Engine trouble with turbo project,

gtwoo'd · Post by **gtwoo'd** » Tue Jun 13, 2006 12:02 pm

Its been 2 months and I've finally got my car back, but not complete. During the dyno tuning process the mechanics deicided to stop due to some moisture / smoking air coming out of the catch can.

I was advised to just drive it around for abit to see if it would clear up, cus it just might be moisture in the rocker cover.

After a couple of days driving I notice that the car almost wants to stall after pulling out from a corner, I have no idea why!!

I have also just yesterday put my ngk iridium spark plugs back in, but when I pulled the old ones out I notice the plugs from cylinder 2 & 3 were chaulked in burnt oil.

My only thought would be the oil return line might be causing this.

Does anyone know what is wrong or what happening at all.

Any feed back would be helpfull.

Engine Specs:

* 1.5L 8v Lanos '02
* 44lb injectors
* runnning off microtech L10s Ecu (Piggybacked)
* GT25 Turbo'd

MMamdouh · Post by **MMamdouh** » Tue Jun 13, 2006 12:26 pm

what was the color/smell of the oil comming out of the catch can?
is your return line too long or too bent?
where did you get your oil feed?
is your oil too black and/or burned?
is their any smoak from the exhust tip?
got pics for all 4 spark plugs?
are you running too rich?

MMamdouh

gtwoo'd · Post by **gtwoo'd** » Tue Jun 13, 2006 12:43 pm

I dont think its oil, the catch can had about an inch of what seemed like dirty water. I can say much about the smell, I've had a cold the past week so cant really smell a thing lately.

My oil return and about a foot long straight down from the turbo to sump.

The mechanics taped into the oil line leading around the back of the engine:
.

The oil has still got a clear attribute to it, so just general wear.

Smoke from the echaust tip: - when I first change the plugs to iridium it blew smoke for abit, but not anymore

Haven't got pics of the old plugs, but plugs cylinder 1 and 4 were fine, where as plugs 2 and 3 were black

Nah not running rich, its been properly tuned for zero boost by technician until problem rectified

MMamdouh · Post by **MMamdouh** » Tue Jun 13, 2006 12:54 pm

did the spark plug replacment solve the smoak issue? what about the stalling tendancy... is it gone?

MMamdouh

gtwoo'd · Post by **gtwoo'd** » Tue Jun 13, 2006 1:02 pm

Like i said it smoked for the initial start but cleared up when drove down the street.

About the dying:- Will let you know tomorrow, haven't taken it for a good drive since, only around the corner to get fuel since changing the plugs

MMamdouh · Post by **MMamdouh** » Tue Jun 13, 2006 1:04 pm

most probably their was some water vapour or so, i say give it a good hard drive for testing... but do it "wisely".

MMamdouh

ubuyau · Post by **ubuyau** » Tue Jun 13, 2006 1:18 pm

Sounds like the oil feed they got was a T off the oil pressure sensor. This is fine for a feed.

The return sounds fine too, so long as its not crimped anywhere. Are there any sharp bends? What sort of angle (90degree?)? Or is it a smooth sweeping bend? Any parts of the return that push uphill? The smoke could be the oil not draining away properly. What oil are you using?

The smoking out the catch can is normal. Its just oil vapour burning away.

Id be more inclined to think its plugs too... forget the iridium plugs for now. Go grab some NGK BPR6E plugs (the stock heat range but VGroove) and give them a go. Make sure your leads are on tight too and your getting plenty of spark.

Test the plugs out. Get the engine warm and then go for a full throttle burst. Then pull the plugs straight away and see if they are black (rich) or oily (worn rings maybe?).

The stalling thing could be a tune issue with your fuel or ignition maps on the Microtech. See if you can reproduce the problem (same corner, same amount of accelerator etc).

How many kms on the engine?
What colour is your smoke out your exhaust?

Any coolant or oil loss?

--Tim

lanowoo · Post by **lanowoo** » Tue Jun 13, 2006 4:23 pm

if it stalls around corners, it could be some rust or trash in the fuel tank or there could be some trash in the fuel filter and when it goes around the corner, it couldblock the filter with the trash that could be in the bottom part of the filter. take your fuel filter off put the filter over a white bucket and blow in the opposite end, if brown junk is floating in the bucket, itsjunk in your fuel tank.

gtwoo'd · Post by **gtwoo'd** » Wed Jun 14, 2006 12:21 pm

ubuyau wrote:Are there any sharp bends? What sort of angle (90degree?)? Or is it a smooth sweeping bend?

