adrock3215

Alright, let me tell you guys the story.

I have an 88 TII. I did several upgrades recently. I put in an S5 turbo/manifold, intake and a thunderfabrications downpipe. Everything worked great - except the downpipe. The downpipe did not line up correctly with the racing beat catback exhaust that I have. It missed by about half a foot.

I took the car to an exhaust shop to get the downpipe and the catback joined. The guy took off my downpipe and welded onto it a longer piece so that it now mates to the RB catback. When I drove it to the shop the car ran amazing, and felt really good.

I got the car back today. After some long driving I start to notice that at stoplights and when my car is idling that there is smoke coming from the engine bay and the car smells like something is burning.

I drive home. As I drive home I begin to notice that every time I shift or let off the throttle the car drops RPM abnormally fast. For exmaple I will be in 4th and let off the gas at 3000 RPM and the car will drop to around 1500 and then back to 3000. Strange.

I continue home. As I pull into my street I notice that the car's RPM keeps fluctuating down to 0. I was driving up the street around 2900 and then all of a sudden the tach drops to 0, then back to 2900, back to 0, back to 2900, and then back to 0 where it just stalls out. When I tried to start it again but the car would jsut keep turning over but the engine would never catch.

I push the car up my street and up my driveway and pop the hood. I notice that the smoke is coming from near where the turbo connects to the manifold. At first I thought it was the oil line under the turbo and I thought maybe the oil was low...I checked the dipstick and everything was fine. My second thought was that the engine overheated but I checked the temperature gauge the whole time I was coming home and it was right where it normally is (about 1/4 of the way up).

But anyway...does anyone have any ideas or anything? Here is what I did in brief before the car had this problem: Swapped to an S5 turbo and exhaust manifold, replaced all gaskets, installed intake/TID and routed BOV into TID, replaced the Oxygen sensor, and put the Thunderfabrications downpipe in.

Yes I have the fuel to support. I am running a rewired Walbro fuel pump with an SAFC.

Anything would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

- Eliot

adrock3215

Oh, and before anyone says it got flooded, I already tried that....no luck.

BTW, the car is not tuned right now and is running rich.

hypntyz7

Check the EGI fuses in the engine bay? The 15A engine fuse inside? I say you have an electronic problem, maybe a pinched or cut wire as a result of some of the jostling of the harness you did installing that turbo. But that sounds like a damned hard problem to find, but definitely electrical.

adrock3215

Do you think that a slipping water pump belt would cause any of the above symptoms?

hypntyz7

UH, no.

adrock3215

Only reason I said that was cause I didn't use a double belt alt pulley when I removed the Air pump...I just slipped a lawn mower belt over the water pump pulley and it is looser than normal.

I don't think that is the problem...just trying to let you know all the variables.

- Eliot

hypntyz7

Well, the smoke on/by the turbo is somewhat explainable. You just had the whole thing apart, and there are 4 connections you could have screwed up; oil in, oil drain, water in, water return, all of which could leak and smoke. Plus, anytime you have exhaust work done, you'll usually smell some odd **** (the pipe heating up for the first time) for 30 minutes or so, and sometimes a little smoke as the exhaust man's greasy handprint burns off the pipe (I get a lot of exhaust work done).

The running problems must be electrical, because cars just dont up and die like how you described the tach/engine did. That one will be tough, unless you find the wire/fuse/whatever that is causing the problem.

adrock3215

The problem still persists, anyone else have any ideas? Thanks,

- Eliot

Roy James

Check to see if the harness is on the turbo/exhaust anywhere, or see where it has been. Sounds like something on the ECU harness. Check connections everywhere

adrock3215

I went out today and got under the car. Appears to be oil leaking from the feed line that runs to the bottom of the turbo. I am going to tighten it when I get home from work and see if that does the trick. That must be the source of the smoke. White smoke is usually oil burning, right?

I still don't know about the other electrical problems though. I will see about that once I get the oil line tightened.

Thanks for the help so far guys,

- Eliot

Templeswain

Adrock.

I took notice to your problem because I also had bizarre tach readings. While not exactly the way you describe.

I do not have a turbo, but I am sure that if there's a grounding issue at play here it would cause similair problems.

