A million and one DSM problems.
 

My car has been acting really weird lately. I just walked a mile back home from where my DSM broke down.

Heres a list of all the problems with it, that I can think of right now:

-When driving it wont boost at all.

-When I do get it to boost, (hardly ever), it'll max out my 20 psi boost guage, an it wont go anywhere, all it does is overheat.

-The EGTs are incredibly high, I was cruising around in 2nd gear at 3000 rpm, at 0 psi, and the EGTs were up to about 1550*. This was about 2 mins before I pulled over and poped the hood. The manifold, turbo and O2 housing were all glowing red.

-Its also burning alot of oil, I can smell it but I cant figure out where its coming from, and I can see grey smoke come out of the exhaust sometimes. One time it I checked it and there was no oil on the dipstick. Not a drop. So I walked to autozone and bought some oil and filled it up.

-Whenever I try to start the car when its warm, all it does is just crank, it wont even sputter at all. And then the battery dies after about a minute of on and off cranking. It starts fine when its cold though.

-It only pulls about 5 to 10 vacuum at idle, and I can barely get it to create more than 15 when cruising.

-I has crazy exhaust leaks out of the cracked 1g manifold, I just replaced that with a semi ported 2g one.

-Its not throwing any CELs.

The stuff I have recently replaced:

-Fuel filter
-Spark plugs
-Accel wires
-K&N air filter
-Every single fluid in the car.
-Valve cover gasket
-Oil pan gasket.
-I put a new battery in, but the positive post is bent and I think its leaking battery acid. Im taking it back to Napa tomorrow.

Im guessing that there is more than one thing wrong with the car, I checked for boost leaks a few days ago, and fixed a few of them, but I did it at a gas station so I couldnt find them all.


Any ideas???

thanks soooo much

-Charlie

On a positive note, I am getting much more exercise from all the walking home, I have been doing. ;)

Re: A million and one DSM problems.
 

have you done a compression test?

Re: A million and one DSM problems.
 

No, i havent. But when Mike at QPR put it in my car, he said it had 142 across the board. That was 3000 miles, 1 car and about 6-7 months of sitting ago. Do you think much has changed since then?

Ill try to check tomorrow.

Re: A million and one DSM problems.
 

Junk turbo?

Re: A million and one DSM problems.
 

Timing is way off. Belt probably jumped a tooth or two.

Re: A million and one DSM problems.
 

Either a cooked turbo or jumped timing.

Re: A million and one DSM problems.
 

absolutely, and exhaust leaks might cause your knock sensor to go off and retard timing even more, that happened to my quest, at least.

Re: A million and one DSM problems.
 

ill check the timing, I think its the turbo though. :(

Re: A million and one DSM problems.
 

Ok, lets add one more symptom.

-I cant free rev past 2500 rpms.

-There is a very loud knocking sound coming from around the head.


Timing issue??

Re: A million and one DSM problems.
 

Probably a bent valve due to a skipped belt. The exhaust valves are now probably suck partially open. If your turbo died, you could have melted a valve (if the turbine wheel stopped spinning competely) as well. The "noise" is probably a cam follower rattling around in your head.
Stop driving the car immediatly and pull it apart.

Re: A million and one DSM problems.
 

To check if the belt skipped, I can just take off the t-belt cover, and check to see if the arrows line up on the cam gears, right?

Re: A million and one DSM problems.
 

What are your mods?

Re: A million and one DSM problems.
 

-Big 16g ported and clipped
-550cc injectors
-255lph pump rewired
-Aeromotive AFPR
-2g MAF
-K&N
-Metal intake pipe
-Accel wires
-EGT and Boost gauge
-Ported 2g manifold
-2.5" turbo back exhaust
-TurboXS MBC
-Battery relocated to the back
-EGR blocked off
-No AC
-No CC
-No PS
-SouthBend Rally Clutch


Heres a pic I just snapped of the cam gears:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...e/Camgears.jpg

I probably need to check the bottom part of the t-belt though, right?

Re: A million and one DSM problems.
 

Pics of the head in between cylinders 2 and 3:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...nlude/Ohno.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...nlude/ohno.jpg

Theres what I found when I pulled the Valve cover off, thats all that seemed out of the ordinary. Should I just go ahead and pull the head off??

