Multiple problems after BNR twins installed
 

I just fired up my car for the first time after installing BNR twins and I have 3 problems. I've done a little searching here but I just had a kid and have limited time to troubleshoot and tinker. I'm hoping you guys have some ideas and can help me get this car back on the road.

I drove the car about a mile and then shut it off because of the smoke under the hood...

1) Tons of smoke coming from the turbo area. Smells a lot like burning oil... not quite like exhaust gas and I'm pretty sure the turbos/downpipe are torqued down correctly. Running Castrol GTX 10w30
2) Car won't go down to idle. It hangs around 2k (I have a PowerFC, base map for now)
3) Entire gauge cluster doesn't work Edit: my mistake. I forgot the plug that goes into the driver's side fuse box. That killed the whole cluster. I haven't started the car again yet but the cluster powers on and I see the ODO etc.

The gauge cluster issue is almost definitely related to me pulling the dash to replace the heater core and not the BNR install, but it's still a problem I need to solve.
Thanks in advance for the help

Were the turbos new? How did the old turbos fail? Could be residual oil from before. Other causes could be an oil or coolant leak in the turbo area or an improperly vented pcv system.

Idle is most likely due to something related to the install or the tune. Could be a vacuum line, or stuck throttle body.

Cluster is probably the white connector behind the heater core.

Thank you for the quick reply! I fixed the cluster, dumb mistake. I forgot the plug that goes into the driver's side fuse box. That'll kill the entire dash if it's not plugged in.

The BNRs are brand new. Old turbos were cracking badly in the housing, but worked fine. I replaced them out of caution. Do you think I could reset the PowerFC and get it to run correctly? Or should I try to load a different map? I'd like to avoid a real tune until I can get a new fuel pump and upgraded secondaries, and my plan was to drive on low boost (10psi) until then

On the smoke, it's either stuff burning off the turbos like penetrating oil, greasy handprints, old oil from the old turbos, etc. I know anytime I start a fresh rebuild it smokes for a while burning all the crap off of the outside of everything.

High idle is probably a vacuum leak or throttle cable too tight. Any air that gets in after the throttle body will bump the idle up - vacuum line, bad intake gasket, etc. It will be somewhere between the throttle body and the engine. Could also have the fast idle cam on the throttle body sticking and not bringing down the idle.

Dale

I guess it's safe to drive the car a little more and wait for the smoke to burn off? Anytime I see smoke coming from under the hood of the FD I shut it off until I can figure it out!!

I didn't touch the intake manifold/throttle body at all when doing this, so I doubt I magically got a vacuum leak while the car was sitting. I'll check the vacuum lines running between the turbo area and manifold though and see what vacuum I get at idle. If I remember correctly, it idled lower until I drove it around the block, then got stuck. Do the idle air control valves ever get stuck or something?

I would just idle it in the driveway with the hood open and let everything burn off.

Also, changing the turbos would have dropped the coolant level. You may have air in the coolant line going to the throttle body, the thermowax needs to warm up to drop the cold idle down. Normally it's 1500 RPM cold idle but it could just be a little high or something.

Dale

I think I got this figured out. After the second drive with working gauges the idle went back to normal. Maybe that’s a coincidence, or maybe the throttle was stuck, I don’t know. I’ll post back if it happens again.

After I let the car sit for an hour I got under it and found oil leaking from the front oil return hose. You have to bend them up a lot to get them to work with the BNRs and the flanges were not quite flush. The oil smoke is gone now and the car is driving well so far.

Thanks for all the quick help! I was a little panicked when it had so much wrong at first

Actually before the second drive I topped off the coolant, so I think this is exactly what caused the high idle that was gone after adding more coolant. The car got a full coolant flush because I had to replace the heater core anyway

Nice. Just stay out of boost until you get a professional tune.

@derSchwamm I'm in a similar boat with a new BNR install and was curious how confident/safe you feel about running the car on the base map of the PowerFC.

My engine was also freshly rebuilt so SakeBomb garage recommended a 1-1.5k mile break-in period before they felt comfortable running a full tuning session.
I do have a wideband but currently no way to log any of it (PLX wideband, no datalogit for the PowerFC). Only other "power" mods are a HKS downpipe and RB catback.

Currently though, have had to install the stock DP and stock ECU in an effort to pass smog in CA. Which is bringing up a very big host of other issues...

Base map is fine if you keep the boost at 10psi or less to be safe. Break in miles will be easy driving anyhow, you're not going to hurt the motor putting around town.

Dale

I'm running the base PowerFC map with the BNRs right now and I am not very confident in the tune. I'm glad to hear that Dale is though.

Reason is, I am getting much higher knock readings than I am used to seeing. Previously when I let off the gas at a high RPM, the knock would hit 40ish, and now under the same conditions it's hitting 70+. I am not sure if that's safe but it's peaking when I am completely off the throttle. Under boost it's pretty low. I have been driving the car more gently to be sure, at least until I decide whether to upgrade my injectors before I get a tune. I've driven a few hundred miles without blowing the engine up though so for engine break-in under 4k you're probably fine.

I wouldn't drive hard on the base map on the PFC. You can cruise around on it out of boost fine but get a tune to make sure it's safe.