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89 gl-10 turbo wagon, need help.. pic added..


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well its not exactly stock, twe crossover pipe, skip downpipe, spider intake, and intercooled..

 

its making 10psi of boost fine, doesn't "feel" like its got any power though.. its also gettin 10mpg.. i'm more worried about the 10mpg than the power issue though..

 

any ideas? i've already been over all the hoses and tightened/sealed everything up..

 

 

EDIT: heres a picture of what i am working with..

 

154112_1235.JPG

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the cars got all new exhaust, turbo had new gaskets (not leaking), o2 sensor is brand new.. hell everything is brand new.. its all got about 7k on it since the project was finished..

 

timing is set at 22 degrees.. all the hoses and vacuum lines are brand new, clamps included..

 

thats why i'm stumped..

 

no check engine light or codes either..

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car doesn't smoke at all, not even under full boost.. exhaust system is all

2 1/2" with a brand new catco high flow cat and flowmaster muffler..

 

heres something else i noticed, when the car is cold and hasn't warmed up yet, it has so much power its almost insane.. if ya hit full boost you can't get up off the seat.. but then when it warms up it becomes a dog so to speak.. about like my spfi 2wd DL wagon..

 

any more ideas?

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What I keyed on in your original post is the 10 mpg. You should be getting closer to 24 mpg. Where is all this wasted fuel going? Have you removed and inspected the spark plugs? I would at least check for a ruptured FPR and leaking injectors. Did you reuse the orginal tubo-spec distributor when you made the engine modifications? Have you ever used a timing light to check the timing after the engine is warmed up?

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Leak in the fuel line somewhere maybe? Or the filter? If you're only getting 10mpg it should be belching something visible somewhere, or leaking...

 

One would think so, but I had a similar difficulty recently. It was a combination leak BPV and MAF problem.. 10-12 MPG and no smoke. I still get black crap on the garage floor when I first start the car though:-p

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You should be getting closer to 24 mpg.

 

you are not the first person to say that. But I have never averaged more than 22mpg.. and thats 5-6 different EA82T cars ranging from completely stock to mildly modded (I think thats what my wagon is now.. mild..)

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yeah, i know mines running rich, i get the black soot when i first start mine too, lol.. i would assume my maf is working, correctly, but maybe i need to find another and swap it for comparison.. at any trottle, even full boost, my air/fuel ratio gauge is in the first 2 bars of the rich side.. otherwise at idle or coasting in gear its dead on in the middle of stoich.. ohh it does have a wideband o2 sensor in it :grin:

 

my disty is a stock disty, don't have any fuel leaks at all, fuel injectors were sent off and flow tested and all are within spec. pump, filter, its all new.. is not getting a gas smell in the oil either.. all new plugs, ngk wires, msd blaster2 coil, you name it all new..

what gets me is the car doesn't miss even with all that gas its burning..

 

the timing is another story, lol.. the flywheel was ground down to 10 or so lbs.. which took off all the timing marks, but it was marked before it was ground down.. so its set at where the new marks are..

yesterday i hit it with a timing light (pain in the rump roast with a spider intake BTW) it was set dead on at 22 degrees.. so for ************s and giggle i twisted the disty and advanced it all the way, withoput taking it out, then went for a ride..

 

to my amazement the damn thing broke loose all 4 tires (fulltime 4wd) and slung herself sideways coming out the driveway, lol.. ran real good but i knew it was advanced too far cause it had no power above 5k.. power band was 2-4500k rpms..

 

so i just backed the timing off a nudge, power is aout 2500-5500k rpms now, which from what my old rx did, seemed about right.. now since there is only one timing mark that i think now is wrong, i have no clue what the timing is set at.. the car will run like a monster now, outruns my 90 cavalier z24 with a 3.1 v6 in it..

 

we'll see how the gas mileage goes this tank, last tank i got 117 miles and was down to the last 2 bars on my digigauge.. put 12 gallons in her at fillup.. now thats horid, lol.. burnin gas like i drink water..

 

as far as my estimated gas mileage, i had an old 86' 2wd turbo gl-10 and it got 34 on the freeway with 290k on its ticker.. that took alot of tuning, lol..

my old rx got about 20.. so this wagon being fulltime 4wd and all should get somewhere around 20.. hell if i could get 18 i'd be happy..

 

One would think so, but I had a similar difficulty recently. It was a combination leak BPV and MAF problem.. 10-12 MPG and no smoke. I still get black crap on the garage floor when I first start the car though:-p
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you are not the first person to say that. But I have never averaged more than 22mpg.. and thats 5-6 different EA82T cars ranging from completely stock to mildly modded (I think thats what my wagon is now.. mild..)

 

 

I had a 90 turbo wagon with a fully modified exhaust that ran 14 pounds of boost with a RRFPR that averaged 24mpg. Once got 29mpg on a 600 mile trip.

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Meeky Moose, have you checked to see whether or not your BOV is leaking under vacuum? This may be the problem. If so, you may need to add another spacer to make it stay shut. You may also want to think about having a fitting installed on the intake pipe and running a hose from the BOV to it, so that it recirculates 100% back in front of the turbo inlet and not to atmosphere. This will screw with your A/F ratios because the air has already been metered and accounted for by the ECU and fuel has been injected accordingly. When you vent that air to atmosphere, the engine runs rich for a couple of seconds. And if the BOV is leaking under idle(vacuum conditions), then it will make more air bypass the combustion chambers and the engine will in turn be running richer(not excessively rich) than normal. That may be where your MPG and power are going.

 

Patrick

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i thought about making another fitting in the intake pipe to vent the bov back to it, but i wasn't sure if that was where it needed to go..

 

the thought of the bov leaking did cross my mind as well, i took it apart once already and replaced the o-ring seal around it.. there are no spacers in it at the moment, just the spring and actuator..

 

my air/fuel gauge reads stoich when its cold, then when it warms up, its always in the first half of the rich side.. the timing adjustment helped with the gas mileage and power.. power is prolly where it should be but i still only got 90 miles to a half tank of gas so far.. not much better than it was..

 

ohh i changed the coolant temp sensor today too, the old one was rotted and snapped off upon leaving my engine bay..

 

gonna get a couple big washers tomorrow and put in my BOV, that'll raise the springs tention thus making it harder to open/leak..

 

thanks for the input Patrick..

 

Meeky Moose, have you checked to see whether or not your BOV is leaking under vacuum? This may be the problem. If so, you may need to add another spacer to make it stay shut. You may also want to think about having a fitting installed on the intake pipe and running a hose from the BOV to it, so that it recirculates 100% back in front of the turbo inlet and not to atmosphere. This will screw with your A/F ratios because the air has already been metered and accounted for by the ECU and fuel has been injected accordingly. When you vent that air to atmosphere, the engine runs rich for a couple of seconds. And if the BOV is leaking under idle(vacuum conditions), then it will make more air bypass the combustion chambers and the engine will in turn be running richer(not excessively rich) than normal. That may be where your MPG and power are going.

 

Patrick

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