Can no longer spool up my turbo in my 97 GSX

[Malenko]

basically I had a leak in my water pump/cooling system. Replaced the water pump and that just made it worse, so I took my car to RnK in Newark,Delaware. At the time, they were the only place that would touch my car. They said the head needed shaved.

2 months later they finally decide to finish my car, I re-flashed my ECU with the last good settings in my DSMLink saved folder. Now anytime I get on the gas and the turbo starts to spool up the car just stops wanting to accelerate and just sputters until I let off the gas. I checked for vacuum leaks and boost leaks and even replaced the plugs. Everything APPEARS to be normal but repeated calls to RnK have yielded no results, they want a couple of hundred just to look at it , and quite frankly they already raped me the first time and theres no way they are touching my car again.

I can post up a run from my DSM if it'd help at all, mod list in my profile. If I baby the car and keep the RPMs below 4K I drive, even getting the car up to 80mph with no issues, but as soon as I throttle it enough for the boost to build the sputtering happens.

I miss having AWD turbo


*FIXED* there was a boost leak somewhere, undoing and redoing all the intercooler piping and vac lines resolved the issue

 

[No_Skillz]

What were your boost leak test results?
What plugs are you running and what gap?
Are your timing marks all lined up?

Reset your DSMLink settings to just run your injectors and see if that helps.
Don't go to RnK again (head needed shaved? WTF?).

 

[crimsondragon]

I'm guessing it needed to be resurfaced cause of warpage...?

 

[Malenko]

plugs were NGKs, i replaced them temporarily with autolites till I can find another set of NGKs. I dont think the problem is anything electrical , Im just concerned about what all they could have messed up by shaving the head and putting a new gasket on.

I think they were confused by the stroker motor 6 bolt in the car and Im just wondering if they hooked anything back up thinking it was a 2.0 7 bolt motor.


they said the head needed replaced because of warpage but the car never leaked coolant from the head or over heated, but I didnt want to risk destroying my car.

 

[Malenko]

fixed it.
instead of trying to find the boost leak, I just pulled all the piping, FMIC, and vacuum lines off the car and put them back nice and tight.

Now to fix everything else......

 

[No_Skillz]

So you didn't do a BLT...

Either way, you should do one now.

 

[Malenko]

So you didn't do a BLT...

Either way, you should do one now.

I did a BLT (PVC pipe + coupler with nozzle for air compresor), but couldnt find the leak; so I just went balls out and pulled out and redid everything. Appreciate the help though, everything seems fine now, for now.

 

[jerseydiver84]

yeah thats exactly what a bad boost leak will do try using tbolt clamps on your piping as well as two ply couplers.

 

[jerseydiver84]

also in case you have the problem again a quick way to check for boost leaks get a spray bottle some dish soap and and water, park the car have someone rev it up and start spraying and looking for bubbles.

 

[Colt4G63 also]

also in case you have the problem again a quick way to check for boost leaks get a spray bottle some dish soap and and water, park the car have someone rev it up and start spraying and looking for bubbles.

I think I would be afraid to try to achieve boost in neutral. I don't know how long it takes your engine to spin up, but mine would pass redline nearly instantly.

 

[Malenko]

yeah thats exactly what a bad boost leak will do try using tbolt clamps on your piping as well as two ply couplers.

I have 3 ply couplers and T bolt clamps. RnK must have decided it didnt need to tighten em all down. Actually they replaced 2 of my 2 T bolt clamp with regular hose clamps, so maybe thats whats causing the residual issues, I thought I had it all good, but now I dont hear my BOV "fluttering" (Apexi dual chamber BOV) and my turbo isnt pulling nearly as hard as it should.