melblackbird

Hey, so I just bought my FD in February and when I bought it the previous owner mentioned that he was having issues with the primary turbo (the car still has the stock sequential twins). I still decided to get the car because other than that it seemed to be in great condition and the price was too good to pass up. He made it sound like he thought it was blown, but this is what I've discovered since owning it:

-Once warmed up and ready to go in the mornings, the first time the car hits boost, I make 8psi of boost in the primary. But once I let off the gas and try to boost it again, the boost is no longer there and I never get any boost ever again in the first turbo until I turn the car off, let it cool, then repeat. It has to cool and sit overnight though or else the primary won't boost again.
-I can hear the primary turbo spooling, but yeah, there's no boost after that initial first pull.
-There was one day in the winter when I couldn't resist taking it out and when I did I was actually making boost semi-consistently in the primary turbo. My guess it was because of how cold it was, it was recreating the first pull I'd have in the mornings.
(Btw, the secondary turbo works fine. If I really push it I can make up to 14psi, although I try not to do that because I know it's not great for it and I still need to install a boost controller--on my list of things to do, haha).

So I have two possible ideas as to what it could be, but obviously I wouldn't be posting here if I didn't want help with figuring this out and seeing what you guys think since you're all wayyyy more experienced than I am, haha. First is that a solenoid or actuator is stuck open (Pre/Charge Control? Wastegate?) or vacuum/exhaust leak.

Since today the weather was finally (FINALLY, f*** Canada winters) nice enough to work on the FD (no garage for me, unfortunately ), I decided to finally try and tackle this issue after reading up the past few weeks. Took off the air filters and hoses to get down to the turbos and I discovered that there were two leaks: where the Y-pipe meets the primary turbo and then where the inlet meets turbo compressor.

Photo of primary turbo here. You can see that it looks like it could be leaking where the Y-pipe connects to the turbo and you can see around the compressor that it looks like it leaks.

So my question: is these two gaskets are faulty and need replacing, could that be enough to cause the previously mentioned problems with the primary turbo? If that's all it is, then I'd be one VERY happy girl. :P

Mods done to the car are Knightsport ECU, fmic, Greddy turbo timer, Apexi air filters & BOV, boost gauge. The previous owner did pretty much all the mods, he also changed the CCV, CRV, Y-pipe, and redid about 80-90% of the vacuum lines. I never got to ask him if he bought the car with the primary turbo already being problematic or if it was something that happened while owning it.

Anyways, if you guys could assist me with your extensive knowledge and experiences, that would be extremely helpful. Thanks for reading, guys.