Does this sound like a boost leak?

[Deathmug]

Symptoms:
Runs fine under negative vacuum, but RPMs stop increasing at about 3K(when boost kicks in), & there is defiant power loss. Also starts spewing out A LOT of black smoke. That leads me to believe it’s running too rich. I cant tell for sure because my logger was not able to connect. I thought it was the ECU, so I bought a 97 ECU & that connected the first time I tried but didn’t every time I tried after that.

Based on my limited experience/knowledge I believe I may have a boost leak.
To be honest, I don’t really understand how to construct a boost leak tester from VFAQ.

Could someone that’s made one help me out on making one?

 

[toutsuu]

Is the turbo spooling?

 

[Deathmug]

Yeah it is. I just installed it. I bought it off a guy works fine. No shaft-play at all.

The car stutters & the RPMs top increasing as soon as boost hits about 1psi.

 

[weith1111]

That would be symptoms of a MAJOR boost leak, like IC pipe blown off it's coupling. Pop the hood and check all the connections, it should be pretty obvious. If not, do a boost leak test. Did this happen all of a sudden?

 

[Deathmug]

No. It's a new Jasper motor. The new motor has about 40 miles on it.
The shop that put it in used the stock turbo that was BLOWN, because i couldnt afford a new one at the time. It had major shaft play. The car was doing the same thing then, but they said it was the blown turbo causing the problem.
That made since to me, so I assumed it would run like a champ after I got a new turbo on there.

 

[oldman]

What exactly don't you understand about the vfaq article? I don't think I can explain it any better then the article itself.

 

[Deathmug]

What exactly don't you understand about the vfaq article? I don't think I can explain it any better then the article itself.

How do you attach the valve to the cap? Does it screw in or are you supposed to glue it or something?

 

[crxp-o-s4now]

drill a hole to the perfect size for the valve to fit in the cap. It will probably still wobble somewhat so use that "4 minute instant bond" formula and you should be set. That's what i did.

 

[oldman]

How do you attach the valve to the cap? Does it screw in or are you supposed to glue it or something?

Go to the tire valve stem section at Pepboys and pick up the ones with rubber ends. Go to the pluming section at HomeDepot, pick up a rubber coupler with one end fitting your turbo inlet and the other end fitting any PVC pipe end caps you can find. Go home and drill a hole in the center of the end cap, the hole should be much smaller than the valve stem so you can pull the valve stem through the hole. Once you have everything in front of you, everything will be clear.

 

[Deathmug]

I just wanted to let you guys know I found the problem.
Turns out the geniuses that did the engine swap didn’t clamp down the intercooler outlet coupler. It’s running great except for some idle surge. It creeps up to about 1.2k RPMs and drops down to about 800 over the course of about 3 seconds.
I tested out the idle control motor & it’s fine.

Anyone have a suggestion on what I can do to fix that?

 

[weith1111]

Nice work!

About the idle surge...search is your friend. Check on here and the vfaq, it's been covered a million times as 99% of DSMers have had an idle problem at one time or another. There are 3 or 4 things it can be, you just need to check them one by one and rule them out. Simple as that! Instructions are to be found all over. Check www.plymouthlaser.com, it covers a couple.

 

[oldman]

I just wanted to let you guys know I found the problem.
Turns out the geniuses that did the engine swap didn’t clamp down the intercooler outlet coupler. It’s running great except for some idle surge. It creeps up to about 1.2k RPMs and drops down to about 800 over the course of about 3 seconds.
I tested out the idle control motor & it’s fine.

Anyone have a suggestion on what I can do to fix that?

Just because you found one huge leak doesn't mean you're off the hook, I'm willing to bet that you still have tons of leaks and I won't be surprised if your idling issue has to do with boost/vacuum leaks, the leak test still needs to be done.

 

[weith1111]

Just because you found one huge leak doesn't mean you're off the hook, I'm willing to bet that you still have tons of leaks and I won't be surprised if your idling issue has to do with boost/vacuum leaks, the leak test still needs to be done.

Agree. Don't half ass it either, do it correctly, with enough psi to stress the joints (20 psi should do) and use soapy water on the connections to find all the leaks. A boost-leakless DSM is a happy DSM!

At least you can drive it now! I had to drive like 30 miles on the highway with no boost once, blew an IC pipe off and didn't even have a screwdriver or penny or anything to tighten it back down. That sucked.

 

[Chaddycakes21]

How did your car even run after blowing off a pipe? When this happened to me, i could only drive my car 5 mph. It happened right on the expressway i though i was going to die because my car wouldnt move and there wa people doing 75 flying up on my ass.

 

[weith1111]

As long as you stay out of boost, all your pipes can just be loosely connected, and function so-so. As soon as I would hit boost the pipe would pop out of the coupling (upper IC pipe).

Obviously you can't be losing too much metered air, but as long as vacuum is pulling the air in as opposed to boost pushing it in, none of the connections should be too stressed.

 

[tunitallstar]

check all of your couplers, and use a boost leak tester if the problems persist