rjparth

I had my recently purchased blown Camaro at the shop today for dynotuning. With the 13 pound pulley we were seeing 3 psi on the dyno and on my A-pillar gauge. Then they connected their sensor to a port on the charge piping right up at the supercharger's outlet. It's reading 10-11 psi. Still only seeing 3 psi heading into the throttle body after running through the front mount intercooler though. Also, the charge piping gets hot. The FMIC is a Procharger 2-core.

Anyone have any experience with these FMIC's? Looking at Procharger's site it appears I've exceeded the maximum recommended HP for their 2-core standard intercoolers (475). I'm wondering whether it's piping length, an obstruction or simply not enough intercooler for the job.

Any help is appreciated!

KS91Z28

With that big of a drop in pressure, it sounds like there's a rag stuck in the intercooler or something. It happens more often than you'd think.

XtremeDime

iTrader: (16)

Or a massive boost leak. Is it holding steady at 3psi or is it bouncing? Does the shop know how to pressure test cold piping?

elias_799

iTrader: (8)

probably a damaged intercooler, also check all the silicone couplers and make sure the claps are tight

rjparth

It is holding steady and the charge pipe out of the supercharger gets hot leading me to believe its backing up due to restriction or obstruction as opposed to leaking. Does that sound right? There is no audible leak and pumping up the system reveals no leak.

The FMIC is a used eBay Procharger 2-core standard. Maybe just get another unit, temporarily plumb it while on the dyno and see what happens?

jay_rich

iTrader: (8)

had this happen before haha, had a few rags in my intercooler during mockup, thought i got them all out but forgot one haha. i found it randomly when I was testing my BOV to see it it was leaking pressure.

Jay

rjparth

Does anyone think this is the unavoidable result when trying to run a Vortech through an FMIC like this? I just want to make sure I'm not spinning my wheels trying to troubleshoot if the configuration can't possibly work. I agree it sounds like the intercooler is shot.

KS91Z28

The blower is making the boost. It should be fine. Seriously, take the tubes off the intercooler and look inside to see if there's a bunch of metal shavings or a rag in there. Other than that, it's not like an intercooler wears out or anything.

rjparth

Well, the FMIC is out and replaced with a straight pipe temporarily. Same boost numbers as before with the FMIC - 10 lbs at the blower, but only 3 at the T connector at the brake assist feeding the gauge and bypass valve, 3 on the gauge itself, and 3 at the throttle body. The plumbing is 2.5" and there's a lot of it because of the Vortech mounting location.

Today they manually pressurized the tubing and found that I was leaking boost from the EGR, the PCV valve and a clamp (which a 1/4 turn fixed). Those are all being fixed and we can re-pressurize the system manually and check for any additional leaks.

The mechanic seems concerned that this is a plumbing issue. I don't see how length / size of pipe could cause this loss of boost. If it was blowing like hell but getting backed up at the blower, yes, I would agree plumbing is an issue. But 10 lbs coming out of the blower and only 3 making it into the TB sounds like an obstruction (which has now been ruled out) or a massive leak to me.

Correct? Any other thoughts?

LSpeed1

iTrader: (2)

bringing this back from 2 months ago....
i just installed my fmic on my vortch kit, everything seemed fine and i just took it out for a quick drive. and i am not getting into boost at all. i was previously making around 8+lbs before.
did you ever find out the problem with your situation?

lmt0705

iTrader: (7)

i chased the same problem a few years ago and it wound up being a leak in the intake manifold. i found it by making a cap up with a fitting tapped into it so i could put constant pressure to the whole system and listen/feel for leaks.

phatasp

iTrader: (11)

I don,t know if this helps but I just recently upgraded to a ttrim from a gtrim,I took it out the other day and the boost would spike up to about 9lbs then drop to 0 so today I disconnected the vacuum line that goes to the bypass valve and now holds steady at 9lbs,so I think I,m looking for a new bypass valve.

DeltaT

iTrader: (5)

Take the bypass valve off and hook the line up to a Mity-Vac hand pump - cheap $ around $25 IIRC, you should be able to make the BV open and shut. Worth testing instead of just throwing parts at it.

Jim

LSpeed1

iTrader: (2)

so i found out my problem.
my friend left a rag in one of the pipes and it was choking the maf,
so there wasnt any air getting to the motor.
it made a worlds difference.
ill try and post up pictures soon.
thanks guys.

Adam86

iTrader: (10)

Dude I'm sorry but that's pretty funny
Glad you found it! Car sounds like a beast.

rjparth

Haha, great find! I wish I would've been so lucky! I had leaks everywhere -> bad fmic, wrong type of T connector, pcv valve, egr gasket, etc. I put a Mishimoto G Line intercooler on it and replaced the other stuff. The LS1 intake manifold EGR gasket still rocks (only held by 1 bolt) and releases pressure above 6 psi, but that just happens to be where I want it with the stock internals so I consider it an unintended safety feature.