And God Said, No Boost For You.

[Zulu]

New silicone vacuum lines were done a few weeks ago, I'm in the process of getting the SAMCO TB hose...I'll see Joe this weekend hopefully, see what happens. Still, logic tells me that I'm not gonna have a steady boost increase and hold at 10lbs if the turbo is shot. I'll check all the intercooler + TB piping while I'm painting calipers and doing new rotors this weekend . :sigh:

[jross]

Logic tells you wrong

With the wastegate unplugged, you've got nothing regulating how much boost you make. You'd need one hell of a cracked hose to compensate for that. More than likely, you're turbo's just wearing down. Hopefully the hose will fix it, but don't be surprised if it doesn't.

[Zulu]

Once again, sparky...unless I'm mistaken (of which I supposedly have been consistently)...if my turbo was shot wouldn't I be burning oil...?

[Gregg]

when my TB hose was shot, I wasn't making past 10-12lbs boost, with my RICA ECU upgrade. As soon as I replaced my turbo hoses with the Samco hoses, things are as they should be. So if you are still using the original turbo hoses, replace those. It may solve your boost problem.

[EricF]

Once again, sparky...unless I'm mistaken (of which I supposedly have been consistently)...if my turbo was shot wouldn't I be burning oil...?

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Not trying to be a dick, but until you check the hoses really really well, all this posting is completely pointless. Personally I'm 90% sure it's one of your hoses, probably the one before the throttle body. John's right, it could be your turbo. They don't always blow oil out the exhaust right away upon failure. It could be a couple other things, but check your hoses first and then we'll go from there. That's what the problem is 99.99% of the time.

[Zulu]

Yeah, I am and we all are just getting ahead of ourselves and it is my fault. This turbo has been shot for some time now if it is indeed shot though. I'll do hoses tonight or tommorow.

[JHEIII874T5M]

if it is the turbo, don't worry... I have some replacement ideas :ph34r:

[styx0r]

Turbochargers issues are hard to diagnose. If you havn't already, take the intake pipe off (between the airbox and the turbocharger). Stand on or lean over the motor and put your hand inside the turbocharger to feel the intake side fins. A fin might have broken/bent, or there might be a bunch of play in the turbine shaft (that runs between the exhaust and intake wheels), or it might just be hard to turn. If you can't spin the turbine easily by hand, or it dosn't spin smoothly, those are good signs that you need to rebuild / replace the turbocharger.

A story that might convince you further: A friend of mine just bought an 05 WRX. With only 10k miles on the car, after installing JUST an intake and BOV (vented to atmosphere), he could only make 9PSI (14 is stock max). Turned out that when the BOV vented to atmosphere, the car ran rich, but the intake was making the ECU freak out, and the car run leaner - basically, the excess fuel in his exhaust + the heat from the lean running destroyed the cat. in his uppipe (just before the turbocharger) - it fell apart and into the compresser housing. And that was what prevented him from making full boost. The turbo make 9 psi pretty fast ( couldn't tell it was broken from spool time), and held it to redline.

I'm with everyone else here though - check for boost leaks first. They are much less expensive to fix. If it's one of your intercooler hoses, that could certainly prevent you from making more than X psi... A small vac line leak would probably just result in you not being able to hold max boost to redline. (you would see boost build and then fade..)

Good luck!

[Zulu]

if it is the turbo, don't worry... I have some replacement ideas

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Set on that.

Styx0r thank you for the first informative reply with backing. I'll do all that.

[EricF]

Set on that. 

Styx0r thank you for the first informative reply with backing.  I'll do all that.

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If that's a challenge to everyone else to back up their replies with a half-page post... I'll pass

I've posted the same things in dozens of other threads over the years, sometimes offering a novel with them and sometimes not. It's not difficult to find others who have had the same problems as you who have posted in the past.

[Guest DougK]

I think what Eric is saying is loose the attitude dumbass

[EricF]

I think what Eric is saying is loose the attitude dumbass

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I know Jared, he's a good guy... Just needs to stop letting Ricky influence his posts so much :)

[Zulu]

I think what Eric is saying is loose the attitude dumbass

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You locking this thread for no apprent reason, getting called sparky, etc. gives me an attitude...thank you. That last post of mine was under the influence of a headache and stress of 50 things going on and for that I apologize. Ricky isn't influencing me in the sense of my posts but rather that we are on the same level in our knowledge of Volvos so we will think and question the same things, especially when half the posts are telling me I NEED A CHIP. But yeah Doug, feel free to lock this post as I know you want to. I'll figure this out based on the valid posts and hopefully Joe's help.

Oh and about that "novel" styx0r wrote, the reason I praised him was b/c he provided me with an idea that hadn't been said before.

edit: Took TB hose off and check it thoroughly, no cracks. Checking intercooler + intake suggestion tommorow.

[Guest DougK]

Im not going to close the thread. That was for pure comical reasons the first time.

IF you do a search you'll find tons of info. IF you dont have any cracked hoses, the turbo has to be shot.

But you can keep thinking what you want. This topic gets beat to death on a weekly basis.

[AnthonyR]

I had a very very similar problem that I just found on my 15G. Car would boost around 6psi consistantly no matter what. Unplugged the wastegate lines, installed an upsolute chip (that I tested in anothers car and boosted to 15psi in his car). The problem was with the wastegate on the inside. The flapper valve inside was a 1/4" too high so it won't seal, so exhaust won't flow by the turbine, and thus the turbo won't spool and won't boost. You can check this by taking off the downpipe and physically looking at it to see if there are any gaps around it. I have not fixed mine yet, however I believe I can heat it up with an acytelene gas torch and bend it. That or new turbo or external wastegate.