wastegate actuator rod off

[ToDdErDoDdEr]

ok so i was driving along, had a friend in the car that wanted me to take off fast to feel the pull of a turbo, so naturally i did it thinking nothing of it. i was in 1st gear which pulled hard, shifted to 2nd got a little dull so i let off and started cruising normally again.. i go to do the same thing at the next light and its slow as hell.. check the boost gauge, nothing..... Uh ohhh.. haha

i pulled over, checked under the hood expecting to see a hose blown off or something and nothing was out of order.. i look some more and notice the wastegate rod was unhooked now and im wondering if my turbo is gonna be cooked now..?

ive read some threads on here and it seems to be no big deal, but before i just go put it back on and hope for the best i wanted to ask you Gurus what is going on..

my question: why is there no boost with the rod off the flapper? i would have thought that if the rod is disconnected, the wastegate cannot be pulled open to allow the exhaust to bypass the turbo? thereby creating insane amounts of boost.. i obviously am wrong. but could somebody please explain this to me a little more?

 

[Icarus]

When the wastegate flapper is open it bleeds exhaust gases away from the turbine. This is how your car regulates boost. Open to bleed; closed to build. With the rod disconnected it will just blow open freely.

 

[black91awdturbo]

yes its no big deal, but I bet the pin that holds the arm off broke. If so it could be a pia to tap that little pin out that has been heated over and over.

 

[V8notENUF]

Ha, I had the same thing happen at about midnight fresh off my 14b install, it really scares the crap out of you when you have an o2 dump! The biggest pain for me was getting a hold of the actuator rod with a pair of pliers and pulling it over enough to hook back on the the flapper, all without toasting my knuckles on the exh manifold and turbo housing. Everything should be fine. Good Luck!!

 

[kenamond]

You should be fine (as long as you can fix the WG). What you don't want to happen is for the vaccuum line on the WGA to come off. That means the WG never opens, and boost is never limited.

 

[osnoozeo]

i had this happen to me and no1 could answer my ?, when it came off i was on side of road and i had to loosen it up all the way cause i had no tools to pull spring to hook it back to turbo, my ? is i then tighted it all they up and my boost was over 30psi on gauge, i was like ok thats wrong, so i loosened it up again, and i got my boost gauge to say 9psi steady, how do u know u have the acutator set right after, do i need to tighten it or loosen it a little more?

 

[tkelly27]

When people talk about pulling the wastegate, they are referring to the vacuum line going to the can. This prevents the flapper from opening giving quasi unlimited boost. The exhaust back pressure can still force the flapper open against the spring and the turbo can still run out of flow.

When the arm comes off the flapper, the flapper simply blows open. Hook it back up and if you cant find the pin, you can use a thin paperclip to hold the arm on.

 

[half-cocked]

+1 for the paperclip, I used one for like 3 months. By the way I'm currently boycotting the cotter pin industry.