major problem, i dont know whats going on! please help

[Sbeing1]

Alright my car has been runing really rich due to my large injectors (i think there 550's but were not sure, might be stock i dont know) and 255 pump, with no tuning or afpr. It always backfired when it got to boost at 3rd gear (im an auto). Also i have an exhaust leak in the flex peice of the downpipe that i jbwelded. well today i pulled up next to this old camaro muscle car, we ran and it backfired and now my car boosts weird and it got really loud and ricey sounding from the downpipe area (im assuming its just the jb weld that blew off but i dont know) and now the car boost really weird. I wont feel the boost at low rpms like i did before (i have a super 16g turbo) and heres what happenes when i step on the gas. i used to step on it, get kicked back a little and feel the boost and itd raise up to 20psi or so. well now i step on it and itll go to 10psi (i dont feel anyboost between 1-10psi) only when it gets to 10psi do i feel anything (it vibrates the car a little now too), then itll stay at ten psi and shoot up to 20psi and itll go alright. now i know what you guys are thinking, boost leak, i did a boost leak test and the only thing leaking was the mbc. i didnt know what to do so i called my friend 95dodgeavenger. he said to take off the mbc and connect the to hoses and see how it runs. i did, ran it and it acts exactly the same goes to 10psi then shoots to 20psi tward end of gear. he said it might be the wastegate actuator arm thats stuck (which would make sense, i drove around at wot and itd barely boost then all of a sudden boost good, then it wouldnt boost...really weird) so i tried pusing the actuator arm in tward the bell house thing and i couldnt, how hard is it to move that thing? i dont know what to do here guys and i dont know where to turn. if any of you guys think you know whats going on here please let me know. thanks alot guys

 

[Waredtalontsi]

Also i have an exhaust leak in the flex peice of the downpipe that i jbwelded.

Why on earth do you have JB weld on your downpipe?

 

[oldman]

1. It's perfectly normal for mbc to leak air during a pressure test, reason why removing or turning it all the way up is always step one in pressure testing. You can go ahead and reinstall your mbc but make sure your pressure test was complete, I suspect that you were unable to finish it due to the leak at the mbc.

2. You need to put the 450s back in or get your tuning done, what happened to the safc or dsmlink in your profile? I suspect that your cat is probably clogged due to running pig rich all the time, the lack of afpr doesn't help either. Make sure you also check your oil for fuel mixture.

 

[Sbeing1]

1. It's perfectly normal for mbc to leak air during a pressure test, reason why removing or turning it all the way up is always step one in pressure testing. You can go ahead and reinstall your mbc but make sure your pressure test was complete, I suspect that you were unable to finish it due to the leak at the mbc.

2. You need to put the 450s back in or get your tuning done, what happened to the safc or dsmlink in your profile? I suspect that your cat is probably clogged due to running pig rich all the time, the lack of afpr doesn't help either. Make sure you also check your oil for fuel mixture.

yea i got the boost leak test done, i just pinched the mbc line so it wouldnt leak. about putting the 450cc's back in, i bought the car like this and im not sure if they are 450cc's or if they are 550cc's. im going to buy the afpr today and see if that does anything. the dsmlink i have is with a friend at the moment for another couple weeks so i dont have it anymore (i sold safc for dsmlink). So you think it just backfired and clogged the cat up and im not boost correctly because of that?? when i put my hand under the car under the driver seat i can feel tons of exhaut leakage but if i put my hand near my muffler i dont feel as much. can a large exhaust leak cause these symptoms. Thank you so much!

 

[oldman]

No, any exhaust leak after O2 housing and beyond will not effect the drivability or performance of the car except for the noise, you can actually run open DP and your car will perform better because the less restriction on the exhaust, the better for TURBO cars. I'm not saying it's a clogged cat for sure but since you're running pig rich and you have tons of exhaust leaks pre-cat, it's something you should look into.

BTW how much pressure and for how long was the intake tract able to hold before you call an end to the pressure test?

about putting the 450cc's back in, i bought the car like this and im not sure if they are 450cc's or if they are 550cc's.

It's crucial that you either make sure buy physically checking the injector for color code and part number or install your dsmlink so you can log and find out for sure.

im going to buy the afpr today and see if that does anything.

Please, makesure it's anything but the B&M Command Flo.

