T.E.A.R.S. - Turbocharged Engines Anonymous Relief and Support Thread

[Boilermaker1]

finally some good news.... my car hasnt broken in a month!!!!!! **Knock's on wood** I've got it running 10 psi, it seems to be perfectly fine with that, and still plenty quick enough to flabbergast the ricers.

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[02fpcivic]

Well for an update on my situation. Still not running. I built everything and spec-ed it all out so at least its my fault, haha. Thats what I get for being creative. Anyone wanna buy a mint D16y8 rotating assembly, hahaha. Dont ask me why it wont work, I dont actually know, the cam timing is perfect, the cal map seems right on, IDK what to do besides rip out the lower end and stuff a new gut in there.

[speedfoos]

That sucks on your rotating assembly Gerry. Thanks for the tip on the 309 wire. I am brand new (less than 72 hours) to welding and from what I remember my welder and my dad telling me, I thought you couldn't/shouldn't do it.

I just used 4 gauge amp wire for my battery cable, then made my own box and tie down kit for it in the trunk. I had already bought the wire for a stereo install and had plenty left over so technically my didn't cost me anything but time.

[02fpcivic]

I am going to spend one more day messing with it, after that I'll just put that stuff on ebay and grab some other rods and pistons. I already have a couple cranks laying around. It erally wasnt about the money before, I just wanted to see if I could make this work out of curiousity. I can have the motor out in an hour and be ready to put it back in be the following weekend if I feel energetic.

[LogicWavelength]

It's funny... I'm the founder but my problems aren't nearly as bad as everyone elses. And foos... I didn't mean you didn't get a member number... I was just trying to think of something special for you considering you inspired this whole mess.

[xRiCeBoYx]

I guess it's my turn.. lol

-Bought a used SF kit.. kind of a bumpy transaction and I'd rather not get into how that went. It didn't come with the SF FMU, but I wasn't too worried about it. I bought some RSX-S injectors and read that I could safely run low boost with just swapping the injectors.

-Bought a GReddy eManage to tune with (used) but was told by the shop that it required a password to unlock the unit in order for me to use it.. Being as naive and unknowledgeable of tuning as I was (big mistake) they suckered me into buying a new APEX'i VAFC-II to tune with.

-Along the same lines of the eManage, I decided to do a self-install of the kit, eManage included. I couldn't figure out how to do the turbo intake piping, and upon completion of wiring up the eManage, my car wouldn't start. I towed it to the shop and thats when they suckered me into buying the VAFC-II.

-Even more on the self install of the eManage, my friend did it while I was stuck on duty. Needless to say, I had to take it to a shop to get my ECU re-wired (cost me $120). They decided to use quick crimp connections instead of soldering and shrink wrapping it. Those would spawn some electrical gremlins later on.

-The turbo oil lines were a royal pain to install, both on the turbo side and the oil pressure sensor side.

-Doing what everyone said not to use, me and my friend decided to use "QuikSteel" to attach the oil return line to the oil pan. The mound of QuikSteel blocked one of the bolts that held on the oil pan. No biggie, the RTV seal as well as the rest of the bolts held on the oil pan with no problems.

-Same as everyone else, I had to hammer or dremel (I opted for the latter of the two) part of the frame to accomodate the IC piping..

-At the shop, they wanted installation instructions. I didn't get any with the kit, so I pulled up 7thgencivic on their computer and showed them how the intake piping was supposed to be routed.

-When my car was ready to be picked up, they decided to cut one of the turbo intake pipes in half, put on a new filter (thankfully they didn't charge me for it because I was poor enough as it was), and route it about as close to the subframe as possible. That kinda scared me seeing as how I live in WA state as of the moment.

-I didn't quite know how to hook up the BOV (because I didn't have a good understanding of the whole vacuum line-BOV thing) so I just stuck it on a random line it fit on that was located on the CHARGE PIPING. The shop didn't even think about double checking my shit, even though I asked them to verify everything was hooked up as it should be. I sat and wondered why my BOV sounded like a damn pigeon. Come to find out months down the road that the pigeon sound wasn't the BOV, but it was turbo backspool.

-After leaving the shop, they called me on the way home and asked who installed the turbo. I told them I did. They told me that they were surprised I didn't see that the turbo intake piping was rubbing against the A/C condenser fan shroud. They took the liberty of removing it without asking me to do so and without a replacement. I get home and realize they trashed the damn thing instead of putting it in my trunk.

-My car ran fine for 1-1.5 years with that tune, 95% of the time I was boosting was full throttle boost.

-Got deployed with my ship to go to the Persian Gulf. Being the guy I am where I don't like thinking of my car doing nothing but sitting there for months without being used and exposed to the elements, I drove it home for my sister to use (deployed in mid-January, drove it home Christmas). I let her know she needs to search for a slim fan to avoid any potential problems when it starts to get hot in Vegas. She acknowledged the fact and said she'd search. She's a responsible enough driver, and I told her to stay out of boost.

-I get sent home early to assist the shipyard prepare for the upcoming maintenance period the ship was about to go in to. I take leave, find out my sister "wasn't able to find a fan" or something like that. Also, come to find out that in stop and go traffic, my car would start to heat up. She said she would pull over to the side of the road and shut my car off for a good long while if the temp got up to 3/4 of the temp gauge. She drove my car from Vegas to WA with no problems, however.. I go on here, find out what people recommend, buy 2, have them shipped home, take leave, drive home with no problems, install one in place of the A/C condenser fan and have it work like a charm. Too little, too late, I'm afraid.. I drove it back to WA with a couple scares, but nothing major. The highest I had the temp gauge read was 3/4, then it would start to go down again.

