Car is sluggish?

[stuckwithgsx]

Helping a friend with a 95 gsx.

How much crankcase pressure should I have during a BLT?

I'm having issues with the car being sluggish or bogging down really bad until ~5 lbs of boost. After that it pulls fine, but before it just seems like it's loading up and doesn't want to go like it should.

Did a BLT and the only leaks are very minimal from the TB shaft seal, and the BISS screw. Doing the BLT I am getting a lot of pressure coming out of the PCV valve and the line going to the catch can, and that's why i'm thinking there is too much crankcase pressure. I know the seal in the turbo will typically allow air by and cause more crankcase pressure(and oil to bubble), but this still seems like a lot.

Mods are 16g, fmic, 272 in/ex cams, 3" exhaust, cometic hg, arp head studs.

What i've already tried:

Switching to stock smic
Went from stock injectors to rc550's
Adjusted BOV
Wastegate is working properly
Stock boost control solonoid and MBC
Vacuum lines are routed correctly (tried T into bov line, as well as just mbc between wg and j pipe, neither way worked)
BLT and the only leaks are minimal at TB shaft seal and BISS screw
Plugs are good, and gapped to .028 NGK bpr6es
Plug wires are good
Igniter is tightly connected
Tiny, tiny bit of turbo shaft play. Not near enough to be causing this.
No exhaust leaks
Base timing is dead on
Fuel pressure is 43 psi at idle

I'm pretty lost as to what I should do from here. I do have a greddy emanage blue to put in, but without the car running good and having no wideband i've been hesitant. Does anyone have any experience with emanage blue? If i do hook it up will I be able to somewhat see what's going on?

Also the car is having some pretty major boost creep issues. I don't think it's relevant to the sluggish feel, but could it be? Taking the wastegate off, running the wastegate and the stock bcs, and running a mbc does nothing for the boost creep. It still wants to push 1.5 bar or more. I think the exhaust, not having exernal wastegate, etc. is causing the boost creep. Again I don't think that's relevant but possibly?

What do you guys think? What could be causing this issue?

 

[volcomsnow245]

Weird maybe bad rings? How many miles do you have? Do compression test.

 

[stuckwithgsx]

There's only ~500 miles on the engine build so far. The car idles great, and pulls great after .5 bar. I can't see piston rings causing this issue.

We tried doing a homemade leakdown test (compression tester with valve core removed, and air tool fitting attatched) I couldn't get the valves to seal completely. Air would come out the intake, or the exhaust. We also tried keeping pressure on the engine keeping all valves closed and that kind of worked. We had the valve cover off and did not hear any obvious air coming from any valve seal areas.

Compression test from 1-4 = 150-145-140-120

 

[CrawlinZX14]

BHG? I doubt its rings with numbers like that. Looks like a HG went. 500 miles on the new built motor, did you retorque the head as needed after the build and a few heat cycles? Did you properly break in the motor? You have to get all those parts seated before you start getting into pulls on it. That will pop a motor in no time going hard at it before its ready.