Also I checked the turbo for play, and it moved about a milimeter from side to side, and I couldnt get it to move front to back. It didnt spin very freely but it did spin.

Re: A million and one DSM problems.
 

i'm not familiar with 2.0 heads, what am I seeing in those two pics inside the head? sorry for extra clutter here.

Re: A million and one DSM problems.
 

Im not quite sure, but I think its an oil line and there was a bit of it that was shaved off. Thats all that appeared to be out of the ordinary.

Re: A million and one DSM problems.
 

have you replaced the caps in your ecu?

Re: A million and one DSM problems.
 

Nope, not yet, i was going to do the when I had DSMLink installed.

Re: A million and one DSM problems.
 

ya well.....bad caps can allow a lot of gheyness to occur. Lightning gsx can tell if your caps leak, and if that is the case, fix it for a VERY reasonable price.

Re: A million and one DSM problems.
 

Yes. Line up the mark on the crank pulley and then check the cam gears.

Re: A million and one DSM problems.
 

Okay, I lined up the mark on the crank pulley with the "T" mark, and checked the cam gears. The marks were lined up, just like in the pic above.

Re: A million and one DSM problems.
 

I just went through a leaky cap incident. Caused many strange things to happen! Lightening GSX was no where to be found, so I had Steve off Tuners fix it for me. He did a great job!

Re: A million and one DSM problems.
 

How much did he charge you??

Ok, I went out to do a compression test, I got everything all setup. And now it doesnt even want to crank over. Fuel pump kicks in, but it wont even crank over at all.

Re: A million and one DSM problems.
 

Won't crank over as in the Battery is dead?

Re: A million and one DSM problems.
 

Dont think so, because everythign else works, Ill recharge another battery I have, and see what happens.

Re: A million and one DSM problems.
 

Well I tapped the starter with a hammer and it kicked right in. lol.

then I hooked up a timing light, heres where the timing mark on the crank pulley was, when it was hooked up to the #1 cylinder spark plug wire.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...tiontiming.jpg

that seems way off to me, isnt it supposed to be right on the "T''?

Should I try to adjust the CAS?

Edit: I adjusted the CAS and fixed the timing.

Re: A million and one DSM problems.
 

Well, I fixed the timing, and it seemed to help quite a bit. So I drove it around the block, and it actually rev'd all the way up to redline, still no boost though.

And then this hapened.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...e/P1010245.jpg

Amazingly, I was still able to drive it home. :)

Re: A million and one DSM problems.
 

Shit! Wow man, well atleast you know what the problem was now... the engine!!

Re: A million and one DSM problems.
 

Yup!! It sure does make diagnosing the problem a lot easier!! ;)

Re: A million and one DSM problems.
 

That's shitty though man. You haven't had the best of luck with these cars have you? Do you have any plans? Drop in another stock engine, or a built one or anything?

Re: A million and one DSM problems.
 

No, I definatly havent. I dont know why I keep trying, but I do!!


I destroyed 2 6-bolts, 1 tranny, 1 turbo, and 1 clean 92 laser shell. Ive also spent quite a few thousand dollars. But I would do it all over again, if I had the choice!!! ;)
I know of a non-running GVR4, that I might be able to get, so Im going to try to get that, and I know of someone looking for a clean black 1g shell, so Im probably going to sell my shell, and try to get a GVR4. :D

Re: A million and one DSM problems.
 

What about the car Steve's selling? Pick that thing up cheap!

Good luck with it though, hopefully things start going better!

Re: A million and one DSM problems.
 

yeah, I saw that one too, I want to see it, but I just dont have the cash for it yet.

Re: A million and one DSM problems.
 

And the curse of the black 1g from hell continues.
Sorry to read about your misfortunes.

Re: A million and one DSM problems.
 

Indeed it does, how many motors did you go through with this car?

I heard it was around 6.

Re: A million and one DSM problems.
 

Hey when can I come check out the shell???

Re: A million and one DSM problems.
 

WTF man... All that work. :(

Re: A million and one DSM problems.
 

Just 2.

Re: A million and one DSM problems.
 

Whenever your available, call me at 612-703-1186, I dont work, all week or this weekend.

Yeah, alot of work = alot of learning. :D

Re: A million and one DSM problems.
 

ooh, thats not too bad. Well shes killed 3 now!