-I get back to WA, get a compression test done, the biggest difference between cylinders was 185-210. andyman comes on my thread and tells me my HG is fukked. I go to another shop and get a leakdown test. I get my car back, they tell me that they ran another compression test and the biggest difference they saw was 5 between cylinders. The leakdown test, however, proved to have 5% leakage past the rings. They recommended I get my coolant system at the least filled and bled. Before I got the leakdown test done, I also swapped my 1.3BAR pretty mugen radiator cap for my OEM and the coolant problems were fairly nonexistant. They also tell me that my manifold to turbo gasket was fucked, and I should get that fixed. I bought a garrett t3 rebuild kit that came with that gasket.

-It got cold a couple times in WA, so I turned on my heater. 10 minutes later, my temp gauge starts to rise. HOORAY! not so much.. No more heater for me until I get my coolant system looked at (which I'm really procrastinating to do, even to this day)

-Went to HIN Seattle. On the way back, random misfires started. yay.. Couldn't find a damn problem, except cylinder #1 wasn't sparking. I follow everyone's recommendations that I find by searching. Spark plugs, fine. coil pack, no worky. a visit to majestic honda and new coil pack(s) on the way.

-Replace the coil pack and nothing.. wtf.. come to find out that electrical gremlins have spawned in my ECU and #1 cylinder ignition coil was more or less severed, nay, torn out of the quick crimp connection.. quick soldering fix and I'm back in business

-a week and a half ago, I was on my way to a BBQ at my friends house. Out of nowhere on the way there, my car sounds like its running open header, and my boost gauge reads 5"Hg with the pedal floored. Shortly after, I hear metal clanging from my engine bay, so I pull over to find out all 4 nuts that held the turbo and manifold together disappeared.

-Removed the turbo on the 14th. Swapped in my kamikaze header, oil pan I bought on here, make a makeshift intake from charge piping and plug the BOV connections. Scraping existing RTV off the bottom end of the engine, I start yanking on what I thought was RTV.. I finally get it out and realize it was rubber I was yanking on. Fuck.. i pull out my haynes manual and find out it may be an oil seal. I figure a quick fix of a metric shit ton of RTV will hold.. It has for 3 days now.

-I am running N/A as of the 14th.. and now my car is HELLA slow.. hehe..
Its a good thing I bought that d17a2 off that dude with less than 1000 miles.. man that engine is clean.. you can tell its fairly new.. I'm gonna swap that in when I get a chance to..


I think that's everything

[LogicWavelength]

::hugs xRiCeBoYx:: It's ok to cry, friend...

[WilmncChris]

what in the hell is causing everyone to have so many problems with turbo kits on our cars

[LogicWavelength]

Lack of proper fore-thought. If I had known exactly what was necessary I'd have done so many things differently. Taken more precautionary steps and mods, aimed for lower expectations and built slowly. I'd have a second car before I started, also.

Chris - I'm sure every type of vehicle that's getting modded as much as we screw with our Civics... their forums are filled with this type of whining too.

[dopes6070]

I've never had a problem with my car that I didn't cause in one way or another. I'm now at about 123k miles and never been stranded.

[LogicWavelength]

Originally Posted by dopes6070

I've never had a problem with my car that I didn't cause in one way or another. I'm now at about 123k miles and never been stranded.

Exactly... I thought I knew everything I needed to know before building my car. Everything that has gone wrong has been my fault so far... except for the bad tuning. Every rattle, leak, broken whatever has been my own damn fault. I learned from the whole thing and now I know what I thought I knew before... and that is that I'll never know everything.

I've never been stranded either, but life woulda been a lot cheaper and easier if I spent the proper amount of time planning... found a good welder, tuner, exhaust shop and built a trust with each before turning a single bolt. I also would've invested in the Dezod kit, AEM F&I/C right off the bat. RSX-S injectors and the stock fuel system is more than is necessary for a daily driver. I can't see how anyone needs more than 6psi for commuting and generally enjoying your car. Seriously... underpowered cars are fun because they teach your how to be as fast as possible in every other aspect of driving... AND keep you out of trouble.

As much as I enjoyed (and will enjoy again) what 10+psi of boost feels like - I never once thought it was necessary. It's much easier, safer and generally a better idea to stick with as simple a way as possible to enjoy low-boost fun without blowing up or spending stupid amounts of money on... c'mon... a Civic.

[dopes6070]

Whats funny Is that the 185whp that I had before putting the built engine in was more then I needed. I just got addicted to the surge in power and figured what the hell, might as well go for some real numbers. Haha… That’s when the problems started. The biggest one was that I blew my headgasket because I like a dumbass didn't pay attention to the units that the head torque spec was listed with and over torqued the head studs. So I replaced the studs and gasket and It should be ok now.... This is a VERY expensive hobby...

[speedfoos]

LOL!!! Word on the only having problems that you've caused yourself!! I initially measured my exhaust wrong and that's why I had to learn how to weld!.

Then I didn't double-check my PS pulley not and that's why it fell off, ruining my spindle. Everything else has been my own damn fault.

The upside is that I'm still having fun! My exhaust is done - just call me MIG Master - my HGs arrived, and I won my electric PS pump on Ebay for cheap. Things are back on the up and up and I've only been boosted for a week!

[tuningmycivic]

just out of curiousity clint, why did you have to loosen the p/s nut in the first place?

[WilmncChris]

You guys trip me out..