ECMlink IR boost solenoid not working

[TWOpointFORliter]

Let me start by saying I have been searching and reading about this issue for a while but I still can’t get my IR boost solenoid to raise my boost past WG pressure.

After years of my car sitting on jack stands I finally got everything together and sent it to my local dsm shop for some custom exhaust work and a break in tune. Got the car back on WG pressure with the boost solenoid disconnected and was told my drivers in my ecu were most likely bad. They did temporarily install a manual boost controller and raise the boost to 30psi for a dyno pull but then removed it and told me to either install my own or get the solenoid working. Sent the ecu off for repair only to be told it was in perfect working order. I get it back and installed and start researching to do it myself. I have confirmed I have the vacuum routing correct. Running duel WG’s with the top port hooked to the side of the solenoid with a single port and the bottom ports of the WG’s hooked up to the top port on the side of the solenoid with two ports. The other port on the solenoid is left vented. I used the diagram on the ECMlink wiki for this. The solenoid is wired to the factory bcs location and my wire harness is a brand new from ohm racing. I have switch the wires of the solenoid even though ECMlink states it does not matter how the two are wired.

On to my settings in link. I have confirmed the boost solenoid is activated and is greyed out in the misc tab and heard it click when it was activated. In the WSG tab I have the enable boost control, disable error correction and use first gear only all checked. The lock at 0/100% have been lowered to the lowest setting after finding someone on here saying that worked for them. My target boost table I have had zeroed and at 30psi across the board. My duty cycle tables have been from 50 to 100 and everywhere in between in increments of 10.

I’m at a loss here. My boost holds at 18 psi with the solenoid hooked up. With just the bottom ports of the WG’s hooked up direct to a vacuum source it will hold at about 22 psi. Also like mentioned with a MBC had no problems hitting 30 psi and 500+ on the dyno so I know its not a problem with the turbo or exhaust/boost leaks. I still have a hallman from my old setup that I can install but I’d rather not go backwards with my build. What am I missing here?

 

[Vegas Smith]

Hmm, that should be working. I have found, and have been told by a very knowledgeable person, that you want to lock at 100% 5psi below your goal boost. I don't think that will fix your problem, though. I'm not familiar with the first gear box selection and would uncheck that for now. Any way you can post a log so we can verify this info with our own eyes?

Also, log all your WG values and see if the solenoid is actually working/making changes during a pull.

 

[TWOpointFORliter]

Hmm, that should be working. I have found, and have been told by a very knowledgeable person that you want to lock at 100% 5psi below your goal boost. I don't think that will fix your problem, though. I'm not familiar with the first gear box selection and would uncheck that for now. Any way you can post a log so we can verify this info with our own eyes?

Also, log all your WG values and see if the solenoid is actually working/making changes during a pull.

The use first gear box just makes it so you can just adjust one line for all gears. I’m still adjusting the whole table though. That’s just the way I read to get it adjusted initially. I’ll try to adjust the lock 100 to just below my target boost and see if that helps. I was thinking the whole time I was typing that I should include a log but I’m at work and my laptop is at home so Ill get one posted later. As far as logging my WG values I’m pretty sure I am logging them all but I will double check before I post a log.

 

[awd4g63turbo]

Which wastegates are you using? I know my tial has multiple top ports, and the ones you are not applying boost to have to be plugged off. If left open, the boost being applied to the top port will just leak out.

 

[Vegas Smith]

Which wastegates are you using? I know my tial has multiple top ports, and the ones you are not applying boost to have to be plugged off. If left open, the boost being applied to the top port will just leak out.

Good suggestion, but the mbc worked so I assume he's using the correct ports.

 

[TWOpointFORliter]

Yes correct ports are being used and the unused ones are blocked off using the plugs that came with the gates. Using authentic tail 38mvs WG’s also.

 

[AWD-Tony]

I'm assuming you have 1 external wg??? There are two ways to run the vacuum lines. Simple external setup or external setup using both bottom and top ports. If you're using both ports, the top port (the side with two ports) has to be tee'd to boost source and bottom port of wg.

 

[AWD-Tony]

The use first gear box just makes it so you can just adjust one line for all gears. .

Are you sure about this? Just the first time I'm hearing about this.

 

[Vegas Smith]

Using authentic tail 38mvs WG’s .

Oh, that's the problem. You're using knockoff Tail wastegates

 

[Vegas Smith]

Are you sure about this? Just the first time I'm hearing about this.

http://ecmlink.com/wiki/bcsoverview

 

[TWOpointFORliter]

I'm assuming you have 1 external wg??? There are two ways to run the vacuum lines. Simple external setup or external setup using both bottom and top ports. If you're using both ports, the top port (the side with two ports) has to be tee'd to boost source and bottom port of wg.

I have 2 WG’s. The top ports of both are tee’d together then ran to the solenoid. The bottom ports are tee’d together then ran to another T in the boost source line going to the Solenoid.

 

[AWD-Tony]

http://ecmlink.com/wiki/bcsoverview

I must have skipped that part thinking it was only to be used in 1st gear,

 

[AWD-Tony]

I have 2 WG’s. The top ports of both are tee’d together then ran to the solenoid. The bottom ports are tee’d together then ran to another T then ran to another T in the boost source line going to the Solenoid.

