Today I had Comp 272's installed and got a custom flash from Al for my 2005 Evo VIII.

First off I have to give props to my shop - VIP Garage in Sterling VA. These guys are top notch and went out of their way to help diagnose and fix a perceived problem I had with my car today. These guys do some outstanding work and strive to please the customer and make sure they are happy with the work that's done on your car.

Overall, I'm very pleased with how things turned out.

I must admit. I was expecting Al to be some overbearing pr!ck because of some of the posts that I've read on this forum. But, he seems to be a straight shooter and will tell you the truth and not try to blow sunshine up your a$$. He's actually a pretty cool guy that has a bunch of knowledge and some pretty cool stories to share as well.

I was a little disappointed at first because after the tune was over Al commented that my car seemed a little weak. His map sensor showed that I was spiking at 21.8 psi, but tapered down to 16 psi way before I reached redline. I did however notice that he tuned my car with the AC on the whole time. I know that when running the AC it does rob some of the power output of the car. But, it shouldn't have caused my excessive boost taper.

So, we get back to the shop and Al demands that they do a boost leak test on my car. The test was done and no boost leaks were found! I was actually hoping a boost leak was found because at least then I'd have something to point to and fix.

He then told the guys at my shop to do a compression test on my car. The first three cylinders showed 180, but the 4th cylinder showed 165 ~ 170. I was a little bummed at this because I take religous car of my car and didn't like finding this out. The guys at my shop did say however that it is within specs of what mitsubishi says is allowable when a compression test is done.

Could this be the reason I can't hold boost to redline?

Is cylinder 4 within specs?

The shop then swapped out my TurboSmart BOV - or - as Al likes to call it TurboSh!t BOV. They swapped it out with a Evo IX BOV - which Al says is a great BOV. We took the car out for a spin and the boost still tapered a whole bunch. To me though the car felt like it pulled like a raped goat.

My shop then swapped out my Forge MBC with another unit thinking that it could be the MBC. This however proved not the be the problem as well.

We called it a wrap and plan to figure out what the problem is next time. We may try to install a Forge Wastegate hoping this would cure the problem.

Any ideas on what the problem could have been?

I say could have been because of what I'm about to say....

I live about an hour and a half away from the shop that I get work done at. I have some pretty flat straight aways that I can slow down and do some 3rd gear pulls on the way home.

On the way home I made several pulls with my car and recorded my boost spiking to 22 psi and holding 20 psi to redline and then tapering to 19 psi right before I hit my rev limit... WTF?!?!

Why couldn't it hold boost when I was getting tuned, but now, on the way home, it holds boost perfectly???

It pulls incredibly hard all the way to redline.

I ran into a modded Eagle Talon on the way home. Which slowed down next to me and wanted to race. We started from a roll after 3 honks (I started off in 3rd) and I completely annihilated him by putting serveral car/bus lengths on him with barely ever trying... We did this several times with the outcome the same every time. The car feels very very strong now...

I have to admit. I'm pretty new to turbo vehicles - this being my first one - so I'm not sure how cams affect boost etc.

Could it have needed time to "set" the springs etc and then once everything settled in allowed me to hold boost better?

I wasn't able to do extended testing because it's pretty late, but will do more tomorrow.

All in all I give Al a great review. He turned out to be a pretty personable guy with a wealth of knowledge when it comes to these cars.

It was a pleasure meeting him today and would definitely recommend him to anyone who asks me about his work.

Thumbs up to the guys at VIP - Marti and Jonathan went the extra mile to get me where I wanted to go with my car.

Peace....

 

So what were your results from the cam install.

 

it may be your cams you have. My car was having the same issue on AEM today while were tunning I cant hold boost i tapper to 16psi, and I have HKS 280s. I am starting to think the cams flow to much for the turbo, but who know. just a thought.

 

That might be the case...

But on the way home - using the datalogging capabilities of my Defi boost gauge - boost comes on strong and is held all the way to redline now...

This is what has me puzzled...

I wasn't holding boost before, but now it is. What the hell?

 

How do the comps idle?

 

This impressed me as well. They idle very well - almost like stock.

These kick ***...

 

Did you leave with the new MBC that VIP changed or the old one ?

