86 turbo problems HELP

[thesubeguy]

gota 86 gl-10 turbo wagon that i just swapped my rx engine into. here's the problem... at first i get it to start up fine, cranks, starts, runs. take it for a test drive and a couple minutes into the drive it suddenly looses power and won't go above 3 grand, if it makes it that high while bogging out. this is all after it was sitting and warming up. at first once it's warmed up i can also get it to sit at 4 grand in the garage with no problem for a couple minutes. when it dies on the test run its incredibly hard to start and shoots blue smoke out, but when running it doesn't shoot smoke out. just replaced the pcv valve as well

[NorthWet]

Until you said "blue smoke", I was going to suggest that you recheck the clamps that hold the "TURBO" intake plenum in place, as if you had this off they tend to blow off under boost, bleeding off pressure/flow and screwing up your air/fuel mixture.

 

The blue smoke sounds like a PCV problem, probably with the cam-cover breather hoses.

[thesubeguy]

the breather hoses are pretty hard and cracked in a couple places. would a slight hole be causing some of these problems? also pulled the codes and while running it was saying code 33 (coolant temp sensor or switch) and code 12 (starter switch off)

[NorthWet]

With the PCV, more likely the interior of the hoses are caked with gunk, making it easier to suck up oil or less able to "breathe" air into the crankcase.

 

The Coolant ThermoSensor (CTS) on these things tend to get corroded at the connector, and even back up the wires from the connector. It is semi-hidden on the back side of the intake manifold, screwing into the coolant "pipe" that bolts onto the manifold.

 

IIRC, the "12" usually occurs when you look at codes with the engine off.