So recently I have noticed a significant amount of residue by my UIM. Perhaps it is a busted seal or gasket? I find the unlikely since it was just rebuilt a year ago by Pettit. I believe this might be a related problem to my extremely low idle. Any thoughts?

 

looks like you have an exhaust leak

 

Yup, exhaust leak on the top side of the turbo's.

Have you noticed any strange new fluttering noises (think baseball cards in the spokes of a bike wheel)?

I'd check all the bolts/studs holding your Manifold to the engine, and your turbo's to the manifold.

I did *not* catch mine in time and ended up needing to completely replace the gaskets, studs, bolts, etc., etc., etc..

Not a fun job.

 

I upgraded to the efini y-pipe amount 4 months ago, maybe that is the problem? How do I know where the exhaust leak is coming from? It is hard to tell if there are any new noises since my car is so loud. And if it was an exhaust leak wouldnt their be black residue everywhere, opposed to this one concentrated area?

 

Are you still running a cat?

 

Stock midpipe, airpump has been deleted for close to two years, with this black residue only being a recent issue.

 

Not sure what you mean by "stock midpipe", the mid-pipe on a stock car is the catalytic converter. The reason I asked is it looks like you still have the Air pump/EGR hard pipes attached and it appears to me that the exhaust leak is coming from your plug in the hard pipe. If the hard pipe is still plumbed to the cat this could explain your black residue.

Dan

 

Stock midpipe, means that is how it came from the factory, with the catalytic converter. Opposed to replacing it with a straight pipe, high flow cat or resonated midpipe. I do not understand why this would happen all of a sudden? The airpump was deleted close to two years ago and this just started happening? My idle is extremely low, almost close to 500 when coming to any stop with the running lights off. When I put the running lights on the car runs a bit smoother and doesnt act like it whats to stall when coming to a stop. Idle is around 750 at a stop with the running lights on. The car pulls hard under WOT though.

Thanks for all your help Dan.

 

Well maybe after running with the stock cat and no air pump for two years, your stock cat is CLOGGED. If you're going to run the stock main cat, it's not really a good idea to delete the air pump in the first place.

 

A solid point, FYI pettit deleted the airpump when he did the street-port, I had never asked to delete it.

 

If it pulls hard at WOT, like he says, the cat is NOT clogged (yet).

 

I agree.

 

i would suggest that you clean off the area the best that you can and over the next few days keep and eye on where the leak is being generated. I am also thinking that it is exhaust related issue.

most likely one of the seals has given out, keep in mind that the only real way to tell is the clean the area off and keep and eye out.

best of luck

 

The exhaust soot is recent because you just recently blew a gasket or piping in that area has become loose. Start the car and have someone rev the engine a bit and feel around that area for a leak. Be careful obvoiusly. Or clean the area w/ brake cleaner/degreaser and look for the leak. I would say it is the exhaust manifold gasket busted on the topside pointing the flow upwards into the engine or anything nearby. G

 

^ Yup. I had a very similar looking situation when one of the (lower, secondary turbo) studs holding my BNRs to the Manifold walked out.

I've got no idea how long it was loose/gone for before I noticed it. Since it was on the bottom side of the engine it wasn't readily apparant every time I popped the hood. Eventually I noticed the sound of the (broken) gasket flapping as the exhaust bypassed it. Not good. There were also all kinds of other, unhappy, side effects (slow spool time, lack of full "umph" etc..)


Once I realized there was a problem, and got under the car I noticed the same blackening effect in one centralized location, pointing towards the road.

What does the blackening look like from the cabin side of the UIM? It looks almost like it would clean up slightly on the sections that aren't exposed, and is layered thicker at the exposed sides. If there is any variation in coverage like this than it could be a good indicator of which direction, in relation to the UIM, your leak is coming from.

 

^Same here, though on my old turbo Honda. The turbo manifold gasket became damaged and allowed exhaust to shoot up. It sounded like fluttering cards as "fendamonkey" described, and the sooty stain on the block looked similar to your situation.

 

do you still have egr? the egr valve is right in that location as well and if you blew the gasket out on that I would think that would be the result. It could be the manifold gasket like mentioned but it would have to be pretty big to get all the way up like that I would think.

 

If you upgraded to an efini y-pipe you may have blown out the o-ring that forms a seal between the upper and lower half's of the y-pipe (sometimes this simply happens during the installation process if you're not careful, the o-rings doesn't seat properly in the o-ring groove). This is what happened to me and I had the exact same symptoms you are experiencing.

 

First off, THANK YOU for everyones help so far, I appreciate you taking your time to assist me.

Definitely "caked on" in certain areas, where other area's have a lighter amount. I am going to take off the intake piping and taking some more pictures and a better inspection.

Interesting. How were you able to pin-point it being the o-ring? Was there a bunch of black residue right by the o-ring? I need to take off the intake piping and make a closer inspection. Did you get a new o-ring or how did you fix your problem?

I do not have a egr, plus I have a non-cali ecu.

 

That should make it much easier to find the exact source of the leak then.

Just think of the lighter sections with the lighter amount of residue as shade/shadows, then find the lightbulb and you've (more than likely) got your leak.

 

the question about the egr is a valid one. the fact that it is removed does not mean the gasket for it is not still there.... or gone now.

another way to find it would be with a pice of hose. put one end in your ear and move the other around like a stethoscope with no metal chest end on it. i would think a leak like that would be pretty easy to hear.

 

Okay, well i found the culprit to all the black exhaust soot:

Looks like one of the caps just split in half, which I find kind of odd. Went to lowes and used one of their furniture caps and replaced the broken cap. Unfortunately, it did not fix my idle problem at all, still wants to stall when coming to a stop or in reverse, but is fine on a cold start for the first 10 minutes. Maybe i need to do a TPS adjustment, the problems never end.

 

I have the same problem with stalling at stops and in reverse. I finally decided that it's my transmission and I am in the process of converting to manual. Have you tried changing your transmission fluid and filter? When I drained mine it was filthy and had small metal fragments in it.