For those of you whom are thinking of getting the upgraded actuator for the FP Green, here is some of my experience with it to take into consideration before you pull the trigger and get it.

The past week or so, my car has been overboosting and shooting up as if there were no wastegate at all. Here's a thread for some background info on exactly what happened:

http://www.norcalevo.net/index.php?o...&topic=21170.0

I went immediately for the easy answer and check my boost control hardware. I connected the wastegate vacuum to the bov pressure source and boost still shot up to 30+psi... to be safe, I put my Hallman MBC on and turned the knob all the way down, and the boost still shot up way high. After that, I figure something is wrong with my wasgte actuator and not my GM boost solinoid.

This morning, I woke up a bit early, since I had the day off from school and got to work on my car before I go to work. I took the upgraded wastegate actuator off my FP Green and tested the flap on the turbo itself to see if it was sticky or anything and it flapped open with ease. I then put the wastegate actuator off my stock turbo onto the FP Green. After, I disconnected my GM Boost solinoid and hooked it back up to my Hallman manual boost controller again with the knob all the way down and went for a drive. I get into 3rd gear and punch it... only got like 14psi or whatever it was. Problem solved. Hopefully I can get Andy to retune my car next weekend or something.

*On a side note I never mentioned in any of my threads:

Ever since the FP Green and the GM Boost solinoid, I've been having weird random boost issues where one day, it would hit 25psi no problem, then the next day it would shoot up past 30psi! It was so random, I thought the problem was the solinoid so Devin from Speed Element gave me another one to try and it reacted exactly the same. I complained to Andy from Speed Element tons and tons of times (I'm sure he's sick of me now, but is awesome for being so patient and putting up with me. lol). He's been a really cool guy and every time I've complained, he's taken a look at the maps for the solinoid and have tried to retune the solinoid tons and tons of times.

I apologize to Andy, because now that I think of it, I think the reason my boost was freaking out was probally because the wastegate actuator was beginning to take a dump and would randomly get stuck and unstuck and that's why my boost wouldn't stay constant.

Also, I'd like to thank everyone who contributed to my original thread about my boost freaking out.

Here's some pics:

Stock Actuator vs. FP Upgraded Actuator:




Stock actuator back in:





GM Solinoid disconnected and Hallman MBC going back in







For the hell of it... My engine bay... As stock as stock can be...

 

Sorry, but why not contact FP about this? Probably a bad WGA.

 

lol. Yeah. It's the WGA. I swapped it for my stock one and it's fine now. I'm gonna call them tomorrow. I didn't have time to call them today, since I have work. I wonder if they'll warrenty it.

 

I wonder if you didn't have the wastegate WAY too tight... They had a video on their site as to how to adjust it. If it is the WG, I'm sure they will take care of you.

 

I hope they'll take care of it. I dont think it was a matter of adjustment, because it worked fine for a month or two before it got stuck.

 

well, look who came out from under his rock....hahaha!! hello Zeus.

i agree 100% with Zeus. there is a preload on the actuator that may have to be adjusted once in. i have the upgraded actuator and had to adjust it slightly. NBD...did you reset the ECU after you installed the FP Green?? it may act differently with the tune and all. GL

 

You need to take a hand pump with a gage and pump up the actuator until it hits full stroke. The psi this happens at is the spring setting. The boost psi will be something less than that depending on the amount of back psi in the system. If the diaphram leaks the actuator is defective and will not limit boost. I hope this helps.

Todd

 

(Cough) I too had to replace my FP actuator with a Forge unit(cough)

 

The FP HD actuator normally won't go under 18 PSI as setup by FP. IF you switch between two different WGA's as in your case, then you need to adjust WG preload for each particular WGA. But, at any rate, the FP HD WGA is not supposed to go under 18#. So, no way you could get it down to 14 PSI w/o relieving backpressure in the Green's turbine housing discharge area via extensive porting.

Incidentally, you california peeps are very stealthy re. the MBC installs

 

Thats pretty badass that your engine bay appears to be completely stock

Hope you iron out your wastegate issues.

 

Good info! I reset the ECU and had the car retuned right after the FP Green (same day).

I might try that today! Thanks!


Yeah. The problem with the FP WGA wasn't that it wouldn't go under 18psi. The problem was really that it seemed to be stuck and wouldn't even bleed any pressure so the boost would just keep shooting up until the turbo or the motor blew. I tried to get the car to run wastegate pressure (18psi), but it would still shoot up to over 30psi.



Thanks! lol. Yeah. We get pulled over for anything (front plate, exhaust, etc) so much and get our hoods popped, that it's very important to stay stealth or else we'll get sent to state refferee to get smogged. I was very careful when picking out my parts to insure everything stays looking stock. I only bought stuff that most people wouldn't be able to notice when they looked in my engine bay (Cosworth cams, FP green, etc).

That's why if you notice, my air box is a bit cut up. I actually have a 90 degree pipe to route my buschur intake downwards so the filter sits next to my tranny. A sort of stealthy cold air intake. lol. I also run an RRE Rally Cat, which is a resonated testpipe w/ heatshields on it so it looks like a cat. Pretty cool stuff.

 

There is absolutely zero technical or fact based information in this thread.

There is nothing wrong with the actuator. You either overtightened the arm or your hallman was set too high.

 

i run the same wga on my car,from force performance with no problem.....the diffrence is night and day from the stock one.....it holds boost perfect....but i am on my second one my first one did the same thing(over boost) it turns out the inside was riped the company sent me another one in 2 days.....

 

As stated in the first post, i origionally had the GM Boost solinoid. I put the Hallman MBC on as a test to see if i turn the knob all the way down, if the boost would go down to waste pressure (18psi), but it didn't. I also then did another test, and connected the wastegate directly to a pressure source in a straight loop to get it to run wastegate pressure (18 psi), but it still shot up to over 30 psi.

I've had the FP Green for about 2 months now (running 24 psi for the past 2 months on the FP Green with the same actuator) and the boost started acting up just last week. If I overtightened the actuator, I'm pretty sure it would've acted up right when I went for a drive after the FP Green was in.

I understand where you're coming from and you would have a very good point if the case was that I JUST put the FP Green on and it overboosted. Then it would be very probable that I overtightened the WGA or overshot my boost with the boost solinoid or MBC. But in this case, I've already been running a steady 24psi for a couple months now and it JUST started acting up.

But yeah, I'm going to be hooking up a pressure gauge to test out the actuator soon.

 

if u over tighten the wga you will break it....