I'll start by saying that my car is a magnet for bad things happening. I've been rear ended once, hit from a hit and run which spun me into a guard rail causing damage in the front and rear, and also had my driver's door keyed down to the bare metal. Oh, I put a crack in my oil pan at one point when I was drunk and installing my Whiteline front sway bar because I left a 2nd hydraulic jack under the car on accident as I was lowering the car and the jack pierced the bottom of the pan. That's all from a long time ago, so here's the recent stuff that I've dealt with since adding boost.

I had a dyno tune appointment at Mainstream Performance today at noon to update my car after the new GT30 going in. I immediately had problems as soon as I left. My car started acting funny as soon as I left my driveway. Anything more than 20% throttle and the car would break up, almost shutting off. It actually did shut off in the middle of the road at one point and I coasted to the right lane, threw on my hazards, and played with stuff like the couplers and the MAP crimps. She started up but the breaking up was still there.

I drove the 20 miles to the shop, and by 1:00, my car was strapped on the dyno and ready to go. More problems arised. If anyone remembers my initial tuning thread - I made some impressive numbers. 350rwhp on a dynojet with 9:1 compression and only 7psi. However, we ran into some ridiculous problems including an hour wasted trying to figure out why the VTEC cam wouldn't engage and the turbo wouldn't boost (a coupler in the bumper was off), we had trouble getting the MAP to work right (I've always had problems with it some - GM 3bar), and my oil drain bolt fell out after the final run and all 5 quarts of oil fell out after we yelled to the tuner to cut the car off. However, I was happy with my numbers and all was well.

2 1/2 months ago, the bolts backed out of my compressor housing and the turbo started to fall apart as I was driving. It needs a new cartridge, but I decided to upgrade to a BB turbo. I bought a GT30, but when it arrived, the hotside was a Vband and my downpipe is the dreaded 5 bolt. I bought a 5 bolt hotside, and installed everything and got there today to get this damn thing running right.

The car was breaking up on the dyno - the turbo wouldn't spool until 5K, and when it did the car violently started and stopped. We checked all connections and kept trying. We finally found that the crimps in the MAP were not connected tight enough and were flickering off and on, causing the boost to vary +/-3 psi with every few hundred rpms. We got rid of the crimps and soldered the wires together. We tried running again, but the shifter was acting up. My tuner looks under the car and says that my driveshaft is about to fall out. Yep. Two bolts were missing, two were about to pop out, and only one was more than half way in. We found one laying around in the parking lot but the 5th was nowhere to be found. We found another bolt that would work and got that tightened and taken care of. Cool - let's make some power now, shall we?

Nope. The car wouldn't boost before 5K, and was only making 5psi. We checked the couplers a million times. We finally realized that the wastegate wasn't opening until after 5K, and peak power was 225rwhp @ 5psi and 8K rpms. This is 3 hours into the tune session that shouldn't have lasted more than an hour and a half. We tried changing the spark plugs, playing with the vaccuum lines, even unhooking the line to the wastegate. This allowed the car to hit 10psi and made only 245rwhp at 8300 rpms. My tuner started thinking there was something wrong with my wastegate, and I only saw $$$ signs flashing before my eyes. My 140 dollar tuning appointment was about to turn into a financial disaster.

I said that I had not changed anything on my setup other than the turbo, and that the only thing that I changed was the exhaust housing. He immediately knew, but I had no idea. Apparantly the area around the exducer is too large and the compressed air is just spinning around and that is why the turbo is only making 5psi and wouldn't spool until 5K. I now have to go back tomorrow with my Vband hotside, unbolt the turbo and throw the right hotside on, have them cut the 5bolt off my downpipe and weld on a Vband, and spend an hour getting the tune finished off.

Luckily they only charged me 3 hours instead of 4 on the dyno because they felt pretty bad for me, and they know that I am going to go back tomorrow and spend money again. For 15 minutes I was convinced that I would start pulling all my mods off to return to stock and sell the damn thing because since I started my turbo install back in March, I've had the car working for LESS than a month.

I'm so

 

That sucks, but you know I've been through some bs too lol. I'm STILL trying to decide if I should go FI or leave it NA.

 

I have bad luck with cars also...thats why i went S/C.

 

That sucks, and I feel for your heartache/troubles...I can empathize with you from my DSM days.

Like most say, this is why you invest big $ into your initial go round with F/I and get quality parts that are installed the right way the first time, and making sure everything will work and fits before taking things off and throwing new stuff on, etc. Do it right the first time so that this doesn't happen again.

I hope you're going to stick with your setup and not part it out. It will be worth it after the troubles are over...unless your motor goes or something, then at that point I'd sell the S altogether. Just my .02

 

SC isn't to far from VA, go to inlinepro and get a worry free turbo set up.

As for you, afwfjustin, I can only say I feel for you. It totally sucks when you go expecting great things and it ends up being a complete disaster

 

I hear ya bro. I am still down trying to change out this headgasket in front of my apartment. Thanks be to Mainstream and turbo Dave for being understanding and a big help. Its nice to know they can fab up almost anything you will ever need right there and throw it right onto the dyno. Its the cost that sucks.

 

Ive considered selling my s2000 and buying a stock one, or a lotus elise

 

Sorry to hear it man. As well as you want to take care of your car, someone else may jack it up, but to have the dyno day, that's just worse.

 

This is why I went back to stock. I built my own turbo for cheap but always had problems.
Now I love the car more than ever with 4.77 gears and nothing else!
Good luck though

 

afwfjustin: man that sucks, remember i told you about the gt35r hot side was too big for the GT30r?

i still have a lot of issues, i had to buy a new hotside too. i lost my $100 for the HPC on the .82 ar . i been waiting for he built block for almost 2 moths, when it was supposed to be here in 2 weeks. 2 of my fedex package got lost this week ( $300 worth of An fitting) and a fly wheel.

i'm still here, there is nothing is going to turn me down, afte ri spent all this money and time.

so don't put you head own. keep it up.


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