 

[Sbeing1]

ok awesome thanks for the info old man i did the boost leak test and it held 30psi b4 i let it go, the only thing that leaked was my mbc and this vacuum line blew off the intake manifold but i secured it now. i bought the aeromotive afpr today and im going to install it tomm after school. Also about the injectors, how do i check what size they are? ive taken them out and looked for a part number and i cant find anything. they have a orange color on them i think, if that means anything. thanks alot man

 

[Sbeing1]

oh and the reason we think they are 550cc'sis because we tuned it with dsmlink for 550cc's and it worked great and it showed them being 550's. but were not totally sure because we heard some stockers can act like 550s

 

[oldman]

Stock 450s are blue top so orange indicates that they're not stock. Why did you tune it with dsmlink and remove it again? Get that thing tuned and the afpr correctly installed with base pressure dialed down, if problem persists, remove the cat and see if it helps. Good luck.

 

[Sbeing1]

alright i got it installed and set it to 43.2psi with vacuum off then put it on and drove it, it backfires still! so i called up a fellow dsmer and said i should maybe raise is because i have 550cc maybe, so i was in the process of raising it and my fuel lines exploded!!! and the car shut off. so now i have to go buy high pressure fuel line tommorrow also, my car was acting weird when i installed the afpr, it was like vrooooom then nothing then vroooom then nothing the vrooooom, like it would go up in revs then nothing then up and down over and over. what would that mean? iom to lean? to rich? thanks alot

ps- i really dont know what im supposed to do with this afpr, i installed it and thats all i know, i dont know what to do or to expect. i thought it would bring my idle down but it didnt. please help me. thanks again!

 

[oldman]

ps- i really dont know what im supposed to do with this afpr, i installed it and thats all i know, i dont know what to do or to expect. i thought it would bring my idle down but it didnt. please help me. thanks again!

Nothing, you set it and forget it, reset it to 43.5psi and leave it alone. You had multiple problems to start with, fixing one of them (fpr overrun) does not mean you're done. Your friend was wrong about raising the fuel pressure, if you were running rich because you have un-tuned 550s, why would you raise the pressure to make it even worse? We have already determined that orange means none stock injectors so only dsmlink or safc/logger can help you now.

 

[flinguist]

Check your plugs. I had some backfiring problems in the past, and bad plugs was the cause.

 

[Sbeing1]

Nothing, you set it and forget it, reset it to 43.5psi and leave it alone. You had multiple problems to start with, fixing one of them (fpr overrun) does not mean you're done. Your friend was wrong about raising the fuel pressure, if you were running rich because you have un-tuned 550s, why would you raise the pressure to make it even worse? We have already determined that orange means none stock injectors so only dsmlink or safc/logger can help you now.

oh ok thanks alot oldman!! you have been a great help to me. i cant thank you enough, dsmlink comes back in januray and well see what happens.

actually i have one more question for you. do u think my wastegate actuator arm is stuck? i cant move it at all and i try as hard as i possibly can and it wont work. And for somereason i boost to like 20 and it jumps to 25+ and backfires, could this be from a stick arm>????? thank you SOOO MUCH man!

 

[oldman]

You're not suppose to be able to move the actuator by hand, maybe a little with a plier. If you want to check if the actuator is stuck, apply compressed air directly to it, it should move forward at about 12 psi.

Are you having all out boost or boost creep?

All out boost = boost shooting straight up to infinity immediately.
Boost creep = hitting boost setting first, hold for a little bit, then slowly creeps up as the rpm increases.

 

[Sbeing1]

You're not suppose to be able to move the actuator by hand, maybe a little with a plier. If you want to check if the actuator is stuck, apply compressed air directly to it, it should move forward at about 12 psi.

Are you having all out boost or boost creep?

All out boost = boost shooting straight up to infinity immediately.
Boost creep = hitting boost setting first, hold for a little bit, then slowly creeps up as the rpm increases.

well i have the boost set as low as possible on the mbc and itll goto 10then immediatley shoot to infinity like you said....what what that mean? oh and sometimes at idle itll rev its self up to like 2grand then go boomm and drop to 1k then back up to 2k then brommm back to one. im not sure what that is. thanks alot man!

 

[oldman]

Did it pause at 10psi for a split second?

 

[Sbeing1]

hmm yea maybe just a for a second....but im not positive, ill check tonight for sure. what would that mean if it pauses?

 

[oldman]

If it does, you have boost creep. If it doesn't, you have all out boost. Two different problems that requires different solutions.

 

[Sbeing1]

Alright, so i checked for leaks and heres what I found (using water in a spray bottle with deturgent in it and a home made boost leak testor)....

