I orginally thought the sputtering was from water in the plug holes. Well I dryed all of those out and have been driving it at least 20min a day twice a week all week and it is still doing it. I started thinking it could be other stuff.
I couldnt resist it.. Last night at 12:30am I took my car to the carwash so I could see and did a compression test. My results were the same as last time but this time I had some oil on the plugs. I did a wet compression test about two weeks ago. Could that oil be left over from that? I am going to replace my piston rings this month..But I do think I found my problem. I hear a small exhaust Leak in the manifold area. I didnt hear this until I got back to my apartment where I cant see. I also noticed my idle is a little rough. My question to all of those who either cracked their turbo manifold, blew their manifold gasket, or had a leak at their downpie what were your symptoms? I am having a loss of power in the upper range of 2nd, 3rd, and 4th gear. It starts losing power and sputtering sorta from about 4000RPM untill I shift. I am also feeling a little vibration in front end due to this. I figure it is form the sputtering.. Also an Acura mechanic is supposed to help me replace my rings. Will we be able to do this in a weekend? How hard is it? We have a lift so he said we will do it from under the car..

 

I had a leak in my WG elbow, well it almost cracked off! Anyways, My symptoms were it would not hold boost or ample vacuum(when moving). I would hold at about 3500RPM and watch my guage drop from around zero to 10-15 vacuum.

 

It is holding boost fine...

 

i bet its your exhaust manifold gasket..

 

any more opinons??

 

sounds like a crack to me... there is an exhaust leak pre-turbo somewhere. Either a cracked manifold or the exhasut gasket is leaking. With an exhaust leak it can make/produce boost but it will neither be effective boost nor accurate.

 

Thanks geoff, I think actually it might be a leak where the turbo bolts on to the manifold and also it looks like my downpipe maye be cracked.. Could these problems cause the same symptoms??

 

if the flange on the turbo from the downpipe is warped/cracked (if you have a 5 bolt turbo that is) you can get a leak there too. But the leak must be pre-turbo... look for black smoke at the DP flange, or at the turbo flange or the head flange. You can see the carbon deposits... that means a leak.

 

I see white stuff, Looks like white deposits.. What does that mean?

 

Are tiny leaks tolerable??

 

LOL!

maybe its just me... but between the sixth sense, scary movie and my 22yr old male hormones, this came across really funny!

 

lmao..