Sounds like it's routed properly. Can you post a log?

 

[TWOpointFORliter]

Sounds like it's routed properly. Can you post a log?

yeah when I get off work and get back to my laptop I can post a log.

 

[rabenne]

Duty cycle values just from thin air? have you changed them up or down at all?

I get 30 psi with 20ish% duty cycle on the IR BCS setup. I know all setups are different. Just food for thought.

Where are you sourcing the boost to the solenoid from? Can you show us pictures of your setup? all the hoses, etc?

 

[rabenne]

also, what springs are you running, just out of curiosity?

 

[TWOpointFORliter]

Duty cycle values just from thin air? have you changed them up or down at all?

I get 30 psi with 20ish% duty cycle on the IR BCS setup. I know all setups are different. Just food for thought.

Where are you sourcing the boost to the solenoid from? Can you show us pictures of your setup? all the hoses, etc?

Duty cycles are from the ECMlink wiki. They state to hook everything up zero the table and do a pull to make sure you have control of the boost. Then to set it to 50 and do another pull and keep increasing until you are at the desired boost levels or decrease in your case. Yes I have increased the values all the way to 100. As far as my vacuum lines the boost is sourced from my compressor housing and have confirmed routing to be correct many times. I can’t really get a good picture because everything is tucked pretty good. WG’s have the 17# springs installed.

 

[GST with PSI]

Post a log.

A quick check of the settings will probably reveal your issue.

You saw this, correct?
https://www.dsmtuners.com/threads/e...with-stock-boost-control-solenoid-bcs.474792/

 

[TWOpointFORliter]

Post a log.

A quick check of the settings will probably reveal your issue.

You saw this, correct?
https://www.dsmtuners.com/threads/e...with-stock-boost-control-solenoid-bcs.474792/

Yes that thread is one of the many I have read.
Unfortunately I cannot post a log tonight since my laptop appears to be too out of date with windows xp and internet explorer. The only website that would load was ECMlink’s for some reason. Is there any specific thing that I should check in the log? I have followed the wiki exactly. I am logging every WG related value. The vacuum lines are without a doubt hooked up correctly. Both solenoid wires are connected to the factory bcs wires.

Anyways I was out in the garage going over things again. Found out my solenoid was no longer activated in link? Went through the process of activating it again and it would appear to activate and be shaded grey like the injector tabs that are right below it. When I enable boost control and go back to the misc tab the bcs icon is now a lighter shade grey. Yes I saved it to the ecu. When I cycle the ignition and reconnect to link and go to the misc tab the bcs solenoid icon is no longer grey. I went through the setup process 3 or 4 times tonight with the same result.

After going through the setup all those times I had the wife manually toggle the bcs while I was under the hood and I can not feel or hear the solenoid clicking. So I guess I have some troubleshooting to do. Do you just put 12 volts to the solenoid to check and see if it’s working? The solenoid is new and my harness is also a new ohm racing harness like I mentioned above. Not gonna be happy if the problem lies with one of them.

 

[Mello]

You can check it for continuity with a meter or discount it from the harness and use a 9v battery. Should feel it toggle everytime you energize the soleniod's coil & click.

 

[Vegas Smith]

This is what it should look like when working:

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[TWOpointFORliter]

This is what it should look like when working:

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hmmm when I initially activate the solenoid the bcs is shaded darker like the inj 1-4 ones below. After I cycle the key it looks like the picture you posted. I figured this meant that the solenoid was resetting itself back to factory settings.

 

[TWOpointFORliter]

I’m gonna spend some time researching today on how I can get a log off of my ancient outdated laptop so I can post it.

 

[We're on Boost]

I’m gonna spend some time researching today on how I can get a log off of my ancient outdated laptop so I can post it.

I have an ancient WinXP laptop too. I just tried hooking my android cell phone to it with a USB cable, pushed the "Allow" button on my phone, and then tried (using Windows Explorer on the laptop) to copy an .elg file from the laptop to the phone. The phone showed up in Windows Explorer as an MTP device. But the phone, or something, didn't know what to do with an elg file so I couldn't get the Copy to work.
Anyway, my XP laptop has never touched the internet. I always move files back and forth to or from it with a USB thumb drive, from/to a more modern computer which will do the whole internet thing.

 

[TWOpointFORliter]

I have an ancient WinXP laptop too. I just tried hooking my android cell phone to it with a USB cable, pushed the "Allow" button on my phone, and then tried (using Windows Explorer on the laptop) to copy an .elg file from the laptop to the phone. The phone showed up in Windows Explorer as an MTP device. But the phone, or something, didn't know what to do with an elg file so I couldn't get the Copy to work.
Anyway, my XP laptop has never touched the internet. I always move files back and forth to or from it with a USB thumb drive, from/to a more modern computer which will do the whole internet thing.

That is the plan. I’m gonna get to my friends house who is a lot more PC savvy than myself and have him pull a couple of logs off of my laptop and post them using his PC. I only own this one tuning laptop these days. Everything else is a tablet or phone and they are apple at that so I’m very limited on what I can do. For now I’ve given up on the boost solenoid and installed my MBC so I can at least enjoy 30psi for the rest of the season.