Leaks on Greddy Type-S BOV
- Screw on top (fixed with teflon tape)
- Vacuum connector (fixed with teflon tape)
- Flange Conneecting it to ICP (fixed with a o-ring and gutter sealent)

Leaks on Aeromotive AFPR
- Screw on top (fixed with teflon tape)
- Vacuum connector (fixed with teflon tape)

Leaks on TB
-Plastic Screw (fixed with teflon tape)

.....and thats it. They were all small leaks. Also while I was at it I took out that big black box connectred to the lower intercooler piping (right before the IC) and replaced it with some old exhaust piping (i cleaned it out).

Well, I started up the car and now it idles like crap, its terrible. Before I did the boost leak test I had perfect 21 Vacuum with a high idle of 1700 rpm. Now after the test and fixes I idle at about 1000-500 rpm and my vacuum is a low 10 . Im not quite sure what is going on. I thought fixing these leaks would make my car run better but that doesnt seem so. Or would it be like with the exhaust, where the cat just covered up its bad wastegate and in this case the boost/vacuum leaks covered up something aswell. Will dsmlink help me with the vacuum? Thank you very much oldman!!! You !!

 

[Sbeing1]

alright (man the forums have been down a while). it pauses then it creeps up. I was going to gut the cat because you said its probably clogged, i jacked up the car and to my amazement the cat rusted itself off the cat back. so basically all i have is a downpipe and cat in my exhaust system. so i hacksawed the cat off the downpipe and now im just straight downpipe (i need to buy a new dp and cat anyway). do you think the reason for the creep is because i wasnt going out through the cat back?? thanks alot your the best

 

[Sbeing1]

im guessing when i was racing that camario and it backfired it blew the cat off the cat back and thats why it got so loud and i got boost creep because it didnt have the restriction of the cat back. But what would be the reason i dont feel boost as much anymore? probably just a boost leak?

 

[oldman]

do you think the reason for the creep is because i wasnt going out through the cat back?? thanks alot your the best

Yes and no. The real cause of boost creep is the poorly designed wastegate path in the turbine house which was revealed by a cat/catback less system (or covered up by a restrictive exhaust system if you will). To completely cure boost creep you need to either go external or properly port the turbine housing because when you install a 3" tubo back (sometimes even 2.5"), you will most likely be creeping anyway.

But what would be the reason i dont feel boost as much anymore? probably just a boost leak?

What exactly was done before the loss of power felling started? I'm guessing the injectors, anything else?

 

[Sbeing1]

yea, well im pretty much just looking to cover it up again. I dont have the time and money right now to do any extensive work on the wastegate at this moment. So what do you suggest i do? Im thinking of just getting another cat and be done with that for a while.

The loss of power started to happen immediatley when i raced that camaro and it backfired and my cat fell off. After that i couldnt feel boost until about 10psi. Im guessing a major boost leak, im checking for one as we speak. It didnt happen after i did a mod, it happened after that race.

 

[Sbeing1]

btw i get dsmlink back in 2-3days. So ill be tuned then.

 

[oldman]

The loss of power started to happen immediatley when i raced that camaro and it backfired and my cat fell off. After that i couldnt feel boost until about 10psi. Im guessing a major boost leak, im checking for one as we speak. It didnt happen after i did a mod, it happened after that race.

Also, check for exhaust leaks before turbo.

 

[Sbeing1]

Alright, so i checked for leaks and heres what I found (using water in a spray bottle with deturgent in it and a home made boost leak testor)....

Leaks on Greddy Type-S BOV
- Screw on top (fixed with teflon tape)
- Vacuum connector (fixed with teflon tape)
- Flange Conneecting it to ICP (fixed with a o-ring and gutter sealent)

Leaks on Aeromotive AFPR
- Screw on top (fixed with teflon tape)
- Vacuum connector (fixed with teflon tape)

Leaks on TB
-Plastic Screw (fixed with teflon tape)

.....and thats it. They were all small leaks. Also while I was at it I took out that big black box connectred to the lower intercooler piping (right before the IC) and replaced it with some old exhaust piping (i cleaned it out).

Well, I started up the car and now it idles like crap, its terrible. Before I did the boost leak test I had perfect 21 Vacuum with a high idle of 1700 rpm. Now after the test and fixes I idle at about 1000-500 rpm and my vacuum is a low 10 . Im not quite sure what is going on. I thought fixing these leaks would make my car run better but that doesnt seem so. Or would it be like with the exhaust, where the cat just covered up its bad wastegate and in this case the boost/vacuum leaks covered up something aswell. Will dsmlink help me with the vacuum? Thank you very much oldman!!! You !!!