Turbo Problems
 

I recently turbocharged my FRS. It runs great on the highway as long as the car keeps moving and getting airflow. When I hit traffic, a redlight, or sit in my own driveway, and sit for several minutes, it freaks out and stalls. At first it will start stuttering, then it will not rev past 3k, then it will not take any throttle input, then it just dies and wont start for 45 minutes to 1.5 hours. The coolant temp gauge is reading fine. Could the turbo be causing too much under hood heat?? I mean the downpipe and turbo almost touch the front of the engine and radiator. I'm out of town for work and won't be home for a couple months to get back into digging for problems. I did buy heat wrap to hopefully get rid of some of the under hood heat before I left town, but didn't have time to try it before leaving. Has anyone else ran into problems like this? The air flow sensor is inches from the downpipe... Everything under the hood is too hot to touch even when driving slowly with next to no boost.

The engine codes I'm reading are:
-Random cylinder misfire (The code only pops up after an extended time of trying to restart the car)
-Low rail fuel pressure (This code also only pops up after an extended time of trying to restart the car)
-Catalyst Malfunction (it doesn't have a cat, so this is expected)

So far I've checked:
-The fuel pump is seated correctly
-No boost leaks
-Injectors are plugged in
-No fuel leaks
-Nothing left unplugged

Thanks in advance for any help!

1) who is your tuner
2) what pump
3) what injectors
4) what are you seeing, and or your tuner seeing in the logs when you are having an issue? When you have an issue like this you should immediately be plugging in a laptop and logging the car. And your tuner should have instructed you to do so.

If I had to guess, your MAF is not properly calibrated for the intake your turbo has, or the injectors are not properly calibrated. When the car is warming up (up to a certain temperature) it is not using the MAF signal to run. After that certain temp is reached (I really dont know the exact number but its there), then it stars using the MAF signal to handle fuel delivery.

I know this because I have started my car with MAF disconnected while its cold, and it idles properly up to a certain temp, then when it gets there it dies down and does not want to start/idle anymore. I can wait for the temp to go down and start it up and it ill start again. Only when the MAF s connected and properly calibrated will it idle and work properly at higher temps.

1. Its running on the FBM 300hp pump gas tune just to break the clutch in until I switch to the E85 tune.
2. FBM 270LPH Pump
3. 1000cc Injectors
4. I don't know yet... had to leave town before I could get a log to them.

Could under hood heat soak be causing sensors to freak out?

@King Tut had some initial issues with the FBM base map. Car would not idle, found out it was a problem with his BOV not fully closing. I'll let him chime in with all the details.


Also, do you have an AFR gauge? Is it leaning out/going to rich at any point?

Probably not. It's likely the tune.

I didn't install the AFR gauge yet... Just tried driving to my office and back. Spent one night turbocharging the car and driving to work was my test drive ( an extremely tired test drive haha). I'm kind of blind to the AFR right now :-/

It sounds to me like you just jumped in and started driving the car... You should do a log the moment you start it after FI and possibly for the first few drives just as a safety measure. Logs will tell all. :)

This sounds like a tune issue to me. Although the BOV being POST maf can easily cause an issue like this. Verify you have no leaks anywhere. There are a number of places that vacuum lines come loose on this engine. There are 3 spots under the intake manifold, and one spot on the fuel distribution block on the driver side. If any of these come loose you will get quite a bit of idle related problems and lots of leaning out. All of which you will see when you log the car.

Once you get back in town start by double checking obvious hoses, and then start logging the moment you start the car. Something like this will not be able to be fully diagnosed until you can physically get into the car.

You should have used your laptop and logged the AFR then. That will work sufficiently (although not technically road safe to be looking at a laptop during acceleration!!).

Thanks for all the suggestions. I'm excited to get back home and dig through this again. I'll check the MAF and AFR asap. Should't have installed the clutch, flywheel, fuel pump, injectors, and turbo kit until 6am before having to go straight to work haha. I didn't find any boost leaks (including BOV) though... first thing I went for haha.

my fbm kit did the same thing on base map. and it was bov as well

Conversely... I went with an even lighter spring in my BOV and did not have those issues.

I vote MAF sensor.
Just take it back to your tuner to re-tune your tune.

sounds like you just need a proper tune to be honest.

http://www.fa20club.com/product.php?...cat=251&page=1

I thought LJ's 300hp pump gas tune was setup for the 550cc injectors that normally come with the kit? I would make sure you are running on a tune for the 1000cc injectors. My guess would be the BOV opening slightly at idle and high vacuum conditions causing turbulance going across the MAF. This is easy to notice. Just watch the valve on the BOV at idle and if you see it move at all then you need a stiffer spring. I am running the 11 psi spring with a couple washers. I think the correct spring is the new 12 psi spring.

What spring are you running now?

It is only a basemap, and I agree that everyone should get a proper tune. I would make sure you get a boost gauge and AFR gauge asap though to make sure whatever tune you are running is running properly without having to datalog with EcuTek.

If memory serves, I think it's a 9 or 10 lb spring and the valve connected directly to the manifold. Still doesn't solve the flutter, but it's a bit better. I don't like how late the valve actually opens. It's a good 2-3 second delay between taking my foot off the gas to the valve actually opening (not just the surge / flutter noise)

Thanks everyone for the good responses! Hopefully one of your suggestions solves this problem! I have a lot to look at when I get back home and since it will be December by then, I will have all winter to track the problem down before driving the car again.

re-tune ur car , do u have any black smoke ? can u use laptop and check the old tune

Jesse, we were suppose to link up remotely to do some logging/adjustments. The 1000cc tunes will need to be touched up to make sure everything is fine.

When you get back into town, please give us a call and we will sort those problems out Free of charge.

Let's hope this doesn't turn out to be like the FRS300 fiasco. Bad install/wrong_calibration leading to engine failure leading to 6 month+ $5k+ engine build at another tuner still waiting to happen.

Do we know for sure it was partially the tune?

No, of course not. 'We', as in internet forumites, know nothing about the actual cause, but this is a bulletin board and the modus operandi is to speculate.

It very well could if he doesn't have anyway to monitor how the engine is performing. Please make installing a boost and AFR gauge the first thing to be done.

It kill me when I see FI cars without boost AFR gauges. I bought my gauges 2 months before I went FI.

Sorry I haven't replied to this in awhile... I was finally home long enough to work on the car. I data logged and found out it was loosing fuel pressure while idling for awhile. It turned out to be nothing but a bad fuel pump. FBM sent me a new pump and 20 minutes later the car was fine!

Awesome! Thanks for letting us know!