Turbo eclipse question(running without turbo)

[iwannadie]

A guy at my work has been building/repairing a turbo eclipse for like 2 years now(I don't know the model but its the older one). He finally got it actually running and the first pull on the freeway he blew an IC coupler. He drove it for a while after that saying he just didn't boost. He then replaced it and said it keeps blowing the same coupler so he just left it off and is running it NA.

I have no experience with turbos but I thought there's no way to run a turbo car as an NA like that. I thought the turbo would just spin but not building any pressure? The way he described it he just routed the intake as if no turbo is there and says it runs great like that.

Is that a normal thing to do or is he just killing the turbo?

 

[starscream5000]

I would imagine the turbo is overboosting, trying to reach it's stock boost setting, and getting no where.

Bye-bye turbo! :wavey:

 

[CajunKenny]

Also, if it's anything like a supra, it won't run because of all the lost air calculated by their maf.

 

[GrimJack]

It can be done, and it seems to work ok.

The AFM is still connected, air goes through it and straight into the intake manifold, bypassing the turbo compressor side.

The wastegate spring is also removed or disconnected, so that the turbo doesn't overspin and self destruct.

But doing this because you can't keep your couplers on? That's weak.

 

[CajunKenny]

But doing this because you can't keep your couplers on? That's weak.

Very weak! :biglaugh:

Well put Grim!

 

[iwannadie]

Cool, thanks for the info. He said he keeps blowing the coupler and doesn't know why, as soon as he boosts it blows off.

 

[JustinGotA1j]

Cool, thanks for the info. He said he keeps blowing the coupler and doesn't know why, as soon as he boosts it blows off.

Lefty loosey, righty tighty! Maybe he forgot.

 

[carter]

Well if i lived closer, I'd be happy to take the car from him for $300 because he doesn't wanna tighten everything down or replace pieces as needed.

 

[iwannadie]

Well if i lived closer, I'd be happy to take the car from him for $300 because he doesn't wanna tighten everything down or replace pieces as needed.

I can't begin to imagine how much money he has sunk into this thing so far. He wanted a particular model which I guess was hard to find plus he wanted it all built up. He bought it out of state and on the way home the motor basically blew. The kid who supposedly built the car up either didn't know what he was doing or did it all on a shoe string budget.

The car sat for like 2 years as he rebuilt basically everything. So he's pretty disappointed about its problems now I'm sure. He says he needs to take it to get dyno tuned to solve the coupler blowing off. I'm sure he's tightening it down enough, thats not the problem. Sounds like its building too much pressure and the weakest point is blowing off, but thats just my guess.

I'm sure it will be a cool car once it's all sorted out. It's twin turbo all wheel drive which is different than the normal eclipse I've seen. He said a mitsubishi tech friend told him to expect a 14 second 1/4 mile with it though which sounds way slow to me.

 

[aaron_arthur]

14 seconds is way to slow i had a turbo talon (same body and engine as an eclipse) and it was fwd and i could run high 13's in 1/4 with only a 3" exhaust and few small mods. those cars arent hard to build up. my best friend has a awd and hes running 12's with a holset hy35 and supporting mods on 6psi. i would say hes not tightening the coupler enough or the ic pipe doesnt have a big enough lip on it for the clamp to catch. as my friend had that problem once.

 

[skipbarber]

hmm I had a dsm for a while and a trick to keep the intercooler pipes from blowing off is to spray the pipe with hair spray then slip the coupler over and tighten the clamp. I'm sure t-bolt clamps will do the trick as well. Also, if his pipes aren't beaded then that may be a problem. I had quite a few blow off and the car of course would stumble and die since the maf reading and actual air going into the motor are completely off. After some t-bolt clamps I never had an issue at 21psi.

 

[iwannadie]

hmm I had a dsm for a while and a trick to keep the intercooler pipes from blowing off is to spray the pipe with hair spray then slip the coupler over and tighten the clamp. I'm sure t-bolt clamps will do the trick as well. Also, if his pipes aren't beaded then that may be a problem. I had quite a few blow off and the car of course would stumble and die since the maf reading and actual air going into the motor are completely off. After some t-bolt clamps I never had an issue at 21psi.

I'll have to ask why type of clamps he's using, prolly just worm screw type. I thought blowing the IC coupler would cause the car to not run. He drove it on the freeway after it blew the first time, then drove a few days after that too.

 

[RazoE]

it depends if the car uses an airflow meter or a manifold pressure system (MAP)

 

[Rennat]

Done it before on 3 different eclipses. just unhook the wastegate arm and call it a day.

And tell him to bead roll the end, tig weld a bead on the end, or get t-bolts.

and the car runs fine, just slow as shit compared to boosted.