LOL.... Lefty tighty / righty loosey in the tensioner? or is it standard righty tighty?

Lol... Ill do that when I get home .... if that is it I am gonna ****

 

yes normal threads....right to tight

 

Just got out from under the car... tightened up the tensioner on the left (as you are looking at the car) as much as I thought was prudent. about 8-10 turns with the rachet... plucked the belt and it is tight as a drum... Went out for a ride and guned it.... grrrrrrrrr 5.7psi is as much as I could get outta her. It is still 107 outside but I dont think that should cut 3psi out of my boost.

My belt is over 30K old... I am gonna get that changed out and hope that does it... the cog belt still has all of its teeth and is not to tight or to loose....

Could it possibly be a blower issue?

 

Thought for sure it would be the belt . Over 100 degree ??? That just maybe the problem...who knows now . Good luck ! Im all out of idea's

 

Thanks for the ideas... I felt that if I would tighten any more I would jack the bolt up... It was getting that tough to turn.

Might be time to get a compression test done... if that checks out then send the blower in... I dont want to put the 2.87 on till I get this checked out.

Oh, and it does not drop below 100 here until after 10pm...

 

yeah the heat totally sucks here in AZ during the day hitting 109-113 pretty much every day

When I leave work at 6 or 7 pm, it's still 105 degrees or more outside and the car is completely heat soaked before you even turn it on.
The low right now is like 88 degrees at night.

 

you realize thats a 8/10 rib pulley and we have a 6 rib belt

 

Yup... means there will be plenty - o - room....hehe, I'm trying a cpl different things and see what works

thanks for the heads up, if it dont work there then I have an idler pulley for just in cases.

 

Using a smoke machine leak test will help a lot.

 

Um, yeah.... well I am an idiot....

A car needs to breath right?.... Well I installed a new belt today and got a bit more boost... and when I was in there I looked at my air filter... (DUH!!) it was, well, lets say just a tad bit dirty (Arizona dust / dirt)...

Took it off cleaned and re-oiled it.... well, wouldn't you know... 8.5psi just like that...

So the lesson here (other than I am an idiot... ) is.... A car needs to breath, and an FI car needs to breath a bit more.... Check your air filters....

 

Don't feel bad boss. At least you admit it. My car buddies make fun of me because I clean my filter about every 3 weeks. I'm on the throttle so I can feel the difference. Im right next door in NM. I dont have an undertray either so my filter gets coated with sand/dust pretty quick. Those first couple days after a fresh clean and it yanks pretty good.

 

Lol, yeah... Lesson learned. I am definately going to check her once a month now and clean it weather I believe it needs it or not... At first I thought I had a boost leak somewhere but then I started thinking that a boost leak would = lean, and I was running rich so then I thought lack of air?.... well yup, that was it... lack of air...

I am also running without a undertray cover (gets chewed up alot) I went thru 2 and at 100.00 a pop I said, who needs it.

I felt a difference right away and 3psi is a HUGE difference, I cant believe I was running like that for over a month...

I am doing a 12 hr disconnect on the battery to reset the ECU tonight so she unlearns the rich, no air, conditions...

Can't wait to get my 2.87, Utec and 650's in her now!

 

Now you know and knowing is half the battle.

Did you feel a big difference in power between 5psi and 8psi? Did you remove the filter through the wheel well or through the hood? I am contemplating cutting a section in that "fiberglass composite" material to make it easier to take the filter out.

 

I would recommend you take a can of carb cleaner and go along the gasket on your SSV.. I never knew I had a vacuum leak until I heard it when the sc belt was removed because the blower is so loud.. Well once I heard the leak it was super loud..

It could have been leaking for months.. Once i took the carb cleaner near the leak the car would suck it up and either shut down or nearly shut down ( easy diagnosis ) I then pulled my Plenum off and resealed it with RTV and that fixed my boost problem all the way..

After I left the car overnight to wait for the RTV to seal the car idle was super smooth and actually cooled alot more and water temps were alot lower..

So I recommend you take the carb cleaner along your piping/plenum and spray it to really find if you have a leak.. Otherwise you wont hear it because it could be a very little leak at this time..

 

how many miles ago did you last clean the air filter?

I haven't cleaned mine for like 6000 miles

 

I was originally thinking leak but my temps are good to go and I hit 8.5psi last night on the 1st run out. I am getting the Cosworth plenum very soon so I dont think I am going to troubleshoot the SSV at this time...

Thanks for the carb cleaner tip! I will definately remember that for in the future to help diagnose a leak down the road!

 

Well, the last time I remember taking it off and cleaning it was around HIN which was last October.... and probably 15K miles ago or so...

It was um, filthy...

 

I felt a huge dufference between 5 and 8psi... the shift from 1-2 is chirpin tires again (5AT) and I would most likely be chirping 2-3 if I did not have 300lbs of stereo in my trunk...

I went thru the wheel well to remove the filter, you cant really go thru the hood unless you bend up the filter a bit because of the Rad support... It is MUCH easier to go thru the wheel well... Just turn the wheel to the right as far as i will crank, jack up the car so the wheel is bairly off the ground (this gives you a bit more room to work) and pull it down thru there.

Put it back in the same way... make sure NOT to over oil the filter and let it sit for 3-4 hours after oiling it so it soaks in real good and no oil get pulled thru and coats your MAF. I use paper towels to blot and make sure no oil comes off on them before I reinstall... Also clean any excess oil off the plastic / rubber of the filter as well...

 

I have found that not only do they get filthy, road stuff but particles (belt material) covers the element.. If you turn the filter sideways and tap it with screw driver you will see what I'm referring to..Black particles fall from it...Cleaning approx every 2k miles is necessary to preclude power loss.

 

I took off my filter today to clean it out and I noticed that there is a hole on the backside of the filter. I am not sure if anything was suppose to be connected to that before, but I also noticed a bolt near the impeller. Is the hole in the filter made to fit over the bolt near the impeller? This is the stock Vortech filter btw.