[Irace86.2.0]

Full disclosure:

When I dyno'd the car, there was a "boost leak" issue that was never found. It was suggested that car was breaking up a little on the top end, and it was suggested that maybe there was an intercooler leak at high boost, but we also had two issues. One the car made almost 400whp at 10psi, but that was technically low, and to me, it seemed like the power came on a little later than normal in the RPM band than what I expected. Another issue was the ID1050x injectors maxed out at 10 psi and 400whp much sooner than expected. Maybe this was an E85 issue, but I saw other people online made more with less injector size, so something there was off. We had the idea, and still do, that the injectors were losing pressure because I didn't have a boost reference fuel pressure regulator.

Well, months and months later I was jamming up a hill and suddenly I over-boosted past 10psi and at 12psi or something I got fuel/throttle cut. I avoided over-boosting with throttle control until I could get around to the wastegate (I'm working 24-36 hours, while in nursing school full time...zero days off). Eventually, I lost the ability to make boost and knew I needed to make time. I removed the wastegate, and I found the retention screw had worked loose, and the rod of the valve burst through the top of the wastegate. I thought this was a flaw with the quality of the Pulsar/replica wastegate or something, so I fixed it up by welding a steel rod straight through the end of the valve. That seemed to fix the boost issue.

It is funny where the holes are in our knowledge, and I had a hole in my knowledge that I learned some time later. Well, I discovered that an external wastegate has something called a fire ring, and my wastegate came with that, but I didn't install it with the wastegate. I remember putting it in the wastegate, and it just seemed like a loose piece that slid around, so I really didn't know if it was necessary. I had never seen it talked about on install tutorials or anything. Pictures don't show it typically in position or at all. Amateur hour. I thought it was like an optional permanent, weldable mount for the wastegate. Long story short, this was causing a constant exhaust leak through the wastegate, which made the turbo have to work harder to make power.

I still think I need to do a fuel system upgrade, but I've bought another wastegate. I have to get the original design to work with my flange because I don't have time to redo the exhaust manifold, but I think it will be fine now that it will have this fire ring.

This means it may make more power, or at minimum, it will make more power sooner in the RPM band, and it will probably improve transient response. It may improve off-boost stuff too like gas mileage, sound, vibration and harness. I'm not sure, but I will see once I have a chance to install things. This also means I need to eventually head back to the dyno, but I think I am going to wait until I do the next stage, which is the return fuel system and transmission swap, so I can up the boost and make 450whp before doing stage three, which will be a build bottom end, axles, more boost, maybe a bigger turbo; we will see.