My non turbo has a grounding wire traveling from the fire wall to the block that was totally melted. So you might be frying electrical grounds that would effect the Tachometer as it did in mine. Explains some smoke.

Smoke-Does it smell like rubbery electrical smoke? Perhaps, it may also be that the Exhaust that was installed is too close to a ground wire (you did have to mod the exhaust to make it fit, right?) and has damaged or completely severed a type of electrical grounding connection?

adrock3215

Hey Templeswain,

I checked the ground you were referring to. I believe the ground you are talking of is the one that travels from the firewall near the windshield wiper motor to the transmission bell housing. Mine is still intact and is working fine.

I noticed no other electrical connections near where the turbo is except for the Oxygen sensor, which is connected fine.

The smoke didn't really smell rubbery. It smelled almost like fuel, and was white. I have heard that those could be the symptoms of burning oil.

What do you guys think about that?

Thanks,

- Eliot

Templeswain

That is exactly the wire I am talking about.

Here's why I think you may have a grounding issue:

If the tach is dropping to 0 and the car is still running, then it would seem that the ECU that runs the tach signals is getting bad electrical info. IE possible ground problem.

There could be some grounding points that are on the throttle body itself. Unfortunately I have no idea what's under the intercoler that sits on the intake.

Interesting, is that no work was or should have been done to the the intake manifold to cause this problem.

that is...

I take it you don't have to remove any electrical sensors to replace the existing pre-cats with a downpipe?

So is it also possible that the pipe mod you did is effecting the way the computer regulates the turbo? Although I find it strange that if your exhuast flow rates were off, because of the pipe mod, that this might also effect your tachometer under running conditions?

As far as the white smoke goes. Oil, I don't think so. White smoke that has this Chalky smell to it, usually means your burning coolent or something. One time I forgot to put on the Oil cap on a toyota I had. It spit oil all over the engine compartment and burnt gray/black smoke. But white, baseball diamond chalk colored white smoke.......hmmmmmmm?

Some one also mentioned that new pipes will smell weird at first. Maybe its a stupid price sticker that wasn't removed from the pipe that's gradually burning off.

If your smelling fuel.....And its white. The intercooler has coolent running through it.

I understand how frustrating these problems can be.
I hope I'm helping.

Sometimes you don't need a mechanic.

You need an excersist

HAILERS

Is the 30amp EGI COMP fuse intact? If not, I'd suspect the wires that go to/went to the port air solenoid and the split air solenoid shorted out and blew the EGI COMP fuse which in turn feeds pin 3I of a series four car or pin 1B of a series five. No 12 at those spots equals no starty.

Oh wait a minute here. I re-read. You used what for a belt. And it slips? If the alternator was not putting out enough, the battery would get low and the ECU WILL act funny, and not ha, ha funny. Break down and buy a proper belt. That would not explain it not starting now though, if the battery is charged up. Who knows.

adrock3215

Templeswain:

I know new pipes smoke and everything but that is definitely not the case. This is a LOT of smoke.

I know it can't be coolant burning because burning coolant has a sweet, almost maple like smell. This doesn't.

Hailers:

Yeah but removing the air pump wouldn't have anything to do with the alternator as it is only run off one belt anyway.

The EGI fuse is still intact.

Could it be related in anyway to the twin scroll system? Since I swapped to an S5 turbo and manifold, all I did was cap the vaccum line that ran to the actuator on the S4 manifold. Are there any electronics that needed to be taken care of that I did not?

Thanks a lot fo rthe help guys,

- Eliot

adrock3215

Just to keep you guys updated:

I just came in from pulling out the turbo (did it in a record time: 1 and a half hour. Hah, I'm getting good at this). I believe that the smoke was caused by the oil line that runs to the bottom of the turbo. There was oil around the line and on the bottom of the turbo heatshielding. I removed the line from the turbo and inspected the gasket. The gasket was extremely hard and brittle. I hardly applied any pressure to it and it cracked easily.

I suppose that the old, brittle oil gasket, combined with the fact that the bolts were not torqued down very well was the cause of the smoke. I will reinstall the turbo tomorrow w/ new oil line gaskets from Mazdatrix and see what happens from there.

Wish me luck.

- Eliot