Project 88 MKIII - A Calgary build

Grandavi

Grandavi

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Sep 25, 2008
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Yeah, mine goes to 10.0 (won't show lower) whenever I go WOT. With the TCCS relearning anything that happens, I cant really get around the pig rich scenario.. at least not set up like I am.
The evc-s is new and with the manual at home we couldn't adjust it to buil a better boost curve. It's pretty complex... At least to me. I'm making a PDF of the manual so I have access if I lose it.
 
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Grandavi

Grandavi

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Sep 25, 2008
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Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Its going back into the shop for a couple issues and then I am going to see what Reg things (he's the one that wrote that link.. ). Normally when the car hits the dyno, Reg is there to fine tune everything, however I rushed them because my 90 blew the headgasket and I wanted to get the 88 home. My fault for rushing it, but its going back to the shop today or tomorrow for them to look it over. If anyone needs a HKS EVC-S manual, I created a PDF of it.

On the way home while boosting in second I had a tapping sound right by the firewall where the ABS sits (cant tell if its inside or outside the passenger compartment). Also, had blue smoke coming out of the tail pipe when I shifted from 3rd to 4th at about 85 kph that I am concerned with. Saw that same smoke during the dyno pulls right at the tail end of the dyno runs. It has the stock intercooler and I had a lot of oil coming through the exhaust ports prior to the rebuild, so am thinking it may be oil blowing out of the intercooler that has pooled there (hoping). The engine seems solid, so I dont think it has any issues that would cause that so the only other place I can think of (if not the intercooler) is the turbo (which is a new 57Trim CT26). Almost at the end of this engine build.. just a couple more hurdles. Unfortunately.. Im out of money.. lol. Will see what is found for the oil burning issue and the tapping sound... then see about tuning the fuel better and finally setting up the boost controller properly.

I honestly expected 360 at the wheels with about 400 torque at 15 psi. Not stopping here ...
 
SC61 MK3

SC61 MK3

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Apr 4, 2005
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I wouldn't be surprised if your turbo is dying already. Stock intercooler has a horrible pressure drop at those boost levels making your turbo work extra hard and the stock blowoff valve is known for not working right above stock boost. Why you dumped god knows how much money in this thing and left some of the worst, most restrictive and most important parts in is beyond me
 
Grandavi

Grandavi

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Sep 25, 2008
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SC61 MK3;1914457 said:
I wouldn't be surprised if your turbo is dying already. Stock intercooler has a horrible pressure drop at those boost levels making your turbo work extra hard and the stock blowoff valve is known for not working right above stock boost. Why you dumped god knows how much money in this thing and left some of the worst, most restrictive and most important parts in is beyond me
Click to expand...

Ran out of money bascially. Wasn't planning to do all these upgrades, but when I took it in for other upgrades, we ended up climbing directly to the engine and found it was rebuilt bad and was on its way out the door. Generally I like planning my upgrades so its done correct. I just didn't have enough money left over for the intercooler. The turbo has maybe an hour of run time on it and has never been above 15 psi. Break in was at about 8 psi although the boost controller read that it went up to 11 psi (was fairly certain that the stock wastegate pressure was 8 psi even on the 57 trim CT26. Intercooler has to wait until next fall (nothing I can do about that). In the meantime I just plan on running it at about 8-12 psi and its not hitting the track. The 14-15 psi runs were only on the dyno.

Hoping its just sucking oil from the stock intercooler due to leaking valve stem seals (leaking as in.. they weren't clipped in and were riding the valve stems up and down rather than sitting where they were supposed to). Not sure if that could be the reason or not. I dont see blue smoke at boost, just after high boost. Its getting looked at now to determine the issue.

Gonna mention something I put on a different thread. Everything that I have done to date is purely by advice and research. I am trying very hard not to do the wrong things and the intercooler was the first roadblock I have hit cashwise. I am not a tuner and am just beginning to get an idea of what's involved. I am not a gearhead or mechanic, so I have to rely on research and word-of-mouth. The BOV is probably something I can afford to replace, but I had always considered that a component of the intercooler upgrade. The intercooler will be done, but its going to be about 6 months for that. Thats my reality. Until then, I just try not to kill my car.
 
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planemos

planemos

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Apr 22, 2011
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See if you can pick up a cheap blow off valve around Calgary maybe? Even if it doesn't recirculate it would be wise in my opinion. Just will have to deal with some stalling. I remember hearing that same sound on my car where it sounds like tapping. I thought it sounded like something shooting through the turbine when it happened to me. Shortly after my turbo went. I had stock blow off valve too. But it was just an old CT26 not new and rebuilt like yours. I believe that Driftmotion does the CT26 upgrade with a new wastegate that goes to 11psi. So I think you must have that new wastegate upgrade too, explaining why you are reaching 11psi possibly. Please post when you figure out that problem. I am interested. Needing a new bov seems correct to me.
 
