|
Yet another setback in the restoration project. I tried to raise the boost today and only got 7psi.
Here's the background: The car runs great, but I have no experience with other turbo cars, so I can't be sure about that, it just runs very smoothly and revs well. It boosted just fine (though the car was pretty slow on takeoff) when there wasn't an intercooler on it and it was set to factory psi. The boost rose fine, maybe a little slow (hit max boost at around 3,500 revs). It was boosting as per factory spec. I installed an intercooler. The car still ran great. The boost rises slower now though. It hits max boost at maybe 4,000 revs.
The way I tried raising the boost is via a wastegate signal bleed hose. As per Angel Morales' instructions on his intercooler install page, I took a 45" line, teed into the wastegate signal hose right next to the turbo. I cut off 3" at a time and then drove it to check boost increase. Through all the slicing and dicing, the most I could get was about 7psi, up from 5.5-6ish stock level. I even took the whole hose off, and still couldn't get the boost to go above 7psi on the road at full throttle at any speed. I'm ruling out a bad guage reading, as the car DEFINITELY wasn't accelerating like the turbo was generating near fuel-cutoff levels of boost.
This sucks of course. The turbo should be fine, as it's a recent replacement. I'm thinking that the cause of this problem could be one of three things: Plugged cat (everything beyond is a straightpipe), wastegate stuck open, or intercooler or i.c. hoses leaking badly. Do these sound like likely culprits? Any other suggestions? Thanks for any help you have to give.
--
Isaac Babcock - '83 245DL 'Borkie' and '83 244 turbo project
|
