running rich and no boost?

[etay89]

i have a 97 gst. here's my list of mods

3" turbo back exhaust no cat, stock fuel pump and injectors, boost and wideband gauges, 16g turbo, k&n fipk, stock maf, ngk wires, denso plugs, hallman mbc, punishment fmic.

so steadily, the car's a/f would be 14.2-15.1 no problem. i had turned my boost down to 5 psi ### the car is my daily and i liked the mpg 5 psi gave me. anyways, recently i got the punishment racing fmic kit. i installed and it looks great but at first i wasn't able to hold boost. the next day, i checked for boost leaks and there was a loose coupler. i checked all the couplers for tightness and it seemed good to go.

now heres what happens when i drive the car. if i don't give it any boost whatsoever, it stays in that range mentioned before. 1-2 psi, it starts to go towards 12-13, 3psi+ it goes to 10.0

now if i give it WOT, then what happens is it just stops accelerating around 40 mph (but i know the car can go faster than 40 ).

for awhile i thought i blown my turbo (i'll admit abusing it around 20 psi at the local raceway), but there is close to no play...no in/out or side play. however, i'm blowning bluish white smoke out my exhaust...and its alot of gas..so i'm pretty concerned.

tomorrow (later today), i'm gonna attempt to clean my throttle body and switch denso plugs for ngk bpr7's.
my questions are:

1-possible boost leak somewhere else?
2-any other explanations to why my car does this?
3-just any suggestion in general so i can BOOST again.

 

[NOSLO2PT0]

i have a 97 gst. here's my list of mods

3" turbo back exhaust no cat, stock fuel pump and injectors, boost and wideband gauges, 16g turbo, k&n fipk, stock maf, ngk wires, denso plugs, hallman mbc, punishment fmic.

so steadily, the car's a/f would be 14.2-15.1 no problem. i had turned my boost down to 5 psi ### the car is my daily and i liked the mpg 5 psi gave me. anyways, recently i got the punishment racing fmic kit. i installed and it looks great but at first i wasn't able to hold boost. the next day, i checked for boost leaks and there was a loose coupler. i checked all the couplers for tightness and it seemed good to go.

now heres what happens when i drive the car. if i don't give it any boost whatsoever, it stays in that range mentioned before. 1-2 psi, it starts to go towards 12-13, 3psi+ it goes to 10.0

now if i give it WOT, then what happens is it just stops accelerating around 40 mph (but i know the car can go faster than 40 ).

for awhile i thought i blown my turbo (i'll admit abusing it around 20 psi at the local raceway), but there is close to no play...no in/out or side play. however, i'm blowning bluish white smoke out my exhaust...and its alot of gas..so i'm pretty concerned.

tomorrow (later today), i'm gonna attempt to clean my throttle body and switch denso plugs for ngk bpr7's.
my questions are:

1-possible boost leak somewhere else?
2-any other explanations to why my car does this?
3-just any suggestion in general so i can BOOST again.

How do you run 5psi on a 16G wastegate? The spring in the gate is a 9psi spring. It's impossible to run 5psi on a 9psi spring. You have an external wastegate?

Also, the amt. of boost you run is totally irrelevant to your gas mileage. You can have your boost controller set to 30psi, and as long as you don't hit boost, you will get the same mpg at 30psi as you would 10psi.

Get rid of those plugs and put in the 7ES's. I would do a thorough boost leak test. The stock ECU is programmed to deliver an a/f of about 9.8:1 at WOT, so your fuel delivery might not be that far off. It's good to see you have a wideband, now grab an AFC or something to tune with and see if that makes a difference.

 

[aero_sallee]

That 9.8:1 at WOT is only at the highest load rows on the fuel map IIRC. At "5psi" he shouldn't be anywhere close to that.

What the car is doing is exactly the same as the very first time I drove a DSM 12 years ago. I ended up finding a hole in the upper IC hose by the battery you could fit your thumb in.

Do a REAL boost leak test. That means pressurize the system, don't just half ass it and go around and check couplers.

Build one of these, with a DSM its your best friend.
IC Pipe Tester

You will likely find other boost leaks that you can't find any other way that do still effect performance in smaller ways. TB shaft seals, intercoolers can spring leaks, intake manifold gaskets, vacuum lines, etc.

 

[etay89]

How do you run 5psi on a 16G wastegate? The spring in the gate is a 9psi spring. It's impossible to run 5psi on a 9psi spring. You have an external wastegate?

first thing is first. this turbo was built. not your typical 16g turbo. its a hybrid. i know its a small 16g housing but the commpressor, i forgot. i gotta double check.

Also, the amt. of boost you run is totally irrelevant to your gas mileage. You can have your boost controller set to 30psi, and as long as you don't hit boost, you will get the same mpg at 30psi as you would 10psi.

if i removed the mbc and just had a tube run from there to the licp, it would only do 5 psi. as my dd, i still want boost, but not like 10-20 psi.

Get rid of those plugs and put in the 7ES's. I would do a thorough boost leak test. The stock ECU is programmed to deliver an a/f of about 9.8:1 at WOT, so your fuel delivery might not be that far off. It's good to see you have a wideband, now grab an AFC or something to tune with and see if that makes a difference.

yeah, i need too clean my 7's. they were in my spyder earlier this year and they have some build up. just been trying to find a wire brush. and screw an afc. i had it in my spyder and it was a nifty little tuning device but i'm just gonna do the whole 98/99 ecu swap and reflash.

i'll also do a thorough boost leak test..not just half ass it. but that still leaves the question..why my exhaust is blowing out bluish-white smoke?