History of issues with my car
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Turbo Guru
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From: Rockville, MD
Rep Power: 350 
History of issues with my car
Well, I have time right now and I knew a few of you were wondering what was going on with my car so I figured I'd post about my ride since the kit.
As many know, Mike Stafford and Catalyst drove out here a few weeks ago to install my SF kit. We got the turbo on but we never hooked up the egt probe into the manifold. Later that evening, Catalyst and I were in my car when we could smell coolant under the hood. We stopped, trimmed the coolant line and reconnected it.
After driving some more, I was pulling up to a buddy of mine in his wrx. When he could see me coming, he decided to get on it, so I did the same and in about a second or two, I was already up halfway on him then I heard a pop. We pulled over and the charge pipe blew off of the tb and noticed that the car overheated and the headgasket went because the egt probe line caught on the fan, causing it to overheat.
We brought it back to my house, played around with it and figured it must've been the headgasket and I'd need to replace it. I pulled the head, had it checked out and resurfaced and got a new gasket and the car seemed to run fine for awhile until my friends told me that they noticed occasional white smoke out of the tail pipe.
With that, I knew something else was wrong but couldn't figure out what. So I continued to drive the car until it overheated on me again. After that, I brought it home, stumped. I decided to pull the head again and try to figure out what was wrong.
Well, anyone who has any idea how the head seats on the block knows that there are copper dows used for aligning the head onto the deck. There are holes on the exhaust side of the block/head that are b/w the numbers 1 and 2 cyllinders and 3 and 4 cyllinders. Well, when I put the head back on the first time, I didn't know this and I put one of the dows on the intake side b/w the 1 and 2 cylinders.
So I brought the head in to have checked out once again and picked up a new gasket. I've put the head back on now and everything is back together except that when it overheated this time and I pulled out the fuel rail, the injector o-rings that go into the head were all chewed up pretty badly from the heat.
So I need to put my new rings on the injectors and reinstall the fuel rail and the car should be running tonight.
BTW, just to make this clear, I don't blame sf or catalyst for any of these problems. **** happens and you deal with it. Mike Stafford has been great about trying to figure out the problems I've been having and so has Catalyst. The help these guys have given me has been invaluable. So before you decide to go with a different turbo setup, ask yourself if the company is going to really care how your car runs once you put their system on your car and then ask around if SF will. At that point, the choice should be pretty obvious.
As many know, Mike Stafford and Catalyst drove out here a few weeks ago to install my SF kit. We got the turbo on but we never hooked up the egt probe into the manifold. Later that evening, Catalyst and I were in my car when we could smell coolant under the hood. We stopped, trimmed the coolant line and reconnected it.
After driving some more, I was pulling up to a buddy of mine in his wrx. When he could see me coming, he decided to get on it, so I did the same and in about a second or two, I was already up halfway on him then I heard a pop. We pulled over and the charge pipe blew off of the tb and noticed that the car overheated and the headgasket went because the egt probe line caught on the fan, causing it to overheat.
We brought it back to my house, played around with it and figured it must've been the headgasket and I'd need to replace it. I pulled the head, had it checked out and resurfaced and got a new gasket and the car seemed to run fine for awhile until my friends told me that they noticed occasional white smoke out of the tail pipe.
With that, I knew something else was wrong but couldn't figure out what. So I continued to drive the car until it overheated on me again. After that, I brought it home, stumped. I decided to pull the head again and try to figure out what was wrong.
Well, anyone who has any idea how the head seats on the block knows that there are copper dows used for aligning the head onto the deck. There are holes on the exhaust side of the block/head that are b/w the numbers 1 and 2 cyllinders and 3 and 4 cyllinders. Well, when I put the head back on the first time, I didn't know this and I put one of the dows on the intake side b/w the 1 and 2 cylinders.
So I brought the head in to have checked out once again and picked up a new gasket. I've put the head back on now and everything is back together except that when it overheated this time and I pulled out the fuel rail, the injector o-rings that go into the head were all chewed up pretty badly from the heat.
So I need to put my new rings on the injectors and reinstall the fuel rail and the car should be running tonight.
BTW, just to make this clear, I don't blame sf or catalyst for any of these problems. **** happens and you deal with it. Mike Stafford has been great about trying to figure out the problems I've been having and so has Catalyst. The help these guys have given me has been invaluable. So before you decide to go with a different turbo setup, ask yourself if the company is going to really care how your car runs once you put their system on your car and then ask around if SF will. At that point, the choice should be pretty obvious.
Samoan<^>(-_-)<^>Power
iTrader: (2)
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 1,555
Likes: 1
From: Holloman AFB, NM US
Rep Power: 0 Wow man, youve had alot of problems trying to turbo your vehicle. First w/ maxrev and now this. I'd be pretty angry if all that **** was happening to me. Congrats on remaining calm and collective
Joined: Feb 2003
Posts: 10,823
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From: Bay Area, CA
Rep Power: 402 damn! they drove out to CO from CA! talk about customer service!
sorry to hear about all those problems, the thing with the cylinders sounded like it was a mistake but the other sounded like bad luck. hope you get everything fixed!
sorry to hear about all those problems, the thing with the cylinders sounded like it was a mistake but the other sounded like bad luck. hope you get everything fixed!
Re: History of issues with my car
Originally posted by andyman97
The help these guys have given me has been invaluable. So before you decide to go with a different turbo setup, ask yourself if the company is going to really care how your car runs once you put their system on your car and then ask around if SF will. At that point, the choice should be pretty obvious.
The help these guys have given me has been invaluable. So before you decide to go with a different turbo setup, ask yourself if the company is going to really care how your car runs once you put their system on your car and then ask around if SF will. At that point, the choice should be pretty obvious.
amen.. i couldnt of said it better.. that is the gods honest truth.. they RULE.
Thread Starter
Turbo Guru
iTrader: (14)
Joined: Oct 2002
Posts: 4,078
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From: Rockville, MD
Rep Power: 350 Update: I put the head back in on wedensday and got my injector o rings on friday. I drove the car Friday night and was still seeing white smoke. I noticed that smoke was still coming out. Well tonight, after driving it to and from work, I checked the coolant level and it was full so I decided to drain the water tank for the ic and disconnect the pump. I had alot less smoke afterwards so I think that the water ic may have a small leak somewhere so Mike Stafford is going to hook me up with a fmic setup for FREE!
All of my problems should be solved now hopefully and with any luck I won't have much more sress with the car.
Once again, thanks to SF and Catalyst, these guys are the best and their service is unparallelled.
All of my problems should be solved now hopefully and with any luck I won't have much more sress with the car.
Once again, thanks to SF and Catalyst, these guys are the best and their service is unparallelled.
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