Much appreciated Kris! Thanks again for your help. I'll have it ready to go next time and make sure she's running strong so we can turn up the wick. I'm more than happy with the power it makes now. A little more can't hurt though
I was hunting around for some solutions regarding the boost issue. Seems like it can be any of the following:
- wastegate issue/bad diaphragm
- too small wastegate spring
- excessive backpressure
- boost leak
- crappy intercooler
The last suggestion came from a tech at Comp. As soon as I told him I had a cx racing intercooler, he groaned and immediately suspected that to be the problem. They have had low boost issues in the past and it was because of a cheap intercooler. He joked that those are radiators, not intercoolers. It figures that the only part on the entire car that I cheaped out on could be biting me in the ass. I'm going to rule out any other possible issues before I consider a custom intercooler from Bell. The Comp tech said it needs to flow 1500 CFM to keep up with the turbo.
The car is only making 5psi on the 10psi spring. If there is a 5psi (or so) drop across the intercooler, I'll know that is a problem. I can easily refeed my PLX gauge to just read off the compressor and then compare that to what the Holley is reading off the manifold. What I don't get it why it won't budge over 15 psi at all. I figured if it were the intercooler, the boost would still climb as I command more from the boost controller. We had it set as high as 32psi and it still made 15psi. I don't know enough about intercoolers to know if they have a point of 'saturation' where it doesn't matter how much boost is going in because they can only flow a certain amount of CFM out.
I was hunting around for some solutions regarding the boost issue. Seems like it can be any of the following:
- wastegate issue/bad diaphragm
- too small wastegate spring
- excessive backpressure
- boost leak
- crappy intercooler
The last suggestion came from a tech at Comp. As soon as I told him I had a cx racing intercooler, he groaned and immediately suspected that to be the problem. They have had low boost issues in the past and it was because of a cheap intercooler. He joked that those are radiators, not intercoolers. It figures that the only part on the entire car that I cheaped out on could be biting me in the ass. I'm going to rule out any other possible issues before I consider a custom intercooler from Bell. The Comp tech said it needs to flow 1500 CFM to keep up with the turbo.
The car is only making 5psi on the 10psi spring. If there is a 5psi (or so) drop across the intercooler, I'll know that is a problem. I can easily refeed my PLX gauge to just read off the compressor and then compare that to what the Holley is reading off the manifold. What I don't get it why it won't budge over 15 psi at all. I figured if it were the intercooler, the boost would still climb as I command more from the boost controller. We had it set as high as 32psi and it still made 15psi. I don't know enough about intercoolers to know if they have a point of 'saturation' where it doesn't matter how much boost is going in because they can only flow a certain amount of CFM out.
Last edited: