Hey guys,

so, here's the deal. I was coming to the airport the other day, pushing my car a little, but no more than usual. I shut her down, set the turbo timer to 1 minute and went away for a few days.

When I came back, there was something wrong. She idled fine, even ran great, and I let her warm up (as I always do, 70 degrees). Once I started driving her, she ran and pulled fine until I hit boost. She'll pull normally up until 0.4 Bar (about 6psi) and then just top out. Normally, she'll pull good all the way up to around stock. (0.8 bar) It still did the normal drop-off of about 2 psi between turbos, then spooled back up to 0.4 Bar on the second turbo.

I reset the ECU overnight, but it didn't change anything, other than the car REEKED of fuel when I first started her up. After she warmed up and I ran her, that went away. I'm hoping it just had to do with the ECU reseting and trimming itself.

All the signs point to a boost leak somewhere. I checked my piping, but didn't find anything. I'll take a closer look tonight. I just find it odd that a boost leak would have occurred while the car was sitting somehow. As I said, it ran great right until I parked it, and it was having issues as soon as I started her up.
She runs fine at idle and under low boost, so I don't think it's an engine/seal/rotor issue. Both turbos are affected equally, which leads me to assume that it's not a turbo issue either. The coolant and oil temps are normal, as is the oil pressure.

The car is relatively stock; Apexi intake, HKS cat-back, and Power FC.

If anyone has any suggestions, I would really appreciate it. I'm not new to the world of turbo cars, but I've only had the FD for 5 months and I'm still learning... LOVE the car so far, and she's been great. I'd like to keep it that way...

-Devan

 

So, after some more thinking and research, I'm starting to wonder if the problem may stem from the bane of the stock turbos; the exhaust manifold.

Would a cracked manifold account for such a significant loss of boost?

It would explain the fuel smell, the louder "wooshing" noise, and the damage while parked. (expansion/contraction of the cooling metals).

any ideas?

 

Fuel smell is a bad thing check FPD they are known to fail and cause fuel smell and engine fires.

Loud "wooshing" is at full throttle? This would indicate a boost leak and it could have happened the next time you took the car out to drive. I had a Y pipe coupler pop off at .2bar, if the clamp isn't on there right it doesn't take much pressure to come lose.

 

Well, I took your advice and started digging for boost leaks. The good news is, I didn't find any. The bad news is, I found quite a bit of oil in my intake piping.... yay...

Looks like I may have a blown turbo. It's acting a little weird for that, but still. Not sure what I'm going to do, or how to know for sure without pulling it all apart.
It's just weird that it would be behaving the same through all revs and still boosting somewhat with a blown turbo.

Are there any other ways to know for sure?

 

1. You need to totally remove each coupler to find tears - they are often not easy to see.

2. Some oil in the intake tract is completely normal. A ton of oil (a large puddle in the IC) is not.

 

Try unbolting the intake piping from the turbos and see if they have any end-play, and that they spin freely.