR-4 Owners. This is where the DSM platform history is documented and archived. Log in to help us in our mission, and to remove most ads from the browsing experience.

Not sure whats going on

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

DaveDSM

20+ Year Contributor
294
0
Mar 12, 2003
My car has been having problems under boost. In 1st gear, I will floor it, and the boost will go up to 16psi, then drop straight back to 7 psi. In 2nd or 3rd though, it will go up to 16psi and hold it until the car starts to buck and hesitate around 4k-5k. I've tested for boost leaks and datalogged this, here is what I've found:

My Hallman ES has a copper fitting in the hose to the wastegate that has a hole in it. This leaks a lot under intake leak testing. Is this supposed to be there? I couldn't get past 7 psi without covering that hole on the testing.

My plugs are gapped correctly, and the plug wires are on tightly(2 year old Magnecores).

After getting rid of leaks in my intercooler piping, and taping off the hole in the wastegate hose fitting, my car only goes up to 16psi. I found leaks at the dipstick and the oil cap.

On the datalog, in first gear I floored it, but my TPS reading only hits above 90% once. The rest of the time it was showing only 77%. At idle, my TPS shows 10% when I'm not even touching the pedal.

First gear datalog shows 29 counts of knock at 36xx, then goes down to only 2 counts by redline.

Third gear (where it holds the 16psi til 4-5k) shows TPS at only 77% and 20 some counts at the same spot, then it drops.

Fuel injector pulse doesn't exceed 16.8ms in any of this. Fuel trims are showing 118% for low, mid, and 119% for high. o2's are .85-.89v at 77% tps, but at 99% tps they're .76v

I don't know where to start with this. My base fuel pressure is set at 50psi on 450 injectors. I have a 90 AWD, 14b with Stage 1 mods, a walbro 255, and a 5 knob afc currently zeroed out.

Under boost it sounds like I'm hitting a rev limiter in 3rd or 4th. Yet my TPS isn't showing that I'm flooring the car when I am.

What all should I look for and check into? It looks like boost spike in 1st, but then in 3rd it goes to 16psi and holds. Fuel trims say I'm running lean, o2's and injector pulse look o.k. I'm confused. OMG
 
I did a leak test with the oil cap and the dipstick sealed, too. Still can't go above 16 psi.

Any ideas out there for all of this?
 
DaveDSM said:
My car has been having problems under boost. In 1st gear, I will floor it, and the boost will go up to 16psi, then drop straight back to 7 psi.
The pistons are outrunning the turbo. "Boost" is "More Pressure Than The Pistons Can Get Away From". As the engine speeds up and starts admitting more air, it takes more volume to keep a boost needle at a given level.

Stop trying to boost in first. It only stresses things. Get into second, then third. THEN "worry" about your boost levels.
 
Wait, why doesn't he want to worry about boosting in 1st gear?
I think he is also saying hes having a hesitation in 3rd right?

Maybe that is your car running way to rich...do you ever look behind you when it hesitates like that? Is it blowing a lot of black smoke? If so, lean it out a bit with your AFC.

Just taking guesses here...Did your car start doing this after you upped teh F.P. and had the AFC put in? This happened to a buddy of mine and we had to mess with his AFC settings, and then we pulled the o2 sensor and cleaned it hardcore from all the gas build up.

Let us know anything else you find out.
 
Pistons outrunning the turbo?

The car puts out blue smoke on startup, and the oil seal in the turbo is bad, but under WOT I don't see any smoke coming out of the tailpipe.

No black smoke is coming out when it hesitates.

Car used to hold 25 psi without problems. At idle it would pull 20hg. By last summer it was doing 18-19hg, then its gotten worse since then. It'll pull 22hg in when I start it up, then settle to 20hg. After I drive for a little though, it'll go as high as 14 hg in, with it hovering on 16 hg in at idle.

It seems like somethings heating up and leaking?
 
Add Value - Be Respectful - No Trolling - No Misinformation - Participate Often!
Support Vendors who Support the DSM Community

Build Thread Updates

Latest Classifieds

Back
Top