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turbo hesitation?


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Hello I drove my 87 turbo gl for the first time today and everything seems to go well until I start to boost... it does ok at first until at full boost it pops and spits, it also has a brand new fuel pump and filter and the pump has a slightly higher flow rate and psi than stock... also previous owner took the guts out of an rx7 turbo2 turbocharger and fitted it into my turbo, do rx7 turbos have a different trim on the blades and maybe im boosting too much? any possible info on my situation would be great thanks!

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what vehicle? GL hatches and wagons have different engines - i'm assuming yours came stock with a turbo so it must be a wagon and EA82T?

 

not all subaru's have knock sensors. someone here will know for sure if a 87 GL has one. it's located under the throttle body-ish, usually easiest to access from the passengers side, only sensor under there that threads into the top of the block.

 

i will put my turbo dunce hat on, others will have to comment about that. they might want to know what kind of boost you're running, do you know or have a gauge?

Edited by grossgary
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well its a gl10 ea82t and yes i guess I have a knock sensor and its attached... do not know my boost pressure yet, I just took it for another drive and it seems to cut at WOT in first so I let off, but when I eez the throttle it will boost a little then as rpm climbs it pops and bucks:confused:

 

also my fuel pump is brand new and its making a whining noise really loud all the time except when priming

Edited by off-road-knight
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yea it should be quite im sure but its loud as HELL! lol it whines so annoyingly and im sure it has something to do with the boost problem.

 

hi, you might have a look inside the fuel tank to see if it has any rust or other stuff in there that might be impeding fuel flow to the pump. there is a metal cover in the trunk area that will let you access the sending unit, remove it and have a look in the tank , then you know for sure . i've had to replace a good many rusty and contaminated tanks over the years, especially if it had been sitting for a long period. the knock sensor signal is designed to retard the timing if it detects detonation, its done inside the ECM so there is no adjusting it. otherwise it should not have any effect on normal running conditions.

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hello, thanks for the reply

 

well first off when I first got the car the owner told me it had been sitting for about 3 years and when I would let the fuel pump prime all I could smell was strong bad gas!

 

so I took the cover off the tank in the back where the floater sending unit it is and even after letting the tank drain after taking the pump off to replace cause it stopped working, I still noticed gas in the tank when I looked in from the top, and the only way I could flush it is by pressurizing the tank with an air nozzle and releasing it and it instantly blew the bad gas everywhere and after putting alot of fresh 91 in it started for the first time (last week) yesterday was the first day I actually drove it and the new fuel pump sounds like its going to moan itself to death lol.

 

to clean the tank if their is rust could I leave it in their? or am I SOL

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hi, problem with these tanks is the filter screen is made into the tank and no way to get to them, bad fuel can make a goo gunk on the screen and it may slowly dessolve over time. you might disconnect the outlet from the pump , run it and check to see if it is pumping a good flow , that way you know if its cavitating and the inlet is partially restricted or not. if its making a good solid flow of fuel then the pump might just be a noisey one. either way the only thing you can do is to check to see how much flow its making from this tank. i'm not sure if these tanks are ok to take to the radiator shop and flush or not , i guess so, maybe others can advise what they did on theirs. if you did the normal tune up stuff the hesitation can be the injectors, if they sat 3 years too its likely they need some attention. it is common to take a couple hundred miles driving to get back to normal after a long down-time.

Edited by ruparts
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+1 on the plugged filter screen

May well explain the noisy pump.

 

Short of checking fuel pressure,a flow test as suggested is a good idea.

I would compare the flow from the tank to the flow from another source.

(the pump is not in the tank)

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the previous owner of my 85 gl10 ea82t wagon put an aftermarket pump in it and it is very noisy as well. Seems to work just fine though. When i first got my car it seemed to really lay down under boost so i unbolted all of the exhaust except for the downpipe and then it ran great. The problem with mine was a plugged up catalytic converter. I haven't put the exhaust back on. Its still pretty quiet (the turbo is a great muffler) and it runs so much better. Might want to get the injectors flow tested to make sure its not going lean under boost. That is one of the main killers of turbo engines. Check your timing. Does it sounds like its popping through the intake or exhaust? Or just it sound like its inside the engine?

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Hello I drove my 87 turbo gl for the first time today and everything seems to go well until I start to boost... it does ok at first until at full boost it pops and spits, it also has a brand new fuel pump and filter and the pump has a slightly higher flow rate and psi than stock... also previous owner took the guts out of an rx7 turbo2 turbocharger and fitted it into my turbo, do rx7 turbos have a different trim on the blades and maybe im boosting too much? any possible info on my situation would be great thanks!

 

 

I think your car is overboosting. Not sure what is causing it but that RX7 turbo vs whatever is regulating boost pressure seems like the culprit to me. Something tells me you are getting higher boost than you should.