Any parts of the return that push uphill? The smoke could be the oil not draining away properly.

No it seems like its a smooth bend, as you would see in the picture, the return is all downhill

ubuyau wrote:What oil are you using?

The mechanics put "pro20" in it.

Its just hit me, it could possibly be that injectors for cylinder 2 & 3 are still tuned too rich. I came to this conclusion after I took you advice ubuyau, buy removing the plugs and checking them immediately after driving the car, only to find black carbon build up which i had experience before i had the microtech ecu installed and was running rich.

the engine has only done about 50000km if that.

There has been no coolant or oil loss as of yet!

As for the car almost dying after pulling out from a corner, now that i have added more fuel to the tank it hasn't re-occured since. I think this problem may be due to loss of pressure in the tank. When the mechanic where sussing out the intank fuel pump upgrade they didn't seal that tank cap on properly and are still yet to do that.

ubuyau · Post by **ubuyau** » Sat Jun 17, 2006 5:30 am

What are the details of the setup? What are you using for boost control?

Is the Microtech any good? Im trying to decide what to get and im not sure if a Haltech is worth the extra money.

The latest idea is to get a Microtech and something like a TurboXS dual stage boost controller.

--Tim

GsiTurbo · Post by **GsiTurbo** » Sat Jun 17, 2006 7:06 am

How are your vacuum lines and cranckase ventilation protected against the boost? There are at least 1 or 2 lines between the valve cover, and intake manifold. You must have a heavy duty check-valve (one-way) installed on both of them. Vapours must only be sucked into the intake manifold on vacuum (idle or deceleration, cruising speed)...if you dont, you will have extreme pressurization (equal to the boost level) of your entire motor. As a result:

- you will experiance heavy oil vapour/moisture coming out of your breather line (compressed air depresurizing)
- you may be popping the dipstick out
- you are pressurizing your oil pan, as a result compressed air tries to enter the turbo housing using the oil drain from the turbo
- you are forcing main and cam seals out
- you may be forcing oil into cylinders (rings decompression)
- turbocharger is oil overpressurized and may be blowing oil out via both wheels seals

If you do not have the check valves installed, you must do it at once or motor damage may occur.

Very nice and clean install you have otherwise. Good luck and ask questions when in doubt

Tom

ubuyau · Post by **ubuyau** » Thu Jun 29, 2006 11:58 am

BUMP! How'd this turn out?

Im keen to know how the Microtech went...

--Tim

gtwoo'd · Post by **gtwoo'd** » Thu Jun 29, 2006 1:23 pm

Everything is going great, the microtech system is work excellently.

Im running at 9psi boost, with no problems as of yet, except the other day i blew the turbo/manifold gasket due to the mechanic apparently put a copper gasket in which couldn't handle the heat. Oh well im getting a stainless steel one put in now.

If your wondering, im getting 110Whp, and 79kw. I have plans to upgrade the exhaust to 3", im still running on stock exhaust from downipe to cat, and 2" from cat-back, should gain almost another 40hp so I've been told.

kinkyllama · Post by **kinkyllama** » Thu Jun 29, 2006 2:20 pm

gtwoo'd wrote:
If your wondering, im getting 110Whp, and 79kw. I have plans to upgrade the exhaust to 3", im still running on stock exhaust from downipe to cat, and 2" from cat-back, should gain almost another 40hp so I've been told.

You dont need 3" exhaust. Though I'd upgrade fromt he turbo back with 2.25" or even 2.5" if you have bigger plans in the future.

M I N I O N · Post by **M I N I O N** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 9:10 pm

Unfortuneately, that hesitation issue is normal with aftermarket fuel pumps in the tank but there is a way around it. There is a cup that the fuel pump is going to sit in that looks like this:

What you need to do is cut out the bottom section of it to expose the pick-up filter like so:

If you are smoking at cold start, you may have internal cracks inside the housing of the turbine. This is also common but only when using turbochargers taken from other vehicles. They don't smoke in the other vehicle because there is a seal of carbon that fills the, but when you clock the center seciton you expose them which causes the smoking. Depending on the severity, it will go away in short amount of time.

Before you upgrade your exhaust, diconnect your downpipe from the rest of the exhaust and go for a spin. This should feel pretty close to what it would be like with 3". See if that much gain in spool time/over-all power is worth the extra noise. JFYI, I am building a 4" downpipe-back exhaust for my sunbird.