What happened:
I installed a PFS intercooler today and decided to take her for a test run. I started to boost it and as it hit right around .7 bar I heard a "poofing sound" or pop like a misfire so I took her out of gear and the idle got all screwy. Now it is surging, between about 2000 and 2700 rpm with the lights on and 1000-1800 rpm with lights off. I've checked connectors and nothing seems out of the ordinary. I think the pop may have been the intercooler pipes popping off because it was loose after I popped the hood. Other than that I have no clue what may be wrong. Thanks for the help.

Jimmy (kawafd) under lane_change

 

Motor is most likely ok.

signs of a cracked/broken apex seal:

(1)at a constant idle rpm, boost gauge needle oscillates
(2)exhaust note sounds uneven, chugging, kind of like a lawn mower
(3)vacuum will get 5-10 inches worse (more positive)
(4)motor (uim) will shake violently at idle
(5)the 7 will seem ok at higher rpms/on boost, but pulls very unevenly from a stop/low rpms.

Don't ask me how I know, I am a friggin' EXPERT

 

How much boost are you usually running ? Or I should say how much boost was it tuned for ?

 

G-Force unlimited ECU. That was the first pass with the intercooler installed. I also noticed a small amount of metal dust/shavings in the cold side of the intercooler. The car has a newer reman ~7k miles I've been running below stock boost ~.6 bar. Also, no coolant/overheating problems.

 

If you want to know if your motor popped, do a compression test. That's the REAL way to know for sure.

 

did you feel the misfire as in the car bucked for a sec?

sounds like it's blown but the high idle doesnt make sense and sounds like more of a vacuum/boost leak.

your front turbo wheels are touching the housings or somehow metal got into the intake. Theres no way for metal to backtrack when you blow your engine it goes out the exhaust

 

We are waiting on a friend to come over with the compression tester right now. We started the car again and sprayed carb cleaner everywhere and did not make any difference....no vacuum leaks that we could find causing this. The throttle butterflies are closed and work properly as far as we can tell...they are not sticking or staying open or anything out of the ordinary.

Going to do the compression test in just a minute....but wondering what else could it be? TPS? MAP? Loose solenoid wire in the rat's nest? It is a non-sequential car, but no resistors, still just clipped into the rat's nest solenoid harnesses.

 

Fixed. Motor was fine....the intercooler, the metal dust, etc...was messing up the throttle body. We cleaned the TB and swapped out the MAP sensor line and now she is back to normal.

thanks again.

 

that's good to hear, did you do the compression test anyway?

Tim

 

Metal dust??

 

Most likely problem was the MAP sensor line. You described the classic symptoms.

 

Yup. The debris probably clogged the MAP inline filter.

Where did the debris come from? That should have been cleaned out before ever sucking it into the engine. Crap going into the engine can cause housing, seal, and turbo damage!

 

agreed

 

The dust came from a new Inetcooler he just recieved yesterday.....it was a PFS SMIC...used to have the stock red paint but was sold as a polished setup, and whoever polished it did not seal up the end tanks apparently and got silicia dust everywhere inside the core....and after about 5 miles of driving, this is what happened.

We cleaned the TB out, the UIM out, and MAP sensor line and filter and then flushed the IC out to get rid of any more dust. The problem was just assumption, never thought to check the intercooler for silicia....there weren't any packing peanuts or paper in it, so he simply installed it to go about his day. So food for thought next time...clean it before you install it.

 

..nice quality control there .

 

I'd call back whoever sold you the IC. You basically just took a drive on a sand dune with no air filter.

 

Yeah, I believe he is going to do that....funny thing is that the person he bought it from had it on his car and now has decided to go with an LS1 swap so he sold the parts from his rotary setup....wonder why he decided to go LS1? Did something happen to his motor? Perhaps stuff it full of sand? Those are questions unknown as of this moment....but it definately makes you think.

As far as quality control....who the hell flushes an I/C that you just bought? At what point does the idea that their might be leftover silica residue in the I/C dawn on you so that you can clean it all out? When I buy I/C's, I make sure their isn't any paper, peanuts, packing, etc...inside the endtanks from shipping....but wondering if the I/C is full of dust doesn't run through my mind....maybe you are a mechanical genius with the foresight of a god.....or maybe it is simply the fact that hindsight is always 20/20???? But just in case, Bravo to you man, Bravo.

 

I cleaned out the IC you sold me.

 

I did... I stuck a hose right up into it and let it rip!

 

I'd be more worried about what got past the TB plates.

 

I at least violently shake my IC upside-down every time I put it back on.

 

washing it out is a good idea........

 

Parts cleaner/brake cleaner/carb cleaner.