Grandavi

Grandavi

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Sep 25, 2008
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The tapping sound turned out to be the HKS EVC-S solenoid. Putting a insulator between it and the firewall because its a normal noise for it apparently.
The current turbo (57Trim CT26) is from Driftmotion actually. Pretty sure I can get the BOV done simple because when I put the HKS 3000 pipe on it was 2.5 instead of the stock 2.25" 3000 pipe so had a 2.5" hardpipe created. Not sure how critical the placement of the BOV is, but I would want it recirculated. Not a huge fan of "wooosh" either.. lol.
 
AbsoluteSpeed

AbsoluteSpeed

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Aug 8, 2007
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SC61 MK3;1914457 said:
I wouldn't be surprised if your turbo is dying already. Stock intercooler has a horrible pressure drop at those boost levels making your turbo work extra hard and the stock blowoff valve is known for not working right above stock boost. Why you dumped god knows how much money in this thing and left some of the worst, most restrictive and most important parts in is beyond me
Click to expand...

I can't see this killing a turbo..
I'm willing to bet a ton of people run an upgraded turbo on a completely stock setup without issue. The intercooler may be less efficient and will hurt the power outcome slightly but not the turbo.

The only down fall with this setup right now is the rich AFR and he is already having that looked into.
 
Grandavi

Grandavi

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Sep 25, 2008
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Lexus AFM upgrade is tuned correctly. Looking at getting a (BOSCH Turbo Bypass Cut-off Dump Valve 0280142110) as it deals with some of the issues with the stock BOV and is fairly cheap (DM - 80.00)
The AFR's on my car are healthy as in... I dont lean out. I do have an AFPR on the car and it is functioning and setup correctly as well.
It wont kill anything so thats a plus.

So far I cant see anyway of dealing with the TCCS doing its job properly and setting the fuel too rich at 3500+ RPM (at WOT). Im not terribly concerned yet because the car drives very well. The engine is being looked over closely just to make sure there isn't any contributing factors, but overall, it is doing as expected (from what I understand at this point). My largest concern is to find out why it has the blue smoke after a good pull. It may be just oil in the system from previous engine, but I dont want to drive it if there is any other issue. Will see what the day reveals...
 
Grandavi

Grandavi

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Sep 25, 2008
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approximately 600 km on the build and I am 90% sure the turbo seals are leaking oil. It now smokes a "burnt" smelling blue when I sit idling. (embarassing as all hell in traffic)
I think I lost about a litre of oil driving for 10 minutes. Everything looks solid and there are no leaks, etc, and the crankcase ventilation isnt charged up, nothing wrong with the coolant, etc.. etc... so I am almost positive the seals let go on the turbo. It boosts but I disabled the HKS EVC-S so it only runs on wastegate pressure again and refuse to boost at all. It will be going back into the shop and I will see what Aaron at Driftmotion thinks and can do to assist...

to say I am very disappointed doesnt come close to describing what I am feeling right now....
 
Grandavi

Grandavi

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Sep 25, 2008
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Okay.. picked up a 60-1 Turbo with about 3000 km on it (ceramic coated on exhaust side). Took it out for a tour in crappy roads (melting snow and rocks.. I regret it, but I had to know if there was anything wrong with the engine). No smoke.
Problem solved. I think I just have really crappy luck with Driftmotion... the 57 Trim I got for them has some issues ... and it drank a litre of oil in 100 km.... so.. will be returning it and see what happens. (Aaron is good about this, but it cost me 385.00 to do the turbo swap... not counting my shipping costs to get the turbo in the first place and the shipping to send it back... )

Intercooler should be here in a week or so, going to just run off the wastegate until that is installed and then go back on dyno for final setup.

Not as happy as I used to be.. but at least the engine looks solid now.
 
Grandavi

Grandavi

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Sep 25, 2008
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Turbo is in a box in my hatch right now. All packed and ready to ship. The only flaw I can see on the turbo is a crack in the exhaust housing. Everything else looks fine. Probably take a week or 2 for the box to reach Aaron
 
Grandavi

Grandavi

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Sep 25, 2008
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Intercooler arrived and is installed (what a pain... )

Photos...

IMG_0436a.jpgIMG_0443a.jpgIMG_0437a.jpgIMG_0439a.jpgIMG_0441a.jpg


Basically.. after I mapped it all out and figured the piping it wasn't too bad, however the upper 3000 pipe + the pipe to the fender were off enough that it would have caused me a lot of grief so I didn't use them. Plus the BOV was situated directly overtop of the reintegration point which wouldn't work.

The oil cooler relocation is shown in the photos and the overflow bottle is shown under the driver side headlight (good place for it for now).

Bov has to have a mount welded onto the pipe, so it wont be on until first week of April. At that point it will hit the dyno. Too cold right now.. lol.

I like the product for the price, but the intercooler should have a manual.. its pretty damn simple to sketch one out once you understand exactly where everything goes. Pisses me off that it doesn't exist, because its such an easy thing to do. (actually you have no idea how pissed I am about that... )

Kept the HKS 3000 pipe (which is actually bigger than the DM intercooler (CXRacing) pipes) and the one I had previously had custom made (huge difference in tig weld quality.. ). Had to cut out the fender as much as I could to try to fit the DM pipe, but it wasn't going to happen.

In retrospect.. if the shop had a bender, this would have been a ton easier.. but I went in with the belief it was fairly "plug and play" which it isn't.
 
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