 

An old RX turbo did this same thing when I attempted to regulate the boost manually. It bucked and spitted violently at times.

 

My thinking is that if there was a fuel restriction (Ex: Clogged injectors, fuel pump not flowing enough, filters restricting flow, etc), you would be simply running leaner. Fuel mileage may suffer some and engine damage further down the line. Not the bucking and spitting though. That seems to be from something sudden happening rather than gradual.

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One of my first thoughts when I read this is the legendary (mythical?) "fuel cut" problem. It has been reported that at high air mass/flow rates that something causes the ECU to cut the amount of fuel injected. One theory is that it is programmed into the ECU, and another that it is a confused MAF. A possible fix has been suggested by straightening the airflow prior to the MAF by using a bundle of straws.

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hi, i thought the fuel cut thing was caused by excess boost pressure?

giving full throttle mine will accelerate at first , then bog , then go again all the way to full rpm's , or , at say 3/4 throttle it will accelerate without the bog all the way??

AFAIK, the only boost sensing that the EA82T has is just to let the ECU know that positive-pressure has been reached (2PSI???). Other than that, the ECU should only know mass flow rates.

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well I had a hunch that I was overboosting, so what I did was bypass the factory boost controller and ran the wastegate directly into the turbo (which I read was 5 PSI) and now it runs good. It doesent rip the front tires up like it used to but now their is no more bucking and spitting!

 

but now I have a new problem:eek:

 

when im boosting that measily 5 psi the check engine light will come on and cut the engines power in half, then it will go off and all power will return again? and my engine will get hot? any info on this? im going to pull codes tomorrow and see what its complaining about now.

 

also earlier today it sounded like I spun a rod bearing:confused: so I changed the oil for the first time with some 10w 40 and it seems to have gone away, but not completely, I am going in for smog tomorrow so any info on these two things would be great and if anyone has some special (passing california smog tricks) please enlighten me!

 

thanks again for all the replys!

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My 2 cents on the CEL and power drop off is the Coolant Temperature Sensor (CTS), nestled in the intake manifold coolant tube. They are notorious for having contact corrosion issues. Many of us modify them to be hard-wired at the sensor and a pigtail connector brought out to connect to the harness.

 

Good luck if you spun a rod bearing, The next sound you hear might be a rod ventilating your block. Hopefully, the noise was something else.

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but now I have a new problem:eek:

 

when im boosting that measily 5 psi the check engine light will come on and cut the engines power in half, then it will go off and all power will return again? and my engine will get hot? any info on this? im going to pull codes tomorrow and see what its complaining about now.

 

thanks again for all the replys!

 

Darn....this is a weird one. I want to say tha this has something to do with your recirculating valve or BOV not venting back to the intake. Thinking that you are getting too much fuel now and the previously metered air is not all getting through your throttle body. Are you running an aftermarket blow off valve? Is it venting to the atmosphere?

 

Thinking more, if you were overboosting earlier and now boost is lower, you can't get away with having excess air being vented. I am probably over-thinking this but that's all I have for now.

Edited by Myxalplyx
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In a not-terribly easy place...

 

Facing engine from the front of the car, to the left of the throttle body (Oh, did I mention that you probably need to remove the aluminum "TURBO" manifold?), behind the intake manifold. IIRC (I block bad memories...), it is screwed into the water crossover tube, roughly forward of the knock sensor, underneath one of the easily broken solenoids (EGR, I think). It has a "injector"-style connector on it.

 

I think that there are some pics in at least one other thread, but I didn't think to look for them prior to posting.

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well its ************ed!

 

failed smog at idle too many hydrocarbons

 

then I was on a little drive in order to get the timing light from my friend and then it started to make knocking noises (even though I changed the oil last night) I pulled over and found a spun rod bearing :( so I said whatever! and tried taking it home doing 45 mph and then BOOM smoke all down the highway and rods sticking out of my block!

 

theirs an NA EA82 at my local junker, could I throw the manifold and turbo onto that motor and call it good?

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Manifold won't fit a non-turbo. Different heads entirely. You could swap the heads but the compression will be too high unless you also swap the pistons.

 

Bottom end failure isn't usually how the turbos die but whatever - the result is always the same with that motor - frustration and disappointment. Ditch that ride and get a nice legacy. :)

 

GD

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wow what POS cars! it ran fine until it rattled apart! well lots of good parts I guess, dont have a place to do all that engine swap, piston and head swap work, I was hoping it would be a little simpler being the same engine and all,

 

I have full working digigauge and turbocharger, and everything else is on the car and works, anybody need something then e-mail me. looks like im buying a corolla:lol:

 

concave3@hotmail.com

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