thats what im afraid of in the future. its going to have to hit the dyno for tuning, now im worried that itll blow while pulling on there.

im sure its possible that there couldve been problems with the heavily-used motor, but all in all, i will take all the blame for not getting it properly tuned before hitting the road.

i was already warned about the TN reflash not being good enough but i went out to test the car anyway.

but still, to TN, the car was a beast, you could feel the power, just makes me ready to get it back on the road...

btw, to who asked, everything happened to fast i didnt check the boost gauge but my best guess is about 8.5 psi. whatever TN reflash has default

 

aha maybe so, there are plenty of things that couldve gone wrong here.

my buddy is a mechanic, he installed everything, only problem is, he doesnt have a dyno at his house to tune my car on

 

Uhh forget everything else that was said here. The first question should be:

Did you install BOOST and Wideband AFR gauges, and did you verify that it was boosting to safe levels, and in safe AFR's under throttle???

My guess is no... and my other guess is that either there was an issue with the routing of the wastegate lines and/or modification of the stock fuel bucket. Either way, the "shop" that did this should have known better. Who is the shop that did the install?

Also, if it was a newer kit with the new wastegate configuration, the tanabe exhaust shouldn't have caused any issues. It's amazing people haven't kept up on these things for over the past year since overboost issues have been resolved and still insist on pointing fingers at it...

Good luck with the rebuild. I'd take it elsewhere, and make sure whoever does the work has experience with these cars/motors.



Edit: I see a UTEC in your sig. Do you mean you had it tuned for an NA setup and threw the turbo on without altering the tune? If so, I'm sorry....

 

The turbonetics reflash is good if the kit is isntalled right. What ruins it are sloppy installs and modifications to the stock fuel bucket when running the warlboro on a returnless fuel system. Any deviation from the instructions could mean higher/lower fuel pressure that would completely throw the air/fuel mix off.

 

I am guessing yes since its in his sig

 

Hey you never know. The UTEC is in his sig and it doesn't seem like he installed it either after reading the above.

Besides, I don't see an AFR gauge listed at all, and that's every bit as important as boost (even moreso when running on the reflash).

 

i believe it was a good and correct, not sloppy install. i have a aem tru-boost digital boost controller and no other gauges, so ya got me there.

 

i agree

 

so you have a Boost Controller? did you check to see what your last peak reading was? i am willing to bet your Boost Controller was controling boost and you probably over boosted

 

also, the UTEC (obviously) hasnt been used yet.

i guessed i rushed things with having a complete setup, thats where things went wrong.

 

+1, sorry to tell you but you rushed into it and there is no one else to blame but you. Driving without any of those basic gauges with turbo (Wideband A/F, Boost) is like driving blind.

 

It sounds to me like something with fuel delivery. I would personally never run the reflash unless you have some way to monitor or log air/fuel ratios before ever putting it under full load on the street. This means a dyno run on an inertia dyno with logged air/fuel or a 2nd set of eyes on an AFR gauge.

The problem isn't with the reflash persay, it's more in the fact that it's so easy to mess up the fuel bucket/pressure modification which woud cause AFR's to either go way rich or lean. You could drill it out too large and send fuel pressure on a nose dive, or the opposite and send it through the roof. I've seen them go both ways. The problem is when there are variances in the install that cause it to run rich/lean which the reflash can't correct.

People on this board typically point fingers at the reflash because they don't understand the sensitivity of it. The install has to be dead on, without any variance, for it to perform properly. This is why you see me ranting about install issues. 99% of the time a shop does an install and it's running like crap it's because they did something different in the install or weren't careful with something. They then point the finger at the reflash and try to sell the customer an EMS of some sort to smooth over their install issue. I'll just say that variations in tuning/install/operation don't just happen because the magic turbo fairy made it happen, they happen because there was some change in the setup or operation from when it was tuned/programmed (at turbonetics) on a stock car with a perfect install.

I'm assuming you made this post to vent a little and share your experience, and not to bash. It's understandable, and I wish for you the best at getting the situation rectified and getting the car running stronger than ever. I'm just hoping that people can take something from it that might help them in their experience.

The main point is to always verify boost levels and AFR's before taking the car on hard street runs.

 

well this thread is a good example of what NOT to do...

too bad about the engine

 

hs

 

yup exactly what the post was made for. thanks for the help and encouragement, who knows when itll be, but the car will be on the road again. i really hope someone else learns from my mistakes!

 

8 miles is rough man, definately a learning experience though. You are still 8 miles further on the FI road than I am.

 

who installed and tuned this?

 

already mentioned in the thread:

a friend of mine (who does mechanics, body work, painting, etc.) did the install, and it wasnt dyno tuned. only turbonetics reflash.

 

Who forget to hook up the wastegate line?

I'm curious to see what you find when you dig into it... sounds like something wasn't installed properly, but it is possible your engine was on it's last leg.. how many miles does your car have - 250k ?

ps. if you put a hole through the block be sure to post pics. I'd be impressed if that counts for anything

 

If you had an EBC in the mix then you likely overboosted. I can tell you unless it was shut off you prob overboosted.
You cannot just set it and go. It takes a few pulls to get them to stick solid.

Also the milage has nothing to do with it. Cmon 100K on an import motor is alot of miles?

Again, there was something else wrong in there.
You likely overboosted and didnt have the fuel to compensate and the tune was junk and she went buh bye.