my boost controller settings were always a bit high since last time i can remember tuning my car on the dyno...
my set (profec E-01) was at 70...and this yielded 16psi...lately, my car would not build boost over 14psi, i thought possibly the boost controller was going bad...i checked many things, everything looked ok, checked for vacuum leaks, inspected intercooler piping for leaks, soooo, finally, today, I decided to do some more experimenting...i went over to SPEEDLAB and they were kind enough to let me use their handy dandy smoke machine...

i used a rubber glove as a fitting, clamped it arounf the up pipe that feeds into the plenum, cut off one of the fingers of the glove and taped the smoke machine nozel inside the finger...
I removed both turbo air intake filters and gloved them as well (sealing them off)...i turned on the machine and smoke slowly started to seep out from the passenger side of the car, i further investigated (had my car up on jackstands), rolled underneath and found the problem!!!

here's a hint...this is where the smoke was coming from...







can you guess what it is????




ok, here you go...



so, it is all fixed...fellow greddy owners, be aware, the hose supplied in the greddy kit is a bit weak when compared to other brands of hose, i replaced it with a much more durable and stiff hose, i think this will outlast the previous...my guess as to why the greddy hose failed...its proximity to the exhaust manifold makes it very hot and then with tons of pressure going through there..

there must have been a leak here as far back as last time that i dynoed my car, the boost curve feels wayyyyyyyy different now...it builds boost insanely fast..with drag radials on, it reaches 16psi in 2nd gear! i've never seen that before!!!! so fast..im gonna go datalog tonight and see where my a/f is at and timing in this new curve, i may pull some more timing out higher up in the map...
i'll keep you guys posted on when i retune...basically my poor little passenger side turbo was probably spinning to its max, just dumping all of that boost out the hold in the hose...maybe this explains why my car was smoking as if a turbo seal was bad, maybe the increased heat and speed of this overworked turbo wore out the seals?
also, my first run with the hose fixed, i saw 20.5psi in 3rd gear (and i would have seen more if i didnt take my foot off the gas)...woops!!! i had already dialed the boost controller down from 70 to 50...still not enough..the final "set" number that i currently have it set to is 36....big difference from 70!!!!!

comments?

 

wow

I'm glad it's fixed, now go retune and dyno! I want to see what you're putting down these days.

 

how close to the exhaust manifold was it? do you have header wrap or anything else as a barrier?

 

wow, never seen that happen before. Glad you found out what was wrong.

 

yeah...my installer showed me a Greddy kit that he was installing and pointed out how close that hose is to the exhaust manifold.

glad you found out your problem and got it fixed.

happy boosting

 

Wow....I remember you talking about this when you were out here in VA. Glad you found the problem without ripping out the E-01 only to find your problem not fixed.

Congrats!

 

Insane... good to know you fixed it! SO how is she running now?

 

ya, it's running so good, pulls extremely hard!!!!

 

complete madness

 

i dont have any heatwrap--couldnt fit the piping on with the hose wrapped, didnt have the room to wrap the header
hopefully the new hose is stronger and more heat/pressure resistant

 

wanted to add to all those with the EU...if you are using the air correction map to compensate for the larger injectors (as i am)...know that if you have the I/J map dialed in to the appropriate A/F...and then it starts to lean up (weather change, increase boost, etc.)...an easy and effective way to fix this without touching the I/J map is by decreasing the value on the airflow correction map...for example...my airflow correction map had all -40 in every cell, adjusting the map to compensate for 550cc injectors, yesterday, i went out to clean up my A/F (as i fixed a major boost leak)...the A/F went from mid to high 12's...i didnt touch the fuel map, i simply changed the airflow correction map..i worked lower in the map (higher boost levels) by changing the -40 to -35..then -30...wacthing as the a/f richened up//in a linear fashion..much easier, less time consuming way to fine tune if the tune goes bad..instead of completely re-writing the I/J map...

 

Good Luck on your dyno numbers! What kind of numbers are you predicting?

 

I hope you replaced the POS Greddy clamps while you were there. I snapped the clamp in half on the exact same hose. I replaced the hose whie I was at it. Mine didn't have a hole, but you could see it was geeting close. Glad to see you got it fixed.

 

Glad you got it fixed.

 

As it has been said numerous times, it's a good idea to replace the Greddy clamps with T-bolt clamps for hi-boost guys. They are as easy to find as your local Napa store. Glad you found the leak. You should get better gas milage too, lol.

 

yah seriously thats good you found that and lifted the foot quick

 

Hey Todd, I didnt realize this was the hose you were speaking of. It's too late now, but, for others, you might consider wrapping this hose in a couple layers of heat wrap, to further protect it from the manifold. Especially....on the high boost cars that.

I did this on mine, and secured it with safety wire.

 

removed

 

Yes we just saw a G35 with a built motor and Greddy TT that came in with the same symptoms, he couldn't build boost or hold boost and we found that same coupling burned through.

 

Should prove interesting w/ the snow coming soon.