I just finished installing Buscher ported/coated mani and hotside along with Tomei o2 housing and dp on my Cali IX MR. "Service engine soon" light is now on, a light smoke is rising from under the hood, and the motor won't rev past around 4100rpm. It's like it's bouncing off the rev limiter at this engine speed. The only concern I had durring the install was/is that the first o2 sensor has now been placed on the turbo outlet section instead of the wastegate outlet section on the housing. Any thoughts?
BTW, the turbo housing was glowing red hot after this test run which was on flat roads unable to rev past 4k. With the stock parts I only saw this after fast hill climbsand I thought the treatments were going to mitigate this.

 

Take it easy bro. The smoke is undeniably from your own handprint on the exhaust parts or perhaps from wd-40 used when untightening the bolts on any exhaust parts.

The CEL could be simply the o2 sensor harness unplug at the connector located right above the valve cover.

Reset the battery and drive the car for a while, you shouldn't have any issues. The o2 sensor at the cat back is the one that gives you CEL whenever you have a test pipe or so (not the case).

Retest the car, perhaps you bent the waste gate rod during the installation so that the flapper is now partially open therefore giving you hard time reving pass 4000rpm.

Dropping the exhaust manifold in an uneven surface could have done enough damage to bend the waste- gate rod. Check everything, you never know.

The glowing is very normal. That mean you drove it hard.

Carlos

 

o2 harness is pluged in bro. Regarding the wastegate actuator, I did have to give it a little pull to thread the actuator arm on to the wg pivot arm, anything wrong w/ that? I know I didn't bend the rod itself.

 

Aha!! Uhmmm I am wondering if you installed back in 180 degrees off. Basicly the rod goes in only in one way. If you installed it 180 degrees off it works but in an angle and it significantly afects the aperture of the flapper.


I want to assume you installed it correctly. Did it clear the heat shield. The rod touching the heatshield is numbner two issue for not getting the rod to work correctly.

I know for a fact that you havce to remove the heat shield in order to replace the o2 housing. Just make sure the rod moves freely otherwise it sounds like a partial opening of the flapper which explain the lack of power.

If the heat shield is improperly installed back what could had happen is that you went for a spin and you boosted the turbo normally then when the flapper was closing the rod got stuck on the heat shield.

Just my .50c

Carlos

 

There is no more lower heat shield because of aftermarket o2. I know the actuator arm zig zags a little, so looking at it from the front it should have a "S" orientation instead of a backwards "S". Does this make sense? dificult to describe. Is this right