BTW

Major props to VIP

I have never seen ANY shop bend over backwards and forwards so much to help any cutsomer

Martin at VIP is an amazing guy !

 

I knew that car was going to move out once everything was installed. I thought VIP was great also.....really tried to do thier utmost best to see we were happy with our tune.
Great group of guys for sure!

As for AL.....funny, assertive, maybe abrasive to some, but just brutally honest to me.....just as I need to be told. My car feels much better even though I suffered from a hindering boost leak. Kapolani......dude let me know when you hit the 1320.......until then no tickets!

PS: 21.8 psi sure beat spiking to 30psi....lol, kidding. I had a great time and will return again.

 

Martin put back my old one.

I did some pulls this morning and now I'm not so sure how much boost I'm holding. Towards redline I'm still holding what appears to be 18 psi, but taking Al's MAP sensor into consideration that means it's a little lower.

BUT -

I did some pulls with my OBDII datalogger just for the heck of it and noticed something odd.

When I did pulls before the install I noticed that when I logged TPS I always hit 100%. This latest pull - even though I know I floored it in 3rd gear - it only shows 80%.

Could something have been inadvertantly done to the throttle cable when they installed my cams?

Would they even have to touch that (maybe to move out of the way) to do the cam install?

Could a problem like this - only hitting 80% TPS - cause my not holding boost all the way to redline?

 

If you have a chance come by today I would like to take a look at that with my loggers

Al on VIP's ecu

 

Couldn't make it up there today. I live pretty far away and it takes some planning to be able to get up there with all my other committments.

I'm not complaining about the tune or the cam install. The car is a hell of a lot faster than it was. I'm just they type of guy that doesn't like to have anything wrong. But, like you said these things happen and they can be fixed...


Okay...

I did a few more pulls.

I don't know what happened with the other pulls, but now I'm hitting 100% TPS.

I datalogged with my boost gauge more and I still seem to taper a lot with third gear pulls. It seems I hold 21ish psi (I know use my gauge more or less in accordance with Al's MAP sensor - so when I say 21 I'm actually spiking to 22 on my gauge) to about 6k rpm then start tapering to 17 ~ 18ish at 7k till my rev limit set at 7800 rpm.

For the heck of it I did a pull in fourth gear. I'm on a long stretch of open road when I do a pull. I help it till 7k rpm, but let off because you obviously reach ludicrous speed when doing it in fourth.

It's strange because it seems I hold boost better in 4th gear! When looking at the replay I held 21 ~ 20ish psi all the way to 7k rpm. I kept my eye on my rpm's instead of watching the boost gauge.

Do I hold more boost because of a greater load put on the engine?

Al does his pulls in 3rd gear. Could it be an anomaly with my car that I just don't build boost the same as others in 3rd gear?

I'm going to the track soon (MIR) at least then I'll be able to get some real world results. I'm either making power or not.

FWIW the car seems a heck of a lot stronger now. It actually makes me nervous to drive it now because it seems to build speed so damn fast.

The car drives great so I can't complain. It just bugs me that I was told there's a problem with my car! LOL. I'll get to the bottom of it sooner or later though.

 

It's not strange that it holds boost better in 4th. That's just how it works - more load = more boost. It would hold more boost for longer in 5th, too, but in 1-2, the boost would be lower and taper sooner. It's also because it takes much longer to get through 4th and 5th if you think about it...

Kapo, my man, your bold text in each post is getting borderline psycho. =P I know you just want the car to be perfect, but you do need to take some deep breaths and stop over-analyzing, hah. We'll get it figured out.

 

Warr -

You have no clue man. It's just that when I hear something from someone that knows his stuff and that I respect then it does bother me. I'm an engineer man I get paid to analyze stuff... LOL..

The car is running really damn strong, but since I know it can be better I'm just trying to achieve that.

LOL. about the bold text. Just don't want to get the questions I asked lost in the long post. Kinda letting the reader remember what I asked.

I'm going to relax now... LOL...

 

Thinking more about your problem . . . .

I would suggest a Forge adjustable wastegate actuator

After rulling out everything else a inproperlly set wastegate arm from the factory or a weat stock wastegate actuator srping is my diagnosis

I am a Forge dealer if you want to get one I can get it for you

Al

 

Sounds like different loading on the dyno then on the street. There may be no problem at all.