o.k. here's the deal. i recently pieced together and installed a decent turbo kit in my 95 civic coupe with a b18c swap. it has an external wastegate, blow off valve, and im temporarily running the 12:1 fmu. 8 lbs of boost out of my t3/t04e is all im aiming for right now with stock internals. But my question is... how critical is the intercooler piping for this amount of boost? I purchased a pipe kit from tunertoys that had all the bends that i needed. it just required some fabrication and fitting (mild steel piping by the way). Anyways, i got it all cut up and and fitted as close as i could get it, deburred and cleaned them, then installed them to the front mount intercooler with some couplings and worm clamps. On one bend, i have a coupling that is a 90 degree bend since i ran out of steel bends. the blow off valve is welded on the straight pipe. When i took it for a test drive, i could hear the turbo spooling hard, but i didnt feel any power. i couldnt even hear the blow off valve fluttering. the bov cant even be heard when the throttle is punched while idling. Im assuming its the piping thats giving me problems. Do all the pipes have to touch one another (pipe end to pipe end) inside the coupling? please let me know your input on my problem. any and all help is appreciated. thanks

 

check all of your piping connections, sounds like a boost leak. Also, where did you hook up the bov vaccum source?

 

sounds like theres either a whole in the rubber elbow or one of the pipes is not connected tightly. check all your piping. and couplings

 

Check for leaks!

Also, you most likely won't hear your BOV if you are not actually driving your car...

You should be able to feel the air pressure coming out of the BOV if you rev it up and let it go, but you most likely won't hear it... you won't build enough boost pressure to hear it if there is no load on the engine.

 

How much boost is your boost gauge reading?

 

turbo spooling loud+no power=boost leak...however, if it's spooling loud and you are actually reading normal amount of boost, then it usually is the piping from turbo to intercooler....this is what i've found on my dsm...and if it leaks and has a complete lack of boost, then it is piping from throttle body to intercooler.

 

i hooked up the bov to a little nipple on the intake manifold after the throttle body. it just had a little rubber cap on it.

 

you need a stronger vacuum source than that. i'd get a vacuum manifold and tap it off of the brake booster

 

when its idling, it reads 20 on the vacuum side. when im in third an giving it throttle, it will read about 5 psi. I was afraid to hammer it without feeling 100% comfortable.

 

will a plastic tee work from the brake booster?

 

yea, just tap it before the check valve

 

another question i just thought of, will the fmu function correctly if I already have an apexi vafc hooked up and slightly tuned for when it was naturally aspirated?

 

the settings for an na car will differ greatly from those for a turbo car

 

so should i remove the vafc?

 

get it tuned

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by wantboost &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">you need a stronger vacuum source than that. i'd get a vacuum manifold and tap it off of the brake booster</TD></TR></TABLE>

He has his BOV hooked to it's own nipple on the intake manifold, how do you figure sharing the brake booster's vacuum would be a better source? Leave it the way you have it. It's fine.

 

oh, oops, i misread it. if it has its own nipple, then its fine. it definitely sounds like a boost leak

 

check all the piping like previously stated. You can leave the fuel settings alone. It won't matter when the FMU starts rushing all the fuel pressure in there. I would say bigger injectors and get it tuned!

 

no, you;d say buy an ecu from you

 

haha, or that too.

 

i checked for boost leaks last night. a few clamps were loose, so i tightened them. but i still feel no power. i disconnected the first pipe that connects to the turbo, ran it around the block, and it felt stronger that way. why is that? i was thinking about disconnecting the vafc to see if that was my problem. like i said, i can hear the turbo spool, and now i can hear my bov, but no performance. also, is my manifold supposed to turn glowing red? i ran it for a few minutes and popped the hood at nighttime, it looked badass, but it kinda worried me. its a stainless steel manifold. 304 stainless... i think.

 

disconnect the vafc and see what happens. yes, its normal for your manifold to glow, that caused by the high exhaust tems.

 

i've disconnected the vafc now, it feels a little better, but it still kinda jerks a little. could it be the timing? what degree should it be from tdc and how can i tell the amount i need to to stop retarding. should i just play around with the dizzy until it feels o.k.?

 

get a timing gun and set the timing.





Modified by mitsuman at 11:41 AM 1/14/2005

 

that doesnt sound right