Always fun... You DIY know how it goes. You take things apart in November then start putting them back together in the Spring. You find yourself muttering "where the heck did I put that bolt/spring/clamp/etc?". I got it all put together including complete rerouting the air filter location, the exhaust system, the fans(stock fans now as pushers) and the cold side. I fired it up (fired on the first try) and it was running on 7. I addressed this in another thread and I got it fixed. Oddball stuff, that. So I took it for a drive and once I was sure that everything was running cool and no leaks, I started pushing into boost. Watching the boost gauge, I saw it go to 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 psi.... then stop there. Huh? I slowed down and tried it again. Same thing but I also noticed it would go to 5.x psi and then drop to 3.x psi. That behavior seemed familiar but I couldn't connect the dots.

Assuming it was a leaking charge pipe, I drove her back home. Nice thing was the temps stayed just as it had before all this swapping. Never higher than the first quarter mark on the gauge.

I put her back on the ramps and crawled under there. I pulled all the charge pipes off and re-examined them for leaks etc. Dang it.. nothing. So I put everything back on and tried another drive for boost. Grrrr! Same 5 psi then down to 3... hey.. wait a minute... that's what it does when the wastegate opens "on the spring". Almost excitedly, because I thought I'd found the culprit, I drove back to the ramps. As a test, I pulled off the tubes to the Waste gate, blocked off the tube that came off the compressor side of the turbo and took her for a drive, determined to modulate the boost with my foot (letting off the gas) if boost got high. Sure enough, I got to 12 psi in no time and let off.

So I went back to the house, lifted the hood, and checked the tubes/routing to the turbosmart manual boost controller. Ugh.. the new tube I'd put on the boost controller from the compressor was not tight. I put a clamp on it, rehooked everything to the Wastegate and took her for another drive. I didn't get to really push the car because I was already running late to drive my 3hr 40min commute to my worksite PLUS the new coldside routing is not going to work. When the car was on the ramps, it looked like the piping wasn't too low. Wrong. I scuffed it two times just driving into the local gas station. I ordered a fresh 3" piping, coupler and T-bolt clamp kit and will redo it this weekend.

 

Bryan herter tuned?!

haha what a guy!

oh and i like to do a tear down and build in a weekend or two, to avoid the where are the parts brain farts

 

Me too, I try to do it all in a day or two. I put everything on my air hockey table. Wife gets pissed but when it is clear, I know all is good to go.

 

Yeah I've been there. Here lately I've been building turbo cars in 2 weeks to eliminate that problem hahaha. They might not be the prettiest thing but it works.

 

lol i drive myself crazy having the "where did i put that" thoughts.. I tore mine down in late december and just got it back together so i been there man. Not tuned yet so yet to see if i missed anything along the way. Good luck!!